Every group of kids has their favorite hangout spots around town, but very few become so famously associated with them that they earn a special nickname and national notoriety.
The Centrepoint Kids were a bunch of mall kids in the 80s’ who – you guessed it – hung out at The Centrepoint Mall in Orchard (which is still around btw!).
However, they were not your typical group of afterschool kids, hanging out in their uniforms, loitering at Starbucks and wasting time in the arcades.
The Centrepoint Kids were best known for their statement outfits and hairstyles, as well as their loud and rowdy behavior.
Getting to know the Kids
The Kids garnered quite a lot of attention in their day, so much so that they often made the news and were considered a nuisance by older generations. These days, we consider them a part of Singapore’s pop culture history.
In an excerpt from an ’80s current affairs documentary called “Feedback”, the Centrepoint Kids were described as “notorious” and “colourful”.
“Young, flamboyantly dressed, they looked like they stepped right out of the pages of the latest teen magazine into the corridors of Centrepoint,” presenter Ratna Lachman tells the audience.
Francis Kong, the operations manager of Centrepoint at the time, said that they would block up passageways, tease customers at the mall and “disrupt the peace”.
However, interviews with the Kids themselves proved that most of them were equal parts eloquent and opinionated, arguing it was unfair that they were all labeled “punks” and troublemakers just because of the actions of a few.
In fact, it seemed like all these teens were looking for was a place to belong or meet other like-minded individuals who wanted to express their identities through fashion and pop culture.
And express themselves they did. From the footage, the Kids embraced all the most fashionable trends of that era: patterned shirts and blouses, clashing prints, neon and bright colors, baggy shirts, high-waisted pants, Members Only jackets, dyed hair, wearing sunglasses indoors, etc.
Some of them also gathered to escape boredom and loneliness at home.
“Byproduct of pop culture”
The rise of rock and roll turned kids into rebels in the 1950s while the 1960s flower power movement created a generation of peace-loving hippies. In the same way, the Centrepoint Kids were very much influenced by the music, dance and fashion trends of the time.
It is also worth noting that the 80s was a period of rapid progress and urban development in Singapore. It was a time when the city-state was starting to gain the notice of the rest of the world. Orchard Road was revamped in the early 80s, Singapore was going through a new industrial revolution, the first MRT started running in the late 80s – these are just some of the highlights from that era.
With so much change happening, there was also a sense of hope for the future, especially among young people– hence the need to express themselves and put themselves out there, all dressed up and nowhere to go.
While the Centrepoint Kids were the most famous of the era’s mall cliques, there were also other chapters that popped up like the McDonald Kids, the Far East Plaza Kids, the Daimaru Kids who hung out at Liang Court, and the Marina Square Kids.
Short film
In 2015, local filmmaker Wee Li Lin paid tribute to this lively subculture in the short film Centrepoint Kidz.
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