The unknown heritage and history of Yishun: Singapore’s ‘weirdest’ town
You’d hardly find a place in Singapore subject to more Internet memes than Yishun, a town known for its supposed dangers, weirdos, and dangerous weirdos.
Yet, beneath all the jokes about being Singapore’s “ghetto” lies a place with some of the richest history in the country.
From the origins in Nee Soon Village to a building designed to look like a rocket ship, here are the facts that may give you a brand new perspective on Yishun.
Originally named Chan Chu Kang
Yishun began long ago in the late 1800s as a village named Chan Chu Kang. It would later be renamed Nee Soon Village, after wealthy businessman and community leader Lim Nee Soon.
The village would experience the horrors of the Japanese Occupation during World War II, as well as a period of growth in the post-war decades.
Source: National Archives of Singapore via Remember Singapore
By the 1960s, the rural village had around 350 houses and 3,500 residents, many of them farmers.
Nee Soon Village resident Debby Ng, born in 1982, recalled the proximity to the wild jungle in her great-grandfather’s home where she grew up.
“He just wanted to be in a quiet place in the forest, and he found this land at the end of the road with its back to the hill,” she told MS News.
Image courtesy of Debby Ng
Every evening, Malayan flying foxes that roosted in a huge strangler fig tree behind the house would call out and fly off together in search of food. Ms Ng called it a beautiful “ritual” which she watched every day.
She also recalled a “funny” incident in which her grandmother discovered a reticulated python that had slithered into their chicken coop overnight.
The python devoured a chicken for its supper, only for its engorged body to get stuck inside the coop.
Nee Soon Village resident recalls catching baby crocodile with father
“Living with these wild animals was part and parcel of the life there. You learned what to do,” Ms Ng explained, whether it was a snake or a scorpion on her bed.
Her grandmother warned her against going into the water late at night due to the presence of crocodiles.
Image courtesy of Alastair Spykerman, for illustration purposes only
Ms Ng recounted how her father would bring her into the streams deep in the forest to catch small fish.
One day, she caught a small lizard and showed it off to him. Her father immediately told her to put the reptile back into the water and follow him back onto dry land.
“You know, that was a baby crocodile!” Ms Ng laughed as she recalled his words. Mother crocodiles are often near their babies and rarely as harmless.
Pre-war Nee Soon Post Office now serves as pet columbarium
In the mid-80s, the Ng family and many other residents in Nee Soon Village were removed from their homes.
Ms Ng ended up resettling in an Ang Mo Kio HDB flat.
I had very little memory of living in Ang Mo Kio. Living in the forest was a much more stimulating environment.
She missed playing in the forest and having kampung animals running around all the time.
Image courtesy of Debby Ng
She missed the pitch-dark nights and the winds howling against the walls. And she missed feeling the rains pouring down onto the village houses, and the sound of the frogs as they emerged during downpours.
Alas, it was not possible for her to return to her early childhood life.
Nee Soon Village was cleared away and replaced with commercial developments and HDB estates in the mid to late 80s.
The Former Nee Soon Post Office stands as the last pre-war village building.
It opened in 1918 before it was reconstructed in 1939.
Nowadays, the two-storey colonial-style building stores the urns of deceased pets for the Mandai Pets Sanctuary.
Owners visiting their pets there usually have no idea of the historic significance of the building they’re in.
The only clue to its previous role is a white-and-orange wall-mounted letterbox tucked away in an alley, still bearing the logo of the former Telecommunication Authority of Singapore.
Yishun 10 originally designed to look like futuristic spaceship
In May 1992, the developing town saw the opening of Yishun 10, Singapore’s first-ever multiplex. It featured 10 cinema halls and many other speciality shops.
Australian architect Geoff Malone designed the building to look like a rocket ship that had landed in Yishun from outer space.
Source: Golden Village Multiplex via Berita Harian
He delivered a futuristic facade that came with red, orange, and blue neon lights that lit up at night. This has, however, since been removed.
The multiplex drew crowds since opening day, among them long-time Yishun resident Crispin Rodrigues, born in 1988, who frequented the place in his childhood.
“Yishun 10 looked incredibly futuristic for its time with the neon lights in the interior and so many cinemas,” he told MS News.
Several months later, in Nov 1992, Northpoint Shopping Centre opened right next door. Now named Northpoint City, the mall is arguably Yishun’s most iconic location.
Source: National Archives of Singapore
While it drew crowds, Mr Rodrigues claimed that most people still flocked to Singapore’s central shopping area, Orchard Road.
