Singapore Heritage / National Library publication issue on comics, food, gold, and heritage topics

Life, as you know, is a never-ending process of change. In that light, I would like to say hello as the new head of the National Library. While change might be the only constant in life, what hasn’t changed is our commit- ment to delivering great reads to you, illuminating interesting nuggets of Singapore’s history. This issue’s cover story is on comics in Singapore. Two mild-mannered librarians, Jacqueline Lee and Chiang Yu Xiang, take us on a fascinating tour of the history of local comics, which goes all the way back to the 1860s. Still on the subject of fiction, if you are interested in monkey-man chimeras and dog kings, read Benjamin J.Q. Khoo’s eye-opening essay on how Singapore and Southeast Asia are featured in European literature before the 19th century. We don’t have to go all the way to Europe to hear tall tales though. Pulau Ubin is home to the famous German Girl shrine, which has inspired plays and orchestral scores. But how much of the tragic story actually happened? After a few bumboat rides (and plenty of research), William L. Gibson uncovers the truth behind the tale. From fiction, we turn to food. Khir Johari has recently published a book – – and in this issue, we run a fascinating extract from that book on foraging. Durian lovers, in particular, will not want to miss what he has to say. Moving on from what captivates our stomachs to what captivates the eye – we explore the shiny lure of gold. Foo Shu Tieng explains when and how the metal as both ornament Finally, don’t miss Andrea Kee’s article on the rise of newly independent and assertive young women in Singapore during the interwar years; Alvin Tan’s essay documenting the painstaking efforts to restore the statues of St Joseph’s Church on Victoria Street; Athanasios famous landmarks; Zhuang Wubin’s examination of three important pre-war photo exhibi- tions; and Rebecca Tan’s deep dive into the history of Changi Airport. Acting Director There is, as you can see, no shortage of interesting things to read in this issue. Who National Library Editorial & Production Khir Johari Jimmy Yap National Library Board Andrea Kee William L. Gibson 100 Victoria Street #14-01 Drewscape and published by the National National Library Building Library Board, 2014. This book was Veronica Chee Benjamin J.Q. Khoo Singapore 188064 Short Story in 2013. Chiang Yu Xiang Francis Dorai Oxygen Studio Jacqueline Lee Designs Pte Ltd is a free quarterly publication produced by the National National Library Board, Singapore, 2021. Library Board. It features articles on the history, culture and heritage of ISSN 0219-8126 (print) Singapore within the larger Asian context, and has a strong focus on the ISSN 1793-9968 (online) collections and services of the National Library. local and international libraries, academic institutions, and government reflect the views of the Publisher. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior written permission from at the National Library Building, National Archives of Singapore and public the Publisher and copyright owner(s). libraries. The online edition can be accessed with the QR code on the right. the accuracy of the information in this publication, the Publisher accepts no l egal liabilities

VOLUME 04 12 her new-found identity in interwar Singapore. uncovers fascinating facts behind the 50 58 Exhibiting Photography in Pre-war Singapore revisits three significant photo exhibitions in pre-war Singapore and examines their implications. the restoration of almost 30 statues in the church. 64 20 Image credits, clockwise from top left: Jimmy Yap; St Joseph’s Church (Victoria Street) and Pixelmusica Pte Ltd; Law Soo Phye and Khir Johari.

