Wednesday, July 18, 2007
An old article I wrote about my alma mater Chung Cheng High School's ghost stories which I discover while sifting through my backup disk drive.
Disclaimer: up to you to believe in these stories
*** *** *** *** ***
Chung Cheng High School (Main) has been occupying its current plot of land for more than half a century. It has found a place in History as the venue where students, fed by Communist ideology, showed their discontent towards the pro-colonial local government of Singapore, along with the students from the Chinese High School. With such a long history, it is no surprise that the Chung Cheng compound would have a legacy of another kind.
These stories are told by word-of-mouth and obviously not in the official annals. What I am recounting are through accounts I have heard verbally from seniors and staff. Whether these accounts are true or not they are unverifiable. It is best to not to take them too seriously. At the end of the day whether one believes in the supernatural or not is a very subjective matter.
The Piano
Before the Grand Auditorium was renovated, it was formerly called the Old Auditorium. It was a colossal building that looked extremely worn out. The interior was musty and dark. Locked doors and nooks and crannies bred imagination.
There are two pianos at the stage. One is a grand piano used for performances. The other is an upright piano hidden from the stage. It was located at a stairwell which was the way of passage from the stage to the dressing room. This piano was in an extremely piteous condition. Parts of its outer shell had gone missing and exposed the fragile interior works to the elements.
During recess some students went to explore the Old Auditorium. It was a favourite exploration ground because of its age, which breeds imagination. These bunch of girls went into the dressing room and shut the door.
Suddenly they heard the piano being played. They opened the door. In a split second the sound vanished. To even greater surprise they found no one out there. If someone had decided to play a practical prank on them they would have the person’s footsteps echoing away as he/she ran sprinted away. But no, they heard nothing.
They went back to class.
And then weird things began to happen.
One of the girls suddenly went berserk, screaming and pounding away. She snapped just like that. Almost as unexpectedly as she lost her mind, she calmed down, sat back at her seat… and began drawing pictures.
And what did she draw?
The piano, of course…
* * *
The Girl on the Fourth Floor
This story was recounted by my Chinese-language teacher.
There was a girl who was a bright student. She did very well in her academic work. Unfortunately she met with an accident and it affected her memory. After she recuperated and returned to school she was placed in one of the more average classes.
During an examination my teacher was an invigilator for her class. Since it was a long paper she and another teacher worked shifts. My teacher finished her shift, and decided to sit somewhere near to mark her papers before invigilating another class. This was a time when the old classroom blocks still existed, as well as the old bungalow houses that used to function as extra-curricular activities rooms. She decided to sit inside one of these rooms as it would be more comfortable than being in direct sunlight.
She heard a scream. She walked out, and saw the girl running away, several teachers chasing after her. She followed suit. They ran to the grey-coloured administrative block – now the Co-Curricular Activities (CCA) block. The girl ran to the fourth floor, to the opening facing the Old Auditorium, and threatened to jump. The teachers tried to coax her out of it. She refused to be placated… and she jumped.
It is said that when you stare at this very opening at midnight, the very spot where she leapt to her death, you can see the white figure which is the spirit of the girl.
* * *
The Coffin in the Closet
The Science laboratories used to be located at the CCA Block. Each floor, beginning from the second level, was dedicated to each field of science, namely Chemistry, Physics and Biology, not in any order because I have forgotten how the rooms were organised.
Some students had ventured into the Biology laboratory while there were no staff members around. They went into the preparation room.
To their horror they found a coffin in the closet! They would expect to see skeletons, being a room for the study of the life sciences, but a coffin…!
When the word got to the staff they removed it quickly. Nobody knows how the coffin found its location, when it first appeared, and who put it there. Best of all, nobody is interested in finding out who was actually inside it!
* * *
Other rumours from Chung Cheng High School
A tunnel that runs from the bowels of the Old Auditorium to the bottom of the pond… it was used by the Japanese after they invaded Singapore…
To add to the mystery, where the two main staircases of the Grand Auditorium are now, there used to be stairs leading to the basement. Prior to renovation, these were boarded up, but you could see the stairs through one of the rounded windows from the porch.
When you stare at one of the small windows near the roof of the Old Auditorium (above where the museum now is), you can see white figures jumping about.
Does the life-size portrait of first Principal Dr Chuang Chu Lin have a life of its own? His eyes seem to trail your every moment – back then when his portrait still hung on the third floor at the former reception area where the Teacher’s Workroom now stands. Or is it just the figment of one’s imagination?
