I had the chance to visit my college today, the former Hwa Chong Junior College, and now sadly known as Hwa Chong Institution (College). I think that it is sad cos somehow, the history of the college has been wiped off with the renaming and merger.
I had the chance to visit the college library, and there was an Archive within the library itself. Took the chance to flip thru some of the old yearbooks that told the story of the college over the period of 33 years. The college wasn’t set up by TCHS, as opposed to common thought. The Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry wanted to have a JC that will have a very strong Chinese tradition. TCHS donated part of their land for the campus and the school was slated to commence operations in 1974, at NJC. This was because the campus wasn’t completed in time but it was scheduled for mar 1974.
The campus wasn’t completed in time, but we had to shift out from NJC. 所谓一山不能藏二虎. We shifted further down the road to old NIE campus at Bt Timah Road to carry on with classes. Eventually the campus was ready for us to shift in, and in order to save costs, the entire student population formed a human chain from NIE to the campus, a distance of more than 1km to pass all the tables n chairs to the new campus. The campus wasnt complete, in the sense that footpaths n some misc facilities weren’t ready. The students council organised the students to DIG footpaths. Finally the campus was ready, with the iconic u-shaped block that forms the central plaza. There was also a rooftop garden that stretched across the entire block. This garden was later removed to make way for classrooms in the later years of the 1st campus.
After Hotel New World collapsed in 1986, the govt wanted building management teams across the country to check the stability of buildings, and hwa chong was also checked. During an emergency assembly one day day in 1987, the principal of the college announced that the campus building was structurally unsound, and they were to vacate the school by the next day. One would expect ppl to run off quickly, but the students, many of them rushed home to get their cameras, and came back to take pictures around the campus. Many benches n walls were marked with the students’ writings and they served as memoirs of the old campus. Hwa Chong was forced to move again, this time to Ngee Ann Polytechnic.
We spent a few months at NP, before relocating again to 2 new adjacent school campuses in Woodlands. That place was a very new town that was lacking public transport. The college had to hire buses to fetch students from the other new towns so that they can go to school for lessons. In 1989, the school shifted to Bt Batok again to 2 new adjacent school campuses. It was only in 1991, when the new rebuilt campus was ready and we were ready to shift back. We din take buses back, instead we had an 11km march back to bt timah…
When I was a student there, my seniors always spoke fondly of the Hwa Chong spirit, and it was something that we felt but never really understood. We were united by something that remained foreign to many of us even today. However today, I learnt of the stories of the past, and these were the moments that defined the college and its many batches of students over the 33 years. The never-say-die spirit that exists in all Hwachongians, and how we sing the many songs written by our seniors, dance the same dances and shout the same cheers.
A school isn’t just defined by its ability to produce scholars and top results. It is also not about doing well in sports and other CCAs. It is about how the students regard it, and it says alot when we have seniors who have graduated 30 yrs ago making the annual trip down back to 黄城 for Mid-Autumn Fest or CNY. It’s about alumni making a big fuss of the merger, the name change and the loss of our crest. Its about embracing the many stories that come together to piece the history of HCJC. This is the real 华初精神
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