306 CHINESE NAMES OF STREETS, &c. 



I have in the previous pages endeavoured to bring it up to 

 date, as far as the Chinese names are concerned. To do this 

 satisfactorily, is impossible. Exact names for many streets do 

 not exist. In this respect Singapore differs from Penang, where 

 new streets are fewer and more easily identified. It is charac- 

 teristic of the Chinese that in a matter of this kind, accuracy is 

 the last thing that strikes them as essential. If you ask a China- 

 man — or better still a Chinese woman — newly arrivedand resident 

 in Singapore, where he lives, the invariable answer will be 

 " Singapore." A second query will perhaps elicit information 

 as to the district of the town or island, but it will take many 

 questions before the actual address can be ascertained, though 

 it might have been given directly, if the person questioned had 

 thought that it was of any importance. 



The Chinese have a happy-go-lucky way of using one ex- 

 pression to describe any one of perhaps a dozen streets. Any 

 Chinaman living at the town-end of Bukit Timah Road, in Albert 

 Street, Selegie Road, near Kandang Kerbau Police Station, 

 Short Street, or in any of the numerous lanes in that neighbour- 

 hood will, if asked where he lives, reply " Tek Kah " (i. e. Foot 

 of the bamboos), and unless cross-examined would not volun- 

 teei any further information, though the answer might mean 

 any one of a dozen streets. 



The more important thoroughfares have recognised names 

 known to Chinese of all classes. There are. however, a number 

 of new and smaller streets, and it appears to me that it is im- 

 portant that these should be easily identified. Especially is it 

 important that official interpreters should have a through know- 

 ledge of the names, English and Chinese, for all the streets in 

 the town, a matter in which, in my experience, many Govern- 

 ment interpreters are lamentably ignorant. 



As already remarked, in many cases there are no Chinese 

 names for streets. Tanjong Pa^ar and Kampong Kapor dis- 

 tricts are full of new roads and streets, nameless at present to 

 the Chinese, and defying identification. The houses are new 

 and often not occupied by Chinese, but Singapore is a Chinese 

 town and any one who has watched its growth will realise that 

 in all likelihood these new roads will be busy throughfares be- 



Jour. Straits Branch 



