Reminiscing Nee Soon East’s Heritage at Chye Kay Village Heritage Garden
A 46sqm heritage garden in Nee Soon East for residents to retrace the history of Nee Soon.
Chye Kay Village Heritage Garden in Nee Soon East, at Block 264 Yishun Street 22 opened its doors to residents on 29 January 2022.
Mr Louis Ng, Grassroots Adviser of Nee Soon GROs and Member of Parliament for Nee Soon East was the Guest of Honour for this event. Five villagers from the former Chye Kay Village were invited to grace the event.
The Chye Kay Village Heritage Garden Nee Soon East sits on the site of the former Chye Kay Village, and the heritage garden is located near the site of the former Lee Cheng School.
Residents and visitors to Chye Kay Village Heritage Garden can enjoy a walk down memory lane through the signages featuring stories of key landmarks and milestones in the former Chye Kay Village. The illustrations and stories on the signages were extracted from a graphic book titled ‘Retracing footsteps home.. Chye Kay Village’ by Mr Sunny Ng.
Mr Sunny Ng, the illustrator, and designer of this graphic book, embarked on a recollection of the stories of his kampung, Chye Kay Village in the 1960/70s. He hopes to preserve a piece of history by documenting the former lives of the people who lived in Chye Kay Village. The graphic book started off as a personal project to retrace the history left behind by Mr Sunny Ng’s father, Mr Ng Liang Chong, and uncle, Mr Ng Lian Hong.
This project by Mr Sunny Ng led to a reunion of the Lee Cheng School alumni in 2015. With the contributions of stories and photographs from former villagers, the graphic book was published in 2018.
In addition to ongoing efforts to turn Nee Soon into a modern sustainable town for our residents to live, work and play in, we recognize the importance of preserving the heritage of Nee Soon.
The Chye Kay Village Heritage Garden is a project by Nee Soon Town Council, supported by Mr Louis Ng, Member of Parliament for Nee Soon East, and endorsed by residents, in particular, the villagers of the former Chye Kay Village.
“Not many know that Nee Soon East used to be Chye Kay Village. History is important and I want to make sure that we remember our heritage and treasure it,” said Mr Louis Ng. “We had the ground breaking ceremony for Chye Kay Heritage Garden back in 2020 and encountered some delays due to the pandemic. I appreciate the Town Council overcoming the challenges and bringing this to fruition.”
The Chye Kay Village Heritage Garden adds to the list of heritage sites in Nee Soon.
