NO. 34

VOL. 09

ISS. 03

PORT CITIES: MULTICULTURAL EMPORIUMS OF ASIA, 1500–1900

COMMUNITY HERITAGE TRAIL: BUKIT TIMAH

HAWKER CENTRES: THE VIEW FROM ABOVE Front Cover Bramina Woman. Goa, India, around 1785 - 1800. Oil on canvas. Private Collection.

Inside Front Cover The famous portrait of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout, May 29, 2013. Collection of Singapore Philatelic Museum. Read more about Looking for Shakespeare on Page 13 If you have any feedback, please email [email protected] or go to www.nhb.gov.sg FOREW ORD Publisher National Heritage Board 61 Stamford Road, #03-08, Stamford Court, Singapore 178892 All too soon, we have come to the end of intangible heritage are preserved and 2016 and a good resolution that we can all promoted through oral traditions and Chief Executive Offi cer make for 2017 is to make a commitment documentary fi lms respectively inRoots/ Rosa Daniel to continuously enrich ourselves by Routes: Safeguarding Singapore’s Diasporic Assistant Chief Executive acquiring knowledge of new and exciting Heritage (page 19) and Recording the Past Alvin Tan cultures. And a great place to start, as you with Film (page 23). (Policy & Community) will realise in this issue of MUSE SG, will be our museums. Th rough the wonders of As we often emphasise, heritage is MUSE SG Team exhibitions, we do not have to travel very everywhere and accessible to anyone, Editor-in-chief far to discover foreign lands and explore and perhaps nothing proves this point David Chew diff erent cultures. better than Singapore’s food heritage. Design Consultant In this issue’s Hawker Centres: Th e View Ian Lin In this issue, two of the exhibitions from Above (page 33) article, you can Editorial Manager covered will feature topics that transcend savour the history of street hawkers and Raudha Muntadar the boundaries of time and geography. hawker centres, and fi nd out more about Production Manager Lawrence Low Th e fi rst – Shaking it with Shakespeare the eff orts of ordinary Singaporeans and provides interesting insights into how a the government in the preservation and Layout 2EZ Asia Pte Ltd man who lived more than 400 years ago promotion of our street food heritage. Copy-editing continues to make his presence felt in Rufus Tan, Hedgehog countries all over the world today. You Lastly, in this issue, we pay homage to the Communications can discover more about the life and 75th Anniversary of the Fall of Singapore Printing impact of this literary genius through our by focusing on one of the areas that bore Hobee Print Pte Ltd Looking for Shakespeare article (page 13). witness to the Japanese invasion during Contributors World War II in Community Heritage Aisyah Noor Mohd Th e second example can be found in our Trail: Bukit Timah (page 26). Despite its Dr Alan Chong Dr John Kwok cover story – Port Cities: Multicultural past, the Bukit Timah area is also known Georgia Mackie Emporiums of Asia, 1500 –1900 (page 4), as a green sanctuary for many who seek Goh Tiong Ann which explores the impact that a port city a reprieve from the hustle and bustle of Haryany Mohamad has on local culture, a topic particularly city life. Th ese interesting aspects of the Kenneth Tay Mishelle Lim relevant to Singapore. You can fi nd out area and more are highlighted in the Maggie Tan more about how waterways facilitated National Heritage Board’s Bukit Timah Naomi Wang the movement of goods and created an Heritage Trail. Nurliyana Halid environment where cultures met and Peter Lee merged. Th is article sets the context for the On behalf of the team at MUSE SG, we Phang Su Hui Rufus Tan exhibition, which is currently on display at would like to thank you for your support Stefanie Tham the Asian Civilisations Museum. throughout the year and wish all of you Wong Jiashi a Happy New Year! Extending beyond the walls of our museums, you can also discover how diff erent aspects of Singapore’s MUSE SG TEAM WILLIAM FARQUHAR COLLECTION MERCHANDISE A NEW LINE OF MUSEUM LABEL MERCHANDISE

The collection comprises 477 watercolour drawings commissioned by William Farquhar, the fi rst Resident and Commandant of Singapore (1819 – 1823), during his prior tenure as Resident of Melaka. These natural history drawings depict the fl ora and fauna of the Malay Peninsula, most likely accomplished by local Chinese artists, with inscriptions identifying the species by their English and Malay names. Farquhar brought this set along with him when he left Singapore, and subsequently donated it to the Royal Asiatic Society in London in 1827. In 1993, it was put up for auction and purchased by Mr G.K. Goh, who donated the entire collection to the National Museum of Singapore.

MUSEUM LABEL has developed a series of merchandise inspired by these drawings. For more information or purchase inquiry, please contact Retail and Merchandising Division at: [email protected]

AVAILABLE AT: National Museum of Singapore A NEW LINE 93 Stamford Road Singapore 178897 OF MUSEUM LABEL Mondays to Sundays | 10 am to 6.30 pm MERCHANDISE *Limited stocks available CONTENTS 04 11 13 COVER STORY ARTEFACT EXHIBITION PORT CITIES: A PIECE OF DOWNTON LOOKING FOR Multicultural Emporiums of Asia, ABBEY AT THE ASIAN SHAKESPEARE 1500–1900 CIVILISATIONS MUSEUM 19 23 26 OPINION CULTURE TRAIL ROOTS/ROUTES: RECORDING THE PAST COMMUNITY Safeguarding Singapore’s WITH FILM HERITAGE TRAIL: Diasporic Heritage Bukit Timah 33 38 44 HISTORICAL SPOTLIGHT FESTIVAL ASEAN HERITAGE HAWKER CENTRES: BULAN BAHASA: TRACING THE HISTORY The View from Above Celebrating the Dynamism of OF PENANG’S STATE Malay Language and Culture MUSEUM AND STATE ART GALLERY 47 50 54 MUSEOLOGY DIGITAL EDUCATION NUS MUSEUM’S THE GRAFTBUSTERS’ HERITAGE EXPLORERS PREP-ROOM TRAIL APP PROGRAMME 56 58 61 BOOKS BOOKS EVENTS LISTING SHIOK, SIA! – SKETCHING STYLE AND SECRETS WHAT’S ON SINGAPORE’S FAVOURITE STREET FOOD 68 DIRECTORY MUSEUM ROUNDTABLE PORT CITIES

MULTICULTURAL EMPORIUMS OF ASIA, 1500–1900

Text by Peter Lee and Naomi Wang

Photo on this page Percy Carpenter, View of Singapore from Mount Wallich, 1856. Collection of National Museum of Singapore. COVER STORY

01. Inner robe with standing tree design, tailored in Japan during the Edo period, c.1603 to 1868. Aichi, Japan. Matsuzakaya 01 Collection.

Port Cities: Multicultural communities and networks. It the exhibition manages to elicit Emporiums of Asia, 1500–1900 is also the story of global trade, new ways of thinking about history. will be on display at the Asian diverse consumption of objects and Civilisations Museum (ACM) from the spectrum of responses to them. In the period leading up to the November 4, 2016 to February 19, Supply and demand engendered 17th century, starting up life and 2017. Peranakan scholar Peter Lee, extensive competition, counterfeits, trading in a new country took place together with ACM’s former director cheap replicas, as well as innovations against enormous odds. Th ose who Dr. Alan Chong, conceptualised this and improvisations. New cultural succeeded reaped rich rewards and show, the fi rst of its kind to explore forms emerged. Singapore – an made a tremendous impact on the histories of Asian port cities active port in the mid-19th century, material culture. Th e production through the perspective of local as depicted in the panoramic view of copies and cheap imitations, inhabitants, rather than European painted by Percy Carpenter – is a and their wide circulation created colonial ties and trading networks. large part of this story (left page). international styles and fashions. Th e rare example of a kimono made Port cities perfectly encapsulate a Oceans and waterways facilitated of Indian chintz is testament to the fundamental human process that the movement of people, ideas and international circulation of textiles has existed since time immemorial goods, while climate and trade winds and their adaptation in local contexts – the constant mixing of people, governed them. By considering (fi g. 1). Over time, this creativity objects and ideas. Th ese cities and three categories of cultural and the ever-changing dynamics the powerful cultural dynamics dynamics in Asia – divergence, of port cities facilitated what we within and between them refl ect convergence and integration – and understand today as modernity how culture is formed, spread and by connecting contact points and and globalisation, and also the shared. Th e story of port cities the complexity and confusion of development of popular culture. in Asia is the story of multiracial multi-directional cultural fl ows,

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02. Arch for an icon 03. Jacob Coeman. (prabhavali), 20th Pieter Cnoll, Cornelia century. Vietnam. van Nijenrode and Collection of Saigon their daughters, 1665. Chettiar's Temple Batavia. Collection Trust Ltd. On long- of Rijksmuseum, term loan to Indian Amsterdam. Heritage Centre, Singapore.

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NEW PLACES, NEW LIVES Mobile and enterprising, Chettiars have Cornelia van Nijenroode (estimated to Th e exhibition begins with an been trading beyond their homeland of have lived around 1629 to 1691) was born eclectic array of mannequins the Chettinad region, in Tamil Nadu, India, in Hirado, Japan, to a Dutch merchant and depicting 19th century inhabitants for centuries. More than 200 years ago, a geisha. This family portrait was made of Singapore. Th e presence of people from diff erent backgrounds, dressed Chettiars built temples in Saigon. Links in Batavia, where she had gone after her in their own fashions, was common were strengthened when Pondicherry father’s death (fi g. 3). At the time, she was not only in Singapore, but also in (near Chettinad) and Saigon became married to the wealthy Dutch merchant the many port cities of Asia. Five part of the French colonial empire. Pieter Cnoll. Upon Cnoll’s death, she became intimate stories of transnational The treasuries of Chettiar temples in a very rich widow. Her marriage four years communities which illustrate the Saigon were fi lled with ornate gold later to Johan Bitter and his subsequent diversity of port cities are told jewellery offered to deities as devotional attempts to take over her inheritance led to through the objects on display. embellishments. A gold prabhavali would one of the most famous and acrimonious have been placed around the image of a international court cases of the 17th century. deity (fi g. 2) . It was fought all the way to The Hague, where she passed away.

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04. Sushin. Inscribed by Dokutan Shoei is the Japanese name of Georg Franz Müller (1646 to 1723) grew Dokutan. Hanging scroll: Portrait of the Chinese monk Duzhan Xingying (1628 to up in the Alsace region of France and Dokutan Shoei, 1660 to 1728. Japan. 1706), from Putian in Fujian province, China became a soldier of the United Dutch East Collection of (fi g. 4). Together with thirty other disciples, Indian Company (Vereenigde OostIndische Manpuku-ji Temple, Uji, Kyoto Prefecture. he followed his Zen master, Yinyuan Longqi Compagnie, commonly abbreviated as (Ingen Ry¯uki in Japanese), to the port city VOC). He arrived in Java in 1670 to serve 05. Travel diary of Georg Franz Müller, 1669 of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1654 to serve the as a soldier in Batavia and other outposts. to 1682. Dutch East Indies. Collection of Chinese population living there. Seven He studied the Malay language and kept Stiftsbibliothek, St years later, Master Ingen established the an illustrated diary of his travels, making Gallen, Switzerland. Obaku¯ sect of Zen Buddhism, centred at portraits of the various people in the Manpuku-ji in Uji, near Tokyo. Dokutan region, as well as drawings of exotic fl ora was part of this new sect and he later and fauna (fi g. 5). The diary also includes established a Zen temple, Shosan Horin-ji, sketches of mermaids. When he returned in Hamamatsu. In addition to his Zen to Europe, he worked for a Roman Catholic teachings, he also made paintings, three church in St Gallen, Switzerland. He left of which are part of this exhibition. The his diaries and other objects collected on practices of the Obaku¯ sect are closely his travels to that church before returning linked with Pure Land Buddhism and Ming home in 1720. culture. Dokutan himself had a strong inclination towards Pure Land philosophy and also held strong Confucian attachments to his parents and ancestors.

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06. Hikayat Abdullah, 1849. Mission Press, Singapore. Collection of National Library Board.

07. Jan Daniël Beijnon. Young woman in rocking chair, 1869. Batavia. Collection of Mr Jan Veenendaal.

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OWNING, COLLECTING One section of the exhibition is Hikayat Abdullah is the autobiography of AND COMMISSIONING devoted to objects from Batavia, Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir (1797 to 1854). perhaps the most important port Th e convergence of people and Born in Malacca, he had a strict Muslim city in Asia in the 18th century. goods in port cities was made International goods circulated upbringing and scholarly education. The visible by diverse architecture and book is written in Jawi, and gives vivid widely among its multiracial imported international goods. Th e residents, who sported the latest accounts of everyday life and politics in multicultural populations spurred fashions. Th e fl ood of Asian Singapore, Malacca and the region (fi g. 6). conspicuous consumption, social goods into this metropolis was For his literary contributions, Abdullah is competition and an increasingly probably unprecedented in history. often referred to as the “father of modern globalised marketplace. Unifi ed Jan Daniël Beijnon’s painting of a Malay literature". tastes and fashions became Eurasian woman from Batavia shows the norm. Members of various an interior space fi lled with imported communities residing in a port goods from Asia. Th e silk tablecloth city often coveted the same luxury and Chinese wooden folding screen objects and imported goods. Th e (also referred to as a Coromandel material culture of port cities screen, after the name of the Indian was therefore dominated by the port from which these screens were coexistence of a comprehensive exported) were common luxury array of imported goods from the goods of Asia (fi g. 7). whole of Asia.

