The Sungei Road Gang
A stolen clutch bag triggers a chain of events that winds its way towards Sungei Road. A $100,000 reward for a missing girl sets off a separate chain of events that also converges upon Sungei Road. And at Singapore’s renown ‘Thieves’ Market’ in Sungei Road the two chains are entangled in a chance meeting that brings together a teenage street gang and a private detective. They are forced into a hasty, uneasy alliance to take on an international criminal syndicate. But are wits and street skills enough to prevail over the power and ruthlessness of organised crime?
Excerpt from Chapter 8
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BACKGROUND: THE URBAN LEGEND OF THE SUNGEI ROAD GANG
Sungei Road’s flea market, well-known as Singapore’s most famous Thieves’ Market, has closed down. But many who owned stalls there, and those who live in the area, often tell the story of a teenage street gang that once operated there – and how they took down an international criminal organisation involved in kidnapping and child prostitution. With the help of a private detective and depending only on wits and street skills they were able to overcome the power, money and ruthlessness of organised crime.
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VIDEO SYNOPSIS: THE SUNGEI ROAD GANG
Ever had the feeling someone is following you?
That’s how the novel starts. And it’s action all the way as a teenage street gang and a private detective track a missing girl and try to save her from an international criminal organisation.
WHAT MADE ME WRITE THE SUNGEI ROAD GANG?
The idea that led to the story came about from my many visits to the flea market of Sungei Road, well known as Singapore’s most famous ‘Thieves Market’. Once, while having tea in a coffee shop, I watched from afar a bunch of teenagers who looked like they could be up to no good. They way they kept looking at people in the flea market take out money from their wallets to pay seemed to suggest they could be pickpockets. That became the inspiration for the main characters of the street gang in my novel. I wondered if the street boys and a girl who looked to be part of their gang could be runaways or orphans – they would otherwise be in school. And I also wondered if pickpocketing was how they made their living. I lost sight of them after a while as they scattered and disappeared into the crowd. Later, in a side street in the neighbourhood, I caught sight of one of the teenagers who I had thought could be a member of a pickpocket gang. He was ahead of me but without turning around he seemed to get the feeling he was being followed. He suddenly quickened his pace and disappeared into an alley. On another day while walking in Sungei Road I saw a rich-looking teenage girl who looked lost and out of place in a dirty and shabby part of town that she had no reason to be in. She looked the type who would fit in perfectly with the crowd in upmarket Orchard Road. The germ of an idea for the novel was somehow born there in the flea market and in the neighbourhood which eventually grew and developed into The Sungei Road Gang. Originally, I wrote it as a telemovie script for the 2006 Panasonic-MDA Digital Film Fiesta National Scriptwriting Competition. The script won a merit award in the competition. Many years later I adapted and expanded it into a novel.