Remembering the Golden Days of Singapore’s Cinemas in the 1970s

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Title: Remembering the Golden Days of Singapore’s cinemas in the 1970s

Interviewee’s background/objective

I have conducted an interview with my dad’s elder sister whose age was 59 this year. My aunt was born to a family of four. In the early days, her place of residence was a one room flat in Market Drive. Since young, her area of interest was film studies and scriptwriting. Despite going through financial hardship, she managed to graduate from Singapore’s polytechnic and started as a scriptwriter in TCS (Mediacorp). Currently, she is a freelance scriptwriter and an educational speaker. Some of the popular local dramas that were written by her include wok of life, Unriddle and Dream makers. Since young, movie aspired her to become a screenwriter; hence she would be a favourable candidate for my research. The interview conducted with my aunt would corroborate my findings in this term paper and I would show what cinema-going was like back then, what role has it played in each individual’s life and shaped the developments of Singapore. I would then draw comparison between the interview conducted with my aunt and the information that I have acquired from other sources to determine the level of consistency. Lastly, I would evaluate how oral history has deepened my knowledge in understanding the popular culture in Singapore’s post war.

Insights and roles of cinema going

In the1970s, Singapore’s economy continues upward march. As Singapore embraced industrialization and diversification, it needs to increase its reputation for being the best-planned city to attract foreign investment. Therefore, to achieve such status, Singapore undergoes a major urbanization on landscape while the people of Singapore sought ways to lead ...

... middle of paper ...

...sively.

Concluding remark

In conclusion, oral history provides me an opportunity to learn about the perspectives of individuals to reconstruct the 1970s. While existing literature may not be accurate as it falls to different people everyday. My aunt has offered me valuables information and enrich my understanding of what cinema-going as a popular culture was like back then and the role of films that has impacted people’s lives. However, we should also take note that oral history only provides a glimpse of the events happened during that period. Memory can fade off over the years or there may be information that has been omitted from other perspectives including government, commercial and other individuals. However, all in all, we must recognize the inherent value of such oral history interviews as in time to come; they may no longer be present anymore.

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