Charmaine Leung, author of 17A Keong Saik Road, narrates the audio tour based on her book. Untold Stories Of Singapore’s Red-Light District – Keong Saik Road In uniquely Singaporean fashion, this self-guided audio tour of Chinatown’s Keong Saik Road begins at the Sri Layan Sithi Vinayagar Temple and an anecdote from author Charmaine Leung on growing up watching Thaipusam celebrations at this landmark. Readers will know Leung as the author of 17A Keong Saik Road, her memoir of her childhood in the neighbourhood as the daughter of a brothel keeper, published by Ethos Books in 2017.
Leung provides the voiceover of the audio tour, aided by some short dialogues in Cantonese and sound design that does some aural scene setting. The tour is a charming, highly condensed version of the book and can be done in about 40 minutes at a leisurely amble. Keong Saik Road today is the haunt of slick boutique hotels and upscale eateries, so it takes a bit of imagination to recreate in your mind’s eye the neighbourhood mamak shop, Tong Ah Eating House and seething street life, with wayang and the aforementioned Thaipusam festival, as well as the popular brothels that once enlivened this quarter.
The only building that is unchanged is the Cundhi Gong Temple, where young women from China used to visit to take vows of celibacy as majie, the domestic workers familiar in their distinctive black-and-white samfoo outfits. The tour is aided by the fact that Keong Saik Road is relatively short and.
