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Vol. 14 Issue biblioasia02 2018 JUL–SEP 08 / Travelling Mothers 14 / Year of the Crocodile 20 / Seven Sisters Festival 30 / Swinging 60s Shopping 38 / Our Home Magazine 45 / A-Z of Expressways BiblioAsia Director’s Note Editorial & CONTENTS Vol. 14 / Issue 02 JUL–SEP 2018 Production “Selling Dreams: Early Advertising in Singapore”. That’s the title of our latest exhibition Managing Editor opening at the National Library Building on 20 July 2018 – showcasing print advertisements Francis Dorai drawn from the library’s collection of newspapers, periodicals, books and ephemera produced FEATURE between the 1830s and 1960s. In this issue’s cover story, Chung Sang Hong provides an Editor overview of the exhibition and tells us how advertisements can provide clues to the social Veronica Chee The Stuff of Dreams: and economic conditions of the time. Editorial Support 02 Singapore’s Early What was the act of shopping like for Singaporeans in the 1960s? For one thing, people Print Ads Masamah Ahmad didn’t “hang out” at shopping malls like they do today. Yu-Mei Balasingamchow takes a walk Jocelyn Lau down Raffles Place, High Street and North Bridge Road – where she relives the halcyon days Globetrotting of department stores such as Whiteaways and John Little, standalone shops the likes of Design and Print 08 Mums: Then & Now Chotirmall and Bajaj Textiles, and the slightly seedy but fascinating warren of Change Alley. Oxygen Studio Designs Pte Ltd In this wide-ranging issue, we take you back to Victorian England where two women Revulsion & Reverence: 08 with guts and gumption – Harriette McDougall and Anna Brassey – ventured to remote Contributors 14 Crocodiles in Singapore parts of the world with their families in tow, and penned books about their adventures Ang Seow Leng along the way. Bonny Tan compares her own experiences in adapting to life in a foreign Bonny Tan land with these two women’s. Chung Sang Hong In Search of the Seven Gracie Lee 20 Sisters Festival Between the 1940s and 60s, Malay men from Southeast Asia worked as seafarers Janice Loo on British-owned ships.Tim Bunnell speaks to former sailors who settled in the English Kate Pocklington Malay Seafarers city of Liverpool to find out how they managed to sustain their Malay identity miles away Lim Tin Seng Sharen Chua in Liverpool from home. 26 Returning closer to home, and the subject of saltwater crocodiles, Kate Pocklington Siddharta Perez Tan Chui Hua and Siddharta Perez document human encounters with these formidable reptiles in our Going Shopping Tim Bunnell history. At various times crocodiles have elicited fear or respect – and the occasional in the 60s Yu-Mei Balasingamchow 30 indifference – among people who’ve crossed their paths. Before the 1970s, the Seven Sisters Festival, which commemorates the legend of the Please direct all Our Home 02 14 20 Weaver Girl and Cowherd, was widely celebrated in Chinatown. Tan Chui Hua uses oral correspondence to: (Sweet Home) National Library Board 38 history interviews with former Chinatown residents to paint a fascinating picture of this 100 Victoria Street #14-01 long forgotten celebration popular with the amah community. National Library Building The AYE, BKE and Between 1972 and 1989, people living in HDB flats would look forward to receiving Singapore 188064 45 CTE of Expressways their copy of Our Home magazine each month. Janice Loo pores through the pages of the Email: [email protected] magazine to trace the evolution of Singapore’s public housing, and documents the trials Website: www.nlb.gov.sg as well as joys of high-rise communal living. On the cover: Singapore’s oldest and longest Pan-Island Expressway was constructed between 1966 A Bata advertisement and 1981. Since then, 10 other expressways have been built. Lim Tin Seng takes us on a reproduced from The Straits whirlwind tour of the island’s network of expressways, and offers a peek into the future – Times Annual, 1964, p. xii. the North-South Corridor slated for completion in 2026. The National Library’s Ang Seow Leng shares highlights from the recent donation of rare historical items latest exhibition “Selling Dreams: Early Advertising 26 30 38 by the Singapore Lam Ann Association, while Gracie Lee explains the significance of the in Singapore” opens on 20 Lim Shao Bin Collection of Japanese World War II memorabilia comprising books, maps, July 2018 at level 10 of the postcards, letters and newspapers. Finally, Sharen Chua presents highlights of National Library Building on commemorative sports publications from our Legal Deposit Collection. Victoria Street. NL NOTES We hope you enjoy reading this edition of BiblioAsia. Preserving Nan’an 52 History in Singapore Sporting Mrs Wai Yin Pryke Glory Director 56 National Library Japan in Southeast 45 52 58 Asia: The Lim Shao Bin Collection All rights reserved. National Library Board, Singapore, 2018. ISSN 0219-8126 (print) ISSN 1793-9968 (online) The views of writers and contribu- tors do not reflect the views of