Translate Oral History: Accession Number 002139, Track 1

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Accession Number 002139, Track 1

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Accession Number 002139

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15/09/2023

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15/09/2025

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12/09/2023

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[00:00:04] – Interviewer: Can you briefly tell us about your personal background?
[00:00:13] – Yang: Sure. Hello, my name is Yang Huaqiang. Personal background: I was born in Singapore, I’m 52 years old, and I was born in 1917.
[00:00:34] – Interviewer: Are you the only child in the Yang family?
[00:00:42] – Yang: I’m the eldest. I have one younger brother and three younger sisters, so there are five siblings in total.
[00:00:52] – Interviewer: Are all your siblings grown up and working now?
[00:00:56] – Yang: Yes, you could say that because they all have their own families now.
[00:01:05] – Interviewer: Mr. Yang, could you tell us about how you got involved in the eyewear industry? What’s the story behind it?
[00:01:15] – Yang: This industry was started by my father. He took over a business from an old friend, a shareholder, one named Lin and another named Shen. They were the founders of Nanyang Opticals. My father took over from them and ran Nanyang. When I was in secondary school, my father developed high blood pressure and suddenly passed away. In that situation, I had to take over the business because I was the eldest.
[00:02:11] – Interviewer: So, you had to take on this responsibility because you were the eldest, right?
[00:02:21] – Yang: Yes, that’s correct.
[00:02:24] – Interviewer: Did you learn from your father before, watching how he ran the business?
[00:02:28] – Yang: When I came home from school, I would go to the shop. At that time, we lived above the shop, and life was very difficult. We had to save money and squeezed into a small room in the shop. So, when I came home from school, it was basically the same as coming to work at the shop, and I helped my father as much as I could. We also tried to save on labor costs and learned while working at the shop.
[00:03:08] – Interviewer: When you say “we,” do you mean your siblings?
[00:03:10] – Yang: At that time, they were still too young. I was in secondary three when my father passed away, and my younger siblings were still very young. So, I could say that I was working side by side with my father.
[00:03:30] – Interviewer: At that time, was your father running the business alone, or did he have other employees to help him?
[00:03:35] – Yang: At that time, in his era, he focused more on grinding lenses. Of course, he had a few workers, about three or two.
[00:03:54] – Interviewer: Were these workers already familiar with the industry, or were they also learning on the job?
[00:04:01] – Yang: My father had been in the business for many years before becoming a small business owner. The employees he hired were generally former apprentices. The environment at that time was like this.
[00:04:15] – Interviewer: You mentioned your home was also your shop. Where was it located?
[00:04:17] – Yang: Our first shop was in Geylang.
[00:04:21] – Interviewer: Oh, Geylang.
[00:04:25] – Yang: Number 470.
[00:04:26] – Interviewer: Which lane was it near?
[00:04:30] – Yang: It was between Lane 24 and Lane 26, right by the main road.
[00:04:34] – Interviewer: Is that building still there now?
[00:04:37] – Yang: Yes, it’s still there.
[00:04:40] – Interviewer: Do you know what kind of shop it is now? Has it become something else?
[00:04:43] – Yang: The shop itself no longer operates a business, but next door we still have a Nanyang 470.
[00:04:56] – Interviewer: Is that shop now owned by someone else, or is it still yours?
Transcriber’s/Translator’s notes: Dialogue at 04:55 wasn’t clear. 
Description is contributed through crowdsourcing platform Singapore Memories, by Li Yan, on 31
March 2025.

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