吉宁街是哪一条街? Was it Cross Street or Chulia Street?

This small envelope measures no more than 3 ½” X 2½” and is brown with age. It was an envelope for keeping negative and photograph. By the reckoning of the date written at the back of the photograph inside it, it’s 68 years old.

Other than it was an old envelope, what drew my attention to it was the address and words on it – it tells a story of another age and another time.

I was also drawn to the address of the photography shop printed on the envelope, and prompted me do so some searching and investigative work - in the library and at the street corners!

The shop’s English name was written as: Fee Fee Photographic Store. It stated that it was an: Agency for all kinds of Camera for Profession and Amateurs. Photographic goods and chemicals can be obtained from us at very moderate prices Our enlarging, developing and printing works are under the supervision of the experts. And with: Satisfaction Guaranteed.

However, it did not give its address, which instead was written in the Chinese print.

非非摄影社 (Fei Fei Yingshe – Fei Fei Photographic Studio )
星洲大坡吉宁街一百六十号 (Xingzhou Dapo Ji Ning Jie 160 hao)

The interesting part of the address is - 吉宁街 – Ji Ling Jie (Pinyin) , and where about is this street. Could this be the former Kling Street, I wonder. For Ji Ning Jie is pronounced as Kiat Leng Koi (Hokkien) or Gut Ling Gai ( Cantonese) , which is the dialect terms for Kling.

Not being native born, and when I moved here, many of the old streets were already gone, I did not have an inkling where this street was or is. I knew that Chulia Street was once called Kling Street. Could this shop be then located in Chualia Street, I wonder.

This reproduction of a 1862 map of the town map of Singapore clearly showed that stretch of Chulia Street named as Kling Street. When the word Kling came to take on a derogatory reference to the Southern Indians convicts, it was renamed Chulia, which is the North Indian term for Kalinga. In another map dated 1929, Kling Street had been changed to Chualia Street.

However, while on a Sunday walk I came across this plate - put up by the National Heritage Board and the Singapore Tourism Bureau - at the junction of South Bridge Road and Cross Street which states that - Cross Street was once known as Kiat Leng Kia Kio (Hokkien ) - Gut Ling Zai Gai (Cantonese) - 吉宁仔街 - after the ethnic Indian that used to be concentrated here in the 1800/s.

Though Kiat Leng Kia Koi was left out in the Chinese translation on the plate, the Japanese translation had the word -吉宁仔街- written in Chinese characters. The word - 仔 – kia (Hokkien) or zai (Cantonese variously means - boy, kid or youngster.

Could this Kiat Leng Kia Koi – 吉宁仔街- be the same – 吉宁街- Kiat Leng Koi - where Fei Fei Photographic Store was once located, i.e. at No.160, Cross Street.

.And probably - 吉宁街 – Kiat Leng Koi - was the written Chinese term for the more colloquial sounding 吉宁仔街 – Kiat Leng Kia Koi.

Or is it that - 吉宁仔街 - Kiat Leng Kia Koi - was Cross Street, while 吉宁街 – Kiat Leng Koi - was Chulia Street?


Postscript:

1. My take would be the photographic store would be located closer to this part of the town nearer to Amoy Street and South Bridge Road, as the print on the envelope indicated that it catered more to a Chinese clientele.

2. What price to develop, print and enlarge a photograph in pre-war Singapore?

Size Developing Printing

3 ¼” X 2 ¼” $0.20 Cents per roll $0.04 each
4½”X 2½ ” $0.25 Cents per roll $0.06 each
5½” X3¼” $0.40 Cents per roll $0.10 each

Enlargements

5½”X3¼” $0.15 cents each
6½”X4 ¾” $0.30 cents each
8½”X6½” $0.70 cents each
10”X12” $1.30 cents each

3. This envelope had been kept in the drawer as long as I could remember and had the photograph of dad taken in Singapore when he was on the 1940 high school excursion to- Xingzhou – 星州.

