I was born and grew up in Singapore, a neighbourhood, Bukit Ho Swee (Taman Ho Swee), well known for gangsters and belongs to the lower income group. I studied in the local neighbourhood primary school (Bukit Ho Swee West Primary School). My early childhood days revolves a lot about study hard, and nothing else but study hard. I remember my teacher said we should be like the lotus - 出于污泥而不染。Those days I did not fully understand the meaning of this verse. It means - like the lotus, grow out from the mud but not stained at all. My childhood friends are mostly from my primary school days, plus a handful (ok, at least one) from where I live. Yes, childhood friends are such a gem if we can grow old and laugh and cry and scream at each other!
The flat we lived in during those days were called - "one room half living room" 一房半厅 . Indeed, it was such a small flat but it fits our small family unit, plus the neighbours were mostly wonderful people. It is so small, but we could host so visitors for sleepovers whenever they visit us as our location happen to be in the city area.
One of my childhood memories in those days were those 2-sided face-to-face corridors, dark, enclosed and dimly lit, my nightmares were the fear of being trapped in those corridors. And the smell of incense, the voices of chanting, the sounds of drums/cymbals when mediums started to jump during the Taoism religious festive, gave me goosebumps even until now.
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