Old Singapore Quiz (6) - Answers

Here are the answers to Old Singapore Quiz (6)

1. What is the name of this road?
A: Amoy Street

2. Is this portion of the road still in existence today?
A: Yes

3. Who was the OCBC chairman at that time?
A: Tan Sri Tan Chin Tuan

4. What was the tagline of the bank?
A: Solid as a rock

I managed to take a second-shot of the same stretch of Amoy Street as it appears today. Compare the new photo with the old:



Three additional buildings are visible in the new photo. They are, from left, Pickering Operations Complex, Capitol Square and UOB Plaza.

The answers to Questions 3 and 4 could be found in this Straits Times article dated 17 Feb 2001. As reader Kaizhu87 pointed out, OCBC's tagline today is "Ask OCBC". (Hmm... why do I get a feeling that they are asking me to talk to a rock? ;)

Tan Sri Tan Chin Tuan passed away on 13 Nov 2005, at a ripe old age of almost 97. You could read more about his life here. You may notice that his only son is unnamed in that article. Long ago, I heard a bad Hokkien joke about his long life and his son's speculated name. I will leave you to figure this one out as I really should not be repeating it here. (Note: This is not a quiz, so please keep your guesses to yourself.)

Nobody gave correct answers to all 4 questions. The following people made guesses and this is how they fared:

a. Yg gave only 1 correct answer (to Question 3). He thought that the location was Upper Nankin Street (now part of Hong Lim Complex and Chinatown Point). But if it was Upper Nankin Street, the view of OCBC Centre would have been at an oblique angle instead of a direct view as seen in the photo.

b. Peter provided 2 correct answers (to Questions 3 and 4).

c. Icemoon forced me to reveal to him privately the answer to Question 2 by threatening to do a second-shot of the scene.

d. Kaizhu87 thought that it was Canton Street. Again, the angle of the photo ruled out this street as the correct answer. However, he/she did get the Chairman right.

e. Shih Tung thought that the street was "one of the streets that got swallowed by Far East Square or Capital Square". Indeed, a part of Amoy Street is now within the air-conditioned Far East Square. I think he/she could be refering to the portion of Amoy Street shown in the photo below which had been torn down. The old houses facing the camera in the distance were probably located on Pekin Street.

Photo courtesy of National Archives Singapore (NAS). Circa 1980.

Note: The 1st photo (circa 1978) and the 2nd photo (dated last year) were taken from the location indicated by the red arrow in the map above while I believe that the NAS photo was taken from the location indicated by the blue arrow, before Far East Square was built.

An Unusual Blog And An Appeal

I took this photo on 8 October last year near the famous Sungei Road Laksa stall at Blk 27 Townshend Road. Yes, I was there to defy the PM's order eat the very good $2 laksa with lots of harm (cockles).

Of course, I was not only there just to satisfy my hunger pangs. As usual, I was on a constant lookout for interesting sights for this blog. I spotted this blogsite address displayed on the rear windscreen of a Comfort taxi: "http://victorian-azri.blogspot.com/"

I thought it was interesting for 2 reasons:

1. It was probably a blog by or about an old Victorian. (I am an old Victorian myself and my son is also currently studying in Victoria.)

2. It was the first time that I saw a blogsite being advertised on a taxi this way. Could it be a taxi driver who blogs?

Afraid that I might not be able to remember the blog address, I took a photo of it. I have forgotten all about this photo until I chanced upon it just now while searching for another photo. I visited the blogsite and was surprised to find that the blog belonged to Muhd Noor Azri Abdul Rahman, a 17-year-old who suffered a cable-ski accident in March 2007 and had a stroke. Azri was then a Sec 4 student of Victoria School and was participating in cable skiing at East Coast Park as part of his PE lesson. He now has a severe dent on his head as part of his skull had to be removed to alleviate swelling in his brain.

I remember reading the article in the New Paper some time last year but didn't pay much attention to it then. The Comfort taxi which I took a photo of that day must have belonged to his dad, Abdul Rahman Abdul Hamid, 45, who is a taxi driver.

Azri's blog is titled "Help For Victorian Azri". However, there are no details on how we could help. I have left a comment there to ask in what way I could help. I could certainly contribute a little money and hope you could too.

On another note, I personally feel that the school should stop having cable skiing as part of the PE curriculum, especially after this accident. I for one would be very reluctant to allow my son to participate in such a dangerous activity.

Old Singapore Quiz (6)

This photo is a video grab of a scene from Saint Jack, a 1979 film that tells the life of Jack Flowers who was a pimp in Singapore. The film was shot entirely on location in various places in Singapore in 1978. This controversial film was banned in Singapore. The ban was lifted only in Mar 2006 and the film is now M18-rated.

However, the quiz is not about the film. That would have been too easy, wouldn't it? It is also not about the name of the skyscraper in the background. Any true blue Singaporean would instantly recognise it as the 52-floor/201-metre OCBC Centre which was built in 1976. It means that the building was only 2-year old in the photo. At that time, it was the tallest building in Singapore as well as in South East Asia.

Instead, I would like to know the answers to the following questions:

1. What is the name of this road?

2. Is this portion of the road still in existence today?

3. Who was the OCBC chairman at that time?

4. What was the tagline of the bank?

If there are no correct answers, please check out this post again in a week's time.