Tekka Centre

This guide to Tekka Centre in Little India follows the many names this market has carried: Tek Kia Kha, the Hokkien phrase for foot of the small bamboos, the buffalo pens that gave the street its English name, and a nineteen eighty-one government attempt to rename the whole complex in Mandarin. It traces the languages, Tamil, Hokkien and Malay, still spoken across its stalls. Walk through the wet market and listen for how many histories move through one transaction.