							- ) is a six-volume series about school	several artists such as Yeo Hui Xuan for
							6 Chua Sin Yew’s 新鲜阿婆 (	series (2009–18), Clio
					of infection resulting from the Covid-19		Po; What’s New With Grandma?) is set	Hui Kiri for	(2015–17)
					pandemic. In his book, Chiang docu-			and Shen Jiahui for
(2018–19). In 2018, Johnny Lau, one of the
							protagonist, an incurable optimist.7		, worked with artist
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							笑看城市人 (Xiao Kan Cheng Shi Ren;	Rick Chen on the creation of a comic series
) by Wu Yu (whose real titled SupeRich
this comic book was published in 2020.8
name is Goh Ting Cheng) is a collection of
							the best 500 strips from the series 朝九	There have also been efforts to raise
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							晚五 (	) in the profile of Singaporean comic artists
					, there is			by promoting their works through plat-
					by Lee Chee Chew		the daily struggles of white-collar work-	forms like Comix.sg, an online directory
ers. Meanwhile, 新加坡啦 (Xin Jia Po La;
) by Goh Kar Hoe (Wu Jiahe)
This directory was launched in April 2020.
						联合早报 (	) In Singapore, veteran comic artists	In the following sections, we look at
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some major comic genres and introduce
into volumes. Ang Thiam Poh’s 又是这
							wings. Wee Tian Beng, the creator of the	interesting comics available in the National
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					一班 (You Shi Zhe Yi Ban; It’s This Class		Celestial Zone comic series, has mentored	Library’s collections.
Anthologies are a popular format for comics. A number of collections have been
published over the years and these have helped to bring many artists to prominence.
Since the first comic book,		artists that are equally well received and	From left: Comic strips from
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	– which poked fun at the		,	,
fashion and politics of 19th-century Scot-			The Antibiotic Tales
tish society – was published in Glasgow 漫画同盟 ( ) – a four-volume
			(Singapura: Geliga, 1957). (From PublicationSG); Willie				Volume two of the
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in 1825,1 The Eisner Awards are sometimes referred anthology series published in 1997, 1998
		to as the comics industry’s equivalent of			and 2001 – is a compilation of Chinese com-
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			[19--]). (From PublicationSG); Singapore Anti-Narcotics				2011 Eisner Awards.
these days are used to educate, entertain, the Academy Awards. In 2017, Liew’s Association, What If They Call Me Chicken? (Singapore: ics by various Singaporean comic artists. The
Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association, [1979]). (From
lampoon, satirise and provoke.
PublicationSG); and Sonny Liew and Hsu Li Yang, The
Today, Singapore has a thriving local Eisner Awards. However, this is not the only Comics, [2010]). (From National Library,
Antibiotic Tales (Singapore: Epigram, 2019). (From
Singapore, Call no. RSING 741.59 LIQ).
scene with homegrown comic book artists comic book to have attained international National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING 615.329 LIE). anthology, the brain-
and writers. Life in the city-state is a fertile child of Sonny Liew, brought together a
backdrop for many budding comic artists. As by Drewscape (whose real name is Andrew star-studded cast of artists who contributed
Sonny Liew, who wrote the award-winning		Tan) that was nominated for an Eisner Award
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		for Best Short Story in 2013.3	their comic book projects.4
(2015), notes: “Artists often write Another award-winning comic book comic artists choosing to tell personal much attention, with volume two being
about what they know, so stories set in		is Koh Hong Teng’s Ten Sticks and One Rice	stories or pursue passion projects instead
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Singapore or with a local flavour are a (2012) which clinched the third prize at of trying to appeal to the mass market, the 2011 Eisner Awards. Many of the par-
2 the 7th International Manga Awards 2014 ticipating artists went on to produce their
		in Japan. In 2009, Koh had adapted Dave			own comic books. Otto Fong, a contributor
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Ten Sticks and One Rice is an example
today, what come to mind are popular comic Chua’s award-winning novel to the anthology, said: “The experience
	and Liew’s	a two-volume comic book. (	of this phenomenon. Produced by Koh
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. However, there coming-of-age story set in a public housing Hong Teng together with Oh Yong Hwee, alongside other comics artists spurred my
		estate, which won the Singapore Literature			competitiveness.”9
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		Commendation Prize in 1996.)	Another example is Troy Chin’s The Resi

recount interesting snippets of Chin’s life National Library, Singapore, who works with the

Singapore and Southeast Asia collections. Her		semi-autobiographical. Lim Cheng Tju, an	in Singapore as a “tourist” following his
					In 2015, when Singapore celebrated 50		publication of	, Singapore – released its first anthology titled
responsibilities include developing and promoting the			return here after a nine-year stint in the
					years of independence, a comics publication		which brought the titular character back		. The publication
Legal Deposit and Web Archive Singapore collections.		books, notes that while autobiographical
					titled Our Months Together, comprising 12		to different periods in Singapore’s history.	is a showcase of 13 comics by writers and
		comics are considered an alternative genre	More recently, we have
					stories representing the 12 months in a year,		In 2020, the Difference Engine – an
		in the United States, they are considered	by cartoonist Joseph
		mainstream in Singapore. The majority of	Chiang. Between April and June 2020,
opportunity to meet and work with many creative
		comic artists in Singapore are hobbyists	Singapore entered a “circuit breaker”
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Singaporean comic artists.
04 05

Mention comics and most people automatically associate it with characters such as inspired others to create their own superheroes, including in Singapore. Various organisations, companies and Another example of an educational comic is Otto

