The Chempaka Tree: Short Stories
Tan Jing Quee
Malaysia: Gerakbudaya Enterprises, 2009
ISBN: 9789834479305

This collection of short stories of old Singapore before its rapid transformation into the modern city state marks a welcome nostalgic trip to a quite different world. These stories, set from Sembawang to Orchard Road, present a green and more leisurely city before its advent to a concrete metropolis. Except for a story set in India and two stories set in neighbouring peninsula Malaysia, most of the stories in this collection are based in Singapore.

The title story in this collection, the Chempaka Tree, is a charming love story loosely based on the old Malay legend of the Pontianak.