Hougang
Encyclopedia : H : HO : HOU : Hougang
Hougang is an urban planning area and a suburb in the north-eastern region of the city-state of Singapore. Under classification by the Urban Redevelopment Authority, the area is part of the North-East Region, an urban planning division. Hougang borders Sengkang in the north and Serangoon to its south. Development started approximately around the 1980s. Most of Hougang is residential and encompasses the main Housing and Development Board's housing estate of Hougang New Town.
Etymology and history
Hougang is the pinyin version of Aū-káng, a Hokkien and Teochew name meaning "river end". In the past, the name connoted the area stretching from the fifth milestone junction of Yio Chu Kang Road and Serangoon Road to the seventh milestone confluence of Upper Serangoon Road and Tampines Road.The area was once a large piece of forested land. Farming of pigs was also carried out by farmers. The last of these pig farmers were relocated by the mid-1990s to HDB flats built in Hougang. Today, it is a HDB new town with over 40,000 housing units interspersed with pockets of private residential areas.
At Hougang Street 21, there was a well that is still identified as the tua jia ka well structure. This well identified the Teochew village of tua jia ka which means the "foot of a big well". In the past, the village was a popular place for food, street wayangs, itinerant Chinese medicine men and story tellers spinning yarns.
Amenities
Hougang is regarded as part of the "heartland" of Singapore, a significant distance away from the Central Area. Most of its commercial activity is centred on a few shopping centres such as Hougang Mall and Hougang Festival Market.
Similar to most other residential towns in Singapore, Hougang was designed to be a partially self-sufficient with enough amenities to minimise residents commuting to the Central Area. Facilities include a sports stadium where the S.League plays, an aquatics centre, an indoor sports complex, a number of parks such as Punggol Park, along with many wet markets and hawker centres. One of the more prominent landmarks in Hougang is the Buangkok Green Medical Park, which houses several medical facilities including the Institute of Mental Health (IMH). Hougang is served by the Hougang MRT Station, Buangkok MRT Station and Kovan MRT Station.
Highlights
A distinctive feature of Hougang lies in the large semi-circular balconies which occur in many Housing Development Board public housing flats in the area. This feature is not as prevalent in public housing outside Hougang.
Political history
In the 1997 general election, Cheng San Group Representation Constituency which comprises large parts of Hougang was the scene of an intense battle between the ruling People's Action Party and the opposition team led by Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam and Tang Liang Hong of the Workers' Party (WP). Prominent members of the cabinet such as the then Senior Minister Lee Kwan Yew and then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong made numerous visits to the Group Representation Constituency to canvass. The vote was deemed too close to call such that the PAP thought it necessary for ministers to visit the polling stations on voting day. The opposition later charged that the PAP had violated the law which prohibits politicians from being in the vicinity of a polling station but the Attorney-General found no impropriety on the part of the ministers as the law only prohibits politicians from the vicinity of the polling station but not in the polling station itself.
Cheng San GRC was broken apart in the 2001 elections and the larger part of Hougang currently falls under the Aljunied GRC. Critics have lashed out at this blatant attempt of gerrymandering. The remainder falls under the political constituency ward with the same name, Hougang SMC, currently held by Low Thia Khiang from the opposition WP who is one of only two opposition Members of Parliament.
Hougang appeared in the limelight again in the 2006 general election. Both Aljunied GRC and Hougang SMC were contested by the Workers' Party, with the latter being defended by the three-term incumbent, Low Thia Khiang, who is the WP's secretary-general. Once again, like the 1997 general election, WP won in Hougang, with Low securing his place in Parliament with 63% of the votes, an increase of more than 8 percentage point from 2001. Aljunied GRC was narrowly held onto by the People's Action Party with a slim 12% lead over the WP team who gained 44% of the votes.
It is widely believed that Hougang residents of the GRC had leaned towards the WP, with one PAP MP-elect describing the counting process as "tense", saying that the vote tally was about "a one-to-one ratio when the counting first starting, and we got worried." Nonetheless, this swing towards the opposition was neutralised by the strong PAP showing in other parts of the GRC, such as Bedok Reservoir and Eunos. Another PAP MP-elect remarked that "we received well over 60% of the vote in Malay-majority Eunos". Sylvia Lim, the de facto leader of the WP's team, subsequently accepted the NCMP seat.
Language
Many of the Singaporean Chinese residents in Hougang speak the Teochew language, because they were originally from Kampong Ponggol, a predominantly Teochew community, before they were relocated to Hougang as Singapore began developing. However, this is becoming less of a trend as the newer residents come from all over the island.
Schools
Junior Colleges
Secondary Schools
- Bowen Secondary School
- Holy Innocents' High School
- Hougang Secondary School
- Montfort Secondary School
- Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' School (Secondary)
- Serangoon Secondary School
- Xinmin Secondary School
- Yuying Secondary School
- CHIJ Our Lady of the Nativity
- Holy Innocents' Primary School
- Hougang Primary School
- Montfort Junior School
- Parry Primary School
- Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' School (Primary)
- Punggol Primary School
- Xinghua Primary School
- Xinmin Primary School
- Yio Chu Kang Primary School
Reference
- Victor R Savage, Brenda S A Yeoh (2003), Toponymics - A Study of Singapore Street Names, Eastern Universities Press, ISBN 9812102051
See also
- Hougang Planning Area
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.