• Fong’s popular “Sir Fong’s
• portant information and messages in an heroes is Pluto-man, who swooped onto the effective yet highly entertaining manner. series that impart scientific scene in 1983. He is the eponymous hero One of the best examples is the poster on toilet etiquette found in public toilets Roger Wong. Aliens from the planet Pluto years of experience as a sec- transform an ordinary man named Po Shan format, these posters are a collaboration into Pluto-man by shooting plutonic elec- between the National Environment Agency trons into his body. They instruct him to “use and the cartoonist Lee Chee Chew as part [his] might and power to fight crime, and 16 his student-rabbits. help those in need”. The aliens also give Po Shan a ring that aids in his transformation Published by the Singapore Anti-Narcotics With his newfound powers – super This comic book is a cautionary tale about Association in 1979, strength, super speed, flight and a “plu- is a cautionary tale about the the Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association tonic instinct” for fighting crime – Pluto- in 1979. man goes on a crime-busting spree, Kok Meng is offered a cigarette laced with Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association, drugs. While his friends agree to try it, he Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association, In 1985, the Singapore Police Force [1979]). (From PublicationSG). parents what had happened. Kok Meng is unveiled Captain V as the mascot for the Pluto-man is endowed called a “chicken” for saying no to drugs, National Crime Prevention Council. Captain with super strength, super V’s mission was to explain crime prevention speed, flight and a “plutonic to children and their role in the fight against instinct” for fighting crime. 10 At the launch, a 3.65-metre-tall Image reproduced from Roger model of Captain V stood atop a bus, which crashed through a paper wall at the Police Fantasy Comics, 1983). (From PublicationSG). Captain V himself.11 In 1987, Captain V was given his own ent superpowers but has qualities such as police investigations into a criminal syndi- comic book series when the first issue of cate called the Python Gang. While it was As a sidenote, while not strictly a printed in Singapore, there are no details
• superhero comic, among the older comics about the publisher or year of publication. - dementia. vention (Comicon ’87). Although Captain in the National Library is However, we do know that the comic has municating about medicine and health- from James Tan, All That Remains V combats crime using technology such as Ronald Wild. Written in English, Chinese been in the National Library’s Legal Deposit (Singapore: Lien Foundation: 17 Examples of local comics in this jet boots, he does not possess any inher- and Malay, the comic revolves around collection since 1963. Alzheimer’s Disease Association, All That Remains (2018) Singapore, 2018). (From National All Death Matters (2020) about Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING dementia, and end-of-life and palliative 616.83 TAN). care respectively. Created by James Tan and funded by the Lien Foundation, the (点心侠 a musical that toured major Chinese two comics aim to initiate “die-logues” ) series is the creation of husband-and- cities.13 In 2019, the couple launched a 15 ( is a Japanese term for wife duo Colin Goh and Woo Yen Yen, of spin-off storybook series for children as live-action film or television drama that - the TalkingCock.com satirical website and well as an educational app for children to makes heavy use of special effects.) liative care planning. Coxford Singlish Dictionary 12 14 Set in the 7th century on the island The Antibiotic Tales (2019), Sonny
• Special mention should also be made of Tumasik (Temasek), the story follows Liew partnered infectious diseases physi- (roast (2020) by Adyeel the quest of the immortal scribe Dev who cian Hsu Li Yang to create a cautionary pork bun), (shrimp dumpling) and Djoeharie and illustrated by Alan Bay. gathers a group of “sacred guardians” tale of an apocalyptic future because of (pork and shrimp dumpling), Supported by the National Arts Council, with special powers to fight an invasion by a general resistance to antibiotics. this comic book is a prequel story to the evil demon king. In June 2021, “Sacred Guardian Singa: A Singapore became the first local comic Superhero Project”. Sacred Guardian The bilingual comic book was first Singa is a “ - published in 2012 and later adapted into acter rooted in the real culture, history 06 07

				Political cartoons tend to focus on is-	(1991), which pokes	Lim Cheng Tju notes that political
Publisher Asiapac Books produces Eng-		-
				sues of the day that matter to the man	fun at Singapore politicians as well as	cartoons in Singapore walk a fine line
lish comic titles on Chinese classics like
					Singaporeans and their lifestyle, and	between a consensus-shaping role in
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	comic, 女侠红头巾: 大战油鬼仔 (	The Secret of Redhill	(2015), a group
				single panel political commentaries in		the nation-building process and allowing
generation interested in Chinese culture	; 2021), the protagonist takes on the	of students go back in time to relive the
(published in 1997, cartoonists to exercise their creativity in
, or oily man, a supernatural
				as a collection, such as	1998, 1999 and 2000).	the political space.22
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Published in 1949,
tells the story of Tani, an in English and one in Chinese) of charcoal in the illustrations showing the various
18 in 1868, making it possibly the first 25 Liu and his ways in which the Japanese tortured
tigers in the Pahang jungle
It tells the story of Tani, an orphaned child friend, Zheng Zhenen, had collected prisoners-of-war to force confessions.
raised by tigers in the Pahang jungle of It aimed to provide “an abstract and stories from people who suffered during Liu’s work remains a poignant record of
wartime memories.26
				brief chronicle of our time, with lines	the Occupation, and these were depicted
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animals. An advertisement in the lightly touched in with pen and pencil,
described it as being “drawn, hitting off good-naturedly the chief
written & published by Malayans” and					-
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PublicationSG).
that it “[excelled] any American comics ment, and holding up the mirror of
19 (Below far left)
Abdullah, also known as 23
Nek Norzarah Abdullah,
highly successful Tarzan novels and film	was Geliga’s first female
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adaptations which were all the rage at					-
the time. first known Malay female cial policy, which it roundly criticised
In the 1950s, one of the early pub-
In 1932,
were produced in Jawi and included (Below left) rial Form the Main Events in Local His
24
produced to commemorate 10 years of
Nora Abdullah, also known as Nek				continuous publication of
---------------------------------	---	---	---	--------------------------	---	---
Norzarah Abdullah, was Geliga’s first and is probably the earliest publication
female cartoonist and also the first of local political cartoons in the National
	-			Library’s collection.
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20 Born in Kelantan,
	PublicationSG).			A better-known example of a comic
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Nora Abdullah was only 15 years old that tackles history and politics is Liu
when she published her first comic book Kang’s , which records the
horrors of the Japanese Occupation in
Singapore (1942–45). First published in
1946, and with reprints thereafter,
is a four-volume publication (three
	with Geliga in 1955, titled Cik Siti Wan	Between 1955 and 1961, Nora
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21 Siti Wan Kembang is the Abdullah published at least 12 comic
In 1923, Neil Malcolm, General Officer
	legendary queen who ruled Kelantan in	books with Geliga, including		Commanding the Troops in the Straits Settlements,
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called Singapore “the centre of the empire” in a speech
	the 17th century. She was renowned for	(1957), which is
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at the British naval base in Sembawang, inspiring this
her wisdom and mystical powers, and
pictorial response of Britannia (the personification of
rode to battle on horseback armed with
and shield) using a compass to draw a circle on a map
in Pictorial Form the Main Events in Local History
(Singapore: Printers, 1932). (From National Library,
Singapore, Call no. RCLOS 959.5 STR-[RFL]).
The Comics of Singapore Histories (COSH	Board. These comics offer stories relating	rice in a zombie apocalypse (We’ll Eat
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Studios) – a collective of artists and writ-		When We’re Done), COSH comics present
ers – has produced seven graphic novels	a speculative twist. From supernatural	Singapore stories in a creative and fun
Liu Kang, Chop Suey, vol. 1 (Singapore: Eastern Art
on local history between 2017 and 2018, way, reinterpreting familiar situations in Co., 1946). (From National Library, Singapore, Call no.
with funding from the National Heritage (Final Resting Place) to cooking chicken new and witty ways. RRARE 959.5106 CHO; Accession no. B02901745F).
08 09