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MAYHEM: THE DARK CONTRIVING, COMBINING SIDE OF DYNAMIC AND CREATING ENCOUNTERS Th e concentration of diversity in Underlying the extraordinary port cities engendered not only convergences of people was the racially hybrid communities, but brutality of travel and urban also a multiplicity of hybrid forms. life. Piracy was rife, mortality on Adaptations and improvisations voyages high and among warring were the norm because of the nationalities, the plunder of commercial nature of most aspects cargo was justifi ed as legal booty. of cultural output. In environments Commerce was often conducted where migrants far from their under mercenary and violent terms, motherlands made up a large and involved harming competitors, percentage of the population, the forcing agreements, then ignoring traditional was often transgressed. agreed-upon terms of such Th ese modern elements can be agreements. Trade and armed force traced through the material culture went together hand in hand. of port cities, in the heterogeneous forms and trends, and in the Slavery and human traffi cking diversity of objects. A locally had great impact on urban society, produced chair from 18th century intensifying the racial diversity of the Batavia features hybrid forms that population. Political and religious are a mix of Dutch and Chinese leaders put into place extremely designs. In addition, Chinese-style ruthless measures to control the lacquer coating indicates that the 09 population. Japan, for example, chair was the work of Chinese underwent a period of isolationism craftsmen in Batavia (fi g. 9). under the sakoku (literally “closed country”) policy from 1633 to 1866. Increasingly, itinerant craftsmen of Strict restrictions were put in place diff erent nationalities off ered their on the entry of foreigners and the services in every port of call and movement of Japanese people abroad. were adept at producing work in a An offi cial 1808 document from the range of styles. Consequently, many Hirado archives details foreigners categories of objects do not have 08. Scroll depicting who were detained by Japanese clear provenance. Th e complexity, detained foreigners, 1808. Japan. authorities due to their illegal entry chaos and creativity of port cities Collection of Matsura into Japan (fi g. 8). Regulations on reveals that globalisation and Historical Museum, multicultural, hybrid environments Hirado. the population, however, did not stop violent upheavals nor the whole are not new at all. Rather, they are a 09. Chair, 18th century. range of human vices, including persistent and ancient phenomena. Batavia. Collection of Gereja Sion murder, gambling, prostitution and (Portuguese Zion illicit drugs. Church), Jakarta.

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Ultimately, they also raise deep dated portrait of a local painted 10. Kebaya. Europe; 11. Severino Flavier tailored in Indonesia, Pablo. Portrait of questions about whether anything by a Filipino artist. Paterno Molo late 19th or 20th a man in Barong can or needs to be considered belonged to an important Chinese- century. Cotton. Tagalog, 1835. Collection of the Philippines. homogenous or pure. Filipino merchant family who were Peranakan Museum. Collection of suppliers of Chinese goods destined Gift of Mr and Mrs Mr Jamie C. Laya. Th e material culture of mixed-race for re-export in the Galleon Lee Kip Lee. communities illustrates this hybrid Sarong. Signed: Trade to New Spain. Th e family’s Lien Metzelaar quality through the adaptation of descendants are still prominent in Java, late 19th or new fashions and styles. Adaptation Filipino society today. Portraits like early 20th century and use of the sarong kebaya by Cotton (drawn batik). this are indicative of the emergence Collection of the Peranakan nyonyas, for instance, of a native middle class, who Peranakan Museum. reveals hybrid infl uences stretching conscious of their newly attained from Europe and southern Africa achievement and status, drove the through to the Indian Ocean and demand for privately commissioned A full-colour catalogue with essays on Southeast Asia (fi g. 10). portraits during the mid-19th subjects related to the exhibition and Th e person in the Portrait of a century. Th e barong tagalog is Man in Barong Tagalog has been today considered one of the forms images of all the objects is available for identifi ed as Don Paterno Molo y of national dress in the Philippines. purchase at all MUSEUM LABEL stores, San Agustin, called Paterno Molo In this picture, the high collar was Port Cities: Multicultural Emporiums of (1786 to 1853). Th is painting inspired by Spanish outfi ts of the Asia, 1500 - 1900. represents the earliest known period (fi g. 11).

- 10 - A PIECE OF DOWNTON ABBEY AT THE ASIAN CIVILISATIONS MUSEUM

Text by Dr Alan Chong

Photo on this page A pair of mounted blue jars. Collection of Asian Civilisations Museum. ARTEFACT

01. 9th Duchess of 02. Portrait of the 9th Marlborough (West Duke and his family. Corridor). Courtesy of Courtesy of Blenheim Blenheim Palace. Palace.

01 02

A pair of beautiful vases was richest Americans of the late-19th In 1921, Consuelo re-married recently acquired by the Asian century, who at one point owned Jacques Balsan, a dashing French Civilisations Museum (ACM) this pair of vases. pilot and heir to a textile fortune. and now sits on display in its In 1937, a book on their French Trade Gallery. Th e vases connect Consuelo’s wealth and charm home in the countryside north many diff erent cultures over the attracted the attention of many of Paris was published. In one of centuries, having travelled the European suitors. In 1895, she the pictures, you can see sitting world, from China where it was met the Duke of Marlborough at a on a sumptuous mid-18th century made in the 18th century, to prominent social event. Th e duke, mantle, the ACM’s blue vases. France, Britain, the United States who was to later receive a US$2.5 and today, Singapore. Interestingly, million dowry, owned Blenheim Th e vases feature a deep glaze, the vases share a connection with Palace – one of the grandest characteristic of porcelains produced the hit British TV drama series, country houses in England. in China during the reign of Emperor Downton Abbey. Qianlong from 1736 to 1745. Th ey Th e Duke and Duchess of were likely to have been exported to Th e plot of Downton Abbey Marlborough inspired one of Europe soon after they were made in which an American heiress the most grandiose yet insipid because the mounts consisting of provides much-needed cash to a portraits of the time. It was dragons cast in bronze and then struggling British aristocratic estate painted by John S. Sargent and gilded were added in Paris shortly was based on the story of a real-life still hangs at Blenheim Palace after. Th is combination of Chinese American heiress named Consuelo today. Th e puff y drapery and and European art was clearly Vanderbilt, who lived from 1877 shallow expressions captured in adored by Consuelo Vanderbilt, to 1964. She was a famed beauty the painting seemed to refl ect who represented the taste of the and socialite, and the daughter of their loveless marriage, which aristocracy during the modernist age William K. Vanderbilt, one of the ended in 1906. of gossipy and opulent excess.

- 12 - LOOKING FOR SHAKESPEARE

Text by Mishelle Lim Photo on this page Main gallery of Shaking It With Shakespeare Exhibition at Singapore Philatelic Museum. EXHIBITION

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01. Atrium of Shaking It THE HISTORY OF Mayor of Stratford, fell on hard With Shakespeare Exhibition at THE BARD times. We know that he married Singapore Philatelic Anne Hathaway, a lady eight years Museum. For someone as famous as his senior who was pregnant at the Shakespeare, surprisingly little 02. Poets and Writers, time of the wedding. He also had Hungary. 1948. is known about the man many two daughters and a son, Hamnet, Collection of refer to as Th e Bard. What we Singapore Philatelic who died at the age of 11 from know has been pieced together Museum. unknown causes. Was he a loving through his writings and through husband? A devoted father? A loyal 03. Left to right: offi cial documents such as his will, Droeshout Engraving, friend? We can only guess. Th e Chandos Portrait & legal papers, church records and only surviving letter to Shakespeare Cobbe Portrait. property deeds. To this day, the full Collection of was penned by Richard Quiney, a story of this enigmatic playwright Singapore Philatelic family friend, requesting the former Museum. continues to unfold as researchers to send him some money. As it was chance upon new discoveries. found posthumously in Quiney’s Shakespeare was born into a middle- possession, it is likely that the letter class family in Stratford-upon-Avon never reached the Bard. By the time in 1564. He endured waning family of his death in 1616, Shakespeare fortunes when his father, once the was a rich man. He co-owned the

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Globe and the Blackfriars theatres, way, for Shakespeare quickly rose to 04. UK’s fi rst was a successful playwright and a theatre stardom, enjoying the royal Shakespeare stamp shareholder of Th e King’s Men, a patronage of Queen Elizabeth I and issue, 1964. Collection of theatre company. King James I. Singapore Philatelic Museum. During his lifetime, the Bard wrote Although Shakespeare is better around 38 plays and 154 sonnets. known for his plays today, 05. Letter from Richard Quyney to William His plays suggest an erudite Shakespeare’s most popular Shakespeare author well-versed in the classics, printed work during his time was requesting help with a loan of £30, 1598. botany, the latest fads in Europe Venus and Adonis, a narrative Courtesy of and medical practices; more than poem that would have made many Shakespeare 700 medical references have been a young maiden blush. While Birthplace Trust. identifi ed in his plays. Yet there Shakespeare did not shy away from 06. Replicas of everyday is no evidence that Shakespeare bawdiness, he was no stranger to objects from Shakespeare’s world. attended university or even taking inspiration from the work Collection of travelled out of England. His foray of others. Like other writers of Singapore Philatelic into theatre is also a mystery. He his time, he adapted existing Museum. was fi rst mentioned as a playwright tales and made them his own. 07. The First Folio at the ripe old age of 28 – by a Th e most notable example being of Shakespeare – facsimile, 21st rival dramatist, Robert Greene, Th e Tragic History of Romeus and century. Collection of who called him “an upstart crow”. Juliet by Arthur Brooke, which Singapore Philatelic If Greene felt threatened by the was published in 1562, two years Museum. newcomer, he was right to feel that before Shakespeare’s birth.

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Shakespeare’s plays were fi rst SHAKESPEARE’S compiled in the First Folio by two ENDURING LEGACY friends, John Heminge and Henry Condell, seven years after his death. Shakespeare’s plays, which explore Without the First Folio, 18 of the the age-old dilemmas of humanity, Bard’s plays, including Macbeth have endured time and crossed and Th e Tempest, might not have cultural barriers. Even 400 years survived. Th e trend of the day was after his death, Shakespeare’s to print plays in the form of quartos, infl uence is still all around us. small books which were often used We often pepper our speech 09 and discarded. Th e Folio editions, unknowingly with words invented on the other hand, were large and by him and fret over the fates of his 08. Textbooks of Shakespeare used expensive books that resided in the characters in print, on screen and in Singapore, libraries of the rich for generations. on stage. It is said that we owe at 1950s to 1980s. Considered the Holy Grail by Collection of least a whopping 2,000 words to the Ministry of antiquarians, only about 750 Shakespeare. While verifi cation Education. First Folios were printed. In them, would require a time machine, these Heminge and Condell divided 09. The Herball or words are attributed to Shakespeare Generall History the plays into comedies, tragedies because they fi rst appeared in his of Plantes by John and histories, a categorisation printed works. Gerarde, 1633. that still defi nes how we look at Collection of Chelsea Physic Garden. Shakespeare’s plays today.

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Th e Bard had a penchant for putting years later, the United Kingdom together old words and adding defi ed conventions with the design new prefi xes and suffi xes to them. of its fi rst Shakespeare stamps. Naturally exuberant in expression, Never before had the portrait of he must have found existing words a commoner shared the spotlight wanting. Shakespeare’s coined with that of the reigning monarch. words were often spot-on and you A few eyebrows were raised, feathers intuitively knew what they meant. ruffl ed, but in the end, the Bard 14 “Eye-ball” was such an example. prevailed. Other examples of Indeed, Shakespeare’s talent lay Shakespeare’s face on stamps, include 10. Shakespeare’s Globe 12. Famous Figures from in evoking vivid imagery with his the famous Droeshout engraving & Bankside Theatres, Classical Literature, words. Best read aloud, his verses from the First Folio, the Chandos United Kingdom, Liechtenstein, 2012. pulsate with a rhythmic life of their portrait and the recently discovered 1995. Collection of Collection of Singapore Singapore Philatelic Philatelic Museum. own as they roll off your tongue. Cobbe portrait. Till this day, stamps Museum. featuring iconic Shakespearean 13. Scenes from As testament to his popularity, characters and scenes, and well- 11. Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s Works, Shakespeare has graced the surface United Kingdom, Fujeira, 1969. Collection loved quotes continue to pay tribute 2016. Collection of of Singapore Philatelic of stamps across the world, from to the literary giant. Singapore Philatelic Museum. the United States to Sierra Leone. Museum. 14. Shakespeare’s 425th Hungary was the fi rst country in In 2012, to celebrate the Bard’s Birth Anniversary, 1948 to honour the Bard with a stamp 450th birthday, the Globe in Sierra Leone, 1989. Collection of Singapore issue titled Poets and Writers. Sixteen London invited theatre companies Philatelic Museum.

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15. Shaking It With 17. A Tudor Fayre Open Shakespeare House (5 & 12 June Exhibition at 2016) at Singapore 17 Singapore Philatelic Philatelic Museum – Museum – Exploring Action-fi lled from around the world to stage Shakespeare’s storytelling session A PIECE OF LITERARY library. by Shakespeare’s 37 of his plays in 37 languages, HISTORY AT THE SINGAPORE Globe. including Swahili and Macedonian. 16. Shaking It With PHILATELIC MUSEUM Shakespeare 18. Shaking It With Th e universality of Shakespeare Exhibition at Shakespeare perhaps lies amongst the pages From now till March 2017, you Singapore Philatelic Exhibition at will be able to see many items Museum – What Singapore Philatelic of his plays. Here, you will fi nd would you serve Museum – Words we poetical lines of speech with almost of signifi cance to Shakespeare’s Shakespeare for owe to Shakespeare. no contextual references, leaving colourful life and legacy on dinner? you free to interpret and re-imagine display at the Singapore Philatelic the plays in any setting. You would Museum. Highlights include be hard-pressed to fi nd another stamps featuring Shakespeare’s Shaking It With Shakespeare Exhibition portrait and works, the replica playwright whose works are as Singapore Philatelic Museum popularly adapted and performed of the letter penned by Richard across the globe. Each year, new Quiney to Shakespeare requesting From now till March 2017. versions appear and old versions for a loan and the facsimile of the For more information, please visit are re-worked, adding to the living First Folio of Shakespeare, amongst www.spm.org.sg tradition that is Shakespeare. many others.

