Ama Keng

Ama Keng was one of the three villages in Lim Chu Kang, located just off Lim Chu Kang Road. It took its name from a temple dedicated to Mazu, goddess of the sea, which was built in the area in 1900. In the 1950s, the government developed Ama Keng into a bustling farming site to serve as Singapore’s main food production centre. The area’s population also grew rapidly during this period as it became one of the sites used by the government to resettle squatters. In the 1980s, residents of Ama Keng and the neighbouring villages were resettled to Housing and Development Board (HDB) estates to make way for the area’s redevelopment into an agrotechnology park. Today, most of the former Ama Keng site has been cordoned off for military use.

Early history
Located just off Lim Chu Kang Road in the northwestern part of Singapore, the Ama Keng village was named after a temple dedicated to Mazu, the Chinese goddess of the sea whom followers believed protected seafarers.¹ The name “Ama Keng” (Ya Ma Gong in Mandarin; 亚妈宫) is a Teochew term meaning “Temple of the Goddess”. The temple, established in 1900 by Weng Yiquan (翁翼泉), Lin Ziming (林子明) and Lin Yushun (林玉顺), was located on a small jetty at the end of a branch of the Kranji River. After the temple was completed, a statue of the deity was brought there from the Yueh Hai Ching Temple in Singapore’s central business district.²

In the early 20th century, the area was said to have been part of a gambier plantation owned by a Teochew man surnamed Lim.³ Sometime around 1914, landowner Alexander William Cashin bought 800 ac of land in Lim Chu Kang and tasked Neo Tiew – who later gave his name to Neo Tiew Road – to clear it. Neo subsequently helped manage the pineapple and rubber plantations established on the cleared land. He also managed the neighbouring Namazie Estate.⁴

Ama Keng Village
Ama Keng Village appeared in a government topographical survey map dated 1938. The village was at the time surrounded by coconut and pineapple estates.⁵ On 9 February 1942, during the Battle of Singapore, Ama Keng Village became one of the first areas on the island to fall to the invading Japanese army.⁶

After the Japanese Occupation (1942–45), Ama Keng Village developed rapidly following the government’s plan in the 1950s to transform the area into Singapore’s main food production centre. The plan involved turning Ama Keng Village into the largest vegetable farming area in Singapore with 750 ac reserved for cultivation.⁷ Ama Keng was chosen over Changi because of its cheaper land and more suitable soil for growing vegetables.⁸ Under the plan, each farmer selected by the government was given seeds, fertiliser, farming equipment, livestock and two to three acres of land in the area to manage.⁹ The farmers were granted a year-to-year temporary occupancy licence. Besides vegetables, the farmers also grew fruits and reared poultry and pigs.¹⁰

The main road in the area was named Ama Keng Road in 1954,¹¹ and once extended to Sungei Tengah.¹² Many of the road’s small side lanes have since been expunged¹³ and a large section of Ama Keng Road is now closed to public access.¹⁴

Rural resettlement area
In 1956, the government launched a scheme known as “Operation Clean-up” as part of its efforts to resettle squatters from across the island. The Lim Chu Kang area, which included Ama Keng, was one of the sites where squatters were resettled.¹⁵ By 1968, the Ama Keng resettlement area, also known as the Ama Keng Agricultural Settlement, comprised 738 ac of land with 38 households consisting of 214 individuals.¹⁶

Landmarks
General amenities
In the 1960s and ’70s, Ama Keng Village was well served by shops, a police station as well as a maternity and child welfare centre.¹⁷ The centre closed down in 1981 and the police station in 1989.¹⁸

Ama Keng English School
Ama Keng English School was founded in 1951 as a government school for boys and girls.¹⁹ In 1990, the school moved from Ama Keng Road to Choa Chu Kang Central and was renamed South View Primary.²⁰ The old school building in Ama Keng was subsequently converted into a hostel for foreign workers.²¹

Kay Wah School (Branch I)
Kay Wah School was established in 1938 by a group of educators led by Neo Tiew, who founded the Lim Chu Kang area and was the village head of Ama Keng. The school was an amalgamation of several private Chinese study centres situated in the area. The main school was established at Tong Hong Village and subsequently expanded to include two other branches. Branch I was situated at Ama Keng Village while branch II was at Nam Hoe Village.²² Originally a Chinese-medium school, Kay Wah became an English-medium school in 1980.²³ In 1988, the hitherto government-aided school became a full-fledged government school and was renamed Qihua Primary School, the hanyu pinyin of “Kay Wah”, following its move to Woodlands Street 81.²⁴

Ama Keng Clinic
Former member of Parliament for Ayer Rajah (1980–2006) Tan Cheng Bock started his medical practice Ama Keng Clinic in the village in 1971. Sometime in the 1980s, Tan had to move his clinic out of the area as the villagers were being resettled to make way for redevelopment. The clinic, which retained its name, relocated several times to other parts of the island before it closed down permanently on 22 November 2012.²⁵

