Goodbye My Kampong

from various people who had known of it or had lived there. That has helped me tremendously in writing this sequel. I would like to thank Wendy Tan, who was not a resident of Kampong Potong Pasir but was a keen enthusiast about its history. It was through her introduction that I met two brothers, Tony Tan Choong Hee and Jolly Tan Choong Keah, whose father had owned the fish ponds in my village.

I was regaled by many wonderful stories about their fish-farming days, particularly by Tony, who is the elder.

Thank you also to all the people who had lived in kampongs before and shared with me the stories of their way of life.

I would also like to acknowledge the role of these wonderful resources in jogging my memory: The National Archives of Singapore, The Straits Times newspapers from the 1960s, Wikipedia and Peter H. L. Lim’s Chronicle of Singapore, 1959-2009: Fifty Years of Headline News (Editions Didier Millet, 2009).

The following websites and various posts about Singapore in the 1960s cleared up some facts which I was confused about:

https://remembersingapore.org/

https://thelongnwindingroad.wordpress.com/

http://singapore60smusic.blogspot.sg/

I would like to thank Ethos Books for taking on this book. Up until now, they had published only fiction by me. It was wonderful to be working with Ng Kah Gay again as he was always so positive about my writing. It was refreshing to work with Ethos Books editor, Choo Yanping too, who was vigilant with checking that the facts mentioned were accurate.

Thank you to my editor, Tara Dhar Hasnain. I was very pleased for her to edit this book as she had edited Kampong Spirit - Gotong Royong: Life in Potong Pasir, 1955 to 1965. Her eagle eye and comments were very helpful.

Thank you also to Julia D’ Silva for her help in proofreading the book.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my readers of Kampong Spirit - Gotong Royong: Life in Potong Pasir, 1955 to 1965, who wrote in to say they needed to have a sequel to that book. They wanted to know what happened after 1965, and when the kampongs were dissolved. Their interest and support gave me impetus to complete my kampong saga.

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