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SAFEGUARDING SINGAPORE’S DIASPORIC HERITAGE

Text by Georgia Mackie Photo on this page Images courtesy of Gong player from Singapore Polytechnic's Georgia Mackie Keseri Puthera. OPINION

01. Rebana Anak player from Singapore Polytechnic’s Keseri Puthera.

02 Performers from Nanyang Polytechnic’s Betara Karisma wearing the ikat kebalaeh.

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Th roughout the months of April communal remembering – which is also perform as lieux de mémoire: and May 2016, I undertook a of crucial importance to the global functioning as symbolic platforms placement with the department of diasporic community, central to for the expression and negotiation Heritage Research and Assessment the formation of Singaporean of collective memory and identity. at the National Heritage Board identities. Kim Butler, in her 2001 (NHB) of Singapore, as part of my paper D e fi n i n g D i a s p o r a , R e fi n ing ROOTS/ROUTES Master's course in International a Discourse, has emphasised As heritage comes increasingly Cultural Heritage Management the pivotal role of this collective into the foreground in the public (Durham University). During the memory in the construction of placement, I undertook research diasporic identity and ultimately in eye, ICH is recognised as part projects on Singapore’s intangible “their survival as a cultural unit”, of nation-building and fostering cultural heritage (ICH). particularly in cases where there has community identity and cultural understanding. Th is is in line with INTANGIBLE CULTURAL been a separation from the homeland for several generations. Les Lieux de signifi cant international shifts HERITAGE AS LIEUX DE mémoire – a term famously coined in the understanding of cultural MÉMOIRE by Pierre Nora in his 1989 paper heritage as refl ected in the 2003 Writing about identity formation in Between Memory and History – i.e., UNESCO Convention on the his seminal 1985 book Th e Past is places which activate processes of Safeguarding of the Intangible Foreign Country, David Lowenthal collective memory-making, are Cultural Heritage which builds on has argued that there is a dependence therefore of enormous signifi cance the earlier 1972 World Heritage on three key elements: relics, history for the diasporic community. Just Convention. It recognises that and memory. It is the fi nal element as buildings and landscapes can act heritage does not have to be – memory and the processes of as sites of signifi cation, ICH can tangible in order to be important

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03. Rebana Ibu player from Singapore Polytechnic’s Keseri Puthera 03 or worthy of safeguarding. While it groups in Singapore celebrates of Chinese, Malay, Indian or is internationally agreed that ICH Singapore’s cultural diversity and Other. Within the context of a is essential to the vitality of any fosters cross-cultural understanding multi-cultural population, such community, ICH arguably takes and ultimately encourages peace recognition can help to foster on a distinct pertinence within the and tolerance across diverse groups cross-cultural understanding and Singaporean context. and communities. A community ultimately encourage peace and Identifying and studying ICH identity is established providing tolerance across diverse groups and can reveal the many nuanced Singaporeans a sense of belonging in communities. dimensions of identity. Th is is a more multidimensional way, and one that is not based along ethnic As part of my placement at NHB, I especially important to multi- conducted research into three ICH racial society like Singapore. ICH lines. Such emphasis is also useful in elements in Singapore: Lo Hei, is highly relevant for diasporic the construction of ethnic, cultural Th imithi and Dikir Barat. Th e aim societies. Unable to transport and national identity beyond the buildings or landscapes, it is the constraints of state-designated of this research was to create three moveable ICH elements like taxonomies. Identifying and detailed case study reports which food, stories, languages, religions studying ICH can reveal the many combined secondary and primary and music (amongst many other nuanced dimensions of identity research: incorporating knowledge things) that are carried along within Singapore and empower gleaned from archives and literature when communities migrate to new people to relate to communities and with insights from practitioner homes. Recognising and promoting society in a more multidimensional communities. Dikir Barat stood out the ICH of the diff erent cultural way, beyond the ethnic boundaries in my research.

- 21 - OPINION

04. Yaser Abqari Bin Abdul Nassir Basatamah, Gong chanang player in Betara Karisma and president of Malay Cultural Group at Nanyang Polytechnic. 04

DIKIR BARAT: A VESSEL of the performance oscillates rich, diverse and intricate cultural FOR MALAY IDENTITY fl uidly between asli (original) and heritage that Singapore bears. baru (new) with the unapologetic As a researcher, I felt moved by Dikir Barat provides fertile ground blending of hip-hop choreography the generosity of Singaporean for the assertion and negotiation and Western rap with traditional practitioner communities to of Malay community memory and Kelatanese elements like the be involved in our research, identity, and therefore responds Wau Bulan. as well as their resilience and directly to Nora’s conception of a fervour to maintaining their Like most ICH elements, the Lieux de Memoire. Its signifi cance community identity. It was the survival of Dikir Barat is heavily lies in its multidimensionality: younger generations in particular reliant on oral transmission, functioning on a variety of who struck me with their true passed down from an increasingly levels and transcending any one comprehension of the signifi cance shrinking older generation to the classifi cation. A vibrant and that these cultural expressions have younger generation. Th is poses colourful performing art style, for their individual, local, national it is a vessel which carries the huge challenges to safeguarding it. Unlike a building or object and community identity. It is this four major Malay art styles: Seni zeal and insight which I believe is Musik (music), Seni Gerak Tari which can be restored with careful conservation, Dikir Barat exists central to the future safeguarding (dance), Seni Suara (singing) and eff orts of NHB and which gives Seni Sastera (literature), as well as ephemerally in the precise beats of the rebanas (Malay hand drum), me great confi dence in the success traditional costume. More than of this venture. just a form of entertainment, the synchronised movements of however, Dikir Barat is a vehicle the awok-awok (chorus) and the Th e importance of such expressions for social commentary and the witty pantuns of the tukang karut of cultural diversity cannot be transmission of community (key song initiator) and therefore overstated: their survival is not knowledge and values. In its truest requires a much more creative only crucial to the success of sense, it provides a mediation approach to its protection. Singaporean society, but more between past/present, here/there broadly, their protection is critical CONCLUSIONS and ultimately a negotiation of to the resistance of globalisation contemporary Malay identity in During my time at NHB, I was and for fostering a global diasporic Singapore. Th e modern variation impressed and inspired by the consciousness.

- 22 - RECORDING THE PAST WITH FILM

Text by Dr John Kwok

Photo on this page Pulau Ubin Village. Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. CULTURE

01. Street scene of Pulau Ubin. Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

01

Historical fi lms are the most diffi cult In 2016, as part of the celebrations to produce a fi lm on Ubin as part types of fi lm to make because in for Singapore’s 50 years of of the National Heritage Board’s a way the script has already been independence, two fi lmmakers annual Singapore Heritage Festival. written. Past events are immutable, were commissioned to make two Th e fi lm’s plot follows an old which challenges the scriptwriter separate fi lms about Pulau Ubin – man as he travels back to Ubin to and director’s creativity, style an island situated on the northeast reconnect with his past. On his trip, and approach. Get it wrong and of Singapore’s main island. Th e he meets with people who are either academics will challenge the fi lm island’s heyday was from the 1950s working or living on the island for historical inaccuracy or fi lm to the 1970s, when the island had and they share with him personal critics will criticise its historical a population of around 2,000, stories on their family background, authenticity. Th e historian Mark most of whom were working in the how they arrived in Ubin and Carnes reminds us that there is a granite quarries or in supporting why they stayed. Th ere is a feeling diff erence between reel history and industries like the Food & Beverage of nostalgia throughout the fi lm real history. According to his 2004 industry. Th e population declined as the old man revisits the places book Shooting (Down) the Past, after the quarries closed down and of his childhood and youth, only Historians vs. Hollywood, reel history the island took on a diff erent role to discover that they have mostly is comprehensible and accessible as it as the last of Singapore's island vanished. At the broader level, the “unfolds according to the dramatic kampong community. fi lm refl ects the way Singaporeans conventions with which audiences engage with heritage issues. are familiar” and real history is Th e fi rst fi lm – Homecoming, is by complicated as the “plot lines skitter Singaporean fi lmmaker, Royston Th e second fi lm – Life on Ubin, in every direction and seldom Tan. He was commissioned by the is made by budding independent terminate in clear points”. National Museum of Singapore fi lmmaker, Clarice Lee. She was

- 24 - CULTURE

02 03

04 05 commissioned to make a fi lm 02. Documentary Progress of ICH Survey opening, Life on Ubin. as part of the National Heritage Courtesy of Board’s cultural mapping project. The National Heritage Board will be Clarice Lee.

Th e story of Ubin is presented embarking on a nationwide survey on 03. Resident of Pulau Ubin. Courtesy of in a series of interviews with the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in residents of the island who share Clarice Lee. Singapore. ICH elements such as oral stories about their past and present 04. Hornbill birds lives on Ubin. Th is fi lm does not traditions and expressions; performing sighted in Pulau arts; social practices, rituals and festive Ubin. Courtesy of have a central character or even a Clarice Lee. narrator to string together all of the events; knowledge and practices 05. Tua Pek Kong narratives. Yet the narratives come concerning nature and the universe; and Festival 2015 at together in a magical and charming traditional craftsmanship will be surveyed Pulau Ubin. Courtesy of Clarice Lee. way that tell the story of Ubin – in the project. This survey will run in past and present. It refl ects the real tandem with the heritage survey covering history of the island community. tangible heritage in Singapore. Both fi lms move in diff erent directions to present the realities of life in Ubin and Singapore, succeeding realistically to portray a slice of Singapore's heritage from the perspective of Singaporeans in 2015 for audiences in the future. Th is is the power of historical fi lms when the fi lmakers get it right.

- 25 - COMMUNITY HERITAGE TRAIL BUKIT TIMAH

Text by Stefanie Tham

Photo on this page Railway station at Bukit Timah, early 20th century. Collection of National Museum of Singapore. Courtesy of National Heritage Board. TRAIL

01. Road leading up Bukit Timah hill, 1890s. Collection of National Museum of Singapore. Courtesy of National Heritage Board.

02. Students from Bukit Panjang Government School swimming in a pool during an excursion to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, 1950. Bukit Panjang Government School Collection. Courtesy of National Archives of SIngapore.

01

One gets a sense of both the local Brooke’s evident bias refl ected and the colonial when exploring the colonial thinking of the time. Bukit Timah. From road names Without access into the interior, such as Princess of Wales Road and it was impossible for the British Jalan Haji Alias, to buildings like St to establish control over the land. Joseph’s Church, the former Ford As such, a long road weaving into Motor Factory and Th e Chinese Bukit Timah was constructed High School, centuries of history from the 1830s to 1840s, an can be found in Bukit Timah, each attempt by the British authorities telling a part of Singapore’s past. to impose some degree of colonial regulation over the unsurveyed Remnants of Singapore’s colonial era interior. Part of this road is known can be found in the very road that contemporarily as Bukit Timah traverses Bukit Timah today. In the Road and Upper Bukit Timah early years after Sir Stamford Raffl es Road. Completed in 1845, the established Singapore as a British road connected the northern tip of trading port in 1819, the country’s Singapore from Kranji to the heart interior was still relatively unexplored of the city in the south, serving by the Europeans. Even though there also as the main artery leading to were signs in the 1820s that indicated neighbouring Johor. the presence of local settlers inland, 02 the land beyond the Singapore Th e road’s establishment precipitated River, such as Bukit Timah, was still a greater fl ow of people and deemed “wild and lawless” and these commodities into the interior of early inhabitants as “straying from Singapore. About half a century the fold of civilisation”, quoting Sir later in 1900, a railway line James Brooke a naval offi cer stationed was being built to facilitate this in Singapore in 1839. movement. Th is railway line was

- 27 - TRAIL

03. Workers at a granite quarry in Bukit Timah, 1957. Wong Kwan Collection. Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

03 later known as the Singapore-Johor a sanctuary for many who seek remaining today were saved in the Railway, and has become a shared reprieve from the hustle of the urban 1930s by the eff orts of Richard memory among the subsequent city today. Th e establishment of the Eric Holttum, the director of the generations of Singaporeans who reserve began in the 1840s, when the Botanic Gardens and his staff , remembered travelling to Malaysia colonial authorities fi rst made the hill including assistant director E. via this railway. a reserve. Th e area was recognised for J. H. Corner and his assistant its thriving ecology, with naturalist Mohammad Noor, who tried to As the interior opened, missionaries Alfred Russel Wallace extolling lure away illegal woodcutters and also ventured inwards to evangelise. about the rich biodiversity found throw their logging equipment French Missionary Fr Anatole there after visiting Singapore in the away when they were distracted. Mauduit MEP purchased a parcel 1850s. Wallace described the reserve of land from the British East India in his book, Th e Malay Archipelago, Th e serenity of the reserve today Company to set up St Joseph’s saying, “[in] all my subsequent betrays the darker side of its history Church between 1852 and 1853 travels in the East I rarely if ever during the Second World War. at the 9 ½ milestone along Upper met with so productive a spot.” His Th e hill’s elevation made Bukit Bukit Timah Road. Like many observations in Bukit Timah also Timah an important target for the of the early Christian churches contributed to his eventual thesis Japanese during the Second World that owned tracts of land, the on natural selection, conceived War, providing a tactical vantage church parcelled out its land to independently from Charles Darwin point that the invading troops parishioners to live and work. Over who also arrived at the same theory. wanted. Moreover, vital British time, a network of institutions were supply dumps were stored in the built around St Joseph’s Church, However, despite initial colonial area. At midnight of 10 February including a trade school that would eff orts to prevent illegal timber 1942, Japanese troops marched become Boys’ Town Singapore, harvesting and preserve the into Bukit Timah Village and by serving the local community at rainforest, poor management over the following day, Bukit Timah hill Bukit Timah. the years depleted the hill’s primary fell into Japanese hands. forests. Th e granite quarries of the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve 1900s that are today incorporated Another prominent site in Bukit is arguably the most prominent into the reserve’s trails had further Timah also featured signifi cantly landmark in the area. Standing threatened the hill’s fragile ecology. during the war. Th e former Ford at 163 metres high, the reserve is Portions of the primary rainforest Motor Factory along Upper Bukit

- 28 - TRAIL

04. The Ford Factory at Upper Bukit Timah Road, early 20th century. Collection of National Museum of Singapore. Courtesy of National Heritage Board.