Reference:
a) Singapore - A guide to Buildings, Streets, Places by Norman Edwards and Peter Keys, Times Book International, 1988.

b) The maps are found in the National Library, hung on the walls in the private collection section.

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从清早的凉风和十年前探访祖辈故里说起

没用过中文来写博客，在这五一假日的早上，下了场晨雨没出门， 就留在家练习练习中文吧。

从家里前窗吹进来一阵阵地凉风，近日来连续三四天早上凌晨都挎起西南风，从苏门答腊群岛带来的雨水把炎日地天气冲个凉。

虽然岛国没有四季，只是有雨旱两个不什么分明的季节，这个时侯刚好是进入了季节风向更转的时期， 风向是从屋子的前面吹进来。到了风转从后窗吹来时，就知道又快要到年底了，那时候的风是从东北朝向马来群岛来。

从前帆船时代，郑和下西洋时就靠着这季接的风向，夏为西南，冬为东北风，运航
印度洋与南中国海。岛国的狮子城就位置在这海航线的中心。

这里的马来群岛也是千百年来东西文明的交叉点。 特别是欧洲大陆地战舰和传教士还没到来前，这个地区已是海上丝绸之路必经之地。来自阿拉伯，印度，中国唐山 的船只都停留在这里做生意，而从中带来了亚洲三大文明和本群岛马来文明的
交流与发展。

说到唐山， 十年前， 刚好是亚洲金融风暴发生的那一年， 和家父们一起初次回到祖辈们的故里探访。翻看旧照片，看到了这张拍摄到这个神气的小孩儿的照片。

照片的后面写着：

雁洋， 叶剑英故居前， 小孩， 叶年广，五岁。 25.12.97

那位坐在小踏车，举起右手，笑眯眯挥着手，两指子做个‘胜利’ 手号的
小弟弟 是住在叶家祖屋。记得这个小孩很聪明，问他几岁叫什么名，他很灵活地回答了。他现在应该是个十五岁的年青小伙子吧。那小姑娘呢，是和他一起玩的邻居。

雁洋离祖辈故里松口镇不远，到梅州得要经过这个镇， 所以就趁着机会参观了叶帅的故居。

说到叶剑英，中国人也许就会想起 他命令逮捕‘四人帮’的故事。前不久观看了‘文化大革命始末 （1966-1976）’的光碟， 里面有一段是讲述叶帅和 他的故里雁洋。听父亲说，叶家也有亲人在马国霹雳州家乡怡保，万里望。

祖辈们以前下番到南洋，是从粤北的客家山区经由梅江接韩江到汕头转乘帆船靠着这个 吹向亚洲南部和印度洋的季风而来地。他们在星州上岸，然而由陆地北上霹州的近打谷锡矿山而到去。




附言：
1。 从小学到大专一直以来都是念英文，没有正式的上过华校。反而，在日本留学时还有上过日语课程。 中文写错了字，或用错了词，请多多指导。

2。有了电脑，写中文觉得比以前没电脑，中文软件时，来的方便得多。以前不晓得写的字 必须查字典。 但是， 用电脑书写只要能汉语拼音把字念出就可查出字来了。 但汉语基础不好，常会用错字，词。

3。新加坡教育以英语和母语为基础。华族学生必须学英，华两语。但是有些华裔家族已是英语为‘母语’了。方言如客家粤福潮琼的没落，就像那些老建筑物被一栋一栋的拆掉似的。城市的面貌翻新，民族的语言也不断的更换。要听方言你得到马来西亚的乡下去了。

4. A first attempt to write in Chinese – a thought on the morning monsoon rain and the visit to the ancestral village ten years ago.

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09.May.2007 - translated into English:

from the cool morning breeze and to reminiscing the visit ten years ago to the ancestral village

I’ve not written a blog in Chinese before, and in this May Day morning, after a morning rain, did venture out but stayed home to practice my Chinese.

A cool breeze is coming from the front window, and for the past three four days, the south-westerly Sumatran wind brought with it the rain the cooled the hot sultry day.