the BiblioAsia is a free quarterly publication produced by the National Library Board. Publisher. No part of this publica- tion may be reproduced in any form It features articles on the history, culture and heritage of Singapore within the larger or by any means without prior writ- ten permission from the Publisher Asian context, and has a strong focus on the collections and services of the National and copyright owner(s). Library. BiblioAsia is distributed to local and international libraries, academic institutions, Whilst reasonable care has been 56 58 government ministries and agencies, as well as members of the public. The online taken to ensure the accuracy of the information in this publica- edition of BiblioAsia is available at www.nlb.gov.sg/biblioasia/ tion, the Publisher accepts no legal liabilities whatsoever for the contents of this magazine. BIBLIOASIA JUL – SEP 2018 Vol. 14 / Issue 02 / Feature THE STUFF OF Advertising has existed since ancient (Facing page) An advertisement by Warin Publicity Services. Image reproduced from The Straits Times Annual 1939, back cover. times in various different shapes and (Above) Early advertising agencies in Singapore helped clients to produce and place advertisements in forms. In the ruins of Pompeii for instance, newspapers as well as provide copywriting and design services. In the 1918 Who’s Who in Malaya, Dossett advertisements hawking the services of & Co. promoted itself as the ad agent for the local Chinese paper Lat Pau. Similar advertisements were prostitutes were carved into the buried produced by J.R. Flynn Anderson and Siow Choon Leng. Images reproduced from (left to right) Dossett, stonework of this thriving Roman city J.W. (1918). Who’s Who in Malaya 1918 (p. 137). Singapore: Printed for Dossett & Co. by Methodist Pub. a House (Accession no.: B02940225B; Microfilm no.: NL5829); The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile 1 before it was destroyed in 79 CE. In me- Advertiser, 11 December 1918, p. 2; and The Straits Times, 4 March 1919, p. 3. a dieval Europe, town criers roamed the ae streets making public announcements accompanied by the ringing of a hand bell. Press and Mercantile Advertiser, which 20th century. This should come as little In China, one of the earliest advertising was first published in 1835. surprise, given the island’s history as artefacts discovered was a printing block From the publication of the island’s a major entrepôt port and commercial Before the advent of the internet, print of an advertisement for a needle shop in first local broadsheet, Singapore Chronicle hub of the British Empire in Asia since its advertisements reigned supreme. These Jinan, Shandong province, dating from the and Commercial Register, in January 1824 founding in 1819. Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127 CE).2 to the outbreak of World War II in 1942, primary documents provide important In various towns and cities across more than 150 newspapers had been pub- clues to the social history of the period Asia, street vendors calling out to custom- lished in various languages in Singapore.6 ers have existed since time immemorial. Judging from the large volume of adver- as Chung Sang Hong tells us. Itinerant hawkers – who moved from place tisements in this medium, one can conclude to place peddling food, drinks, vegetables, that before the Japanese Occupation, textiles and various sundries while verbally the newspaper was the most important “advertising” their wares – were once a advertising platform in Singapore. common sight on the streets of Singapore.3 Of course, other print publications In the West, Johannes Gutenberg’s existed too, competing with newspapers invention of the printing press around 1450 for a slice of the advertising pie. Business gave birth to print advertising as an unin- directories, periodicals and magazines, tended by-product, with the first printed souvenir publications, travel guides and advertisement in the English language related ephemera, and even cookbooks, appearing in 1477.4 By the 17th century, contained advertisements, promoting vari- many European towns and cities were ous products and services that targeted producing publications containing news specific audiences. that resembled modern newspapers.5 Apart from print media, other forms The revenue earned from adver- of advertising – advertisements screened tising has always been a major source before the start of movies, painted bill- of profit for newspapers. Ever since boards, street posters, advertisements on newspapers first made their appearance, buses and railway platforms, neon signs, and for many centuries thereafter, this etc – also existed in pre-war Singapore. William Joseph Warin founded Warin Studios in Chung Sang Hong is Assistant Director format became the main medium for 1932, which was renamed Warin Publicity Services (Exhibitions & Curation) at the National advertisements. Indeed, some news- A Rich Advertising Heritage in 1937. The ad agency was well known for its Library, Singapore.