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Cap Mandrake -> RE: A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere (10/29/2014 2:39:02 PM)
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Party on Bugis Street:
quote:
Pre-1950s[edit]
According to knowledgeable long-term residents of the area, before the arrival of the British, there used to be a large canal which ran through the area where the Bugis, a seafaring people from South Sulawesi province in Indonesia, could sail up, moor their boats and trade with Singaporean merchants.
It was these people after whom the thoroughfare was named. The Bugis, or Buginese, also put their sailing skills to less benign uses and gained a reputation in the region as being a race of bloodthirsty pirates.
During the early colonial era, there also used to be low mounds of whitish sand in the area, earning the street the familiar Hokkien (Min Nan) moniker of Peh Soa Pu or Bai Sha Fu in Mandarin (°×ɳ¸¡; white sand mounds). The Cantonese, however, referred to the street as Hak Gaai or Hei Jie in Mandarin (ºÚ½Ö; black street) as there were many clubs catering to the Japanese invaders in the 1940s. During the first half of the 20th century, commuters could conveniently travel from Bugis Street to anywhere else in Xiao Po via a tram service which ran along North Bridge Road, which was referred to by the Chinese-educated as Xiao Po Da Ma Lu (СÆ´óÂí·; little slope main road).
1950s¨C1980s[edit]
After World War II, hawkers gathered there to sell food and goods. There was initially also a small number of outdoor bars set up beside rat-infested drains.
When transvestites began to rendezvous in the area in the 1950s, they attracted increasing numbers of Western tourists who came for the booze, the food, the pasar malam shopping and the "girls". Business boomed and Bugis Street became an extremely lively and bustling area, forming the heart of Xiao Po. It was one of Singapore's most famous tourist meccas from the 1950s to the 1980s, renowned internationally for its nightly parade of flamboyantly-dressed transwomen and attracted hordes of Caucasian gawkers who had never before witnessed Asian queens in full regalia.
The latter would tease, cajole and sit on visitors' laps or pose for photographs for a fee.
Others would sashay up and down the street looking to hook half-drunk sailors, American GIs and other foreigners on R&R, for an hour of profitable intimacy. Not only would these clients get the thrill of sex with an exotic oriental, there would be the added spice of transgressing gender boundaries in a seamy hovel.
There was an adage amongst Westerners that one could easily tell who was a real female and who was not ¨C the transvestites were drop-dead gorgeous, while the rest were real women. The amount of revenue that the transwomen of Bugis Street raked in was considerable, providing a booster shot in the arm for the tourism industry. The term 'Boogie Street' has always been that used by British servicemen and not, as some mistakenly believe, by Americans in the wake of the 1970s disco craze.
Veterans recall that the notorious drinking section began from Victoria Street west to Queen Street. Halfway between Victoria and Queen Streets, there was an intersecting lane parallel to the main roads, also lined with al fresco bars. There was a well-patronised public toilet with a flat roof of which there are archival photos, complete with jubilant rooftop transwomen.
One of the "hallowed traditions" bestowed upon the area by sojourning sailors (usually from Britain, Australia and New Zealand), was the ritualistic "Dance of the Flaming Arseholes" on top of the infamous toilet's roof. Compatriots on the ground would chant the signature "Haul 'em down you Zulu Warrior" song whilst the matelots performed their act.
Over the years this became almost a mandatory exercise and although it may seem to many to be a gross act of indecency, it was generally well received by the sometimes up to hundreds of tourists and locals. The Kai Tais or Beanie Boys, as the transwomen were referred to by Anglophone white visitors, certainly did not mind either. By the mid-70s Singapore started a crackdown on this type of lewd behaviour and sailors were arrested at gunpoint by the local authorities for upholding the tradition. By this time those sailors brave enough to try it were dealt with severely and even shipped home in disgrace. Though many locals accepted this part of Singaporean culture, many conservative Singaporeans felt that it was a disgrace and it defaced Singapore's image.
The earliest published description of Bugis Street found by Yawning Bread as a place of great gender diversity was in the book "Eastern Windows" by F.D. Ommaney, 1960.[1] Ommaney did not date specifically his description of the street but his book made clear that he was in Singapore from 1955 to 1960. A first-person account of Bugis Street in the 1950s is by "Bob", a visiting Australian sailor is given here.[2]
In the mid-1980s, Bugis Street underwent major urban redevelopment into a retail complex of modern shopping malls, restaurants and nightspots mixed with regulated back-alley roadside vendors. Underground digging to construct the Bugis MRT station prior to that also caused the upheaval and termination of nightly transgender sex bazaar culture, marking the end of a colourful and unique era in Singapore's history.
Tourist and local lamentation of the loss sparked attempts by the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board (STPB) to attempt to recreate some of the old sleazy splendour by staging contrived "Ah Qua shows" on wooden platforms, but these artificial performances fell flat on their faces and failed to pull in the crowds. They were abandoned after a short time.
Ground combat at Singapore (50,84)
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 44260 troops, 476 guns, 81 vehicles, Assault Value = 1188
Defending force 23142 troops, 267 guns, 179 vehicles, Assault Value = 63
Japanese adjusted assault: 1126
Allied adjusted defense: 231
Japanese assault odds: 4 to 1 (fort level 1)
Japanese forces CAPTURE Singapore !!!
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+), disruption(-)
Japanese ground losses:
709 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 20 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 13 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 51 disabled
Allied ground losses:
26471 casualties reported
Squads: 125 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 2284 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 69 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 376 (376 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 140 (140 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 26
Assaulting units:
12th Engineer Regiment
4th Ind Engineer Regiment
33rd Division
41st Infantry Regiment
56th Infantry Regiment
21st Infantry Regiment
114th Infantry Regiment
16th Infantry Regiment
15th Ind Engineer Regiment
55th Infantry Regiment
24th Infantry Regiment
14th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
3rd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
5th Field Artillery Regiment
34th Field AA Battalion
25th Army
3rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
3rd Mortar Battalion
23rd Ind Engineer Regiment
18th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
21st JAAF AF Bn
Defending units:
2nd Loyal Battalion
2nd Gordons Battalion
22nd Australian Brigade
3rd Cavalry Rgt /2
1st Indian Heavy AA Regiment
224 Group RAF
1st HK&S Heavy AA Regiment
2nd Malay Battalion
2/17 Dogra Battalion
Malaya Army
Singapore Fortress
2nd ISF Base Force
30 Battery/3 HAA
Malayan Air Wing
AHQ Far East
24th NZ Pioneer Coy
III Indian Corps
111th RAF Adv Base Force
22nd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
109th RN Base Force
2nd HK&S Heavy AA Regiment
113th RAF Adv Base Force
110th RAF Adv Base Force
1st Manchester Battalion
Singapore Base Force
SSVF Bde /1
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