Reminisce about the good old days with this 100 Days of Childhood Memories project

Inspired by the ‘100 Day Project’, which encourages people to do something creative, a Singaporean amateur artist came up with the idea for ‘100 Days of Childhood Memories’. Unearthing nostalgic experiences from her memory base, Ailian Gan began to sketch illustrations of scenes from years ago that left a lasting impact on her — from incidents in her childhood home to festive celebrations with her family to the feeling of attending the last day of school. It’s all rather charming — sure makes you reflect back on your own childhood. 

Now she intends to compile it all into a book, complete with little personal descriptions of each drawing. Her Kickstarter for the project launches on Sept 20, so check out her story and admire her artwork below.

 

This will be my 100-Day Project’s theme: #100DaysOfChildhoodMemories. When I recently wrote a post about my nostalgia for where I grew up, I thought I wrote a very personal post with quirks that were specific to me and my childhood. But over and over, people kept telling me that they had the same experience growing up. How is this possible? None of these people are Singaporean. But something about the sentiment in the post struck a chord. James Joyce was right when he wrote, “In the particular is contained the universal.” His Dublin, my Singapore. I chose the topic of childhood memories because my head is still stuck somewhere in nostalgia land and can’t seem to find its way out. With Lee Kuan Yew’s passing, the upcoming 50th birthday of Singapore, and my taking up permanent residence in a country outside my own (hopefully soon), I keep thinking about histories. It’s as if I’m stringing together moments from my past, or the past before my past, and I’m trying to piece them together in the context of my present. #The100DayProject #100DaysOfChildhoodMemories #sg #sg50

A photo posted by Ailian Gan (@ailiangan) on Apr 6, 2015 at 3:17pm PDT

 

Day 16/100. I remember going to cousin A’s house for video games. He didn’t have an NES. Instead, he had a console called “Ending Man”. It came with a cartridge with about a hundred games and our favorite was Super Mario Brothers. There was also Circus Charlie, Excitebike, Ice Climber and more that I can’t remember. But I remember how deliriously fun it was. As cousin A says, entertained us for days and weeks during the school holidays. The memory of it makes me grin so wide. #100DaysOfChildhoodMemories #The100DayProject

A photo posted by Ailian Gan (@ailiangan) on Apr 21, 2015 at 11:13pm PDT

 

Day 48/100. I remember standing at attention every morning at school to sing the national anthem. The song is called “Majulah Singapura” – “onward Singapore” – but it was known by most of us as the “mari kita” because it opens with those Malay words. To a young student, it was just another routine, just another rule they impose on you in school to follow. But as an adult, one wonders, what was it I was supposed to learn from singing the anthem and saying the pledge every day? What do all those words mean, really? #100DaysOfChildhoodMemories #The100DayProject

A photo posted by Ailian Gan (@ailiangan) on May 29, 2015 at 9:39pm PDT

 

Day 69/100. I remember going to Parkway Parade. On the top floor of the shopping center away tucked away in one corner was an indoor amusement park. What was it called – Funworld? There was a carousel and a viking ride and all these smaller rides. You could hop into a strangely shaped animal, like a cartoon elephant or dinosaur, and be whisked away high up and go round and round in circles. I look back and wonder, why was that so fun as a kid? But it was. It just was. #100DaysOfChildhoodMemories #The100DayProject

A photo posted by Ailian Gan (@ailiangan) on Jun 24, 2015 at 8:32pm PDT

 

Day 79/100. I remember watching Chinese TV serials every evening at 7pm and 9pm. Were there also cartoons starting at 6pm? We’d gather around the TV and watch those dramas unfold. Episode after episode, so many hours of our lives spent captivated by fictional characters. Even though I don’t remember those plots anymore, I am surprised to find that I don’t feel that was time wasted. It was a kind of shared experience with the family, a happy routine. #100DaysOfChildhoodMemories #The100DayProject

A photo posted by Ailian Gan (@ailiangan) on Jul 14, 2015 at 9:13pm PDT

 

Day 94/100. I remember the splendid drama of dragon dance. The way the dancers made the long dragon body twist, circle, and crossover in elaborate jump moves. The way the dragon head chased the girl who carried the spinning ball. She blew her whistle loudly at certain intervals, as if she were taunting and charming the dragon all at once. In one move, the dancers turn the serpentine body into a sideways coil and then leap over parts of the dragon with perfect timing. In another move, the dancers lay down on their backs and do tight crunches while swinging their segment of the dragon back and forth, and so the entire dragon appears to move in an elegant zig zag wave. If lions were grand, then dragons were majestic.

A photo posted by Ailian Gan (@ailiangan) on Aug 15, 2015 at 9:03pm PDT

 

Day 100/100. Before it was a large condominium, before it was a four storey apartment block, One Leicester Road was a bungalow house. It was a blue house on concrete stilts with a verandah up front. This was the house my family lived in when I was born. We called it “sah ko jiok”, which means “third mile” in Hokkien. It was three miles from the city center, which was then the General Post Office and is now the Fullerton Hotel. This is the place where my earliest memories of home begin. I remember a time when we still hung mosquito nets, a time when air-conditioning was new, a time where we slept on mattresses on the floor, a time when the living and dining areas were practically open air. But there are more memories before my memories. This was also the house where my father’s memories begin. I am told that Leicester Road was once a dirt track and was paved only when he started going to school. He walked to the end of the road and climbed the same narrow stairs that I would later climb to go to school. I am told that when he was taught by the war heroine Elizabeth Choy, she called up all the skinny boys in class, scooped milk out of a pail into small tin cups, and made them drink up so that they might grow. Before all that, there was an earlier house at the edges of my father’s memories, a shophouse on Rochor Canal Road, which was a short walk away from my grandfather’s tire shop on Albert Street. Before that, there was my grandfather who, as a young immigrant, taught himself English and started his own business. Before that, there was my great-grandfather who left China to seek his fortunes overseas and brought his family to Singapore. He would one day buy the Leicester house of his great-granddaughter’s memory. Before that, there was a village in China, in Yongchun county of the Fujian province, where my grandfather as a small boy trudged through mud in bare feet and put on his shoes only when he arrived at school. And that childhood memory, belonging to my grandfather, told to me by my father, is the earliest childhood memory I know. #100DaysOfChildhoodMemories Kickstarter for the book launching Sep 20! Link in profile to get notified when it launches.

A photo posted by Ailian Gan (@ailiangan) on Aug 30, 2015 at 7:34pm PDT