Jermaine musters up the courage to visit the Kwong Hou Sua Teochew Cemetery which will be exhumed in October. A number of interesting characters populate the cemetery, particularly an unclaimed “Cultural Warrior”.
According to the SPI forum, housed in the same graveyard are a Thailand ambassador, five wives of a Teochew family, an Englishman and a Singapore Cultural Warrior (as inscribed on his tomb), Lee Run Hu 李润湖 (1913-1937). He was a news reporter, editor, writer and poet, best remembered for his heroic act of exposing the mercenary of wealthy businessmen and the ills of the Japanese government (recalled by Fang Xiu 方修).
It’s still not too late to visit the Kwong Hou Sua Teochew Cemetery and remember the long-dead, but not for long. Read more here.
1 Response
I visited the cemetery yesterday with a friend to look for my great-grandma’s tomb. The sight that greated me gave me a great shock. Just a year ago, the last Qing Ming, I was there with my brother and mum to pray to my great-grandma. The bushland and undergrowth was still lush and green. Yesterday it was bare yellow earth that greeted us… We drove past without recognising it at first cos what was previously a lush green hill, was stark yellow earth with great big trucks and machinery. We thought it was just another construction site…
I was filled with great sadness after the visit and was not able to shake off this feeling of lost since then – for our history, our link to the past. People say it’s ok, it will remain in our memories. But all of us know that memories fade with time. I’m left wondering if over time will we become a rootless people with no past?
Posted on March 1st, 2009 at 11:58 pm
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