The smaller crowds made both Northpoint and Yishun feel more “exclusive” to Mr Rodrigues, who fuelled his hobbies on the weekend at the mall’s Times Bookstore and Toys”R”Us.
Chong Pang City holds heritage of being in oldest neighbourhood in Yishun New Town
Northpoint and Yishun 10 began to attract customers away from retailers in Chong Pang, Yishun’s oldest neighbourhood.
Named after the former Chong Pang Village in Sembawang, the neighbourhood features Block 101, the very first HDB ever built in Yishun New Town.
The experienced merchants consequently worked together to transform the area into Chong Pang City to compete with Northpoint.
The unique shopping belt is a pedestrian mall, a district exclusively for pedestrian traffic.
Past two iconic gateways, shoppers will find themselves spoiled for choice with hundreds of shops, a wet market, and a food centre.
Source: LiV3 LiFe on Google Maps
“The wet market was always quite bustling, but what I really liked the most were the small shops that surrounded the hawker centre,” Mr Rodrigues told MS News.
He claimed that Chong Pang City also has some of Singapore’s oldest hardware shops, such as the still-open Cinta Hardware Co.
In 2003, Mr K Shanmugam unveiled a bronze statue of a toiling farmer created by artist Lai Kui Fang in the shopping belt, in memory of Yishun’s farming roots.
Places of worship full of history
Beyond shopping, Yishun is filled with churches, temples, mosques, and other holy places of worship.
Surrounded by HDB blocks on all sides is the Church of Our Lady Star of the Sea. The Roman Catholic church’s origin actually leads back to Sembawang.
In 1953, worshippers who attended Mass at Sembawang Naval Base built the church at the junction of Sembawang Road and Canberra Road.
Its maritime origins led to the name “Star of the Sea”, referring to a title for the Virgin Mary through which she guides sailors.
Mr Rodrigues was baptised at the original location and continued to attend the church after it moved to Yishun Street 22 in May 1992.
The aqua-blue building contains maritime features like circular windows to evoke portholes.
The Sree Maha Mariamman Temple on Yishun Avenue 3 also traces its origins back to a shrine in Sembawang. In 1947, worshippers built a new temple at Mandai Road before it then moved to Yishun in 1996.
It is dedicated to the titular Sree Maha Mariamman, a Hindu goddess of weather and protection.
The temple holds an annual silver chariot procession, passing through eight points in Yishun.
In a showcase of Singapore’s religious harmony, the procession visits the Yishun Sikh Temple and the Yishun Combined Temple to bless residents.
Places of rich heritage in Yishun town that are slated for demolition
Through the decades, Yishun has undergone many irreversible changes. The Malayan flying foxes that Ms Ng delighted in watching every evening have gone extinct locally.
Mr Rodrigues remembers the Yishun of his childhood as much more forested and unique. He recalled wandering into the forests with his father and seeing people fishing in little gullies, a sight that can no longer be found.
He told MS News that he enjoys the conveniences of modern Yishun. However, he was still saddened at the places from his childhood being slated for closure.
Last year, Mr Shanmugam announced that one of the iconic Chong Pang City gateways would be demolished to make way for a brand new integrated hub.
Source: K Shanmugam Sc on Facebook
Yishun 10, now Golden Village Yishun, is also set to make way for residential housing.
“I recently made a pilgrimage there to watch a movie, and it was really cathartic to feel the history of the place I grew up in,” Mr Rodrigues said.
Source: Google Maps
He wished that it would remain open as he considered it an integral part of Yishun’s uniqueness.
But I do accept that, as a Singaporean, the only permanent thing is change.
Refreshed Yishun Heritage Trail shines new light on misunderstood town
Finally, MS News could not resist querying Mr Rodrigues on the memes about Yishun. After all, who better to ask than someone who has lived there his whole life?
Mr Rodrigues opined that other towns probably had their own fair share of odd occurrences.
However, he admitted that “the weirdness gives the town more character”.
Yishun residents even supposedly get a kick out of saying they live in “a ghetto of strange people and happenings”.
Ultimately, he told those who truly believed Yishun was strange to experience the place for themselves.
If you’re interested in the rich history of Singapore’s most headline-hogging town, most of the places mentioned in this article can be found along the refreshed Yishun Heritage Trail.
The National Heritage Board (NHB) provided two suggested short routes on the self-guided trail that winds through Yishun town.
More information, including an informative booklet and a map, can be found on the Roots website.
“Who knows? Perhaps [these people] might be interested in moving there someday,” Mr Rodrigues said.
Source: Roots
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Featured image adapted from MS News and Golden Village Multiplex via Berita Harian.
