From the Blue Windows: Recollections of Life in Queenstown, Singapore, in the 1960s and 1970s
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Imagine a Singapore in which flat rental was S$50 a month, a plate of noodles cost as little as 20 cents, and television broadcasts ended at 10pm every night.
From the Blue Windows is a collection of Tan Kok Yang's memories of growing up in Queenstown back when the tallest residential building there was fourteen storeys, the Alexandra Canal flooded regularly, and wayang shows were a regular feature on Mei Ling Street. He stayed in Princess Estate, an area that was colloquially known as"the Blue Windows"because of its unique blue glass louvred windows.
With nostalgia and a sense of loss, this memoir is a personal tribute to and celebration of Queenstown and a simple but fulfilling way of life that has all but vanished from modern Singapore.
"[The author] writes against the passage of time, in an unaffected and unpretentious style that makes the book a compelling testimony to a fading age…This is a deeply compassionate book." - Asad Latif, The Straits Times
Tan Kok Yang holds a PhD in Housing and Environmental Studies from the University of New England in Australia, and runs his own specialist acoustic consultancy firm in Singapore.
Publication Year: 2013
158 pages, 212mm x 136mm
ISBN: 978-9971-69-650-4, Paperback
Ridge Books