Nodes initiative of the National Arts

A compilation of comics created for Places, a		Council. Under the guidance of Gwee Li		Comics Society (Singapore) since 2015,
13-week art co-creation workshop, in 2016.
		Swee – poet, graphic artist and author of		the festival hopes to uncover new local
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In conjunction with the 90th anniversary With Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s political career over the decades, and A Graphic Anthology on the East of Singapore several books, including the graphic novel
in 2013, Singapore Press passing in 2015, several biographical works Yoshio Nabeta’s (Singapore: National Library Board, Singapore, – participants created In 2019, a comics exhibition, a book
[2016]). (From National Library, Singapore, call
Holdings organised an exhibition titled
no. RSING 741.59597 PLA).
“A Collection of our Shared Memories”, Nation at Jurong Regional Library.31
Political Cartoons, which covers Lee’s In the same year, Central Public Gwee Li Sui’s “How to Fall in Love
, Library played host to Speech Bubble, with Classics”, a popular series of lec-

• a month-long event comprising talks, Morgan Chua’s cartoons trace Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s political career over the decades. tween 1929 and 2013. In 2015, more than workshops and an exhibition showcasing NLB, focused on graphic novels in the reproduced from Morgan Chua, L.K.Y. Political Cartoons, (Singapore: Epigram Books, [2014]). (From National 100 of these comics were compiled and artefacts, books and original artworks 6th instalment in April 2020. One of the Library Singapore, Call no. RSING 959.5704092 CHU). published into a book, offering a glimpse from comic artists. Conceptualised | | | by Sonny Liew and Lim Cheng Tju, the | | (the recorded | | | | --- | --- | ---------------------------------------- | --- | ------------------------------- | --- | --- | | | | objective of the event was to celebrate | | lecture is available online).32 | | | commentary – reflecting the changing With all these ongoing efforts and social, political and economic conditions 30 initiatives by comic groups and societies NLB is also a venue sponsor of the - Sonny Liew’s Singapore Original Comics Festival, a ment grants, the comics scene is set to , while difficult to place in a month-long annual comic-based event take off, or as Superman might say, to specific genre, can be argued to be a work that focuses on creating original con- go “up, up and away”. based on Singapore’s history, even as it modifies and retells it. The story, which provides an alternative lens into Singa- The writers would like to thank Lim Cheng Tju for reviewing this pore’s mid-20th-century history through Vol. the eyes of a fictitious comic artist, has 7, issue 4 (March 2012) and Vol. 9, issue 3 (Oct–Dec 2013). For a been interpreted by critics as metafiction, list of the comics featured in this article, please scan this QR code. an allegory or a satire of the “Singapore story”, and a homage to comics. A year earlier, in 2016, when the comic won the 23 “Straits Produce,” Singapore Literature Prize, it earned the 13 Olivia Ho, “Kungfu Dim Sum Musical Written by , 2 January 1894, 443. (From NewspaperSG) 1 “Have I Got Old News for You: Glasgow is Home to World’s distinction of being the first graphic novel Singaporean Couple Takes off in Shanghai,” , 24 Straits Produce, | Oldest Comic,” | , 24 June 2013, https://www. | 19 August 2017, https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/ | | Produce Showing in Pictorial Form the Main Events in Local | | | | --------------- | ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | --- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | 27 heraldscotland.com/life_style/arts_ents/13110858.got- arts/kungfu-dim-sum-musical-written-by-singaporean- (Singapore: Printers, 1932). (From National Library, old-news-glasgow-home-worlds-oldest-comic/. | | | couple-takes-off-in-shanghai. | | Singapore, Call no. RCLOS 959.5 STR-[RFL]) | | | | ---------------------------------------------------- | --- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | --- | --- | | 2 Benson Ang, “Local Comics Nothing to Laugh At,” | | 14 Tan Dawn Wei, “Colin Goh: From Talking Cock to Speaking | | 25 Liu Kang,4 vols (Singapore: Eastern Art Co., | | | | , 13 October 2013. (From NewspaperSG) | | Mandarin,” | , 20 July 2019, https://www. | 1946). (From National Library, Singapore, Call no. RRARE | | | | 3 Drewscape, or Andrew Tan, compiled | , | | | | | | | | | straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/from-talking-cock-to- | | 959.5106 CHO); Timothy Pwee, “Cartoons of Terror,” in | | | | along with 15 other comics, into an anthology titled | | | | The Rare Materials Collection: Selections from the National | | | speaking-mandarin. | | | 15 “Sacred Guardian Singa,” tokuAsia Pte Ltd, accessed 22 | | (Singapore: National Library Board, [2020]), | | | | --- | --- | ---------------------------------------------------------- | --- | ---------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | 4 Lim Cheng Tju, “Current Trends in Singapore Comics: When | | | August 2021, https://sacredguardians.tv/. | | 102–105. (From National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING | | | | --- | --- | ------------------------------------------ | --- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | Autobiography is Mainstream,” Kyoto Review of Southeast | | | 16 “Posters,” National Environment Agency, last updated 2 | | 016.95957 SIN-[LIB]) | | | | --- | --- | ---------------------------------------------------------- | --- | -------------------- | --- | --- | Promoting Comics at the National creation, with peer review of comic - , no. 16 (2014, September), https://kyotoreview. July 2020, https://www.nea.gov.sg/corporate-functions/ 26 , see Lim Cheng Tju, drafts. An extension of the 24-hour org/issue-16/current-trends-in-singapore-comics-when- resources/educational-materials/posters. “Chop Suey – Cartoons About the Japanese Occupation autobiography-is-mainstream/. Comics Day Challenge, the first Panel- Panelgraph website.29 17 The term “graphic medicine” was coined in 2007 by Dr Ian and National Education in Singapore,” Besides building a collection of comics, The Resident Tourist Williams, a comic artist and physician. The international 6, no. 2 (Fall 2004): 415–30. (From National graph (the