trip to chinatown heritage centre

I've the privilege to have a guided tour in Chinatown Heritage Centre. The building have a pair of red clogs located outside. To get there, simply walk straight upon exiting Exit A escalator and look left. In the 1950's the building is actually a 3 storey shop house. Now, on the first floor is actually the lobby and the admission processing; at the back is the replicate room of the olden days shop, the second floor is the replicate rooms of how the olden people lived (cramp and little space), the third floor is like a museum and collections and equipment of the olden days. Being in the building, one is able to imagine how olden people lived in real life where all the rooms are recreated by having people came forward to share their stories living there.

At the start of the tour on the first floor, as I mention early, this building is recreated from a shop house, so the starting is at the front of the shop, tailor shop to be exact, the owner is Mr. Chan. There will have the exact replica of the shop with counter, typical mannequin with standard shirt, measuring tape, color sample cloth etc. Whenever there are customers coming in, My. Chan would stand up from his chair behind the counter, greet the customer and let the customer chose the size, color, preferences and all, and sit back drink coffee. Behind the scenes, his worker of tailors do all the work. He have 2? apprentices that he paid 5$ for every month with free lodging and provide left-over food but actually signed a 2 year contract with them and the pay will be at the end of contract, so will be handed over 1 bunch because scare of running away with responsibilities and skills that is passed on.
The apprentices work include taking care of Mr. Chan baby and skill of tailor and other ad-hoc stuff.

Next part is the 2 rooms of Mr. Chan family and the apprentices. Mr Chan family actually have 7 members which have 5 young children. They squeezed in the space, and rented out the floors upstairs so that to earn extra money. Next the most behind part is the kitchen and toilet area. The apprentices cannot use the tap water because it will be chargeable every month to pay the government, so they use the collected rainwater which falls from the open window above. And there comes in the most olden days occupation, the night soil collector, whom collect the dump from the front because there is no backdoor.

Next up is the second floor, 40 people once lived there. Several family with young one or mates rent together. Ma jie whom take care of rich ang moh kids rent together but stay once in a while, because they stay with the family, when weekend or holiday they have their own room or scare of kicked out. Sam sui women aka hong tou jing work long hours and with their iconic red hat that identify them at night and as safety gear. and other families. Got one physician family stay in the master room, and have their work in the day time and night time sleep. one story is the father give away their eldest daughter away but his daughter came back because others thought she is jinx, bring bad luck. life is bad back in the days. The doctor is kind where he would give free treatment to those were poor, but everyone was poor, cannot afford medical treatment, he had less income.

Now everyone. Imagine more than 40 people goes in and out the floor walkway with customers coming in too. Had to share the toilet queue and showering too. Cannot imagine literally.

The third floor comes the interactive part, with guides of bright side, dark and hidden side of Chinatown. Yall should go and take a look. Free for Singaporeans.