Lost Games: How five stones and other old-school games are cultural anchors to Singapore's

Lost Games: How five stones and other old-school games are cultural anchors to Singapore's

Capteh, jianzi, shuttlecock – these are different names for the same game that involves kicking a feather object and keeping it airborne for as long as possible.

But for those of Singapore’s Pioneer Generation, such as Mr Chang Yang Fa, 76, it is simply a fun game that he and his friends played as children, when there were no mobile phones, television or even playgrounds to occupy their time.

“Singapore wasn’t so built up with buildings and roads, so there were fields all around for us to play in. We would catch spiders or play with wild grass, or use our brains to improvise new things to play,” says Mr Chang.

“In those days, we had just enough money to feed ourselves during recess time and no money to buy toys,” he adds.

In those days, we had just enough money to feed ourselves during recess time and no money to buy toys.

Mr Chang Yang Fa, 76

He and his friends would cut out circular discs from old rubber tyres. They would pierce two of these discs with a long nail, and insert and tie three or so rooster tail feathers in the hole.

“We wouldn’t pluck the feathers from actual roosters, but take them from feather dusters, which in those days were made of real feathers,” says Mr Chang.

There was no finesse or creator’s pride in making the capteh pieces. “These were things we would make and play with until they were worn out. Then we would just make another one.”

A person can play capteh alone, but there is more satisfaction and joy in making it a group activity, he says. “Playing by yourself was no fun. You could kick it 100 times, but nobody would be there to cheer or acknowledge it.”

“The fun thing about games like capteh is that there were no fixed rules when we played it as kids. We decided among ourselves how we wanted to run the game,” he adds.

This article was originally published on The Straits Times. Its inclusion on this website is solely for education purposes.