Chongpang

Chong Pang City

We stepped into Chong Pang City, just as dusk was breaking. Morning sunlight bathed us in its golden rays. The freshness of a new day's birth filled us with its aroma.

The animals and people of Chong Pang rise early. By the eve of dawn they are awake; some prepare their stalls, some visit the wet market that opens only and only for these early risers. Everything is in action- it seems almost like a permanent vacation where everyone wakes up together, does things together, and where something is always happening.

It is the elderly people who run the show. In the morning there are the shoppers and meat sellers. As the day progresses, it is evident that the central pull of this community are the elderlies running the many stores that sell various extremities of thingamats and toodles.
What amazes us is the communal spirit in this place- buyers, shoppers, streetstrayers.. the place buzzes with the bond of a family and the happiness and laughter of one! We see such familiarity and comfort shared between these people that it radiates out into the atmosphere. There doesn’t seem to be anyone who doesn’t know everyone else. Laughter, smiles, shared jokes, hollers across the streets are heard as one walks through the throngs of people- an entire locality of aged men and women. This is their territory.

Antiqued sells fill these shops we walk by, which are, by the way, not antique in the seller's own terms, but quirkily precious in the outsider’s eyes. There is Mr Ronald and his old clocks, the aunty with her shop full of fashion for elderly women, Uncle Lee and his hardware store that hasn’t been cleaned or packed in 30 years, and a whole square full of other such shops! It is fascinating, as the line is so clearly drawn at the entrance of Chong Pang City; Before the 20th Century vs The age of Modernism. It is as if the entrance pillars bearing the sign of Chong Pang City act as guardians against Modernization and Digitalization to the doors of,...