05. Lieutenant General Percival (far right) and other British offi cers on the way to Ford Motor Factory at Bukit Timah to surrender, marking the fall of Singapore and the beginning of the Japanese Occupation, 1942. Quah We Ho Collection. Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

04

Timah Road was converted into Lieutenant General Yamashita’s forward headquarters. It was at the factory where the terms of British surrender were discussed on February 15, 1942, a date that is still sombrely commemorated annually. As the 1950s arrived, stirrings of early nationalism began to take hold in Singapore. Bukit Timah bore witness to this period of political awakening during the tumultuous decades of the 1950s and 1960s. Students from Th e Chinese High School were at the frontlines of several anti- colonial disputes, including the May 13, 1954 student protest over 05 national conscription, which then saw about 2,000 Chinese High and Chung Cheng High School students staging a 22-day hunger strike against police violence in the following days. Students from the nearby University of Malaya (today’s National University of

- 29 - TRAIL

06

07

08

Singapore Bukit Timah Campus) is an unspoken shared pastime for 06. The Chinese High 08. The former Raffl es also formed societies such as the Singaporeans. Some of these places School students College, today’s conducting National University University Socialist Club and draw Singaporeans from other parts experiments in of Singapore Bukit Democratic Club to agitate for of the island to Bukit Timah. Th e the school’s old Timah Campus. laboratory. Courtesy Courtesy of social and political causes during Adam Food Centre, for example, of National Heritage National Heritage this period. is one such popular food haunt. Board and Hwa Board. Chong Institution. While these heritage sites refl ect It started as a group of open-air stalls before moving to its current 07. The Chinese High the more eventful moments in School Clock Tower, Singapore history, other places in location opposite Serene Centre gazetted as a in 1974. Some of the stalls today, National Monument Bukit Timah are remembered for in 1999. Courtesy of being well-loved community spaces. such as Bahrakath Mutton Soup National Heritage Unsurprisingly, several of these King (stall No. 10) and Sathiyame Board. spaces revolve around food, which Jeyam (stall No. 13), have been

- 30 - TRAIL

09. Adam Road Food Centre, 2007. Courtesy of National Heritage Board.

09 around since the early 1970s. Th e Especially for the older generation, It is hard not to notice the number rows of shophouses at Cheong it is also not possible to speak of of schools that line the stretch of Chin Nam Road and Chun Tin Bukit Timah without referring Bukit Timah Road. Bukit Timah is Road also off er a plethora of food to the once-famous Beauty home to Th e Chinese High School, choices. Th e latter street was named World, which started out as an Nanyang Girls’ High School, after Cheong Chun Tin, the fi rst amusement park during the Methodist Girls’ School, National qualifi ed dentist of Chinese descent Japanese Occupation and later Junior College and Pei Hwa in Singapore, whose son Chin Nam converted into a marketplace in Presbyterian Primary, to name a owned a rubber estate in the area. 1947. Unfortunately, Beauty World few. Pei Hwa Presbyterian is one of Th ese roads grew popular from the was destroyed by two large fi res in the oldest schools in Bukit Timah, 1990s, becoming well-known for 1975 and 1977, and subsequently founded by the Chinese Christian restaurants that served halal Malay, redeveloped. Today, the Beauty Church (now Glory Presbyterian Indian and Chinese dishes. Today, World name is carried on by the Church) in 1889. Korean and Chinese eateries can shopping malls Beauty World also be found there, off ering even Centre and Beauty World Plaza, For many of these students who went greater variety to the bustling lunch both built in the 1980s and located to school in the area in the 1990s, and dinner crowd. across the road of the original market. the former McDonald’s Place at

- 31 - TRAIL

10

King Albert Park would have been mornings. Although the outlet one of the choice places in Bukit closed in 2014, these memories Timah to hang out after class. Th e live on among the generations spacious two-storey branch opened of students who studied in in 1991 as the biggest McDonald’s Bukit Timah. outlet in Singapore, and also housed the restaurant’s corporate headquarters and a staff training centre. Students and residents Bukit Timah is one of the areas that alike have incorporated their visits witnessed the Japanese invasion during to the restaurant as part of their World War II, and was also where the 11 daily routine. “We would have British surrendered on 15 February lunch, read books, study and enjoy 1942, marking the start of the Japanese the air-con,” David Lim, a former Occupation of Singapore. These sites of Nan Hua Secondary alumnus remembers. Some students would World War II are featured in the Bukit Timah Heritage Trail, one of the 17 trails park themselves on one of the 433 10 & 11. The former offered by the National Heritage Board. McDonald’s seats daily to study during the Place at King examination period. It is also very The trails can be downloaded at the Albert Park, common for residents to visit the NHB portal at https://roots.sg/visit/trails. 2007. Courtesy of National outlet for breakfast on Saturday Heritage Board.

- 32 - HAWKER CENTRES

THE VIEW FROM ABOVE

Text by Goh Tiong Ann, Student Contribution Photo on this page Diners sit on wooden stools around the stall facing the hawker who would take their orders and serve the food hot from the pot. Ministry of Culture Collection. Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. HISTORICAL SPOTLIGHT

01. Mother and child 02. Makeshift hawker strolling the market. centre in the Source: The Straits 1980s. Courtesy of Times © Singapore National Archives of Press Holdings Singapore Limited. Reproduced with permission

01 02

Singaporeans have fond memories THE HAWKER PROBLEM refl ected that about two-thirds of their beloved hawker centres. to three-quarters of hawkers were In 1950, the Governor of the Th ey bear witness to signifi cant as Crown Colony of Singapore, Sir F. operating illegally without licences. well as ordinary events such as our Gimson, established the Hawkers Police constables who were tasked fi rst taste of chilli, our birthday Inquiry Commission to study and with enforcing hawker licenses celebrations, our breakfast rituals recommend solutions for what the were regularly bribed. Frequent and the constant satisfying of our government termed as the “Hawker police raids carried out on illegal hunger pangs. Hawker centres allow Problem”. According to an article hawkers were also criticised for not us to gather and eat at communal from Th e Straits Times in November, only being ineff ective at deterring tables, savouring and partaking in 1950, hawkers were seen by illegal hawking, but also causing each other’s food heritage. It is a government offi cials as “primarily unnecessarily painful losses to the place where we build our sense of a nuisance to be removed from the poor hawkers. Th e hawkers received solidarity as we stand side by side streets”, because their unsanitary widespread public support because in line for that famous nasi lemak conditions were contributing to the they provided meals at aff ordable (“coconut milk rice” in Malay) while spread of diseases while their stalls prices. Any attempt at dismantling discussing where the best Indian were obstructing cleaners from the hawkers’ livelihood was rojak (“mixture” in Malay) can be tidying up the streets during the perceived to be an excessive abuse found. Hawker centres, however, post-war era. of colonial authority. did not exist in the years before independence in 1965. To examine An earlier attempt in the 1930s to Some solutions were proposed, what precipitated their formation, license hawkers was not eff ective including making licenses more let’s examine this issue with a view because most hawkers were attractive to hawkers. Another from the top, beginning in 1950 illiterate and did not understand recommendation to place hawkers with what the Colonial Government the requisite hygiene standards into approved shelters or markets termed as the “Hawker Problem”. to get licensed. Th e 1950 report was deemed ineff ective because

- 34 - HISTORICAL SPOTLIGHT

03 04 people would rather eat outdoors Compounding matters, hawkers 03. Wet market fi sh where there was better ventilation. also carried on their bad habits seller using a daching (weighing Unless there was a provision for from their street hawker days, such scale), 1960s. the wholesale rebuilding of entire as smoking while preparing food Primary Production Department residential estates, there would be or handling raw food and money Collection. Courtesy no easy solution to the “Hawker without washing their hands. Th ese of National Archives Problem”. conditions provoked urgent action of Singapore and in the 1980s, the government 04. After the 1980s, POST-INDEPENDENCE: started enforcing stricter hygiene street hawkers no longer plied the A CHANCE TO REBUILD practices through punitive fi nes. streets as permanent Th is was further enhanced in 1987, hawker centres were Th e golden opportunity to redevelop when a Point Demerits System was set up. Paul Piollet large neighbourhoods came Collection. Courtesy put in place. Hawkers who broke of National Archives after independence in 1965. Th e hygiene rules were given demerit of Singapore. Housing and Development Board points and repeated off enders (HDB) was given the authority to would have their licenses revoked. rebuild entire housing estates to accommodate new residents from Beyond reactionary measures, the the old kampongs (“village” in Ministry of Environment also Malay). In order to feed residents instituted pre-emptive solutions to from these new neighbourhoods, deal with refuse and trash in the the Parliament legislated a hawker centres. Contract cleaners programme to build hawker centres were employed to clear tables of in conjunction with new housing crockery and leftover food quickly. and industrial estates. From 1971 Hawkers also had to undergo an to 1986, 113 government hawker annual inspection and were given a centres were constructed to house hygiene grade, from A to D, which street-side hawkers. had to be prominently displayed on their store fronts. A “D” grade According to Professor Lily Kong, would most certainly turn in her 2007 book Singapore customers away. Hawker Centres: People, Places, Food, poor hygiene remained an Th e Ministry of Environment issue despite the new facilities. also launched a public education Hawker centres were dirty as a campaign, encouraging the public result of stray animals and rodents to exercise its consumer power eating leftovers from the fl oors. to infl uence hawkers to maintain

- 35 - HISTORICAL SPOTLIGHT

05. Taman Jurong Market and Food Centre, a three-story complex. Courtesy of National Environment Agency.

05 hygiene standards through the NEW HAWKER reorganised table and stool layout, dissemination of pamphlets, CENTRES FOR THE NEW as well as innovative architectural brochures and travelling exhibitions. MILLENNIUM features to improve ventilation. Th en Minister for Environment, Dr Ahmad Mattar, said in 1989 Over time, hawker centres were Th e upgrading process involved that as long as people continued inevitably beginning to show gathering feedback and suggestions to patronise eating establishments signs of deterioration. A Straits from the public and the hawkers and hawker stalls of questionable Times report in September 2000 themselves. One major suggestion hygienic conditions, Singapore revealed that hawkers wanted better was to retain the characteristic would not be able to weed out ventilation in hawker centres as it features of individual hawker irresponsible food handlers. could become very stuff y in the late centres, such as iconic trees or afternoon after the lunch crowd signboards. Government offi cials recognised had left. the role of hawker centres as more LOOKING BEYOND than mere food establishments. As neighbourhoods were starting In 1977, Mr Chai Chong Yii, to get upgraded from the 1990s, In October 2011, the Singapore then Member of Parliament for the Ministry of Environment took government announced that it Bukit Batok and Senior Minister the opportunity in 2001 to launch would build 10 more hawker of State for Education, extolled the Hawker Centres Upgrading centres, after a hiatus of 26 years, hawkers to “work in harmony Programme. Th en Acting Minister focusing on HDB towns currently and with the spirit of mutual for the Environment, Mr Lim facing an under-provision of eating accommodation”. Hawker centres Swee Say, told Th e Straits Times in options, subject to land availability. were places where people from all February of 2001 that as we were In 2012, the government announced walks of life could gather to enjoy a upgrading our living environment, the towns where the 10 new hawker wide variety of food options. Th eir it was only appropriate that we also centres will be built. Th ese include integration with town centres and upgraded our eating environment. the fi rst three new hawker centres convenient location next to bus in Bukit Panjang, Hougang and interchanges, ensured that hawker Renovated hawker centres were Tampines. In March 2015, it was centres remained popular among installed with anti-slip fl oorings, announced that another 10 new neighbourhood residents. new sewage and water pipes, a hawker centres will be built by 2027.

- 36 - HISTORICAL SPOTLIGHT

06. Taman Jurong Food Centre during peak hours. Courtesy of National Environment Agency.

07. Taman Jurong Food Centre. Courtesy of National Environment Agency.

06 As many early-generation hawkers fried garlic is not one that can be began to retire, a group of easily replaced. Hawker centres Singaporeans took it upon have certainly evolved from being themselves to catalogue their a problem in the earlier part of the valuable history, knowledge and 20th century to today forming an skills for the benefi t of future indelible part of our everyday lives. generations. Dr Leslie Tay, a family physician, started his blog ieatishootipost in 2006 to post Visit Our Museum @ Taman Jurong’s new professionally crafted photos of exhibition titled, Eat at TJ – Our Hawker hawker favourites, helping to Centres and Food Heritage. The exhibition chronicle and digitise Singapore’s showcases the social history and heritage hawker heritage online. He also of Singapore’s food culture and how the interviews venerable store owners, various hawker centres of Taman Jurong who are always happy to share something witty and memorable, have evolved over time and remained and sometimes drop hints of their signifi cant to the residents of Jurong. Told secret ingredients. through the memories of residents, this exhibition will explore areas such as the 07 Hawker centres have withstood the test of time and continue to hawker culture prior to the establishment reinvent and prepare themselves of hawker centres, hawker centres as a for the future. Even in today’s social space for the local community and modern age, the old-school charm food as a form of cultural identity that of savouring delicious hawker defi nes Singaporeans. The exhibition is on fare in the midst of the clanging until January, 2017. of woks and the sizzling hiss of

- 37 - BULAN BAHASA

CELEBRATING THE DYNAMISM OF MALAY LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Photo on this page Rakan Bahasa excited and ready to share Text by Aisyah Noor Mohd stories on Malay pioneers and the artefacts on Images courtesy of Malay Language Council, Singapore display. FESTIVAL

01. Soliloquy Competition for primary and secondary students by Perkumpulan Seni.

02. Dondang Rakyat – a poetry workshop by Mohd Khair Mohd Yasin & The Kaizen M.D.

03. Speech by Mr Ng Chee Meng, GOH for Bulan Bahasa 2016 launch ceremony.

04. Night Concert by Singapore’s very 01 own, Rausyanfi kir.

05. Syair recitation by Ms Rahayu Mahzam, Chairperson of Bulan Bahasa 2016.

02 06. Performance on the progress of the Malay community during the launch ceremony.