authoring of stories using In 2016, Tampines Regional Library Lee Kong Chian Reference Library and at selected branch Library, Singapore, Call no. R 741.505 IJCA) the National Library Board (NLB) has The Resident comic-book panels) sessions were held was the venue for Places, a 13-week be found at Graphic Medicine, a site that explores the 27 in May 2015 was not without in web comic form, Webtoon, accessed 19 August at Toa Payoh Public Library from 2015 art co-creation workshop organised as the profile of local comic creators and 2021, https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/the- discourse of healthcare. See “Graphic Medicine,” Graphic its S$8,000 grant on the eve of its official book launch to 2016. The comics created during | r e s id e n t - to u r | is t / li s t ? t it le _ n o = 2 48 8 7 7 . | M e d i c in e I n t | e r n a t io n al C o l le c t io n , accessed 22 August | d u e to “s e n s it | i v e c o n te n t ”, p a r t ic u | l a r l y in t h e re t e ll in g o f | | ----------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | --------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------ | -------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | spark interest in creating comics. 6 A n g T h i a m P o h h a s a n o th e r c o m ic s e r ies, 跳班 ( | | | 20 2 1 , h tt p s : // | g r a p h ic m e d i c in e . o rg . | Si n g a p o r e ’s h | i s t o r y , w h ic h “ p o t e n t | i a ll y u n d e r m i n e s t h e | | --- | --- | ----------------------- | ------------------------------------ | ---------------------- | --------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------- | In 2005, NLB hosted the first Comix ), also set in the classroom and written with 18 Willie and Bio, (Singapore: Keng Yan Leng, Jam at the National Library Building, Johnny Lau. Both series are available at the Lee Kong Chian [19--]). (From PublicationSG). institutions, and thus breaches our funding guidelines”. Reference Library and at selected branch libraries. Check | | | 19 “Page 7 Advertisements Column 1,” | , 6 | Likely as a result of the ensuing publicity, half of its first print | | | | --- | --- | ------------------------------------- | ---- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | followed by the 24-hour Comics Day | | | September 1949, 7. (From NewspaperSG). | | run of 1,000 copies was sold out within a few days. | | | | --- | --- | -------------------------------------- | --- | --------------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | Challenge at Bukit Merah Public Library 7 The books are available at the Lee Kong Chian Reference 20 28 For the history of the 24-hour Comics Day in Singapore, see in 2012 and a 12-hour variation at Library and at selected branch libraries. Check the more information on Nora Abdullah as they had done a write- http://singaporecomix.blogspot.com/2013/03/24-hour- library@harbourfront in 2019.28 up on Nora Abdullah for their “Women in Action” exhibition comics-day-exhibition.html. | 8 All these comic series are available at the Lee Kong Chian | | in 2018. Lim Cheng Tju has interviewed Nora Abdullah. See | | 29 The Panelgraph sessions were moved to *Scape from | | | | -------------------------------------------------------------- | --- | ---------------------------------------------------------- | --- | ----------------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | were held in the “draw-a-thon” format Reference Library and at selected branch libraries. Check Lim Cheng Tju, “‘Art is My Blood’: A Short Interview with Nora 2017 to 2018, and Panelgraph is today a community on that allowed participants an uninter- Abdullah, Pioneer Female Malay Comic Artist,” Facebook. Their website (https://www.panelgraph.com) 9 Rebecca Lynne Tan, “Feeling Lucky to be with Lat,” rupted period of time to create comics 19, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2017). (From features five issues of comics created from 2015 to 2016. | , 12 April 2009, 57. (From NewspaperSG) | | National Library, Singapore, Call no. R 741.505 IJCA) | | 30 Nur Asyiqin Mohamad Salleh, “Singapore Comics | | | | --------------------------------------- | --- | ----------------------------------------------------- | --- | ------------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | 10 Susan Sim, (for the 24-hour Comics Day Challenge, 21 NLB has the reprint. See Nora Abdullah, Celebrated at Month-long Event Speech Bubble,” (Singapore: Marshall participants had to create 24 pages of (London: The British Library, [2010–2013]). (From National , 2 September 2016, https://www.straitstimes.com/ | Cavendish Editions, 2011), 22. (From National Library, | | Library, Singapore, Call no. Malay RCLOS 899.28 NOR) | | lifestyle/arts/comics-in-singapore-pack-a-pow. | | | | ------------------------------------------------------- | --- | ----------------------------------------------------- | --- | ---------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | comics within 24 hours). | Singapore, Call no. RSING 364.4095957 SIM) | | 22 Lim Cheng Tju, Cartoons of Our Lives, Mirrors of Our Times: | | 31 | | | | ----------------------------------------------- | --- | --------------------------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 11 “Captain V Reports for Duty Against Crime,” | , | | | | | | NLB has also hosted longer com- | 11 September 1985, 8. (From NewspaperSG) | | | | 32 The links to all “How to Fall in Love with Classics” | | | | ----------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | -------------------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | ics workshops where participants (Singapore: National University of Singapore, 1995), 3. (From | 12 | | National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING q741.595957 LIM). | | lecture videos and notes up to the 6th instalment | | | | --- | --- | -------------------------------------------------------------- | --- | -------------------------------------------------- | --- | --- |
• (2006). Goh previously worked on a (comics) can be found at https://www.facebook.com/ The 24-hour Comics Day Challenge held at Bukit Merah Public Library in 2012. long-standing comic strip, Orchard Road, published in | | | edu/14994791/Singapore_Political_Cartooning. | | notes/335051027599649/. | | | | --- | --- | -------------------------------------------- | --- | ----------------------- | --- | --- | 10 11

