New Interview Releases
Highlights from our oral history interviews released in 2022.
View all New Releases: CLICK HERE.
The Oral History Centre (OHC) released 93 interviews in 2022.
33 interviews came from 3 of OHC's contemporary collection projects that record Singaporean experiences of recent and unfolding events of national significance. We produce two of the projects in-house with volunteer support on the Covid-19 pandemic that started in late 2019 and the passing of Lee Kuan Yew in 2015. A third project titled Living and Working in the Digital Age is produced by graduate students from SUTD's LKY Centre for Innovative Cities covering how Singaporeans from different walks of life have been adapting to digital change since the mid-2010s.
43 interviews were related to Singapore's community, society, and economy, forming the largest group of interviews released in 2022. These interviews came mostly under OHC's Community Driven Oral History Project, Economic Development of Singapore project, History of the Labour Movement and Social Sector projects and Colony to Nation: Continuity and Change in the Singapore Economy, 1946-2016, a project generously donated to OHC by Singapore historian Dr Loh Kah Seng. Other contributions came from OHC's Chinatown, Clan Associations, Grassroots, and Vanishing Trades projects.
17 of the interviews were related to Singapore's arts, sciences, culture and education, and they were from OHC's Performing Arts, Literary Arts, and Visual Arts projects, Print and Broadcast media projects, Education in Singapore project and history of the A*STAR agency project.
Many interviews with notable individuals were released in 2022, including Som Mohamed Said, Dick Lee, Dr. Tan Wee Kiat, Prof. Wong Yoon Wah, and the late Prof. Lim Chong Yah:
"I have to do it, I have to learn. But this learning the Zoom is stressful for me. So who taught you? Who taught you to do- to operate Zoom? Okay. Before that, before that, the first person who teach me to do this, do that, press this, press that, is my son." - Som Mohamed Said
"... you're Asian. And why is that not reflected in anything you do? And this brought me back to the whole question of identity.That I was not conscious about during the fried rice paradise incident when I actually wrote the song to try to make a Singapore song. I didn't quite understand why I wanted to do it. I just felt that, you know, we have our own traits, you know, but we don't seem to reflect it." - Dick Lee
"And we said we can provide these natural, environmental conditions that will create a kind of animal community, insect community to a very successful state." - Dr. Tan Wee Kiat
"And they said, what, what did you say? Did you say tomorrow? Thought that you said we can continue to discuss! Maybe we heard you wrongly. If it is just tomorrow, no more. If there is a deadline, you normally don't have a deadline! I said but the deadline is so long! We have been talking talking so long, it must come to an end. Is that, in that case, we will agree." - Prof. Lim Chong Yah
