These charming drawings of a Singaporean childhood will make you smile

Nostalgia, heritage, kampong spirit and related terms are evergreen buzz words for the Singapore psyche. So much so that we’ve grown rather impervious to their pull lately. But this art project made us smile and melted our cold hearts a little bit. “100 Days of Childhood Memories“ is a series of illustrations by Ailian Gan, a Singaporean working in tech in the San Francisco Bay Area, made by creating one illustration of a memory from her Singapore childhood every day for 100 days. 

An amateur artist with no professional training, Gan was inspired by “100 Day Project” a common creative exercise where you do something creative for 100 days, and her last trip to Singapore for Chinese New Year, where her father regaled her with family stories. The project began with little more than stick figure drawings, but these slowly turned into full, detailed illustrations of familiar items like lanterns, a penguin toy and scenes like the daily morning assembly where you’d have to sing the National Anthem and recite the pledge, the Hungry Ghost Festival “wayang” (or Chinese opera), playing Zero Point with a rope made with a bunch of rubber bands and more.

She’s now looking to publish a book with all the illustrations; each one with a short description of the memory. She’s planning to run a Kickstarter campaign to fund making of the book on Sep 20, but you can read up more. Also, take a look at some of her illustrations below.

 

Day 100/100. Before it was a large condominium, before it was a four storey apartment block, One Leicester Road was a bungalow house. It was a blue house on concrete stilts with a verandah up front. This was the house my family lived in when I was born. We called it “sah ko jiok”, which means “third mile” in Hokkien. It was three miles from the city center, which was then the General Post Office and is now the Fullerton Hotel. This is the place where my earliest memories of home begin. I remember a time when we still hung mosquito nets, a time when air-conditioning was new, a time where we slept on mattresses on the floor, a time when the living and dining areas were practically open air. But there are more memories before my memories. This was also the house where my father’s memories begin. I am told that Leicester Road was once a dirt track and was paved only when he started going to school. He walked to the end of the road and climbed the same narrow stairs that I would later climb to go to school. I am told that when he was taught by the war heroine Elizabeth Choy, she called up all the skinny boys in class, scooped milk out of a pail into small tin cups, and made them drink up so that they might grow. Before all that, there was an earlier house at the edges of my father’s memories, a shophouse on Rochor Canal Road, which was a short walk away from my grandfather’s tire shop on Albert Street. Before that, there was my grandfather who, as a young immigrant, taught himself English and started his own business. Before that, there was my great-grandfather who left China to seek his fortunes overseas and brought his family to Singapore. He would one day buy the Leicester house of his great-granddaughter’s memory. Before that, there was a village in China, in Yongchun county of the Fujian province, where my grandfather as a small boy trudged through mud in bare feet and put on his shoes only when he arrived at school. And that childhood memory, belonging to my grandfather, told to me by my father, is the earliest childhood memory I know. #100DaysOfChildhoodMemories #The100DayProject

A photo posted by Ailian Gan (@ailiangan) on

Aug 30, 2015 at 7:34pm PDT

 

Day 44/100. With loops of rubber bands tied together to form a rope, we played zero point in primary school. I remember jumping over that rope at different heights. Our school uniform had a pinafore, so we wore shorts underneath so that we could high-kick, jump and even cartwheel across the rope. Looking back, it amuses me that it was so much fun to try to get good at these games. #100DaysOfChildhoodMemories #The100DayProject

A photo posted by Ailian Gan (@ailiangan) on

May 24, 2015 at 5:40pm PDT

 

Day 48/100. I remember standing at attention every morning at school to sing the national anthem. The song is called “Majulah Singapura” – “onward Singapore” – but it was known by most of us as the “mari kita” because it opens with those Malay words. To a young student, it was just another routine, just another rule they impose on you in school to follow. But as an adult, one wonders, what was it I was supposed to learn from singing the anthem and saying the pledge every day? What do all those words mean, really? #100DaysOfChildhoodMemories #The100DayProject

A photo posted by Ailian Gan (@ailiangan) on

May 29, 2015 at 9:39pm PDT

 