03 04

Bulan Bahasa 2016 (Malay Language on Malay pioneers that depict Month 2016) was launched at the signifi cant events and milestones National Museum of Singapore in Singapore’s history, the museum on September 3, 2016. Held from formed the perfect setting for the August 15 to October 15, 2016, Bulan Bahasa launch weekend. Bulan Bahasa featured a variety Extolling the virtues of the Malay of programmes and activities that language at the Bulan Bahasa showcased the dynamism of the 05 launch ceremony, Guest-of-Honour Malay language, and its relevance Mr Ng Chee Meng, said: “In diverse as Bahasa Ilmu (knowledge), Bahasa and multicultural Singapore, our Budaya (culture) and Bahasa Mesra mother tongues are pivotal in (relationships). strengthening our ethnic roots, as FESTIVE WEEKEND AT THE well as our cultural and national NATIONAL MUSEUM OF identities. Bahasa Melayu is our SINGAPORE national language, and the Malay culture is very much an integral Over 10,000 visitors were treated part of Singapore’s heritage. It is a 06 to a myriad of Malay language, social fabric we must hold together.” culture and heritage activities at the National Museum of Singapore on Th is year, special eff ort was made September 3 and 4, 2016. Home to ensure that both Malay and to many artefacts and displays non-Malay speakers could appreciate

- 39 - FESTIVAL

07 08

10

09 the festival better by having the Amidst the festivities, Ms Rahayu presentation of programmes in both Mahzam, Chairman of Bulan 11 English and Malay. Bahasa Committee and Member Museum visitors were also treated of Parliament for Jurong GRC, remarked: “It is through language to interactive tours of the Singapore 07. Dikir Barat History Gallery conducted in that we build kinship and performance in Malay and English by Rakan Bahasa connection to our roots, values, English and Malay. (Friends of the Language) from heritage and culture, preserving 08. Silat and poetry it for the young and generations demonstration with the secondary schools. Trained by narrative in English Friends of the Museum, the students to come.” and Malay. worked closely with the museum She also expressed her optimism to present memorable tours that 09. Sharing session on for the future as she observed more Malay orchestras took visitors through signifi cant conducted in English youths and new partners stepping moments in history. Together, and Malay. forward to organise programmes students and visitors journeyed for the community. “I am pleased 10. Rakan Bahasa through the stories behind the showing museum displays, exhibits, artefacts and to acknowledge that more than 50 visitors the Treaty partners came together this year to of Friendship & historical milestones of importance Alliance. to the Malay community, including produce over 100 programmes for our community, so that everyone 11. Rakan Bahasa jewellery from Fort Canning presenting on and stories of prominent persons can continue to enjoy Bahasa Singapore’s fi rst Melayu as a relevant and dynamic President, Mr Yusof such as Singapore’s fi rst President, Ishak to GOH and Mr Yusof Ishak. language,” said Ms Rahayu. other guests.

- 40 - FESTIVAL

12. Newly appointed 14. Newly appointed language language ambassador, ambassador, Siti Khalijah Zainal. Uztazah Nurul ‘Izzah Khamsani. 13. Newly appointed language ambassador, Megat Muhammad Firdaus.

12 13

APPOINTMENT OF language in her Malay productions. LANGUAGE AMBASSADORS Megat Muhammad Firdaus is the founder and conductor of Orkestra Th e Malay Language Council, Sri Temasek. Megat believes in Singapore appoints new language the power of Malay Orchestra to ambassadors every year. Th ese bring people together, so everyone ambassadors are recognised for the can better appreciate the Malay passion they have for the Malay language through poetic lyrics and language, and are appointed for songs. their ability to champion the use of Bahasa Melayu, along with the Ustazah Nurul ‘Izzah Khamsani promotion of Malay culture and is an Executive Offi cer at the heritage. Th ree language ambassadors Jamiyah Ar-Rabitah Mosque in were appointed this year. Education and Dakwah. Ustazah Nurul is keen to share her ceramah Siti Khalijah Zainal is an actress (“lecture” in Malay) skills with 14 with more than 10 years of other lecturers and teachers as she experience in theatre. Siti is continues to encourage members passionate about promoting the of the community to perfect Malay language to youths and presentation skills by strengthening hopes to heighten their language their command of the Malay appreciation as she presents language. the beauty and vibrancy of the

- 41 - FESTIVAL

BULAN BAHASA IN THE HEARTLANDS Th e Malay Language Council, Singapore fi rst took Bulan Bahasa into the heartlands in 2014. Th is year, Bulan Bahasa was celebrated in Tampines, Choa Chu Kang, Nee Soon and Jurong. And for the fi rst time ever, Bulan Bahasa was also held in Sembawang. Th e Malay Activity Executive Committees (MAECs) and many more language, arts and community partners all play key roles in bringing together Bulan 15 Bahasa’s heartland and Semarak (fringe) activities island-wide.

For more information on Bulan Bahasa, please visit mbms.sg. Follow Bulan Bahasa on Facebook at facebook. com/majilisbahasa and Instagram at #bulanbahasa.

16

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15. Tampines residents 16. Playing traditional enjoying the Bulan Malay games with Bahasa celebrations. Choa Chu Kang residents.

17. Bulan Bahasa launch at Tampines.

- 42 - FESTIVAL

18 19 20

22

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18. Performance by 22. Sembawang Concord Primary residents enjoying School during the Bulan Bahasa Bulan Bahasa at celebrations. Choa Chu Kang. 23. Ms Rahayu Mahzam 19. Bulan Bahasa launch and Mr Amrin Amin at Nee Soon. joining in the Dikir Barat Performance 20. Nee Soon residents at Sembawang. enjoying the Bulan Bahasa celebrations. 24. Photo of Malay Language Council, 21. At Bulan Bahasa in Singapore, Bulan Jurong, close to 30 Bahasa committee teams of students members, Language participated in Ambassadors, Lubumba – an community partners Amazing Race-styled and the NHB game where they got Language Councils to learn about Malay Secretariat. language and culture.

24

- 43 - TRACING THE HISTORY OF PENANG’S STATE MUSEUM AND STATE ART GALLERY

Text by Haryany Mohamad and Rufus Tan Photo on this page Images courtesy of Penang’s State Museum Penang State Art Gallery, Ground Floor, Dewan and State Art Gallery Sri Penang. ASEAN HERITAGE

01. Penang State Art Gallery, Ground Floor, Dewan Sri Pinang.

01

Even though Penang’s State 100 boys and 50 girls. Penang Free MUSEUM AT MACALISTER Museum and State Art Gallery School and later on Hutchings (NO. 57 MACALISTER have only been around for slightly School occupied the premises from ROAD) over 50 years, the buildings which 1897 until 1960. Like the State Art Museum at Lebuh house them date as far back as the By the early 1960s, Penang still did Farquhar, Museum at Macalister 19th century. Th e heritage and story not have a permanent museum to Road, located within the premises of these buildings fi gure as much in preserve and document its history. of the Penang State Museum, too Penang’s colourful history as do the Hence, in 1962, the late Tunku has an interesting story to tell. First exhibits contained within. Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj, conceptualised as a hospital, its PENANG STATE MUSEUM Malaysia's First Prime Minister, existence was made possible through AT LEBUH FARQUHAR who was himself a former student generous donations from prominent of Penang Free School, suggested early 20th century members of On Lebuh Farquhar, stands the that the state government acquire Penang society. Th ese included the main branch of the Penang State the premises to house Penang’s likes of the Huttenbach brothers, Museum. Th e history of the State Museum. Tye Kee Yoon – the 4th Chinese building which houses the Penang Consul to Penang, the Sarkies State Museum dates back to the On April 14, 1965, the museum Brothers of E&O Hotels fame and late 19th century, when it was fi rst was offi cially opened and in various clan associations. A plaque built to house one of the region’s 2005, the Penang State Museum at the hospital building shows the fi rst English-medium schools. Th is building was designated a heritage total funds raised to be $65,435 – a historical fact is a fi tting refl ection building. considerable sum in those days. of Penang’s status as Britain’s fi rst Today, the Penang State Art Museum settlement in Southeast Asia. No. 57 Macalister Road served as welcomes approximately 80,000 a maternity hospital from 1915 Supported by the East India visitors each year, who come to learn to 1955, with a short break in Company, Captain Robert Smith more about Penang’s history through between when the Japanese used of the Royal Engineers was tasked the museum’s comprehensive it as a communications centre and to prepare a building plan for a collection of artefacts, photographs hospital for Japanese troops during school which could accommodate and paintings. WWII. From 1955 to the mid-80s,

- 45 - ASEAN HERITAGE

02. Penang State Museum, Farquhar Street.

03. Penang State Museum, Adminstration Offi ce at No. 57 Macalister Road.

02 03 the building was occupied by Th e Penang State Art Gallery houses various organisations including a comprehensive collection devoted Opening Hours and Fees the St John’s Ambulance, the Red to modern and contemporary art. Penang State Museum at Lebuh Farquhar Crescent Society and a vocational Various artworks revolving around Opening Hours: Every day except Fridays training centre for adults. It then ideas of identity, urbanisation, and public holidays, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm stood derelict for 15 years before globalisation and the environment the Penang Municipal Council prompt visitors to consider how Admission Fee: RM1.00 for adults and started renovation works in 2001. It artists have translated their views RM0.50 for students cost RM6.5 million and six years to on these issues into works of art. Penang State Museum at restore the heritage building back Th ey also frequently host No. 57 Macalister Road to its former glory. arts exhibitions by local and international artists as a way of Opening Hours: Every day except Fridays, Museum at Macalister took over fostering an environment conducive from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm the site in September, 2010, to exchanging ideas between Admission Fee: Free and offi cially opened its doors domestic and foreign talents. to the public on April 2011, in Penang State Art Gallery conjunction with the Penang State Th e Contemporary Gallery on the Opening Hours: Every day except Fridays Museum’s 46th anniversary. Today, ground fl oor covers an area of 5,725 and public holidays, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm it is used as a venue for various arts square feet. Th is visua l arts showca se Admission Fee: Free and cultural heritage activities, and covers a variety of themes and hosts special-themed exhibitions. around 10 to 15 exhibitions each year. Examples of activities held STATE ART GALLERY AT here include forums, art talks, DEWAN SRI PINANG workshops, painting competitions When the Penang state government and publication displays. fi rst decided to create a permanent Th e Permanent Gallery on the third space dedicated to the preservation of culture and history in Penang fl oor consists of 6,400 square feet in 1962, it was decided that both of space showcasing a collection of the State Museum and State Art art works. Within the collection Gallery would be housed within the are approximately 1,400 works of same premises. In 1995, however, visual art dating back to 1965. Th ese the State Art Gallery was relocated artworks are in the form of paintings, to Dewan Sri Pinang, where it sculptures, photographs, ceramics, currently occupies two fl oors. prints and various other media.

- 46 - NUS MUSEUM’S PREP-ROOM

Text by Kenneth Tay Images courtesy of the NUS Museum

Photo on this page Gallery impression of Raffl es Lighthouse prep-room. MUSEOLOGY

01

01. Associate Professor On May 10, 2016, the NUS Initiated in 2011, the preparatory Peter Pang, Associate Provost Museum’s prep-room became the room or prep-room at the NUS (Student Life), NUS, fi rst-ever recipient of the University Museum was conceived as a means accepting the award from UMAC Chair Museums and Collections (UMAC) to incubate and test out curatorial Professor Hugues award for innovative practice within experiments. Its slogan – things Dreyssé at NUS a university museum setting. may or may not happen – is an Museum, May 10, 2016. important indicator to the heuristic Professor Hugues Dreyssé, impulses underlying much of the Chairman of UMAC, who gave out curatorial work encouraged at the the award shared that NUS Museum museum. demonstrated through its prep-room a commitment towards creating a To better understand the concept contact between the audience and the behind the prep-room, we borrow museum. He further acknowledged from Ryan Bishop, a professor from the creative approach that they took the University of Southampton. in facilitating “discussion between In his paper on research in Th eory, researchers, interns, artists and the Culture & Society, he noted that in public and the ease of adapting the traditional research work, “… the idea to other museums”. object of inquiry was constituted

- 48 - MUSEOLOGY ahead of time, leaving little desired all three exhibitions. Working room for accidental or unintentional with three curatorial interns from The NUS Museum is a member of the discovery, and targeting a specifi c Curating Lab 2014, key concepts Museum Roundtable (MR). See page 68 for outcome”. Later on, however, Bishop that would function as critical more details on the MR and its members. observed that universities evolved junctions for the programming of into centres where the process of Concrete Island were mapped out. research, and not just its outcomes, Somewhere along the way, things was valued in and of itself. For changed and this meta-curatorial these universities, the potential gesture was abandoned. of unsettling received knowledge and unquestioned orthodoxy was In its current incarnation, Concrete sometimes even valued over the Island incorporates elements from results and concluding reports. J.G. Ballard’s novel of the same title and Tan Pin Pin’s fi lm 80km/h. Th is is something that is It is an ongoing fi ve-year project intimately tied to the curatorial (2016 to 2020) that attempts to labour undertaken by the NUS read Singapore as a condition Museum. Compared to most of movement, exchange and of the other exhibitions at the intensities. Th is city, the project museum, prep-room projects contends, must be read as a medium tend to function as open-ended with networks overlapping onto experiments that are very much other existing networks. still works in progress. Th ese projects, therefore, may or may As such, rather than positioning a not eventually be formalised into formalised exhibition as its terminal formal exhibitions. But the space end point, the project unfolds provided by the prep-room, both across various public formats. At physical and psychical, allows present, it unfolds as a publication for curators at the museum to reader comprising entries based on encounter and discover new nine selected passwords (concrete, methods and subjects. It is a architecture, control, access, speed, space which can accommodate excess, museum, current, island), accidental discoveries, necessary an incubation space at the NUS experimentations, and also failures. Museum, a potential series of Since 2011, a total of ten projects bus tours along the Pan-Island have been incubated as prep-rooms Expressway, an experimental reading at the Museum. workshop based on Ballard’s novel and a mobile cinema programme. One such project, Concrete Island initially began as a prep-room Th e research remains open- project in the second half of 2014, ended and generative, very much centred around three prospective animated by the conversations exhibitions at the NUS Museum: and collaborations that have taken artist Debbie Ding’s Th e Library place as part of the project, each of Pulau Saigon project; Sheltered: happening building onto the next. Documents for Home, an exhibition In some ways, this prep-room dealing with architecture and project is a means to think about its representations; and lastly, curating as an expanded notion an anticipated survey show of of publishing (the act of making fi lmmaker Tan Pin Pin’s practice. public) beyond the conventional Concrete Island was conceived as a format of: exhibition + exhibition curatorial framing encompassing catalogue + public programming.

