Singapore: Kampong Barber Memories · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Lam Chun Chew remembers their kampong barber Mr. Low from his childhood days “He had another skill that enabled him to clear sand or small particles which got in his customer’s eyes by accidents. I saw him on one occasion lift a guy’s eye-lit, picking out a sand particle using a chrome pincer deftly. While doing his job he would engage his client in small talk, usually on whose children did well or not in their studies. This was his pet topic, probably because his elder son did quite well in a Chinese language medium school” . Kampong is the Malay word for a village or small settlement and Singapore used to have several kampongs before the urbanization in the 70s and 80s.