on Pulau Ubin and the Singapore-Johor region, and also demonstrates the power

ate, preserve and distort historical memory. The best-known version of the German a Teochew man named Chia Yeng Keng (谢衍庆), born in 1928 and a resident of Ubin since 1931 (he died in the mid-2000s). be an authority on it: between 1987 and 2004, he gave no fewer than seven sepa- and Chinese newspapers, was featured in a documentary film and even gave an What is the truth behind the German girl shrine on Pulau Ubin? investigates the history of Pulau Ubin to uncover the origin of the tale. National Archives of Singapore.1 In his first print interview in 1987, Chia 新明日报 (Xin Ming Ri Bao ) newspaper that the girl was of Dutch-German ancestry. Her parents were The German girl shrine, located on the

southern coast of Pulau Ubin, has cap- fee plantation on the western side of the addressed as Uncle Foon Da, a man from 1880 by Thomas Heslop Hill, a British tured the popular imagination in a way island. However, Holland was neutral during planter who grew both coffee and cacao World War I and the British did not intern 1880s. Uncle Foon Da, however, was not on 150 acres (around 61 hectares) of Apart from news stories, the shrine is Dutch citizens. In subsequent interviews, 2 Pulo Obin Estate, as he called it, the subject of documentaries, a play and Chia dropped the Dutch ancestry and island, exactly where Chia said the Ger- even inspired a six-minute piece written Later, Chia freely admitted that he man coffee plantation had been located. So, how much of the German girl D. Brandt and Co. was the trading According to local folklore, the story holds up to scrutiny? And what can in an oral history interview in 2004, he it tell us about the history of Pulau Ubin? protested: “I was born more than 10 years company had been founded in 1878 by At the outbreak of World War I, the girl after the death of the German girl so I Of Coffee Plantations and Germans Daniel Brandt and Herman 3 - According to Chia, the story had There was indeed, at one point, a coffee ered in the early 2000s and subsequently estate on Pulau Ubin. It was opened in - family, she bolted, only to stumble off a cliff to her death. After the war, As part of the renovation to the German girl shrine in 2015, a new statue of the German girl now rests beside the urn on the altar. She missing daughter, but due to communi- holds a sprig of coffee berries in her hand. The Barbie doll is enclosed in a plastic case. Note the mirrors and cosmetics left as offerings. Photos taken in 2021. cation difficulties, were unable to find any trace of her. Over time, a simple Chia Yeng Keng (谢衍庆), shown in the newspaper clipping, is the primary informant of the German girl story, giving seven interviews over 17 years. 联合晚报 [Lianhe Wanbao], 14 July 1990, 2. (From NewspaperSG). While fascinating, a close examina- tion of the account reveals a number of major inconsistencies that make this story shines a light on the practice of folk religion based in Southeast Asia since 2005. Gibson’s book, (2021), a biography of journalist, articles have appeared in Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 12 13

in 1914 and no evidence to suggest a World War I. The records, however, tell

a different story.	the time. However, based on what we	to relocate to “any place not within ten