- 49 - THE GRAFTBUSTERS’ TRAIL APP

Text by Phang Su Hui Images courtesy of the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau

Photo on this page The Old Supreme Court and Municipal Building, 1960s – 1980s. Collection of National Museum of Singapore. DIGITAL

02

Th e Corrupt Practices Investigation establishment of key legislative and Bureau (CPIB) is an independent operational measures in the fi ght agency under the government of against corruption. Th e vision of Singapore. Established in 1952 by the founding fathers, the eff orts of the British Colonial government, it the CPIB, the offi cers’ hard work is responsible for the investigation and camaraderie, and some of the 01 and prevention of corruption in high profi le cases that have been Singapore and is one of the oldest successfully investigated, forms the anti-corruption agencies in the world. backdrop of this trail. At the opening ceremony of Explore interesting features to see the CPIB exhibition – Declassifi ed: the transformation of former CPIB Corruption Matters on April 7, 2016, offi ces, unlock a quiz when you visit

03 Guest-of-Honour, Prime Minister each site and take pictures using the Lee Hsien Loong launched the CPIB postcard function which you can heritage trail mobile application – share on Facebook. Th e Graftbusters’ Trail. Th e app is available on the Apple Encompassing seven sites that App Store and Google Play Store. connect the past, present and future of the Bureau’s and Singapore’s anti-corruption experience, Th e Interesting Fact: Graftbusters’ Trail takes you on a Did you know that CPIB’s second offi ce at

01. Home screen of The journey, appreciating the obstacles, Stamford Road used to serve as a Japanese Graftbusters’ Trail. the challenges and the triumphs military headquarters during World War II? that transformed Singapore from a 02. Wefi e with Prime This led to many myths and rumours about Minister Lee Hsien corruption-rife mudfl at to a modern Loong at the launch metropolis known for its effi ciency the building being haunted. There were of The Graftbusters’ ghostly tales told from offi cers who were on Trail. and incorruptibility. night duty. They would sometimes hear the 03. The Graftbusters’ Th ese seven sites include well- sounds of fl ushing toilets, fl ipping of pages Trail mobile app icon. known Singapore landmarks as well as former sites of CPIB’s offi ces, such and keys turning even though there was no as the former Supreme Court, the one around. It did not help that the gate to Stamford Road site and the current the ‘White House’ often produced a loud Lengkok Bahru offi ce, which has creaking sound. witnessed the development and

- 51 - DIGITAL

04. CPIB’s Stamford Road offi ce from 1962 to 1984, also known as the ‘White House’.

05. Before and after comparison of CPIB’s fi rst offi ce at the old Supreme Court.

06. The old Supreme Court as featured on The Graftbusters’ Trail.

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05

06

- 52 - DIGITAL

07 08

09 10

07. The Hill Street 10. Grey and khaki Centre, where CPIB uniform that CPIB used to reside from offi cers used to don 1984 to 1998. in the past.

08. Recreation room at 11. CPIB’s premises the Hill Street offi ce along Lengkok Bahru – a place for offi cers since 2004. to relax.

09. A briefi ng room-cum- classroom at the Hill Street offi ce.

11

- 53 - HERITAGE EXPLORERS PROGRAMME

Photo on this page Pei Tong Primary School students having a go at Yeh Yeh (Jump Rope) at the launch of the Heritage Explorers Text by Nurliyana Halid Programme. EDUCATION

Museums have always served out of fi ve tasks to earn a Heritage as authentic destinations for Explorers badge. Students who experiential learning. During complete all fi ve professions will get museum visits, students learn to collect the full set of fi ve Heritage about history and heritage Explorers badges. through fi rst-hand observation Eight-year-old Charissa Khor, a and interaction with historical and Primary 3 pupil from West View cultural artefacts. However, beyond Primary School, said: “I enjoyed museum walls, the opportunities to taking part in the Heritage further disseminate knowledge for Explorers Programme and found heritage and culture, encourage self- the tasks, while challenging, still learning and foster greater personal very fun and interesting. It also ownership of heritage are limitless. gave me a chance to interact with Th e National Heritage Board my family, friends and even my (NHB) introduced the Heritage neighbours. After taking on the Explorers Programme in March tasks, I have discovered amazing 01 2016 to primary school students things about our heritage!” to extend the learning of history, Mdm Kylicia Soo, Head of heritage and culture beyond Department for Character and textbooks and the museums' Citizenship Education at Punggol walls, and to cultivate a sense Green Primary School, shared that of commitment and passion for the programme gave students a heritage. Th e Heritage Explorers chance to explore and learn about Programme was developed in various heritage professions which consultation with the Ministry of they had not been previously Education (MOE) to complement exposed to. She felt, however, that school curriculums in the areas of the most important takeaway was National Education, Social Studies, how students could now see their and Character and Citizenship identity as Singaporeans in relation Education. In 2016, over 17,000 to their families, communities students from more than 40 and way of life. “Th e Heritage primary schools participated in the Explorers Programme builds upon the learning of national education 02 Heritage Explorers Programme, which won the Silver Award for in Character and Citizenship Most Innovative Project in the Education, where students can learn about the importance of racial 01. The Heritage 2016 PS21 ExCEL Awards at the Explorers’ Programme Ministry Level. harmony and how each and every card that students one of us is responsible for playing complete. Th e Heritage Explorers Programme a part in building our community, 02. The complete enables primary school students to our Singapore,” she explained. collection of Heritage try diff erent heritage professions and Explorers Badges that students collect. experience fi rst-hand what it is like to be a curator, historian, designer, This programme is free for a limited educator and ambassador. Each time period. Schools must register profession is fl eshed out through a their interest by March 3, 2017 to nhb_ set of fi ve tasks, bringing students [email protected]. beyond the classroom to explore their neighbourhoods, national museums, For more information on the Heritage heritage institutions, historic sites Explorers Programme, please visit and cultural precincts. Upon http://www.nhb.gov.sg/education/ selecting a particular profession, resources-for-schools-and-students. students need to complete three

- 55 - SHIOK, SIA! – SKETCHING SINGAPORE’S FAVOURITE STREET FOOD

Text by Wong Jiashi Photo on this page Images courtesy of Anita Ryanto Fish head curry recipe. BOOKS

01. Illustrations in the book were made by Anita Ryanto herself.

02. Book cover designed by Anita Ryanto.

01

02

Singaporeans’ deep and enduring of information and descriptions. questions such as: “What goes into relationship with food can be clearly Th e soft, blended colours and vivid a dish to give it its colour, texture seen in the numerous food blogs details of the illustrations create and fl avour?” and “How did the and guides that fi ll the Internet dreamy, romantic portrayals of dish come into its current form?” space today. Personal gastronomic many well-loved dishes. Th e author beautifully describes adventures are comprehensively mee siam as “a fi ne example of documented on social media Shiok, Sia! is a celebration of how a dish fi nds favour in other and are often accompanied by local food. Its very title, which communities and evolves”, noting impressive photographs; these days, incorporates the phrase “street that there are Indian, Malay and it is the camera that often takes the food”, pays homage to a time before Peranakan versions of this dish. fi rst whiff of any dish before the the 1970s where vendors still sold nose even has a chance to smell it. food from mobile pushcarts on the Very often, little thought is given streets. Th is book is a reminder that to the things that surround us. Anita Ryanto’s Shiok, Sia! – many of Singapore’s favourite dishes Learning to live slower, to pause and Sketching Singapore’s Favourite have been around for more than smell the curry, may just help us to Street Food book employs a fi fty years. It is a part of heritage notice and appreciate the complex diff erent visual approach. Inside that connects bellies to memories. craft that goes into our food. the 15-cm tall book are pages and pages fi lled with mouth-watering Beyond heritage, the handbook Shiok Sia! is currently available at watercolour illustrations of local also persuades readers to develop a major bookstores. delights, accompanied by nuggets deeper appreciation of food through

- 57 - STYLE AND SECRETS

Text by Maggie Tan Images courtesy of Peter Yeo

Photo on this page Four looks of Zoe in a showgirl outfi t, 1990. BOOKS

“If you think pre-Independence Singapore was a fashion backwater, you’re in for a big surprise.”

01 02

01. Glenda Chong was Vestis virum facit. A man is his of our daily apparel, whether it’s a model before she became a television clothing. an avant-garde top or a simple anchor. everyday t-shirt. Th e idea that clothes make a man 02. Hanis was a cabine is not new. People of all ages in Fashion Most Wanted: Singapore’s model for Yves Saint Laurent in Paris after societies across time have been top insider secrets from the past fi ve she was spotted forming judgements about others decades by John de Souza, Cat at the YSL show in based on their accoutrement. Ong and Tom Rao takes readers Singapore, on a whirlwind trip through time late 1980s. After all, human beings are visual to look at the “who’s who?” of the creatures. But what of the stories local fashion industry and what behind these garments? What of they’ve accomplished in the last the designer behind the drapery, 50 years. Featuring a dazzling the fi ngers that style the hair and plethora of fashion personalities the muses that inspire visions? from designers to fashion In this dizzying age of digital magazine editors, photographers distractions and technological and entrepreneurs, the book is wizardry, it is easy to forget divided into decades starting from whose work goes into the creation the 1960s to the present day.

- 59 - BOOKS

Th e publication off ers a glimpse into the socio-economic forces of each decade and covers the city-state’s transformation by documenting the memories, trials and achievements of professionals from the fashion industry, both past and present. In the author’s words, the book is a “whodunnit, complete with charismatic protagonists, gripping plot twists, thrilling cliff hangers and legions of fashion royalty who have played their own game of thrones in the last fi ve decades”. Anyone interested in fashion will discover a treasure trove of recollections, photographs and of course, style. Fashion Most Wanted: Singapore’s top insider secrets from the past fi ve decades is a book that proudly celebrates 51 years of the local fashion industry, paying tribute to the fashion industry’s pioneers, while looking boldly into the future. Published by the Straits Times Press and recently launched at the National Gallery Singapore, the book is available at Books Kinokuniya & Times Bookstores.

03

03. Jazreel as dark as a noir drama.

- 60 - WHAT’S ON

DAILY

ISTANA HERITAGE GALLERY The President’s Offi ce and the Preservation of Sites and Monuments Division 35 Orchard Rd, Istana Park Ongoing Thursday to Tuesday | 10 am to 6 pm Free admission This Gallery presents the history and heritage of the Istana (a National Monument of Singapore), and its signifi cance in Singapore’s evolving MEREKA UTUSAN: IMPRINTING PORT CITIES: MULTICULTURAL political context. It also showcases a MALAY MODERNITY EMPORIUMS OF ASIA, 1500–1900 selection of artefacts – including state Asian Civilisations Museum gifts which are lasting testimonies Malay Heritage Centre Ongoing to February 19, 2017 of Singapore’s friendship with Ongoing to June 25, 2017 Saturday to Thursday | 10 am to 7 pm other countries – and photographs Tuesday to Sunday | 10 am to 6 pm Friday | 10 am to 9 pm that show how the Istana, which Free admission $6 for Singaporeans and Permanent is set in one of the most beautiful The Malay Heritage Centre’s fi fth Residents, $15 for Foreigners natural locations in Singapore, is an special exhibition, titled Mereka Utusan: Traders and migrants, jewellery and important site of social memory. Imprinting Malay Modernity, launched multi-coloured cottons, languages For more information, please visit together with the Malay CultureFest, and commerce – port cities mix istana.gov.sg/the-istana/istana- affi rms the importance of language to a people, merchandise and ideas. heritage-gallery/visitors-information community by tracing the development This exhibition paints a picture of of Malay modernity and identity through life through photographs, paintings, print, advertisements and editorial fashion, luxury goods and everyday cartoons. Gain insights into how the objects. Disembark at ACM for a view Malay community in Singapore used of hybrid cultures, ingenuity and global the power of the mass media to discuss trends in these cosmopolitan centres. and respond to historical events such as For more information, the Great Depression, World War II and please visit acm.org.sg the nationalist movements that swept across Southeast Asia afterwards. For more information, please visit malayheritage.org.sg/en

