Chinatown after Six Decades of Redevelopment: What Next for the Shopkeepers?

Chinatown today is much changed after six decades of redevelopment. It has two faces – an older town with the fabulous spirit of the 1950s and a tourist destination with restored shophouses and modern entertainment. The latest efforts at Smith Street suggest that revitalisation is a work in progress.

Our talk, by two historians and the owner of a heritage shop, explores what a history of small business can teach us. It was the array of traders selling all kinds of things day and night that made the Old Chinatown unforgettable. Today’s shopkeepers and stallholders have endured good and bad times. By looking at Chinatown through their histories, they may yet have a role to play in its future.

Speakers

Loh Kah Seng is an independent historian, interested in all things that happened in the history of Singapore and the little histories of its people. The talk draws from his new book with Stephen Dobbs, Shopkeepers of Chinatown: Singapore’s Business World in Motion, 1819-2025.

Stephen Dobbs is a working academic at the University of Western Australia. His interest in Chinatown traces to his PhD dissertation in the 1990s and subsequent book, The Singapore River: A Social History, 1819-2002.

Ham Weng Seng, aka ‘Dough Boy’, is the proprietor of Tai Chong Kok, maker of the famous mooncakes. The shop was founded in 1935 by his grandfather at Sago Street, where it still operates today. He will share about growing up in Chinatown and managing Tai Chong Kok.