• know about how the British authorities | ments, Brandt purchased the land from | treated Germans in Singapore in 1914, | | | | -------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------- | --- | --- | Hill in 1892 for $13,333.33, but sold it 8 | in 1907.4 The local coffee industry was | have been, had they existed. | | | | ------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | --- | | in freefall by that time. The coffee leaf | After war was declared on 14 August | the German girl narrative. First, there | | | | 1914, all German and Austrian nationals | was no raid leading to the girl’s untimely | | | | in the Straits Settlements were required | death. Second, the girl’s mother (or per- | | | turn of the 20th century and promptly | to swear not to undertake “hostile acts | , or nanny, if there had been | | | decimated plantations already fighting | against Great Britain”. The British were | no mother) would have stayed with her | | | a boom in Brazilian coffee that was | initially hesitant to intern German fami- | when her father left, and her father would | | have returned home the following day, at the region, coffee was replaced with | cash crops like rubber. In 1910, the | and social world, but after Germany | gone missing, the alarm would have been | | | --------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | --- | | Pulau Ubin coffee estate was bought by | began to intern enemy subjects, the Brit- | raised immediately. Yet there is no trace | | the British-owned Serangoon Rubber 7 Company, which replaced the coffee On 23 October 1914, all German the newspapers of the time. Despite a careful search of the Detail from . The map of Pulau Ubin shows Finally, there is no satisfactory expla- archives, there is no historical evidence the names “Tanjong Puaka” and “Sungei Puaka” across from Ketam Island near where the shrine is located In 1914, when the war broke out, ordered to report at the P&O Wharf nation as to why the German girl’s family to substantiate the German girl story. This Survey Department Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. | | at New Harbour (now Keppel Harbour) | was unable to find her when the war | leads us to the question: whose shrine is | | --- | ------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------ | (Bottom) “Termites made a tomb for her”: a termite mound that looks like a recumbent figure in East Coast listed the Pulau Ubin estate as the only the following afternoon at 2 pm, to be worshipped on Pulau Ubin today? Park, 2021. | plantation remaining on the island, | taken to the quarantine facilities on | that communication difficulties presented | | | -------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | --- | | occupying 789 acres with 352 acres of | St John’s Island. Married men were | an insurmountable barrier, but this seems | | ing to Chia, the shrine was originally rubber and coconut under cultivation. Intriguingly, the first newspaper article and associated with earth, tree or rock located on Ong Lye Sua, once a 190-foot- | The estate manager was F.W. Riley, an | on 25 October for “a few hours”. Within | | | | -------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | --- | --- | spirits, though it could also be the spirit high (57.9 m) granite hill that has since Anglo-Irishmen, and no women were the week, they were transferred to the no mention of Germans at all. of someone who has departed.) recorded as living on Ubin in the “Ladies army barracks at Tanglin, which had daughter on Pulau Ubin is a sensational In 1985, an article in the Malay Often, the sites where these deep pond of Ketam Quarry.12 Directory” in that year.6 hastily been converted into a prisoner mentioned the In a nutshell, there was no coffee camp – over 200 men were held there. the press, yet no such story appeared in grave of a princess from Java that was . Chinese migrants, familiar Kassim, who has lived on the island since | plantation in operation on Pulau Ubin | By 28 October, it was announced that | | | | -------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | --- | --- | with earth spirits, adapted such the early 1940s, the grave belonged to “fled to Pulau Ubin over one hundred to their own traditions, progressively an Indian Muslim craftsman from Johor years ago”, perhaps because of a broken In 1985, an article in the carried a report about the grave of a princess from Java that was located on a hill on Pulau Ubin. Accompanying the piece is the Sinicising them over time. Known as Image reproduced from Berita Minggu, 27 October 1985, 11. (From NewspaperSG). , such shrines still appear quarry. He died there and was buried In another version, she was “cared on the granite hill – a story that lacks as (bumboat quarrying was a major industry in Sin- or lighter) builder. When she died, her gapore, shrines were often girl tale (for the record, Pak Ahmad had body “became a hard rock shaped like a found nearby, so workers could ask for been told that the German girl fell off protection in the hazardous conditions, a cliff into the sea and had no grave).13 , or ghost and one remains on Ubin, close to the princess, seducing a quarry worker from 2021, Pak Ahmad said that the Johor who met a terrible fate.9 The German girl shrine, too, once , The writer, Saadon Ismail, explained stood near a quarrying operation. Accord- that quarrying work on the hill required was then built by the seashore nearby, guarded by “a group of Chinese who feel 10 The article

graph of the shrine. The writer, however, cited no source for his information. A guidebook published in 2007 on Ubin where a “holy woman” had been buried. “The back of the shrine has an oracle ‘eye’,” noted the guidebook, “which legend says will blink at votaries, 11 (In Malay, other things, it is used as a title for a per- son in a high position. A 14 15

			He also named it Yatikakak. Yati, a Malay	The hair, cross and other coins were	was nearly forgotten. It was not mentioned
, or grave markers, but these A termite mound being worshipped in Penang, 2021. In this region, it is not uncommon for termite mounds to name with Sanskrit roots, is also one of in a 1998 survey of recreational use of
, with devotees worshipping the spirit in the mound after having good luck
had since been stolen. What was left was shrine – or maybe not. In one interview,
with lottery numbers.
, a yellow netting tradi- Durga, the protective mother, while , 25 A visitor in 1998 found it
tionally used to denote graves as , which means “elder sister” in Malay, is an 26
or sacred. Pak Ahmad also recalled that honorific for older women. the grave. In 1990, Chia peered inside the passed away and no one was looking after
there were 99 steps to reach it, a signifi- urn “to verify that the hair and iron cross
			exhume the mound of the original shrine.	were there”, and he was shocked to find	That situation was about to change
---	---	---	-----------------------------------------	----------------------------------------	-----------------------------------
In the 1987 新明日报 (Xin Ming Ri Bao)
there are 99 holy names for Allah. it empty. He later offered an implausible dramatically.
The assistant caretaker of the shrine, article, Chia said they found a metal cross
Ah Cheng, recalled that the shrine was and some coins. However, in his 2004 stolen and replaced with an exact replica,
accessed by a flight of steep and narrow oral history interview, Chia said the man In 2000, the story of the German girl
stairs. At the top, he remembered an employed to dig up the grave “refused to appeared in the coffee-table book
“unusually curved rock formation that say anything”, that he “talked nonsense” Likely, though, the urn – a symbolic Pulau Ubin: Ours to Treasure, written

