Oral histories of former squatters trace the origins of modern Singapore to its largest and historically most important fire at Bukit Ho Swee on 25 May 1961. The inferno not only razed an urban kampong, it also set the stage for the government to transform Singapore into an organized public housing state of governable citizen‐workers. The storytellers’ ashen histories highlight the grey area colored by the memory of the inferno; they straddle national and local history, and reveal the price of citizenship in Singapore. The narratives of the kampong tell us much about people’s mobility, community, and modernity—they were far from inert, as the state depicted them. Where the state was transfixed on high modernism in the form of organized public housing blocks, the squatters were willing to accept different typologies of housing and ways of life. Their narratives of, and alternatively silence on, possible arson outline the social worlds of the squatters in the past but also underline the ambivalent position of socialized citizens today, straddling and mediating between their own narratives and that of the state.

中文翻译：

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灰烬的历史：叙述现代新加坡起源中的大火

前屋居民的口述历史可以追溯到现代新加坡的起源，其历史可追溯到1961年5月25日在武吉何瑞发生的最大的，历史上最重要的大火。地狱不仅夷平了城市的甘榜，也为政府将新加坡改造成一座城市提供了舞台。有组织的公共住房状态的可治公民工人。讲故事的人的灰暗历史突出显示了地狱记忆所染成的灰色区域。他们跨越了国家和地方的历史，并揭示了新加坡公民身份的代价。甘榜的叙事告诉我们很多有关人们的流动性，社区和现代性的信息，它们远非惰性，正如国家所描绘的那样。当国家以有组织的公共住房形式对高级现代主义感到困惑时，擅自占地者愿意接受不同类型的住房和生活方式。