My Grandma’s student ID from 1959 British-colonial Singapore

    by jarrjarrbinks24

    4 Comments

    1. jarrjarrbinks24 on

      Some info:
      Dated 19 Aug 1959
      Sex: F, Age: 12 (Born 1947)
      Language: Teochew (a dialect), Race: Chinese
      Nationality: British
      Place of Birth: Singapore
      Occupation: Student
      Address: 48 Rangoon(??) Road (I actually can’t tell)

      My Grandma is the 2nd oldest of 7 children, all of whom are still alive and healthy today. My Great-grandma is also nimble at agile at 102 years, but she only speaks the Teochew dialect. She immigrated over in the 1930s from Chaozhou city, Guangdong.

      By this time Lee Kuan Yew’s party, the People Action’s Party has been voted into power, followed by Singapore’s independence in 1965. The PAP are still the leading power in SG to this day. English became the medium for education after independence, so my Grandma’s generation mostly don’t speak English (except for the uni-educated ones). But they did pick up Standard Mandarin.

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