Day 84/100. I remember my father drawing the hydrological cycle for me with colorful markers in my sketchbook. I think I was just 6 or 7. I don't think I heard the word "hydrological" until much later...| Tumblr
Last year, I drew and wrote one childhood memory a day for 100 days. This year, I’ve been working on publishing it as a book. If you’ve enjoyed following the project when I was making my way through the 100 days, now you can hold a piece of the project as a book. I’ve poured so much effort into the memories and then on the book and the Kickstarter, and now it’s here! IT’S HERE!!! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ailian/100-days-of-childhood-memories-the-book/ I’ve worked on di...| Ailian Gan | >140
Last year, I wrote and drew 100 Days of Childhood Memories (and on Instagram). Since then, I’ve been working on getting the work published as a book. If I thought the original 100 days of drawing and writing was a lot of work, well, I had no idea how much more work publishing would be. The work is unexpectedly hard. The drawing and writing phase of the project, the actual 100 days, was about sticking to a rhythm and learning how to pull stories out of my memory, out of my self. It was d...| Ailian Gan | >140
When I first started my project, 100 Days of Childhood Memories, my goal was simply to finish the 100 days. Draw and write about 100 memories of my growing up in Singapore. This project had humble beginnings. This was my Facebook post from Day 0: A week ago, I crossed the finish line. Day 100. A project that began with me wondering if I even had a hundred childhood memories in my head became a journey with unexpected joys. What is it like to draw for 100 days? Here are 10 wonderful things tha...| Ailian Gan | >140
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...| Ailian Gan | >140
Day 99/100. When I think of my childhood home, this is the one that comes to mind. When I was 7 or 8, my grandfather tore down the old bungalow that sat on this plot of land and built a four storey private apartment block. Each of his four sons’ families moved in and lived in their own apartments, one on each floor. We lived on the second floor. My grandfather and grandmother lived in the maisonette. An entire extended family living under one roof, a Chinese immigrant’s dream come true. T...| Ailian Gan | >140
Day 98/100. I have been asked what is my earliest memory. I don’t really know what it is, but this might be it. I have a memory, more like a vague feeling, of being on a train. I remember being scared of going into a dark tunnel. My parents were probably carrying me. We may have been in Malaysia. I don’t remember how old I was, I don’t even know why I think this is my earliest memory, but there it is.| Ailian Gan | >140
Day 97/100. When I think about Changi Airport, I have memories of driving down the trees and bougainvillea-lined highway with the iconic control tower rising in the distance. I remember going to the only terminal in the old days. I remember the mylar cord fountains that looked like a waterfall pouring through multiple floors. I remember the wall with digital clocks reporting times of major cities all over the map. I think there was a trishaw where we could pose and take pictures. Changi used ...| Ailian Gan | >140
Day 96/100. The event that defines Chinese New Year with my extended family is poker. There was always gambling as far back as I can remember. Blackjack and the time game and mahjong. Then at some point, someone introduced poker. It began as five cards - one open, one closed, draw one more card each round. My uncles and aunts played afternoons and evenings of poker. We children pulled up stools to sit and watch. I remember being next to my father and picking up the rules. Even as a child, I k...| Ailian Gan | >140
Day 95/100. After the lion dances and the dragon dance, there was the flag pole stunt in the large courtyard of my granduncle’s house. Troupe members would takes turns balancing a massive 30-foot flag pole on their foreheads or their lower jaws. As one performer did his balancing act, others would stand by ready to spot if the wind blew that hefty weight off course. There are few things quite impressive as that stunt, the enormous strength and coordination required. Lion and dragon dances h...| Ailian Gan | >140
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 danc...| Ailian Gan | >140
Day 93/100. I remember going to my granduncle’s house every year on the second day of Chinese New Year to watch the lion dance performance. I remember the energy and drama and skillful finesse of lion dance. I also remember the drum beats. I remember how during the days around the holiday, you could just be driving on the streets and you’d hear the loud drums of a lion dance truck passing by with its colorful banners and flags. I remember how my younger cousins loved the performance so mu...| Ailian Gan | >140
Day 92/100. At every house we visited during Chinese New Year, I remember these round trays of sweets and snacks. Each family had a slightly different selection, but I remember some of my favorites. Watermelon seeds that I struggled to crack with my little teeth. Shiny gold coins with milk chocolate inside. Hand Brand and Farmer Brand groundnuts. A kind of white and pink fluffy sweet. And Van Houten chocolate in their yellow, red or brown wrappings. I don’t know what each treat was meant to...| Ailian Gan | >140
Day 91/100. I remember when our Chinese New Year cakes and cookies were homemade. I have vague memories of my grandmother filling cast iron moulds with batter and out would come these cakes. As a child, I remember calling the fluffy flower-shaped round ones “kueh neng ko” (egg cake!), even though I think they are more commonly known as “kueh bolu” or “kueh bahulu”. They were essentially sponge cakes, Chinese madeleines. They were my favorite when I was really small. Then I remembe...| Ailian Gan | >140
Day 90/100. My grandparents were Buddhist-Taoist and practiced the rituals that came with those beliefs. I remember the altar table being brought out for prayer on special holidays. The red tablecloth with its shiny characters and symbols. The incense pot filled with stems of old burnt joss sticks. The arrangement of fruits and other food offerings filling the table. I remember once asking my grandfather, “So what is your religion? Are you Buddhist, Taoist, free thinker?” He said, “I am...| Ailian Gan | >140
Day 89/100. When I think back to my childhood days, I remember being bored. Not a lot and not on any particular occasion, but I remember this feeling of boredom. I would sometimes go to my parents and complain that I was bored. I marvel at this memory because as an adult, I am never bored. Is it because we now have phones to distract ourselves? Is it because time passes more quickly when we get older? Is it because my adult life is actually much busier? Or is it because as an adult I feel emp...| Ailian Gan | >140
Day 88/100. I remember my mother sewing cross stitch patterns. The evenweave fabric with its neat grid of dots stretched taut into wooden hoops or frames. The neat rows of X’s in different colored threads that would turn into shapes. I think my mother sewed patterns that were houses or flowers or small landscapes. I think there were also Precious Moments-type children characters. Or maybe I think that because even now in our bedrooms back home, there is a blue framed cross stitch of a boy t...| Ailian Gan | >140
Day 87/100. There are remedies and supplements that I associate with childhood. I remember my grandmother feeding each of us a spoonful of orange flavored cod liver oil every now and then. I don’t remember liking the taste. There was also another health supplement that was a clear liquid with a sugary flavor that we preferred. I don’t remember what that one is called. When we had colds, there’s was Vick’s Vaporub for our chests and noses. Then there was the red, yellow and black bottl...| Ailian Gan | >140
Day 86/100. This is a made-up memory made of misremembered facts. I remember that my grandfather ran a tire shop, and I vaguely recall one near where we lived on the opposite side of Upper Serangoon Road around Tai Thong Crescent. When I asked my father about the details, it turned out that there was a tire shop on Tai Thong Crescent, but it was not my grandfather’s. My grandfather did in fact have a tire shop, but it was on Albert Street near the Serangoon Road and Bukit Timah junction. No...| Ailian Gan | >140
Day 85/100. When I was 10, my family moved to New Jersey because my father had a job assignment there. I think that posting changed his career; it transformed my life. It was a kind of awakening for me. When we landed in NJ, I remember our first week there in great detail. I remember us staying at the Hilton, ordering room service and falling asleep at dinner because we were overcome with jet lag. It was my 10th birthday a couple of weeks after we arrived. I remember my mom taking my brother ...| Ailian Gan | >140