Although the island nation does not have the four seasons, it has a rainy and dry season which is not that clearly defined. It is now the transitional period of the trade wind, and the wind direction is coming in from the front window. When the wind starts to come in from the window at the back of the house, you know that its towards year end. The wind direction will then blow from the north-east towards the Malay Archipelago.

In the days of the sailing ship, and when Cheng Ho travel to the western seas he depended on these Trade Winds to take him on his voyages. (note: according to the Chinese record, Cheng Ho’s voyages are described as travels to the Western Sea , and he reached as far as African coast across the Arabian Sea). In summer the wind blows from the south-west and in winter it is from the north-east. And the island nation Lion City is located in the center of the sea lane from South China Sea to the Indian Ocean.

The Malay Archipelago has been at the cross-road of the eastern and western civilizations for thousand of years. And way before the arrival of the man-of-war and the missionaries from Europe, this region was part of the Silk Route of the Sea. Ships from Arabia, India and China or Tangshan met here to trade. And with it, came the interaction and development of cultures of the Malay and the three great civilizations.

Talking about Tangshan - 唐山 , it was exactly ten years ago in the year of the Asian financial meltdown , that I first visited my ancestral town with dad. On looking thro the old photographs, I came across this picture of the lively little boy.

It was written in the back of the photo:

Yanyang , former dwelling of Ye Jianying, little kid, Yap Nian-guong (note: Hakka pronunciation ), age 5. 25Dec97.

The little boy on the bicycle with his right hand raised, and with a cool smile waving a ‘V’ sign lived in the Ye-叶- family ancestral home ( 叶: is pronounced as Yap in Hakka). I remember him as a bright kid , and when I asked his name and age he smartly replied. He should be a fine young man by now. The little girl who was playing with him was his neighbor.

As Yanyang - 雁洋- was not far from our ancestral town Songkou -松口, and as it was on the way to Meizhou- 梅州 - we took the opportunity to stop at there and visit the former home of Marshall Ye.

On mentioning Ye Jianying-叶剑英-the Chinese will recall the story of his decree to arrest the ‘Gang of Four’. Not long ago, I watched a DVD on the ‘Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) – From its Beginning to its End’, and in it has an episode of the Marshall and his home town – Yanyang. Heard from Dad that the Ye family has relatives in Perak State in Ipoh-Menglembu area.

When the ancestors migrated to the South Seas, they traveled from the hilly Hakka district of North-eastern Guangdong Province, riding down the Mei Jiang 梅江- which then joins the Han River - 韩江 – to reach Swatou -汕头. From here, they waited for the Trade Winds to sail to south. They disembark in Singapore, and from there the wend up-country by road to Perak, and the tin mines in the Kinta Valley.

(Added note: Ye Jianying wa one of the ten famous Generals on New China. He was instrumental in bringing the down fall of he Gang of Four with Mao’s wife Jiang Qing as the head, and the end to the Cultural Revolution. With that came the come back and rise of Deng Xiaoping, and the opening up of China to the modern world, embracing socialism with Chinese characteristic. And as they say, the rest was then history…)

Postscript:

1. Have not studied Chinese formally in school before, and was educated in English form primary to college. On the contrary, had attended formal Japanese lesson while studying in Japan. If there are any wrong words or mistaken phrase, pls guide and correct.

2. With a computer, it is much easier to write Chinese. With computer and the Chinese software, one just need to learn the pinyin system in order to be able to bring out the work and chose which is the correct one, and thus need not to use the dictionary. However my Chinese foundation is weak, and often tend to use the wrong word or phrase.

3. Singapore’s education is with English and mother tongue as its foundation. Ethnic Chinese will learn bi-lingual English and Chinese. However, many of the ethnic Chinese have English as their mother tongue. The decline of the dialects – Hakka, Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew and Hainanese, is akin to the destruction of the old buildings – block by block being torn down. The city landscape is being renewed, and the language of the people is continuously changing. If you want to listen to dialect you need to travel to the towns and villages in Malaysia.






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