Agrotechnology farms
By the 1980s, Ama Keng was being referred to as the “land of the chicken farms” due to the numerous chicken farms found there.²⁶ In the mid-1980s, the Primary Production Department (PPD) announced that land in Ama Keng and the neighbouring areas of Tengah and Choa Chu Kang would be redeveloped into high-tech, high-yield agrotechnology farms.²⁷ Most of the families in Ama Keng were subsequently resettled at the nearby HDB estates as a result.²⁸

In 1994, Ama Keng became one of eight designated agrotechnology parks in Singapore under the PPD. Plots of land ranging from 2 to 30 ha in size were tendered out on 20-year leases.²⁹ The scheme involved converting 1,700 ha of land (or about 500 farms) into highly productive agricultural land that made use of modern technology for intensive horticulture, fish and livestock farming. With these farms, the goal was for Singapore to produce 30 percent of its vegetables, fish and eggs locally by 1998, up from 10 percent before the scheme started.³⁰

In 2014, the government announced that the leases on these farms would not be renewed as the area had been earmarked for military use.³¹

Military use
In 1959, a site in the Ama Keng area was cleared for the construction of a runway for military use.³² By 1971, Ama Keng had already become a gazetted military exercise area.³³ In the 1980s, more land in the area was requisitioned for the Tengah Air Base and an army camp.³⁴ Today, much of the Ama Keng area is used for military purposes.³⁵



