Originally posted Jul 20, 2014 (see original archived version here)
This is the second of seven articles on Hari Raya and Malay Culture appearing in the July/August 2014 issue of PASSAGE, the magazine of the Friends of the Museum (FOM).
Two Ramadan bazaars of long standing in Singapore distinguish themselves in cultural and socio-historical importance, not just locally but also in the region. They are to be found in the two nodes of Malay cultural life in Singapore – one at Bussorah Street in front of the Sultan Mosque in the old Malayo-Muslim quarter of Kampong Gelam, and the other at the suburban market hub known as Geylang Serai. Their historical existence and continuity in the Singapore context, given its peculiar upheavals and in spite of it, depends on much more than the cultural community that hosts it. Their fortunes are deeply intertwined with developments in their respective place histories.
Geylang Serai: a bit of urban history
The annual bazaar at Geylang Serai is by far Singapore’s biggest and most well-known. Unlike typical Ramadan bazaars, the one in Geylang Serai is not connected with a mosque. Instead, it is linked to the hub’s shopping and market culture. Geylang Serai was the site of the eastern terminus of Singapore’s tramline in 1905, which later became the trolley-bus and finally bus terminus. By the 1910s, Geylang Serai was a full-fledged marketplace, and by the next decade was infamous for traffic congestion and its numerous hawker. These were concentrated around the lane now simply called “Geylang Serai”.
Geylang Serai also lies at the heart of the extensive eastern suburb of Singapore where a large number of Malays, including Javanese and other regional indigenes, lived. The suburb of the same name (Geylang Serai), the adjoining Paya Lebar and Kampong Ubi areas, and the Jalan Eunos Malay Settlement founded in 1929 are often mentioned in this regard. Beyond this however, the middle-class suburbs of Kembangan, Telok Kurau, Frankel and Opera Estate are equally part of the picture.
It is against this context of an old marketplace node serving an extensive residential area that the origin and growth of Geylang Serai’s Ramadan bazaar tradition is to be understood.
Early Ramadan shopping in Geylang Serai: before and after Pasar Baru
Up to the early 1960s Ramadan shopping in Geylang Serai was served by the shops and the itinerant and seasonal traders converging around the lane called Geylang Serai. This spread to the adjoining Eastern Trade Fair, when this was opened in 1948.
Geylang Serai bazaar occupies an important place in Singapore’s marketplace history and presents a remarkable story of resilience in the face of numerous physical upheavals. The key to understanding this story is the role of the market and year-round bazaar economy of the site. Up to the early 1960s Ramadan shopping was served by the shops and the itinerant and seasonal traders converging around the lane “Geylang Serai” and later the adjoining Eastern Trade Fair when this was opened in 1948 (this was converted in 1958 into an Amusement Park along the lines of the “Worlds” better known in other parts of Singapore, amid much controversy).
The Trade Fair was demolished in 1962 to make way for the Geylang Serai HDB scheme, completed in 1964. It included a market and concourse complex, called Pasar Baru (New Market). Most of the hawkers and itinerant traders affected were allocated places in the new facility.
Pasar Baru: A new era
There are indications that the transition was not smooth. As late as 1967 Pasar Baru remained unoccupied and the old twin markets called Changi and Joo Chiat (both on the site of today’s Joo Chiat Complex) were still operating. Pasar Baru complex included stalls for a wet market, a cooked food centre, a section for sundry goods and a warren of shops (the so-called Concourse).
Moreover, a further appeal had been made in 1962 for an additional bazaar facility for the Malay traders of the area, indicating that Pasar Baru could not accommodate the full extent of the bazar economy it displaced. This, despite the fact that Pasar Baru was a capacious complex – it included stalls for a wet market, a cooked food centre, and a section for sundry goods and a warren of shops (the so-called Concourse).
Once it was fully occupied, however, Pasar Baru assumed the mantle of the older hub and became the focal point for Geylang Serai’s annual bazaar through the 1970s to the present day, despite the rebuilding of the market between 2005 and 2009.
Geylang Serai 1970s-1980s: thriving despite the odds
The 1970s and 1980s witnessed massive upheaval in Geylang Serai, as its residents were evicted and their homes were demolished. These were replaced by row upon row of low-rise flatted factories, single-storey workshop buildings, and a number of small HDB estates situated some distance away.
When in 1972 it was announced that the suburb of Geylang Serai would be redeveloped and the people resettled, there was some apprehension that the marketplace role of Geylang Serai and its Ramadan bazaar would diminish. Both marketplace and bazaar, however, remained popular and was well-patronised by Singapore Malays. People simply came back.
Further, Geylang Serai received a deánite boost beginning in 1977 when, as some stallholders will fondly relate, as many as 50 MARA express buses a day conveyed Malaysian shoppers from as far aáeld as Kelantan. Bruneian visitors also flew in to shop, throughout the year and particularly during the Ramadan bazaar.
The following decade, the 1980s, in fact witnessed a consolidation of Geylang Serai’s bazaar tradition: in 1980 the itinerant and seasonal Ramadan hawkers who had hitherto set up stalls wherever they could were accommodated in Dewan Kampong Ubi (a sports hall) and its compound in what was advertised as the “Once-a-year Bargain Market” (Pasar Murah Setahun Sekali).
When the Sepaktakraw Federation of Singapore (PERSES) moved into the Hall from its Jalan Eunos clubhouse in 1985, the annual “Bargain Market” was continued under PERSES management.
Beginning in 1984 the Singapore Tourism Board (then STPB) intervened through the annual street light-up, supported by the new trend of media involvement through guest star appearances and performances staged as part of Geylang Serai bazaar. Geylang Serai CCC and later Kampong Ubi CCC (Citizens’ Consultative Committee) also began organising additional Ramadan bazaars and trade fairs in Geylang Serai, further formalising the set-up and leasing of stalls.
