The Gen XY Lifestyle
The Stories Our Grandmothers Told: A Young Tour Guide’s Mission to Save Singapore’s Chinese Temple Customs
Concerned that our rich local Singaporean traditions are fading away? A unique tour operator, Hey Lad Tour, is tackling cultural loss head-on by turning rituals and temple customs into engaging, hands-on experiences—and they’ve just made their tours more accessible.
For founder Jayden Seah, the driving force behind Hey Lad Tour is deeply personal. It stems from his childhood in the Pek Kio area, where his grandmother regularly took him to the many local temples, explaining the history and meaning behind the festivities and rites.
Now, four years after starting his specialised walking tours, Jayden is worried that this valuable knowledge—the “deeper meaning of who we are as Chinese living in Singapore”—will be lost.
His solution? To register as a tour guide and share these histories during evenings and weekends.
Temples: More Than Just Worship
In Singapore, temples are much more than just religious sites. Historically, during the 19th century, leaders of the major Chinese dialect groups (Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hainanese, and Hakka) built temples to unite their communities and ascribe authority.
Jayden’s tours aim to provide a much deeper understanding of the purpose and relevance of these customs and rituals. Hey Lad Tour currently organises tours across as many as 10 different temples and related businesses.
Notable tours include:
- The Love God and Earliest Baby Wishes Granter: Held each February on Chinese Valentine’s Day, this tour showcases a ceremony that bestows children on couples wishing to have a child.
- Culture and Heritage Tour @ Pulau Ubin Annual Festival: Conducted in May, this tour brings participants back in time to traditional kampung (village) life.
New Tours Now Eligible for the Culture Pass
In a bid to reach more Singaporeans, Hey Lad Tour is introducing a new range of Culture Pass eligible tours.
Existing tours now approved for the Culture Pass include:
- Medium and The Judge Tour: A “Journey through the Courts of the Afterlife”.
- Living Art of Traditional Paper Craft in Chinese Funerals: Participants witness craftsmen creating paper and rattan offerings—like mansions and cars—that are burnt at funerals.
Recently added, and also Culture Pass approved, are highly experiential options like:
- Intangible Tour of Chinese Traditional Pastries.
- Thian Hock Keng Temple Half-day Historical & Cultural Tour.
- Intangible Cultural, Heritage, Art and Tradition Tour (CHAT) @ Kallang: The Cantonese and Teochews Community Temple Tour.
“I hope that with the Culture Pass, more Singaporeans will get to know of our tours, and take up the chance to know more about the cultures and history behind many of our wonderful temples and traditions,” Jayden adds.
Pictures courtesy of Hey Lad Tour