Day 61/100. I remember having this series of books about Mooty the mouse, who apparently wore a sarong. He had adventures where he unintentionally scared characters like Grandma and the Satay-man. I also remember something about lizards named Tchitchik and Tchitchak. It didn’t occur to me as a child, but clearly it was by a Singaporean writer. It was possibly the only children’s books I had by a Singaporean writer. It seems the series has been re-designed for modern times, but I still remember the original dark yellow covers and the long rectangular shape of the books. #100DaysOfChildhoodMemories #The100DayProject

A photo posted by Ailian Gan (@ailiangan) on

Jun 13, 2015 at 7:04pm PDT

 

Day 65/100. It is better known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, but I remember it as the Lantern Festival. I remember carrying these paper lanterns. You had to drip a bit of wax onto the small metal base, then place a candle there and light it. Next you carefully raised the sides of lantern until it assumed its full shape. An accordion cube, a cylinder, a sphere, in bright colors. Then you attached it to the end of a stick, and you were ready to go. We walked around our street, a procession of children and adults, gingerly and gleefully making our way around with lanterns held in front of us. #100DaysOfChildhoodMemories #The100DayProject

A photo posted by Ailian Gan (@ailiangan) on

Jun 19, 2015 at 8:12pm PDT

 

Day 66/100. Today is actually the “bak zhang” festival, better known as “duan wu jie” or the Dragon Boat Festival. I have this memory of sitting on the steps of the old Leicester house, and watching my grandmother make bak zhang (zongzi), these pyramids of glutinous rice and meat wrapped in bamboo leaves. I remember looking at all those bowls of fillings and all those steps and thinking, “This will all be forgotten one day, I must write it down.” So I wrote down what I thought were the ingredients for bak zhang onto a piece of paper. I must have been just 7 or 8, so I don’t know how much I could spell, and of course I have since lost this paper. And the saddest part is that I was right – no one makes these at home anymore. #100DaysOfChildhoodMemories #The100DayProject

A photo posted by Ailian Gan (@ailiangan) on

Jun 20, 2015 at 9:51pm PDT

 

Day 69/100. I remember going to Parkway Parade. On the top floor of the shopping center away tucked away in one corner was an indoor amusement park. What was it called – Funworld? There was a carousel and a viking ride and all these smaller rides. You could hop into a strangely shaped animal, like a cartoon elephant or dinosaur, and be whisked away high up and go round and round in circles. I look back and wonder, why was that so fun as a kid? But it was. It just was. #100DaysOfChildhoodMemories #The100DayProject

A photo posted by Ailian Gan (@ailiangan) on

Jun 24, 2015 at 8:32pm PDT

 

Day 86/100. This is a made-up memory made of misremembered facts. I remember that my grandfather ran a tire shop, and I vaguely recall one near where we lived on the opposite side of Upper Serangoon Road around Tai Thong Crescent. When I asked my father about the details, it turned out that there was a tire shop on Tai Thong Crescent, but it was not my grandfather’s. My grandfather did in fact have a tire shop, but it was on Albert Street near the Serangoon Road and Bukit Timah junction. Now I wonder if I ever saw my grandfather’s actual tire shop or perhaps I’ve made it all up. #100DaysOfChildhoodMemories #The100DayProject

A photo posted by Ailian Gan (@ailiangan) on

Jul 30, 2015 at 9:06pm PDT

 

Day 91/100. I remember when our Chinese New Year cakes and cookies were homemade. I have vague memories of my grandmother filling cast iron moulds with batter and out would come these cakes. As a child, I remember calling the fluffy flower-shaped round ones “kueh neng ko” (egg cake!), even though I think they are more commonly known as “kueh bolu” or “kueh bahulu”. They were essentially sponge cakes, Chinese madeleines. They were my favorite when I was really small. Then I remember really liking “love letters”, which were rolled up thin wafer cookies. And then there were pineapple tarts – balls of pineapple jam set within buttery, crumbly pastry. These are my favorite as an adult. I like them best when they’re open faced. These days I associate pineapple tarts with returning back to the US from a vacation in Singapore and bringing along those tasty treats to make the experience of home last a little longer. #100DaysOfChildhoodMemories #The100DayProject

A photo posted by Ailian Gan (@ailiangan) on

Aug 9, 2015 at 9:23pm PDT