A Town and Two Cities
Produced for M. Arch course University of Strathclyde
Other books in the M.Arch submission: Life is Work My City is Yours 03 September 2013 Tan Yun Ru tanyunru.strath@gmail.com
All text and artwork, unless stated otherwise, is the original work of the author
A Town and Two Cities a story of place and movement
It is useful first to reflect on how we have been made and remade throughout history by an urban process impelled onwards by powerful social forces. The astonishing pace and scale of urbanisation over the last hundred years means, for example, that we have been remade several times over without knwoing why or how. Has this dramatic urbanisation contributed to human well-being? Has it made us into better people, or left us dangling in a work of anomie and alienation, anger and frustration? D. Harvey, 2012
contents
i
ii
iii
introduction
index of places
timeline of events
1
2
3
small town life
4
work then, work now
7
the big city feels like a dangerous place
different scales
5
leaving the small town
8
the big city feels like a dangerous place
spaces of working, living and family
6
my bus journeys to the city
9
starting out in the city
10 11 12
as you improve, you upgrade
upgrade to a neighbourhood
what about the city centre?
13 14 15 town planning
a comfortable living area
earning the right to the city
16 17 18
sense of security and place
sense of security and place
identity as a second-generation immigrant
19 20 21 where do you belong?
22
one city, two relationships
any more upgrades?
nostalgia for hometown
i introduction
This book presents excerpts from an interview of an interview conducted by me to my father. The interview facilitated his personal reflections on the places of his everyday life, which began in a small town, and continued into the “big city�, which is the capital of Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur, where he spent began his time in university. After he graduated, he married my mother and they both lived in a rented small room close to the city while they both worked. In a few years they had saved up enough to buy a small flat, where they lived for 6 years and gave birth to two children. As their financial situation improved they searched for a house in the suburbs, and found one in the sprawling housing estates around the city that hosted thousands of similar landed houses. They have lived there since with their three children.
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ii index of places
Nibong Tebal
Small town in the state of Penang.
SS2
In Petaling Jaya, satellite city of Kuala Lumpur In close proximity to university
Residence Typology: Shophouse Use: Dwelling/commercial activity Size: 1300 sqf Number of occupants: most of the time 11
Residence Typology: Terraced house Use: Student-occupied dwelling Size: 1700 sqf Number of occupants: 4
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Sri Sentosa
Low-medium cost apartment within periphery of Kuala Lumpur Residence Typology: Apartment Use: Family dwelling Size: 920 sqf Number of occupants: 3-4
Petaling Jaya
Satellite city of Kuala Lumpur Residence Typology: Terraced house Use: Family dwelling Size: 2000 sqf Number of occupants: 4-5
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iii timeline of events significant events in Tan Teoh Guan’s life
1957
Born to Tan Jing Chai and Khor Ah Chu
1974
Attends an institute of technology in Penang
1964 1977 1983 1984 1988 1989 1991
Start primary school
Admitted to and attends University of Malaya. Moves to SS2 and lives in rented house with schoolmates.
Graduates with degree in engineering, joins an engineering firm in KL Marries Teoh Ai Cheng. Moves into rented room in SS2
Joins Mok Engineers. Moves into Sri Sentosa apartment Birth of first child
Birth of second child
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1995
Moves to terraced house in Petaling Jaya
1999
Death of father (Tan Jing Chai)
1997 2001 2003
Birth of third child
Moves to another terraced house in the same neighbourhood Leaves Mok and Tan Engineers, sets up own firm
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1 small town life My family lived in a so-called pre-war shophouse, two storeys: downstairs, two thirds of it was used for business, and behind was the kitchen, dining, bathroom—everything. Upstairs was where we slept. At that time there was my grandparents, my father, my mother, and altogether nine of us siblings—so you can image so many people squeezed into that tiny space—it was very inadequate. Just not at all enough space. During the racial riots of 1969, my grandmother who lived in a Malay village was in danger, so they temporarily moved in with us, And that made it even more squeezy [laughs]. There was basically no place to sleep. So everybody was just sitting around.
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2 different scale of things Funnily enough when you’re young the scale of things is so different—you feel like the place is not so small, but now when I go back and I see it—wow, it’s so small! Even the fire station, the church—small town church—in those days comparitively grand buildings in a small town—used to be so large. But now they’re super tiny, super small! —Your perspective is so different.
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3 spaces of working, living and family In those days, family time, working time, and rest time—it was all mixed together. It was not clear cut. There are still some who live this way—say they were a shopkeeper, they work long hours, then they sleep in the shop, the family live in the shop, the children do their homework in the shop, and then they have to take care of the business and customers.
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4 work then, work now We didn’t always use to have this modern concept of work. People’s concerns were focused on basic necessities: clothes, food, a place to stay and [necessary] movement, the simplest things. You had a simple identity: either you were a tailor, or a farmer or shopkeeper, or any other simple job.
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5 leaving the small town Most of my friends that stayed behind in the small town ended up not going very far in their studies. You need to be exposed to the right environment, and those in the small town were at a disadvantage. To get to another town you would have to be able to incur the expenses of renting a room—in your hometown you’d just live at home. So that costs more. And people in the small town never realised the advantage [of going to a better school]. So I was lucky to be able to go to a larger, more competitive school, and manage to get into university.
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6 my bus journeys to the city I remember sitting in the bus to go to the city. In the small town, I felt very relaxed, and as the bus neared Kuala Lumpur, I would naturally tense up. Feel very tense, feel like—well, it wasn’t at all a nice feeling. In the small town you feel very relaxed, but to go to the city and you feel like it’s a very intense, high-pressured place, a fast-paced place—I just didn’t like going to the city. There was always this strong feeling of wanting to go back to the tranquil, peaceful hometown, where everything’s slow. And it took many years to overcome that feeling.
