Many of us are familiar with the landscape that is now Chinese Garden. It was built in 1975 by a Taiwanese Architect. I was born and grew up in the Jurong area in the 1960s. Before part of it became designated as the Chinese Garden, Jurong lake was just a large body of water. The picturesque landscape that is now Chinese Garden was built onto that body of water that has divided the lake into two.
I recall going to the lake to swim as a kid. There was a nice mud bank along the lake then and it was walking distance from our house to the lake. On many evenings, we would walk there to take a swim and then walk back. The water was very clean, a blueish-green colour. Sometimes, we even caught fish there. We didn’t have the money to buy fishing rods then, so we had to improvise by using tins and nets to catch fish. The fish that we caught were mainly small fish such as guppies. Sometimes if we are lucky we can find catfish.
The way of life back then was very different than it is now. It was much slower, we had time for rest and recreation, the environment was not so built up and there was still the slight tinge of rustic beauty that remained from the Kampong days. There weren’t so many ‘rules and regulations’ – no sign or law that prohibited us from swimming in the lake, so we just went ahead. After all, nobody forbade us to do it – in fact, it was my uncle who brought me to the lake and taught me swimming. In the photo you can see me playing as a child at the lake together with my uncle and my cousin. I think I was about 8 years old then.
The area around Jurong was eventually re-developed by the Jurong Town Council in the 70s and my family were resettled to one of the HDB blocks in the Jurong estate.