- 61 - EVENTS LISTING

Script & Stage explores the fascinating roots of local playwriting and theatre production, highlighting signifi cant performances, playwrights and prominent theatre companies that have shaped the foundation of contemporary theatre in Singapore. As we trace the development of Singapore’s vernacular theatre communities from the 1950s to the ANATOMY OF A FREE MIND: 1980s, treat yourself to publications TAN SWIE HIAN’S NOTEBOOKS such as Keris Sempena Riau, the fi rst AND CREATIONS sandiwara (“Malay historical theatre” National Library of Singapore in Malay) published and staged Gallery, Level 10, National Library Building locally, as well as the manuscripts and Ongoing till 23 April 2017 drafts of acclaimed local playwrights 10am to 9pm like Kuo Pao Kun and Stella Kon. Free admission Not to be missed are showcases of Lauded as a cultural icon in Singapore notable local musicals, such as Beauty and the most expensive living artist World (TheatreWorks) and Chang and in Southeast Asia, Tan Swie Hian’s Eng (Action! Theatre), at the lobby ONCE UPON A TIME oeuvre encompasses multiple mediums, of the National Library Building. genres, languages and subject matters. IN LITTLE INDIA For more information, please visit In collaboration with the artist, Indian Heritage Centre http://www.nlb.gov.sg/exhibitions/?p=327. the National Library presents this Ongoing to April, 2017 special exhibition of over 100 works Tuesday to Thursday | 10 am to 7 pm of his creations, including paintings, Friday and Saturday | 10 am to 8 pm sculptures, calligraphy, seal carvings, Sunday and Public Holidays | 10 am to 4 pm photographs, lithographs, multimedia $6 for adults and $4 for students and seniors performances and his original writings. Free admission for Singaporeans Displayed alongside the artworks and Permanent Residents are the artist’s personal notebooks, Once Upon a Time in Little India tells manuscripts and artefacts which provide the story of Singapore’s Little India insights into his creative mindscape. through historical and contemporary For more information, please visit “THERE ARE TOO MANY lenses, and draws parallels with http://www.nlb.gov.sg/exhibitions/?p=330 EPISODES OF PEOPLE diasporic settlements across the globe. COMING HERE…” Recreating moments past and present, NUS Museum, NX1 Gallery this exhibition presents an appealing Ongoing to January, 2017 and arresting mix of historical artefacts and contemporary art installations by Monday | Visits by appointment leading artists Kumari Nahappan, K for schools and faculties only Rajagopal and Navin Rawanchaikul. Tuesday to Saturday | 10 am to 6 pm Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays For more information, please visit indianheritage.org.sg/en Free admission SCRIPT & STAGE: This exhibition builds on the previous THEATRE IN SINGAPORE exhibition’s interests towards the FROM THE 50S TO 80S textuality of exhibitions, bringing in materials by artists Charles Lim, National Library of Singapore Dennis Tan, Lucy Davis and Zai Kuning Levels 7 & 8, Promenade, National Library Building as a means to rewrite and open up Ongoing till March 26, 2017 newer points of departure. Each work Daily | 10 am to 9 pm or project may be considered in its Free Admission

- 62 - EVENTS LISTING

own right and contexts, or may be developed at the Nanyang University in read simultaneously as episodic units the 1970s with signifi cant expansion in of meaning. This inclusion of newer the 1980s under the newly inaugurated materials by the aforementioned National University of Singapore (NUS). artists generates a new complexity For more information, for the exhibition, but at the same please visit museum.nus.edu.sg time points also to the very conditions of the exhibitionary medium. For more information, please visit museum.nus.edu.sg

1+1=1: NG ENG TENG NUS Museum CHINESE INK WORKS FROM Monday | Visits by appointment LEE KONG CHIAN COLLECTION for schools and faculties only OF CHINESE ART Tuesday to Saturday | 10 am to 6 pm NUS Museum, Lee Kong Chian Gallery Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays Monday | Visits by appointment Free admission for schools and faculties only Through the motifs of spacing and Tuesday to Saturday | 10 am to 6 pm difference, this exhibition features Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays works produced by the artist Ng Eng Free admission Teng between 1958 and 2001. The With works from the Qing Dynasty as a title of the exhibition takes as its point starting point to introduce the general “WHO WANTS TO REMEMBER of reference a series of sculptures history of Chinese ink traditions, this A WAR?” WAR DRAWINGS developed by the artist during the 1990s. AND POSTERS FROM THE display goes on to explore its evolution AMBASSADOR DATO’ N. For more information, in Chinese art history, as well as its PARAMESWARAN COLLECTION please visit museum.nus.edu.sg development outside the mainland. NUS Museum, Ng Eng Teng Gallery Besides paintings by Singaporean Ongoing to January, 2017 artists, from the Nanyang Style to the contemporary, the current display also Monday | Visits by appointment for schools and faculties only highlights the pioneering achievements of Singaporean artists in their Tuesday to Saturday | 10 am to 6 pm innovation of a longstanding art form. Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays For more information, Free admission please visit museum.nus.edu.sg This exhibition of artworks produced during the period of the Indochinese and Vietnam Wars (1945 to 1975) draws from the one of the largest CHINESE ART COLLECTION FROM privately-held collections of the THE LEE KONG CHIAN MUSEUM genre. The works were collected by Dato’ N. Parameswaran during NUS Museum, Lee Kong Chian Gallery his appointment as Ambassador of Monday | Visits by appointment Malaysia to Vietnam, stationed in for schools and faculties only Hanoi, between 1990 to 1993. These Tuesday to Saturday | 10 am to 6 pm were the middle years of Doi Moi – the Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays period of Vietnamese economic reforms Free admission begun in 1986 that aimed at bringing The Chinese Art collection consists about socialist market liberalisation. of bronzes, ceramics and paintings, For more information, gathered to represent the expansive please visit museum.nus.edu.sg history of Chinese art. The nucleus of this collection was established and

- 63 - EVENTS LISTING

The visual paradox initiated in this LAW OF THE LAND: modest yet profound work sets the HIGHLIGHTS OF SINGAPORE’S premise for the deep-seeded themes CONSTITUTIONAL DOCUMENTS that resonate throughout the exhibition. National Gallery of Singapore The 34 artworks by 32 French and Ongoing international artists navigate a Sunday to Thursday and Public transient journey through both the Holidays | 10 am to 7 pm philosophical and the physical by Friday, Saturday and Eve of Public means of unconventional approaches ARCHAEOLOGY LIBRARY Holidays | 10 am to 10 pm in art-making. Together, the artworks NUS Museum, Archaeology Library Free admission encourage the audience to interact Monday | Visits by appointment with and explore the intangible, Organised by the National Archives for schools and faculties only the emotional and the volatile of Singapore and the National Library relationship between the abstract, Tuesday to Saturday | 10 am to 6pm Board, the exhibition explores the the organic and the structured. Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays history of Singapore’s constitutional Free admission development from a British colony in The exhibition is a parallel project Bringing together fi nds from past and 1819 to its emergence as a sovereign of the Singapore Biennale 2016. newer excavations from Fort Canning in republic in 1965. The exhibition features For more information, Singapore to Changsha in China, these rare documents from the National please visit nationalmuseum.sg/ fi nds from the pre-colonial and colonial Archives and the National Library. periods sample the materials produced For more information, please visit and used in Singapore and beyond. nationalgallery.sg/see-do/exhibitions Further, as part of an evolving body of artefacts, they provide a glimpse into the dynamics between material culture and history, and its making. For more information, please visit museum.nus.edu.sg MUSEUM ROUNDTABLE: A 20-YEAR JOURNEY RESOURCE GALLERY National Museum of Singapore NUS Museum, Resource Gallery WHAT IS NOT VISIBLE Ongoing to February 26, 2017 Monday | Visits by appointment IS NOT INVISIBLE Daily I 10 am to 7 pm for schools and faculties only National Museum of Singapore Free admission Tuesday to Saturday | 10 am to 6 pm Ongoing to February 19, 2017 Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays Held in celebration of the 20th Friday to Wednesday I 10 am to anniversary of the founding of the Free admission 7pm (last admission 6.30pm) Museum Roundtable (MR), the The Resource Gallery provides an Thursday | 1 pm to 7 pm exhibition brings visitors through encounter with the NUS Museum’s (last admission 6.30pm) the history of the MR, introducing its collections and their histories as an $8 for adults, $4 for students and seniors with many institutions and their collections. open-storage display. Objects are valid ID and $6 for SIA-KrisFlyer members These include heritage galleries and organised to accommodate material Free admission for Singapore Citizens, unique attractions of science and categories, area classifi cations, as Permanent Residents (unless otherwise discovery in Singapore, which many stated) and visitors aged 6 years and below well as contingencies of collecting Singaporeans would be familiar with. and its strategies. Their roots lie in What is Not Visible is Not Invisible Through a diverse selection of artefacts the shifting curatorial positions and broadly surveys the imaginary and the from MR members, visitors can glean museum practice since the mid-1950s, temporary through selected artworks greater insights into Singapore’s with the formation of the University from the French Regional Collections rich and multi-faceted heritage. of Malaya Art Museum in 1955; and at of Contemporary Art (FRAC). The For more information, the Nanyang University, and the Lee title and design of this exhibition please visit nationalmuseum.sg Kong Chian Art Museum in 1969. take inspiration from the artwork of For more information, the same title by Julien Discrit. please visit museum.nus.edu.sg

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Wings of a Rich Manoeuvre by STORY OF A FOREST / homegrown artist Suzann Victor LIFE IN SINGAPORE: THE SINGAPORE, VERY OLD TREE presents a chorus of eight kinetic PAST 100 YEARS National Museum of Singapore chandeliers that ‘sing’ with movement National Museum of Singapore Glass Rotunda, Level 2 as they sway in a dramatic mid- Ongoing From December 10, 2016 onwards air choreography of light. Each Daily I 10 am to 7 pm (last admission 6:30 pm) Daily | 10 am to 7 pm chandelier is constructed and shaped $15 for adults and $10 for students (last admission at 6.30pm) from stainless steel and studded in and seniors with valid ID $15 for adults and $10 for students a sparkling array of precision-cut Free admission for Singapore Citizens, and seniors with valid ID Swarovski crystals accentuated by Permanent Residents (unless otherwise Free admission for Singapore Citizens, LED light. Together, the chandeliers stated) and visitors aged 6 years and below Permanent Residents (unless otherwise create breath-taking aerial calligraphy Spanning the last 100 years, the stated) and visitors aged 6 years and below as they morph from one hypnotic Modern Colony gallery, Surviving The National Museum of Singapore’s pattern to another, high above the Syonan gallery, Growing Up gallery and Glass Rotunda is home to two new bridge linking the National Museum’s Voices of Singapore gallery present permanent art installations that kick-start original 19th century colonial building snapshots of everyday life through the the visitors’ journey into the Singapore with its modern futuristic glass wing. different eras in Singapore’s history. History Gallery. The fi rst work is a digital For more information, art installation inspired by the William For more information, please visit nationalmuseum.sg/ please visit nationalmuseum.sg/ Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings, titled Story of a Forest. Visitors will experience the treasured collection of the National Museum brought to life through a spectacular, larger-than-life digital presentation, and be transported to 20th century Malaya as viewed through the eyes of the artists of that time and reimagined today by interdisciplinary Japanese art collective teamLab. At the end of their multimedia journey, SINGAPORE HISTORY GALLERY visitors will view a photography National Museum of Singapore GOH SENG CHOO GALLERY: exhibit titled Singapore, Very Old Tree Ongoing DESIRE AND DANGER by Singaporean artist Robert Zhao Daily I 10 am to 7 pm (last admission 6:30 pm) that explores the discourse of nature National Museum of Singapore through 17 images of trees around $15 for adults and $10 for students Ongoing and seniors with valid ID Singapore, before they continue on to Daily I 10 am to 7 pm (last admission 6:30 pm) explore the Singapore History Gallery. Free admission for Singapore Citizens, $15 for adults and $10 for students Permanent Residents (unless otherwise and seniors with valid ID For more information, stated) and visitors aged 6 years and below Free admission for Singapore Citizens, please visit nationalmuseum.sg/ The Singapore History Gallery’s Permanent Residents (unless otherwise updated narrative charts the stated) and visitors aged 6 years and below development of the island as it Discover the fi ne line between Desire was known through the years as and Danger at this stimulating new Singapura, a Crown Colony, Syonan- exhibition at the Goh Seng Choo To and fi nally, Singapore. This gallery Gallery. Featuring a selection of chronicles Singapore’s journey from drawings from the William Farquhar its earliest beginnings 700 years ago, Collection of Natural History Drawings, to the colonial period, to the Japanese the gallery explores the complex Occupation and post-war struggles, and sometimes uneasy relationship WINGS OF A RICH MANOEUVRE and to the global city we enjoy today. between man and nature. Commissioned by National Museum of For more information, For more information, Singapore in collaboration with Swarovski please visit nationalmuseum.sg please visit nationalmuseum.sg/ Glass Atrium, Level 2 From November 10, 2016 onwards Daily | 10 am to 7 pm Free admission

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culture and how the various hawker Celebrate the life and times, and the centres of Taman Jurong have evolved enduring legacy of the world’s greatest over time and remained signifi cant to playwright, William Shakespeare. This the residents of Jurong. Through the activity-based and fun-fi lled exhibition memories of residents, this exhibition invites families to uncover nuggets of will explore areas such as the hawker information about the literary giant. culture prior to the establishment of View over 400 stamps and philatelic hawker centres, hawker centres as a materials issued by 70 countries, social space for the local community, century-old picture postcards, books and food as a form of cultural identity WE BUILT A NATION from Shakespeare’s time, historical Tudor that defi nes Singaporeans. era replicas and animal specimens. National Museum of Singapore For more information, please visit Ongoing For more information, facebook.com/OMATTJ or email please visit spm.org.sg Daily I 10 am to 7 pm (last admission 6:30 pm) [email protected] $15 for adults and $10 for students and seniors with valid ID Free admission for Singapore Citizens, GUIDED TOUR OF EAT Permanent Residents (unless otherwise AT TJ EXHIBITION stated) and visitors aged 6 years and below National Heritage Board Through a selection of more than Foyer, Level 1, Taman Jurong Community Club 100 artefacts, and archival images Ongoing to January, 2017 and documents, this exhibition Monday to Friday I 3 pm to 9 pm explores the fi rst ten pivotal years Saturday | 10 am to 9 pm of independence (1965 to 1975) that COLLECTING MAGIC: FROM shaped Singapore’s history, and the Sunday | 10 am to 6 pm STAMPS TO WANDS important roles and leadership of Closed on Public Holidays Singapore Philatelic Museum Singapore’s fi rst Prime Minister Lee Free admission Ongoing to June, 2017 Kuan Yew and his team who laid the Join the free guided tours of Our Daily I 10 am to 7 pm foundations for modern Singapore. Museum @ Taman Jurong’s new $8 for adults and $6 for children (3 to 12 years old) For more information, exhibition and learn more about the Free admission for Singapore Citizens please visit nationalmuseum.sg/ social history and heritage of Singapore’s food culture and how the various and Permanent Residents hawker centres of Taman Jurong Be spellbound by beautiful Harry Potter EAT AT TJ: OUR HAWKER have evolved over time and remained stamps from all over the world as well CENTRES AND FOOD HERITAGE signifi cant to the residents of Jurong. as movie memorabilia and collectibles For more information, please visit from private collectors. On display are facebook.com/OMATTJ or email the fi rst licensed Harry Potter stamps, [email protected] First Day Covers, postcards, special cancellations, unusual stamp labels, limited edition books and DVDs, prop replicas, movie posters, toys and more. For more information, please visit spm.org.sg National Heritage Board Foyer, Level 1, Taman Jurong Community Club Ongoing to January, 2017 Monday to Friday I 3 pm to 9 pm SHAKING IT WITH SHAKESPEARE Saturday | 10 am to 9 pm Singapore Philatelic Museum Sunday | 10 am to 6 pm Ongoing to March, 2017 Closed on Public Holidays Daily I 10 am to 7 pm Free admission $8 for adults and $6 for children Eat at TJ: Our Hawker Centres and Food (3 to 12 years old) Heritage is a showcase of the social Free admission for Singapore Citizens history and heritage of Singapore’s food and Permanent Residents

