Little Slope, Big Slope and Boogie Street

On May 22, 2007 · 18 Comments · In Living, Places


Back alley, Bugis Junc­tion = by ☆ lcy

From Wikipedia:

The fame of the orig­i­nal Bugis Street has spawned many name­sakes eager to cap­i­talise on the brand, even though many tourists, as well as some young Sin­ga­pore­ans, have no inkling as to the rea­sons for its erst­while ‘glamour’.


Yes, if not for the page on Wikipedia I’d have thought that the his­tory of Bugis Street had some­thing to do with cross-dressing war­rior tribes from South Sulawesi.

What really piqued my inter­est was not actu­ally the seedy side of Bugis Street as described on that page, but rather the ref­er­ences to “Xiao Po” (小坡; lit­tle slope), refer­ring to a sec­tion of down­town Sin­ga­pore. I had been won­der­ing if any­one else remem­bered ref­er­ences to “Ta Po” (Big Slope) and “Xiao Po” (Lit­tle Slope), which basi­cally formed the two sec­tions of the city.

If I’m not wrong, “Ta Po” referred to the area west of the Sin­ga­pore River, and “Xiao Po” referred to the area east of it. This divi­sion was appar­ently made by the Chi­nese pop­u­la­tion before the 1950s. Although I’m not that old, I remem­ber my grand­mother ask­ing the rick­shaw dri­ver to take us to some­where in “Ta Po” for me to get my bowl haircut.

Does any­one else remem­ber this and hope­fully has a more detailed expla­na­tion of why this was so?

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  • geron­imo

    hi, just a ran­dom surfer, but i thought Ta Po and Xiao Po mean “Big City” and “Lit­tle City” and not slopes? That was what I under­stood from my grandma when I was younger.

  • geron­imo

    hi, just a ran­dom surfer, but i thought Ta Po and Xiao Po mean “Big City” and “Lit­tle City” and not slopes? That was what I under­stood from my grandma when I was younger.

  • http://www.ozlady.com Stephanie

    Love the pic — really vibrant.
    I love wan­der­ing the back-streets of Bugis — so much to see. Unfor­tu­nately as an Ang-Mo, I don’t have the his­tory with it, but love your site and read­ing about Singapore

  • http://www.ozlady.com Stephanie

    Love the pic — really vibrant.
    I love wan­der­ing the back-streets of Bugis — so much to see. Unfor­tu­nately as an Ang-Mo, I don’t have the his­tory with it, but love your site and read­ing about Singapore

  • http://miyagi.sg Mr Miyagi

    Thank you very much for your kind com­ments, Stephanie. On the con­trary, Ang Mohs in Sin­ga­pore tend to be a bit more knowl­edge­able­ble­ble as regards local his­tory. The natives, while rest­less, just can­not, as some say, be arsed.

    And Geron­imo, I thought so too, but since Wikipedia is the troof, I have to believe it. :)

  • http://miyagi.sg Mr Miyagi

    Thank you very much for your kind com­ments, Stephanie. On the con­trary, Ang Mohs in Sin­ga­pore tend to be a bit more knowl­edge­able­ble­ble as regards local his­tory. The natives, while rest­less, just can­not, as some say, be arsed.

    And Geron­imo, I thought so too, but since Wikipedia is the troof, I have to believe it. :)

  • ST

    i only remem­ber “Po Di” or “Po Duay” aka bot­tom of the slope.. refers to the area where Chi­na­town Point is sit­ting.. “Da Po” is more or less the area along South Bridge Rd.. if I didn’t remem­ber wrongly..

  • ST

    i only remem­ber “Po Di” or “Po Duay” aka bot­tom of the slope.. refers to the area where Chi­na­town Point is sit­ting.. “Da Po” is more or less the area along South Bridge Rd.. if I didn’t remem­ber wrongly..

  • http://modernburrow.lah.cc pmg

    well hair needs to be cut when it gets long. oth­er­wise it obstructs your view. As for why bowl cut… I dunno. I guess it was all the rage when you were a kid. Just like police­men wear­ing shorts.

  • http://modernburrow.lah.cc pmg

    well hair needs to be cut when it gets long. oth­er­wise it obstructs your view. As for why bowl cut… I dunno. I guess it was all the rage when you were a kid. Just like police­men wear­ing shorts.

  • http://miyagi.sg Mr Miyagi

    Fair cop, pmg. Fair cop. I’ll get you back. Bet­ter watch your gram­mar. Nabeh.

  • http://miyagi.sg Mr Miyagi

    Fair cop, pmg. Fair cop. I’ll get you back. Bet­ter watch your gram­mar. Nabeh.

  • http://modernburrow.lah.cc pmg

    it’s not about gram­mar… it’s about how the ques­tion was phrased. =P

  • http://modernburrow.lah.cc pmg

    it’s not about gram­mar… it’s about how the ques­tion was phrased. =P

  • kai

    it’s just inter­est­ing cos i’m 24, my mom’s 58. and she still uses the dai po (big slope) siu po (small slope) in can­tonese to refer to these area. I never really under­stood what these meant, but i took it to refer lok po (man­darin xia4 bo1)

  • kai

    it’s just inter­est­ing cos i’m 24, my mom’s 58. and she still uses the dai po (big slope) siu po (small slope) in can­tonese to refer to these area. I never really under­stood what these meant, but i took it to refer lok po (man­darin xia4 bo1)

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lcy/ lcy

    Well, actu­ally “Ta Po??” referred to the area south of the Sin­ga­pore River, and “Xiao Po??” referred to the area north of it. There are 2 roads in ??, & 7 in ??. Chi­nese used to refer to the roads in these areas in numeric sequence rather than their orig­i­nal names:

    1) Da Po 1st Road — South Bridge Road
    2) Da Po 2nd Road — New Bridge Road
    3) Xiao Po 1st Road — North Bridge Road
    4) Xiao Po 2nd Road — Vic­to­ria Street
    5) Xiao Po 3rd Road — Queen Street
    7) Xiao Po 4th Road — Water­loo Street (Where the Krish­nan Hindu Tem­ple & Kuanyin Tem­ple are located)
    8) Xiao Po 5th Road — Ben­coolen Street
    9) Xiao Po 6th Road — Prin­sep Street
    10) Xiao Po 7th Road — Selegie Road

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lcy/ lcy

    Well, actu­ally “Ta Po大坡” referred to the area south of the Sin­ga­pore River, and “Xiao Po小坡” referred to the area north of it. There are 2 roads in 大坡, & 7 in 小坡. Chi­nese used to refer to the roads in these areas in numeric sequence rather than their orig­i­nal names:

    1) Da Po 1st Road — South Bridge Road
    2) Da Po 2nd Road — New Bridge Road
    3) Xiao Po 1st Road — North Bridge Road
    4) Xiao Po 2nd Road — Vic­to­ria Street
    5) Xiao Po 3rd Road — Queen Street
    7) Xiao Po 4th Road — Water­loo Street (Where the Krish­nan Hindu Tem­ple & Kuanyin Tem­ple are located)
    8) Xiao Po 5th Road — Ben­coolen Street
    9) Xiao Po 6th Road — Prin­sep Street
    10) Xiao Po 7th Road — Selegie Road

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