Survivor of Bukit Ho Swee fire, whose story was featured in 2021 NDP, passes away at 98

This week saw the passing of Tan Geok Han at the age of 98, one of the main characters featured in an animation featured in Boo Junfeng's 2021 National Day Parade (NDP).

Tan survived the Bukit Ho Swee Fire in 1961, rebuilding her home and life with a sewing machine she pulled from the rubble, and raised her family with the proceeds of that sewing machine.

Seamstress and fire survivor

Tan was featured in director Boo Junfeng’s animated feature for NDP 2021, which told the story of Tan and other Singaporeans striving through adversity.

It showed how Tan, a seamstress, had experienced the loss of her home and livelihood during the 1961 Bukit Ho Swee fire.

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But she had managed to salvage her Singer sewing machine from the rubble of her former home, and when she moved to a newly built HDB flat, had brought it with her and used it to provide for her family.

Five stars

Boo shared the news of Tan's passing in a social media post on Aug. 9.

After Boo and his team met Tan in 2021, they continued to meet regularly twice a year, usually around Chinese New Year and National Day.

Tan would affectionately call the team her 五颗星, or “Five Stars”, sometimes calling to ask when her “Five Stars” were coming to visit, according to Boo.

Boo warmly recalled the visits, and Tan’s “joyful spirit and wicked sense of humour”, which he said never waned despite her picking up more ailments as time went by.

As Boo’s team would regularly visit Tan during National Day, and had been hoping to do so again this week, they would unexpectedly end up paying respects at her wake instead.

But he said that Tan had led a long and fulfilling life, and that his team were glad to have gotten to know her.

No point getting angry at people

Boo shared some anecdotes about Tan with Mothership, saying that he and his team had learnt of her passing after Tan’s son got in contact with producer Ben Tan.

He recalled a creative woman who continued to sketch and paint into her final years, eager to show Boo’s team her latest creations.

He also shared his memories of her reminding them that there was “no point getting angry at people”, the theme of a handwritten folk poem that Tan had pinned on her wall.

Each of them was a giant

Boo and Tan’s lives intertwined around National Day and the project they shared together.

He told Mothership that on this National Day, he was “grateful for the foundations laid by the generations before us.”

“We stand on the shoulders of ordinary people who made sacrifices, big and small, to bring us to where we are today.

In their own way, each of them was a giant."