¶ 7/18/2007 02:00:00 am Disclaimer: up to you to believe in these stories
*** *** *** *** ***
Chung Cheng High School (Main) has been occupying its current plot of land for more than half a century. It has found a place in History as the venue where students, fed by Communist ideology, showed their discontent towards the pro-colonial local government of Singapore, along with the students from the Chinese High School. With such a long history, it is no surprise that the Chung Cheng compound would have a legacy of another kind.
These stories are told by word-of-mouth and obviously not in the official annals. What I am recounting are through accounts I have heard verbally from seniors and staff. Whether these accounts are true or not they are unverifiable. It is best to not to take them too seriously. At the end of the day whether one believes in the supernatural or not is a very subjective matter.
The Piano
Before the Grand Auditorium was renovated, it was formerly called the Old Auditorium. It was a colossal building that looked extremely worn out. The interior was musty and dark. Locked doors and nooks and crannies bred imagination.
There are two pianos at the stage. One is a grand piano used for performances. The other is an upright piano hidden from the stage. It was located at a stairwell which was the way of passage from the stage to the dressing room. This piano was in an extremely piteous condition. Parts of its outer shell had gone missing and exposed the fragile interior works to the elements.
During recess some students went to explore the Old Auditorium. It was a favourite exploration ground because of its age, which breeds imagination. These bunch of girls went into the dressing room and shut the door.
Suddenly they heard the piano being played. They opened the door. In a split second the sound vanished. To even greater surprise they found no one out there. If someone had decided to play a practical prank on them they would have the person’s footsteps echoing away as he/she ran sprinted away. But no, they heard nothing.
They went back to class.
And then weird things began to happen.
One of the girls suddenly went berserk, screaming and pounding away. She snapped just like that. Almost as unexpectedly as she lost her mind, she calmed down, sat back at her seat… and began drawing pictures.
And what did she draw?
The piano, of course…
* * *
The Girl on the Fourth Floor
This story was recounted by my Chinese-language teacher.
There was a girl who was a bright student. She did very well in her academic work. Unfortunately she met with an accident and it affected her memory. After she recuperated and returned to school she was placed in one of the more average classes.
During an examination my teacher was an invigilator for her class. Since it was a long paper she and another teacher worked shifts. My teacher finished her shift, and decided to sit somewhere near to mark her papers before invigilating another class. This was a time when the old classroom blocks still existed, as well as the old bungalow houses that used to function as extra-curricular activities rooms. She decided to sit inside one of these rooms as it would be more comfortable than being in direct sunlight.
She heard a scream. She walked out, and saw the girl running away, several teachers chasing after her. She followed suit. They ran to the grey-coloured administrative block – now the Co-Curricular Activities (CCA) block. The girl ran to the fourth floor, to the opening facing the Old Auditorium, and threatened to jump. The teachers tried to coax her out of it. She refused to be placated… and she jumped.
It is said that when you stare at this very opening at midnight, the very spot where she leapt to her death, you can see the white figure which is the spirit of the girl.
* * *
The Coffin in the Closet
The Science laboratories used to be located at the CCA Block. Each floor, beginning from the second level, was dedicated to each field of science, namely Chemistry, Physics and Biology, not in any order because I have forgotten how the rooms were organised.
Some students had ventured into the Biology laboratory while there were no staff members around. They went into the preparation room.
To their horror they found a coffin in the closet! They would expect to see skeletons, being a room for the study of the life sciences, but a coffin…!
When the word got to the staff they removed it quickly. Nobody knows how the coffin found its location, when it first appeared, and who put it there. Best of all, nobody is interested in finding out who was actually inside it!
* * *
Other rumours from Chung Cheng High School
A tunnel that runs from the bowels of the Old Auditorium to the bottom of the pond… it was used by the Japanese after they invaded Singapore…
To add to the mystery, where the two main staircases of the Grand Auditorium are now, there used to be stairs leading to the basement. Prior to renovation, these were boarded up, but you could see the stairs through one of the rounded windows from the porch.
When you stare at one of the small windows near the roof of the Old Auditorium (above where the museum now is), you can see white figures jumping about.
Does the life-size portrait of first Principal Dr Chuang Chu Lin have a life of its own? His eyes seem to trail your every moment – back then when his portrait still hung on the third floor at the former reception area where the Teacher’s Workroom now stands. Or is it just the figment of one’s imagination?