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7 the big city feels like a dangerous place The big city, it feels like a dangerous place. It’s so fast-paced, unlike a small town, relaxed, cost of living is lower, and the people are friendly. In KL, it’s not so safe, not so secure, there are no relatives with you and you’re all alone Coming here, the only place in the whole big city is the room that you’re renting. The rest—not yours [laughs].
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8 the big city feels like a dangerous place This sense of unsafeness in the city... if I had to visualise it, I would say it looks like the difference between people walking in a small town, slowly, and people walking very fast in a city. Everybody rushing, nobody waiting for you—in a small town, if you lose your way, you can just turn back. When you come to the big city, if your car breaks down on the highway you don’t know what to do. If you get lost on a junction, you don’t know what to do.
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9 starting out in the city After I graduated, your mother and I rented a very small room in SS2. After a few years—that would be about the year you were born—we bought an apartment in Sri Sentosa. That’s where you spent your early childhood days.
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10 as you improve, you upgrade I think the area around our old flat is still the same today; a so-called lower-income area. The people who lived there were mostly taxi drivers, hawkers, those kinds of people. So as we improved in our financial position, we moved on, we upgraded. It is very natural... I could foresee it at that time. As you improve, you upgrade.
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11 upgrade to a middle-class neighbourhood I wouldn’t really call it an escape though. More like an upgrade. I would still be comfortable staying in the medium-cost apartment, because we at least had security staff and a dedicated parking lot that was fenced, unlike the low-cost flats nearby. So it’s an upgrade, rather than an escape. An upgrade to a middle-class neighbourhood.
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12 what about the city centre? I don’t think our actual physical relationship with the city center changed much with the move. For most of our lives the daily activities were that you would go back to your house, then you go to work. So the most important places in your life are your house, and the workplace. So if your workplace is not in the city [centre] then you’re not affected by the city.
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13 town planning What happened here in Malaysia is that we followed the Western mode of planning, so the shops and houses were totally separated. When I went to Taiwan, I saw everywhere had shops downstairs, and that the upstairs are all living spaces, three or four storeys. It’s a much better place to live in—they are more organic, and more convenient. I don’t feel like the development pattern of KL and PJ make them nice places to live in. In industrial areas that may be fine, but for general daily life it’s a disadvantage.
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14 what is a comfortable living area? Your mother and I came from small towns where so many people squeezed into tiny rooms, and then we both squeezed into a small rented room ourselves, so an apartment of 920 sqf was very comfortable for a small family. When we first moved into the double storey terraced house the staircase made everything seem so far and so, so inconvenient. It took some time to get used to living in that house. And actually by living in a big house, the family doesn’t get too much contact and are not so close. Until today when I go to someone else’s huge bungalow I think they are making a mistake.
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15 have you earned your right to the city? At this moment, I feel like I have a right to the city. Because I’m very comfortable. When you feel secure, you will like the place, and feel like you belong. A few years ago when I went to Dubai to work, I had the same feeling—you feel very uncomfortable in a place where you are renting a hotel room, the people only speak Arabic, and they don’t yet have an established law for foreigners.
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16 sense of security and place This is to do with the sense of security, I think. When I first came to work, from the town, I always felt so so insecure. Even after I bought the first apartment, I still felt like—because we got it on a mortage—it felt like we hadn’t finished, and could lose it and become homeless. It was only after we bought the second house [terraced house], and the apartment was fully paid out, that I felt like there was a backup plan. Even if I lose this house, I’ve got another one. Then I felt more secure. [With emphasis] That was the feeling.
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17 sense of security and place Even then, the insecurity went away slowly... You were still young at that point, and we felt like we needed enough savings to be secure. I’ve been trying to understand it—it’s the culture we come from; Chinese attitudes were formed by experiences of extreme poverty, famine, wars... When we were young we would always read these stories about people from China suffering—at that time was the period of Mao ZeDong and the cultural revolution, and most of us had impoverished relatives back there writing letters asking for food, asking for clothes, asking for money...
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18 identity as second generation immigrant And at that time as recent immigrants when the Malays would shout “balik Cina” [translation from Malay: go back to China] you would feel so hopeless. It’s not like today: today you feel like China can be very strong, and so what if you balik Cina? It’s better there! But in those days you would feel very insecure; if something happens, riots or whatever, you cannot leave to the West, and you cannot go back to China. The feeling of there being no place to go... it was a kind of inferiority complex, I would say.
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19 do you feel like this is where you belong? Right now I’m fairly contented with what I have. Sometimes I go to other people’s huge houses and then think back from when I first moved from the small town to the room and apartment in the city, and even after that the terraced house felt so large. And now—what’s the point of such a huge house? You can only sleep in one bed at a time. You can only sit in one chair at a time.
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20 any more upgrades? I don’t think there’s any point in moving now. If I was to move it would be to where the air is cleaner, less pollution, that kind of thing. If there was anything. Otherwise...
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21 any nostalgia for your hometown? I don’t think that the nostalgia for your hometown is something that you can run away from. But then of course that nostalgia is for my hometown at that particular time... when I go back now things are so different. It’s not the same place anymore.
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22 one city, two relationships When I look back on my time in the city, it almost feels like two completely separate categories. It took many years to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling. I established myself, career-wise, and bought an apartment, the second house, had my own family, and only then did the feeling change. But now—I feel like I belong here.
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