Memories of New World Amusement Park

As a follow-up to James’ article about the Great World Amusement Park, I will now blog about the New World Amusement Park that I used to go to as a kid. In Cantonese, it was known as San Sai Kai (新世界).

I vaguely remember that we had a grand-uncle (my father’s uncle) who worked as a gate-keeper at New World. So occasionally when he was on duty, he’d let us in without buying an entrance ticket. He lived in an old and dimly-lit apartment at the rear of New World. He was often on duty at the rear entrance which meant that we could not have free entry because the main entrance was at Kitchener Road.

But before I proceed, maybe I should give you some background history about this place.

Background (from Singapore Infopedia)


“In 1923, Ong Boon Tat and Ong Peng Hock set up New World Park, the first of the three amusement parks that coloured Singapore's night life from the 1920s to the 1960s. New World was located at Jalan Besar, bounded by Serangoon Road, Kitchener Road and Whampoa River. The park was sold to Shaw Brothers which acquired a 50-percent interest.

During the Japanese Occupation, New World was renamed Shin Segal and turned into a gambling farm opened only to civilians but not Japanese soldiers.

New World closed in 1987 when Shaw Organisation sold the freehold site to City Developments. Work to build a condominium and an eight-storey mall on the site was planned to start in late 2004.”

For more information, please go to Singapore Infopedia. By the way, according to this website, Rose Chan and King Kong performed at New World.

What I can recall

Like Great World, New World had the usual attractions like cinemas, ghost train, merry-go-rounds, shooting galleries, bumper cars, restaurants and food and clothing stalls. I will just share with you about a few of the things that held the strongest memory for me.

1) Ghost Train

The ghost train at NW is similar to what James had described earlier. The train would be moving in the dark, and then come to a sudden stop and a ghoulish demon would light up in front of you, accompanied by evil laughter; and then the train would make a sharp turn and move on. I recall that the ‘demons’ were really quite amateurishly made. I could clearly see the coconut and husk used for its head. I also remember seeing the lighted Exit sign in the dark. It wasn’t scary at all but still the girls screamed.

2) Cinemas

I can think of two cinemas; Grand and State. Grand (大光) screened mainly Chinese movies whilst State had more English movies. Actually State was located outside the amusement park near the entrance, I think.

At Grand, I remember watching the very famous tear-jerker Love Without End (不了情) with my siblings. This movie was more well-known for its theme song than the story. The theme song was sung by Carrie Koo Mei whose brother is the prolific song writer Joseph Koo who composed many famous Hong Kong TV drama tunes. My sister was a great fan of hers. (不了情) was a unique song: very difficult to sing. Over the years, many singers have recorded their versions of it, but none come close to the original. You can listen to it here.


At State, I think I saw the first Clint Eastwood cowboy movie For A Few Dollars More. Early in his career, Clint Eastwood starred in several of such ‘spaghetti westerns’.

3) Punching Bags

The other thing I remember fondly is the punching bags (actually this is probably the wrong term). You had this small bag that hangs at about face level. You gave your hardest punch to let it hit against a screen which had a vertical scale with a needle to record the force of your punch. If your punch was hard enough, a bell would go off. I remember having a go at it with my cousin Meng from JB and my brother David. Meng was an accomplished badminton player and very strong. My brother David was into Tae Kwon Do. (Actually he was into many martial arts; Karate, Tai Chi, Pai Mei, whichever was the fancy of the day. Eh what do they say? A Jack of all trades but ……) Anyway, these two guys got a big kick from the ringing of the bell. As for me; can I just say that I cannot remember the result?

As I think back, those games and attractions that we so thoroughly enjoyed in the old days were really no match of what our kids have these days at places like Genting Highlands and Disneyland. I guess kids of any era simply know how to have fun with whatever life serves up to them, and it doesn’t take much for them to have a good time. Remember those ice balls that we so relished? They are nothing but ice and sugar; but still every adult of my generation seem to recall them with fondness.

OK. Now that you have read about two of the three ‘worlds’ of the old Singapore, I hope someone can contribute an article about the Happy World Amusement Park at Gayland … oops; I mean Geylang Road.