Author
Jaime Koh



References
1. Singapore Land Authority, Singapore Street Map, accessed 16 July 2016; Ling Shu 灵抒 Wǒ suǒ rènshí de yà mā gōng cūn “我所认识的亚妈宫村,” [The Ama Keng Village I knew]. Nanyang Siang Pau 南洋商报, 9 March 1978, 25. (From NewspaperSG)
2. Wu Xinhui 吴新慧, Qǐng bié chāichú yà mā gōng “请别拆除亚妈宫,” [Please do not demolish Ama Keng], Lianhe Wanbao 联合早报, 16 February 1987, 7; Peng Song Tao 彭松涛, Hǎishàng fúxīng lù shàng shén “海上福星陆上神,” [Lucky star of the sea, deity of the land], Lianhe Wanbao 联合晚报, 26 July 1987, 9 (From NewspaperSG); Note that the name Lin Yushun is written as Lin Yishun (林义顺) in these two sources, but in others it is Lin Yushun: Lín cuò gǎng ā mā gōng péikuǎn juān yì ān gōngsī chōng císhàn “林厝港阿妈宫赔款捐义安公司充慈善” [Lim Chu Kang Ama Keng donates to Ngee Ann Kongsi charity], Lianhe Wanbao 联合晚报, 22 March 1988, 9; Māzǔ shénxiàng jīntiān sòng fǎn yuè hǎi qīng miào “妈祖神像今天送返粤海清庙” [Mazu goddess returns to Yuehaiqing temple today], Lianhe Wanbao 联合晚报, 21 March 1988, 1. (From NewspaperSG); Ke Bingrong 柯冰蓉, “阿妈宫商店街忆旧,” [Reminiscences of Ama Keng’s shopping street], Yihe Shij, no. 31 (February–May 2017), 88–89.
3. Peng Songtao, “Hǎishàng fúxīng lù shàng shén.”
4. Li ChengLi 李诚利, Hǎishàng fúxīng lù shàng shén 梁后宙与林厝港 [Liang Hou Zhou and Lin Cuo Gang] (Singapore: Singapore Nan'an Association Art and Culture Club, 2015), 42–50. (Call no. Chinese RSING 305.8951 LCL); Peng Songtao 彭松涛, Hǎishàng fúxīng lù shàng shén 海上福星陆上神 [Lucky star of the sea, deity of the land], Lianhe Wanbao 联合晚报, 26 July 1987, 9. (From NewspaperSG)
5. Singapore Land Authority, Johore and Singapore, 1938, topographic map. (From National Archives of Singapore accession no. TM001046)
6. T”he Final Showdown,” Straits Times, 31 January 1992, 28. (From NewspaperSG)
7. “Rush On for Farm Land in Singapore,” Straits Times, 10 February 1954, 7. (From NewspaperSG)
8. “Hundreds to Get Land in Singapore,” Straits Times, 13 September 1953, 9. (From NewspaperSG)
9. “Hundreds to Get Land in Singapore”; “Singapore to Give More Land to the Farmer,” (1953, October 26). Singapore Free Press, 26 October 1953, 3. (From NewspaperSG)
10. David W. Brown, A Reconnaissance Study of Farming Organization in the Ama Keng Food Production Area (Singapore: Economics Department, University of Malaya in Singapore, 1960), ii. (Call no. RCLOS 338.1095957 BRO)
11. Rural Board Singapore, Annual Report (Singapore: Govt. Print. Off., 1954), 8. (Call no. RCLOS 354.5957068 SIN)
12. Singapore Land Authority, Singapore. Ama Keng, 1982, topographical map. (From National Archives of Singapore accession no. TM001057)
13. “One Historical Map,” Singapore Land Authority, accessed 15 August 2016. 
14. “Ama Keng Road,” Streetdirectory.com, accessed 31 August 2016.
15. “Giant Land Survey to Help the Squatters," Straits Times, 29 September 1956, 4. (From NewspaperSG)
16. Stephen Huo Kuo Yeh, et al., Report on the Census of Resettlement Areas, Singapore, 1968 (Singapore: Govt. Print. Off., 1968), ii–iii (Call no. RCLOS 312.9 SIN); Survey Department Singapore, Singapore Guide and Street Directory 1972 (Singapore: Survey Department, 1972), 56. (Call no. RCLOS 959.57 SIN)
17. Shu, “Wǒ suǒ rènshí de yà mā gōng cūn”; “Braga to Open New Centre,” Singapore Free Press, 7 January 1956, 7; Leong Chan Teik, “Rustic Ama Keng Police Post to Close after 35 Years,” Straits Times, 28 June 1989, 13. (From NewspaperSG)
18. “Clinics to Close,” New Nation, 25 March 1981, 4 (From NewspaperSG); Leong, “Rustic Ama Keng Police Post to Close after 35 Years.”
19. “1,840 Can Study in 3 New Schools,” Straits Times, 25 August 1951, 4. (From NewspaperSG)
20. Chua Chong Jin, “’Tis the Season to Move…,” Straits Times, 17 December 1990, 24. (From NewspaperSG)
21. “An Old School Building with Rubbish All Around,” Straits Times, 15 January 2007, 25. (From NewspaperSG)
22. Liánghòuzhòu kāità lín cuò gang “梁后宙开拓林厝港,” [Liang Hou Zhou opens Lim Chu Kang], Lianhe Zaobao 联合早报, 20 November 2014, 14 (From NewspaperSG); “School Profile,” Qihua Primary School, accessed 15 August 2016.
23. Wang Shumin 王疏敏, Qǐ huà dì yī fēnxiào de fǎ zhǎn: Cóng jiǎnlòu de xìtái dào jiànzhú tèbié de xiàoshè 启化第一分校的发展: 从简陋的戏台到建筑特别的校舍 [Development of Qi Hua’s first branch school: From rickety opera stage to special school building], Lianhe Wanbao 联合晚报, 14 May 1985, 12. (From NewspaperSG)
24. Jīnnián 14 zhōng xiǎoxué guānbì lìng yǒu 7 jiān xiǎoxué hébìng 今年14中小学关闭另有7间小学合并 [14 secondary and primary schools to close this year and seven to merge], Lianhe Zaobao 联合早报, 29 December 1987, 4; “Six of Eight New Schools to Open in Yishun and Tampines,” Straits Times, 2 January 1988, 10. (From NewspaperSG)
25. “Dr Tan Cheng Bock to Contest Next Presidential Election,” AsiaOne, 11 March 2016; Tan Cheng Bock, “The Story of Ama Keng Clinic,” Facebook, 21 November 2012.
26. Brian Miller, “Chicken Farm Country,” Straits Times, 29 March 1984, 1; Choo Soh Eng, “Chicken-and-Egg Poser,” Straits Times, 23 April 1984, 1. (From NewspaperSG)
27. Lisa Lee, “First Steps Taken to Transform Singapore into Agrotech Centre,” Business Times, 4 September 1986, 16; Tan Ban Huat, “Temple Which Was Once Hub of a Community,” Straits Times, 24 February 1987, 4. (From NewspaperSG)
28. Housing and Development Board Singapore, Annual Report 1987/1988 (Singapore: Housing and Development Board, 1988), 79. (Call no. RCLOS 711.4095957 SIN-[AR])
29. “Eight Parks Provide High-Tech Services,” Straits Times, 10 October 1994, 2. (From NewspaperSG)
30. Yeo Hwee Yng, “New Scheme to Train Hi-Tech Farmers,” Straits Times, 15 May 1994, 25; Dominic Nathan, “Farms Are Back and They’re High-Tech,” Straits Times, 28 November 1993, 1. (From NewspaperSG)
31. Aw Cheng Wei, “Kampung Spirit Alive in Lim Chu Kang,” Straits Times, 21 November 2014, 10. (From NewspaperSG)
32. Singapore Improvement Trust, The Work of the Singapore Improvement Trust, 1959 (Singapore: Singapore Improvement Trust, 1959), 33. (From PublicationSG)
33. “Statement Today on Army Exercise Death,” New Nation, 5 October 1971, 1. (From NewspaperSG)
34. Leong, “Rustic Ama Keng Police Post to Close after 35 Years.”
35. Ho Hua Chew, “Cultivating an Identity through Nature,” Straits Times, 20 October 2006, 34 (From NewspaperSG); Ng Keng Gene, “SAF and RSAF Military and Live Firing Exercises to Start Next Week,” Straits Times, 5 May 2016 (From Factiva via NLB’s eResources website); Jalelah Abu Bakar and Lim Yan Liang, “NSman’s Death: Tree Was Checked In April,” Straits Times, 29 September 2012, 19. (From NewspaperSG)



The information in this article is valid as at 2017 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.