In 1983 and 1984 Tanjong Katong and Joo Chiat Complexes were opened, between them accommodating a considerable number of shops catering specifically to a Malay clientele. Their voluminous atriums also accommodated bazaars and Ramadan sales. Together with the marketplace, they form Geylang Serai’s shopping circuit, which continues to attract Singapore Malays from all across the island.
The now-demolished Geylang Serai Malay Village theme park (1989-2011) also became inevitably drawn into the bazaar circuit of Geylang Serai during its existence. Initially remaining aloof of the surroundings and bounded by a metal fence, the theme park suffered poor business and eventually took down much of the fence. By 2003, it began organising its own bazaar in a commodious tent that consumed its Geylang Road frontage in its entirety from the Geylang Serai-Joo Chiat Complex junction towards Tanjong Katong Complex, thus helping to create a larger and continuous Ramadan bazaar network.
There is now a provision for a broad promenade along Geylang Road for Ramadan bazaar stalls in URA plans for the now empty site, in exactly the same position as the large tent erected by the GSMV shown in the picture above
Ramadan food bazaar in Kampong Gelam: Bussorah Street’s community of Kg Kaji
A rather different trajectory is witnessed for the bazaar at Bussorah Street, Kampong Gelam. The Ramadan food bazaar at Bussorah Street, or Kampong Kaji as the community was called, enjoyed its heydays in the 1950s and 1960s, when one could count as many as 80 stalls along the small street leading to Sultan Mosque.
Kampong Kaji residents served up distinctive dishes, kuehs and savouries. The popularity of Bussorah Street’s bazaar declined somewhat in the 1970s and 1980s with the rising importance of Geylang Serai bazaar for Ramadan shopping. There was however still a sizable number of visitors, including those who patronised the shops in adjacent Arab Street and the numerous eateries found around Kampong Gelam.
In 1988 the Trustees of Sultan Mosque decided to endorse the Ramadan bazaar to raise funds for an annex and invited the STPB to bring the annual street light-up programme to Kampong Gelam for the fasting month.
The eviction of Bussorah Street residents and shopkeepers in 1993, however, dealt a deánite blow to the continuity of the street’s bazaar, which shifted to neighbouring Kandahar Street while Bussorah Street’s shophouses underwent restoration until 1995, remaining devoid of street life until the early 2000s.
After a decade-long hiatus, the Ramadan bazaar tradition of Bussorah Street’s former residents resumed in collaboration with the Malay Heritage Centre, though this took place along Kandahar Street and Muscat Street – the conversion of Bussorah Street into a pedestrian mall lined by palm trees has rendered its streetside spaces unusable for food stalls.
Singapore in Straits Muslim culture
Two special items on the Ramadan menu associated with mosques and in particular with Sultan Mosque, appear to have spread throughout the Straits region from Singapore: air katira, a beverage whose recipe originates in Southern India, and bubur lambuk, a special porridge.
These two Ramadan specialties have been popularly attributed to Kampong Gelam and therefore indicate Singapore’s former role in the multi-nodal network of Malay Muslim culture in the Straits of Melaka region.
Comparing the two historic Ramadan bazaars of Singapore
By the 1980s Geylang Serai had the upper hand with a wider variety of items, from the latest fad in Hari Raya greeting cards to decorative lights and cheap crystals. Shouts of lelong (bargain, auction) and the rapidly-repeated call to pilih-pilih-pilih! (choose, choose, choose!) created a lively atmosphere.
Whereas the stallholders of Bussorah Street’s bazaar tended to be residents or those owning shops in the area, Geylang Serai bazaar hosted not only the area’s full-time shopkeepers and stallholders but also large numbers of seasonal Ramadan bazaar hawkers. The kinds of foods and goods one may find at these two locations are, consequently, different. Some of the seasonal traders in Geylang Serai bazaar have run Ramadan stalls for several years and have developed specific business niches. In some cases they have become a permanent fixture and are recognised as bazaar icons.
Two examples may be cited. The stall named “Bunga Kembang Malam” (Night-blooming Flowers) enlivened the bazaar atmosphere through pantuns or quatrains, often tongue-in-cheek, broadcast by loudhailer to promote plastic flowers. Meanwhile “Ikan Tangkap Sendiri” (Fish We’ve Caught Ourselves) sold a variety of otak-otak and went on to operate in other itinerant pasar malams (night markets) beyond Ramadan.
The Bussorah Street food bazaar, conversely, was more directly connected with a mainly Javanese urban community that prided itself in their proximity to and connections with Singapore’s historically significant Sultan Mosque. The implications of this simplified socio-economic and cultural distinction between the two historic centres of Singapore’s heterogeneous Malayo-Nusantara community can be felt to this day.
Dr Imran bin Tajudeen’s research focuses on aspects of the historical urbanism, architecture and place histories in Singapore and maritime Southeast Asia.
FOM Feature 1/7: Celebrating Hari Raya Aidilãtri in Singapore by Dahlia Shamsuddin
FOM Feature 2/7: Ramadan Bazaars in Bussorah Street and Geylang Serai by Imran Tajudeen
FOM Feature 3/7: Hari Raya Songs First Recorded in the 1940s by Azlan Mohamed Said
FOM Feature 4/7: Hari Raya Puasa on the Eve of World War II in Malaya by Mohamed Effendy
FOM Feature 5/7: Hari Raya Quatrain by Alãan Sa’at
FOM Feature 6/7: Popular Malay Jewellery in the 1950s and 1960s by Rossman Ithnain
FOM Feature 7/7: Dressing Up for Hari Raya by Julina Khusaini
Leave a Reply