SINGAPORE, July 22 — Madam Chua Chay Cheng, 92, has had more than 40 years of experience as a hawker, and her eight children, whom she raised single-handedly after her husband died, now help to run her popular Yan Seng Traditional Teochew Kueh stall at Tekka Market.

But whether the business will continue beyond the second generation is still uncertain.

“For the next generation, it’s hard to tell. They have their own thinking. They’ve studied and may feel this is not suitable for them,” her son Johnny Tan told Channel NewsAsia.

In an effort to preserve the dying trade, Madam Chua is one of 300 hawkers featured in a new book about Singapore’s hawker culture.

The book, Not for Sale — Singapore’s Remaining Heritage Street Food, took the authors three years to complete.

“A lot of these hawkers are retiring during this period, a lot of them are already at a very old age,” said the book’s project leader Sinma DaShow.

“Their trade is either going to be vanishing or will really be gone forever, if no one comes to document it, archive it for the future generation ... We’re just concerned that future generations, our own kids, may not even know some of these food or places we’ve grown up with.”

Beyond the book, this year’s Heritage Fest also offers Singaporeans an opportunity to find out more about some of the hawkers in the book, as the authors are conducting a guided tour for the public to four famous hawker centres.

The tours will go on for four weekends until Aug 10, and will include East Coast Park Lagoon Hawker Centre and Circuit Road Hawker Centre.

Registration is on a first-come-first-served basis, and each tour is limited to 20 participants. More information can be found at heritagefest.org.sg.

And with the launch of the new Heritage Grant Scheme, it is hoped that more Singaporeans will be encouraged to embark on such heritage projects. — Today