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MARVEL AVENGERS S.T.A.T.I.O.N. ONE NIGHT IN WUCHANG: 1911 Science Centre Singapore REVOLUTION AND NANYANG BY APPOINTMENT Ongoing to March 5, 2017 Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall ONLY Daily | 10 am to 6 pm November 5 to April 30, 2017 $30 for adults and $22 for Tuesday to Sunday | 10 am to 5 pm children (3 to 12 years old) Free admission $25 for adults and $18 for children (3 This special exhibition provides insights to 12 years old) for Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents into the historical signifi cance of that one night in Wuchang in October, Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. 1911 and the social impact on Chinese (Scientifi c Training and Tactical society, as well as the Singapore Intelligence Operative Network) is a Chinese community’s response. completely interactive experience NUS BABA HOUSE that brings visitors into the cinematic For more information, NUS Baba House world of Marvel’s The Avengers. please visit sysnmh.org.sg Free admission This exhibition will provide a fi rst-hand Now conceived as a heritage house look at intelligence fi les, classifi ed TOOLS OF OLD SINGAPORE facilitating research, appreciation and studies, and experiments that A Living Heritage Museum refl ection of Straits Chinese history explores the history and scientifi c 27 Perak Road and culture, the NUS Baba House at 157 Neil Road was built around 1895 origins of Marvel’s The Avengers Ongoing and was once the ancestral home of a including Iron Man, The Hulk, Tuesday to Saturday | 9:30 am to 5 pm Captain America, Thor and more. Peranakan Chinese family. During the Sunday and Monday | By appointment one-hour tour, guests will be introduced Get your tickets now for this $12 for adults, $8 for children to the history and architectural features fi rst-ever interactive, immersive (6 to 16 years old), $9 for senior citizens of the House, and experience visiting a Marvel super hero experience! and NS personnel, and $30/family Straits Chinese family home in a 1920s Current introductory promotion for walk- setting, furnished with heirlooms from For more information, in tickets: 50% off published rates please visit science.edu.sg its previous owners and other donors. During a colourful walk through Little Free-of-charge tours are conducted India, enjoy a welcome break from rain fi ve times a week. Email babahouse@ or shine in a cosy ambience with a nus.edu.sg to reserve spaces. delightful mix of fun, from dressing up as a samsui lady to making your own ice-ball. The museum features tools used in historical trades and shows how skills with tools have enriched lives. For more information, please visit toolsmuseum.com PRESERVE/CONSERVE/RESTORE: STUDIES AT 157 NEIL ROAD NUS Baba House Free admission The initiative seeks to tap the under explored potential of 157 Neil Road as an asset for engaging with the disciplines of urban development and technical conservation of built heritage. The gallery is repurposed as a laboratory in which a few studies run simultaneously, presenting fi eld notes, test results, illustrations, images and artefacts. Free-of-charge tours are conducted fi ve times a week. Email babahouse@ nus.edu.sg to reserve spaces.

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A CHINESE HERITAGE H THE ARMY MUSEUM OF CENTRE² HDB GALLERY¹ SINGAPORE² Nanyang Technological HDB Hub, Basement 1, 520 Upper Jurong Road, University, 12 Nanyang 480 Toa Payoh Lorong 6, Singapore 638367 Drive, Singapore 637721 Singapore 310480 +65 6861 3651 +65 6790 6176 hdb.gov.sg/hdbgallery http://www.mindef.gov.sg/ chc.ntu.edu.sg HEALTHZONE imindef/mindef_websites/ CIVIL DEFENCE HERITAGE Level 2, Health Promotion atozlistings/army/ GALLERY¹ microsites/armymuseum/ Board, 3 Second Hospital index.html 62 Hill Street, Singapore Avenue, Singapore 168937 179367 1800 435 3616 ART RETREAT MUSEUM*1 +65 6332 2996 hpb.gov.sg/healthzone/ 10 Ubi Crescent, Lobby C, www.scdf.gov.sg #01-45/47, Ubi Techpark, HOME TEAM GALLERY*¹ Singapore 408564 THE CHANGI MUSEUM¹ 501 Old Choa Chu Kang +65 6749 0880 1000 Upper Changi Road Road, Singapore 698928 artretreatmuseum.com North, Singapore 507707 +65 6465 3726 +65 6214 2451 ARTSCIENCE MUSEUM I changimuseum.com.sg The Museum Roundtable (MR) is an 10 Bayfront Avenue, IEXPERIENCE CENTRE Singapore 018956 B1-10/18 Esplanade E initiative led by National Heritage +65 6688 8826 Xchange, 90 Bras Basah EURASIAN HERITAGE Road, Singapore 189562 Board since 1996. It represents and marinabaysands.com/ CENTRE museum.html +65 6820 6880 139 Ceylon Road, iexperience.sg comprises a collective of public and ASIAN CIVILIZATIONS Singapore 429744 private museums, heritage galleries, MUSEUM² +65 6447 1578 INDIAN HERITAGE 1 Empress Place, www.eurasians.org.sg/ CENTRE² and unique attractions of science Singapore 179555 eurasians-in-singapore/ 5 Campbell Lane, +65 6332 7798 eurasianheritage-centre Singapore 209924 and discovery in Singapore. With +65 6291 1601 acm.org.sg F Indianheritage.org.sg FORT SILOSO more than fi fty members currently, B BABA HOUSE*¹ Sentosa Island, Siloso THE INTAN *¹ the MR strives to develop a stronger Point, Singapore 099981 157 Neil Road, Singapore 69 Joo Chiat Terrace, museum-going culture in Singapore 088883 1800 736 8672 Singapore 427231 +65 6227 5731 sentosa.com.sg +65 6440 1148 while positioning museums as the-intan.com nus.edu.sg/museum/baba FU TAK CHI MUSEUM 2, 3 unique and fascinating destinations. BATTLEBOX³ 76 Telok Ayer Street, IRAS GALLERY¹ Singapore 048464 2 Cox Terrace, Singapore Revenue House, 55 179622 +65 6580 2888 Newton Road, Level 1, Please visit museums.com.sg for Singapore 307987 +65 6338 6133 +65 6351 2076 more information. http://www.battlebox. G com.sg/ GAN HERITAGE CENTRE* www.iras.gov.sg/ 18 Bukit Pasoh Road, irashome/About-Us/ THE BUILDING & Singapore 089832 Our-Organisation/ CONSTRUCTION +65 6223 0739 IRAS-Gallery AUTHORITY GALLERY*³ ganclan.sg Building Construction & L Authority GRASSROOTS HERITAGE LAND TRANSPORT 200 Braddell Road, CENTRE¹ GALLERY¹ Singapore 579700 National Community 1 Hampshire Road, Block 1 +65 6248 9930 Leaders Institute, 70 Level 1, Singapore 219428 bcaa.edu.sg/learning- Buona Vista Road, +65 6396 2550 journey-sites/ Singapore 118176 lta.gov.sg/ltgallery/index. bca-gallery +65 6672 5200 html nacli.pa.gov.sg/ LEE KONG CHIAN C grassroots-heritage- CHINATOWN HERITAGE NATURAL HISTORY * centre.html By Appointment Only CENTRE³ MUSEUM 1 Free 48 Pagoda Street, 2 Conservatory Drive, 2 Free for Singapore Singapore 059207 Singapore 117377 Citizens and Permanent +65 6224 3928 +65 6601 3333 Residents chinatownheritagecentre. lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg 3 Opening soon com.sg

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M NEWATER VISITOR REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE SINGAPORE MARITIME MALAY HERITAGE CENTRE¹ NAVY MUSEUM¹ GALLERY¹ CENTRE² 20 Koh Sek Lim Road, 112 Tanah Merah Coast Marina South Pier, Level 85 Sultan Gate, Singapore Singapore 486593 Road, Singapore 498794 2, 31 Marina Coastal Drive, 198501 +65 6546 7874 +65 6544 5147 Singapore 018988 +65 6391 0450 www.pub.gov.sg/water/ www.mindef.gov.sg/navy +65 6325 5707 newater/visitors maritimegallery.sg malayheritage.org.sg REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE MARINA BARRAGE¹ NGEE ANN CULTURAL AIR FORCE MUSEUM¹ SINGAPORE PHILATELIC CENTRE¹ MUSEUM² 8 Marina Gardens Drive, 400 Airport Road, Singapore 018951 97 Tank Road, Teochew Singapore 534234 23-B Coleman Street, Building, Singapore 238066 Singapore 179807 +65 6514 5959 +65 6461 8504 +65 6737 9555 +65 6337 3888 www.pub.gov.sg/marina www.mindef.gov.sg/rsaf ngeeann.com.sg/en/ spm.org.sg MEMORIES AT OLD FORD ngee-ann-cultural-centre SCIENCE CENTRE FACTORY² SINGAPORE² SINGAPORE SPORTS NUS MUSEUM1 MUSEUM² 351 Upper Bukit Timah 15 Science Centre Road, Road, Singapore 588192 University Cultural Centre, Singapore 609081 6 Stadium Walk, Singapore 50 Kent Ridge Crescent, +65 6425 2500 397698 +65 6332 3255 Singapore 119279 science.edu.sg +65 6653 9710 nas.gov.sg/moff +65 6516 8817 S sportshub.com.sg/venues/ MINISTRY OF EDUCATION nus.edu.sg/museum Pages/singapore-sports- HERITAGE CENTRE THE SGH MUSEUM¹ museum.aspx 402 Commonwealth Drive, P Singapore General PERANAKAN MUSEUM² SUN YAT SEN NANYANG Singapore 149599 Hospital, Bowyer Block MEMORIAL HALL² +65 6838 1614 39 Armenian Street, Clock Tower, Outram Road, Singapore 179941 Singapore 169608 12 Tai Gin Road, Singapore moeheritagecentre.sg 327874 +65 6332 7591 +65 6326 5294 +65 6256 7377 MINT MUSEUM OF TOYS peranakanmuseum.org.sg www.sgh.com.sg/museum wanqingyuan.org.sg 26 Seah Street, Singapore 188382 POLICE HERITAGE SINGAPORE ART CENTRE*¹ MUSEUM² +65 6339 0660 T 28 Irrawaddy Road, 71 Bras Basah Road, TAN TOCK SENG emint.com Singapore 329560 Singapore 189555 HOSPITAL HERITAGE +65 6478 2123 +65 6589 9580 MUSEUM¹ N NATIONAL HEALTHCARE police.gov.sg/spfheritage singaporeartmuseum.sg 11 Jalan Tan Tock Seng, GROUP POLYCLINICS’ Level 1, Singapore 308433 GALLERY OF MEMORIES¹ SINGAPORE CITY +65 6357 8266 R GALLERY¹ Level 3 of Bukit Batok RED DOT DESIGN ttsh.com.sg/ 45 Maxwell Road, The URA Polyclinic, 50 Bukit Batok MUSEUM¹ TTSH-Heritage-Museum West Avenue 3, Singapore Centre, Singapore 069118 Ground Floor, Red Dot 659164 +65 6321 8321 TAN SWIE HIAN MUSEUM Traffi c Building, 28 +65 6355 3000 Maxwell Road, Singapore www.ura.gov.sg/uol/ 460 Sims Avenue, Singapore 387601 nhgp.com.sg 069120 citygallery +65 6744 3551 +65 6327 8027 SINGAPORE COINS AND NATIONAL LIBRARY www.tanswiehian.sg GALLERY¹ museum.red-dot.sg NOTES MUSEUM 20 Teban Gardens 100 Victoria Street, REFLECTIONS AT BUKIT W Crescent, Singapore Singapore 188064 CHANDU² WOODBRIDGE MUSEUM¹ 608928 +65 6332 3255 31-K Pepys Road, 10 Buangkok Green, +65 6895 0288 nlb.gov.sg/golibrary/ Singapore 118458 Buangkok Green Medical scnm.com.sg exhibitions.aspx +65 6375 2510 Park, Singapore 539747 +65 6389 2000 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF www.nhb.gov. SINGAPORE DISCOVERY SINGAPORE² sg/museums/ CENTRE www.imh.com.sg refl ections-at-bukit-chandu 93 Stamford Road, 510 Upper Jurong Road, Singapore 178897 Singapore 638365 +65 6332 3659 +65 6792 6188 nationalmuseum.sg sdc.com.sg

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ISSN: 2424-7766