Stuck in Time - The Town of Chong Pang
Somewhere in the north of Singapore, one can get a glimpse of what a Singaporean heartlander’s life is like away from the busy and fast-paced culture of the heavily urbanized world filled with technology.
The peaceful neighbourhood in Yishun captures a Singaporean way of living. With little supply stalls and grocery shops abundant and heart-landers of different ages roaming the streets in no rush whilst carrying out their daily activities. The atmosphere was perfumed by the tangy smells of mangoes and bananas in the street markets that sat in red and white tentages along the open areas of Chong Pang.
As I ventured deeper into the tranquil neighbourhood and away from the main road, I find myself in a familiar neighbourhood that is strikingly similar to one that I have spent my childhood in. A large hawker centre that stayed true to its traditional look and environment despite the countless of other hawker centres in the country that are so caught up with operating in a modernized fashion.
Unlike a typical modern hawker centre found in nearly everywhere else in Singapore, the one in Chong Pang did not have air-conditioning, ‘smart tray return’ robots roving around the place or any stall that went along with the trend of going cashless. Every person who was there was engaged in some way with one another.
Groups of friends who looked like they were in their fifties were excitedly having a conversation in a dialect language, some were even playing chess while their friends looked on.
The clashing smells of the different foods that were coming from the various stalls filled the air. All the hawkers were heavily invested in their cooking. They also wore black fanny packs to keep their cash which was something that really impressed me, because for so long, all I saw at hawker centres were the little machines that accepted credit card payments as promised to the public in recent days. This was when I realised that the black fanny-packs I grew up seeing hawkers donning were now only a thing of my childhood.
It did not take long for students from nearby primary schools to start flocking towards this quiet neighbourhood. There was something that stood out from these children that sets them apart from most children I have encountered in many other areas in Singapore. Not one of these kids had a smart device in hand, not even a phone.
There they were, chattering away among themselves, getting ice cream from the shops near by and just running around, being active and playful. The area was suddenly filled with primary school kids who were just having fun after school.
To some, Chong Pang may come across as a dull, uneventful place with not much to do. Yet, I felt extremely relieved to find that there are still such hidden gems in Singapore. There may not be a fancy shopping mall or tourist attractions around the area, but the gem I saw today was a traditional hometown that I am familiar with. I felt as though I had travelled back in time to a period where times were less dependent on technology and people genuinely enjoyed interacting with one another.