Hong Lim Park: gay aspects

Hong Lim Park has played an important role in Singapore's history. However, unbeknownst to many in mainstream society, it also occupies a prime and iconic position in Singapore gay history.

The park was the first local gay venue to be listed in the premier international gay tourist reference, the Spartacus International Gay Guide. Officially known as Hong Lim Green, it probably gained its reputation as a cruising ground for homosexual men since the 1960s. Since 2009, it has also become the staging ground for Singapore's annual outdoor LGBT pride event, Pink Dot. The latter has established a record for drawing the greatest number of participants to Speakers' Corner.

=Reasons for popularity=

Hong Lim Park is the most centrally located public park in Singapore. It lies very close to the traditional economic lifeline of the island republic, the Singapore River and especially Boat Quay, the hub of her entrepot trade.

The layout of the park during the 1960s to the 1980s was made it very conducive for gay men to meet nocturnally and indulge in light sexual activities such as petting and perhaps even discreet oral sex. There were large rectangular flower pots which contained dense shrubbery. Men could sit on the perimeter of these flower pots to chat, and if they show mutual interest, some would fondle each other there and then. The presence of shady trees with overhanging foliage would also conceal their activities from passers-by. FIGURE 7.4 Postcard of Hong Lim Park in the 1970s, showing the plant receptacles where men would sit on and wait or chat at night. Copyright: National Archives Singapore

This public space was also affectionately code-named “Honolulu” or “Hollywood” in the early years by some English-educated gay men. Relatively ‘cruisy’ during the night-time for more than half a century, its dim lighting and tall shrubbery provided ideal conditions for quickies between gay men, especially elderly Chinese-educated ones, until the bushes were pruned and bright lights installed in the early 90s to deter such activities. Nightly cruising and sex also took place in a small two-storey shopping centre named Hong Lim Shopping Centre which was demolished in the mid-1980s and replaced by the present car park. The setting-up of the Kreta Ayer Neighbourhood Police Post in an old building which was an erstwhile post office located next to the car park was also considered a measure to curb late-night cruising. Straight patrons were shocked at some young boys holding hands and wrote letters to the newspapers in the 1980s to complain. In spite of several police patrols in which these boys were questioned, no one was charged as nobody was caught in flagrante delicto.

Policemen would ride out on their bicycles in the 1990s to comb the entire Boat Quay-OCBC building area at night to scare away thrillseekers. Noctural cruising activity is now sparse and mainly confined to the toilet located next to the Kreta Ayer community centre. FIGURE 7.5 The public toilet situated in the middle of Circular Road. Copyright: National Archives of Singapore.

From the early part of the century to the 1970s, there used to be a public toilet situated in the middle of Circular Road and close to Hong Lim Park which was known to be somewhat ‘cruisy’ and probably one of the first in Singapore where toilet sex took place. A public bus service with a two-digit number had its terminus right next to it. Gay passengers would alight from the bus and pretend to use the toilet. Whilst at it, they would look surreptitiously around and at the other men who were at the urinals. A few would have sex in the cubicles if they meet someone to their liking, while others would proceed to Hong Lim Park. During the same period, homosexual taxi drivers, most of whom being married, would station their taxis along the periphery of the park after their shift was over and go cruising around the vicinity. Among the interesting anecdotes connected with Hong Lim Park at that time was one concerning a famous businessman known as the “Abalone King”, who had monopolised the local abalone market. His shop was located along a road very near the park. Although he was married family man, he used to go cruising at Hong Lim Park where he frequently picked up younger men for sex. His inclinations were an open secret amongst his employees. On occasion, one of the ‘boys’ would venture into his shop to look for him, whereupon he would instruct his employees to give the boy a drink or some pocket money. It is rumoured that he had since migrated to Taiwan.

  Since May 2009, Hong Lim Park has been the venue for the annual, massively attended, public LGBT-supportive event organised by Pink Dot SG. This was possible after the Government legalised the holding of demonstrations at Speakers' Corner on 1 September 2008.  =See also=
 * Hong Lim Park
 * Singapore gay venues: contemporary
 * Singapore gay venues: historical

=References=

=Acknowledgements=

This article was written by Roy Tan.