• and did not “believe in facts”. When the spirit – was prob- by nature enthusiast Chua Ee Kiam.27 man girl in its alcove, sheltering her from mound was opened, a “shape of a person” tale prompted film student Ho Choon | | | | could still be seen, but aside from a few | | Hiong to shoot a 17-minute documentary | | --- | --- | --- | ------------------------------------------ | --- | --------------------------------------- | mosquito net, draped over her grave”.14 strands of hair, nothing else was found. on construction sites in Malaysia about the shrine (prominently featuring Madam Tan, a resident of Pulau Her bones, he repeated three times, had points out that empty “Chinese-style urns, Chia). The documentary was shown at Ubin born around 1938, recalled red “become ash”. believed to embody the keramat spirit”, are the 2001 Singapore International Film | | | | Chin Tiong Hock, nicknamed “Bala”, | | Festival, inspiring dramatist Lim Jen Erh to | | --- | --- | --- | ----------------------------------- | --- | --------------------------------------------- | said that Chinese, Indians and Malays had helped with the exhumation. His wife, companies that own the construction sites.24 , a play staged by The | | | | Ong Siew Fong, recalled that the men | In the late 1980s, Pulau Ubin under- | Theatre Practice in 2003. Ho directed | | --- | --- | --- | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------- | offend the Muslim worshippers, no pork found some “finger bones”,22 went a transformation as quarrying was offered, only chicken and fruits. She operations wound down and thousands of the same name, which was broadcast on did not know who was buried there, bones from prior offerings. They also workers departed. Within a decade, only television in 2004. found a one-cent coin from British North the hill to worship on the first and 15th Borneo dated 1890.23 the late 1990s, the little German girl shrine - 15 Ah Teck, a longtime taxi driver on the island, was The Ketam Quarry pond on Pulau Ubin, 2021. This was formerly Ong Lye Sua, the 190-foot-high (57.9 m) granite hill that has since been completely removed. told that 108 steps led to the shrine, the number being significant in Taoist- 16 | become popular with gamblers by the time | | excavated, no skeleton of a teenage girl | | | | | ----------------------------------------- | --- | ----------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | he was visiting it as a boy in the 1930s. | Nearly a century later, this practice has not | the villagers went to look for her, they | | | | | | ---------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | | diminished as the shrine is still regularly | discovered that “termites had made a | | | | | | visited by punters seeking luck in the 4D | | In the 1920s, the Ong Lye Sua granite | | | | | lottery (where people place a wager on a | the mound, a point that Chia also made in | | | | | | four-digit number that is matched against | a 2003 interview.20 (Termites are known | Cheng Soon, who established quarrying | | | | | winning numbers). | as white ants in Chinese.) | works there. After Wee died in the late | | | | | | In this region, it is not uncommon | 1940s, the land was sold to the New Asia | | | | Granite Company; two decades later, it , with devotees wor- was acquired by Aik Hwa Granite. | grave, who could have been buried there? | shipping the spirit in the mound after | | | | | | ----------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | --- | --- | --- | | The following accounts offer some clues. | having good luck with lottery numbers. | Lye Sua was almost completely levelled by | | | | | In 1990, Chia told the | | 1969. Within a few years, Aik Hwa would | | | | | newspaper that when plantation work- | black ants bring bad luck, while those | | | | | | ers found the German girl’s body, she | with white ants, or termites, bring good | | | | | 17 In a subsequent home. Unfortunately, there is no record of | 1993 magazine article, he said the body | 21 | | | | | | ---------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | | was “covered with ants” so the workers | This last point offers a possible origin | While the exact date is not known, Chia | | | | | “threw soil over the remains”.18 | | suggested 1974, which seems plausible. | | | | the assistant caretaker related in a 2017 | | - shrine, gendered female due to the shape | the sea and painted it yellow – the tra- | | | | | -------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | | ered, she was “covered by a lot of ants and | of the mound, became a “white” girl, | ditional colour of shrines, | | | | | 19 | | reflecting their Malay roots – and hired | | | | of explaining how she came to rest in related by Ong Siew Fong, another long- labelled the spirit as a “datuk maiden” | of the Wei Tuo Fa Gong Temple, the girl | that when the mound was subsequently | (拿督姑娘) to denote its female gender. | | | | | ---------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ | --- | --- | --- | 16 17

tary television series in 2004, hosted cut-and-paste logic of online content cre- After an extensive renovation in 2015, the 12-square-metre German girl shrine on Pulau Ubin is today a slightly larger brick structure with granite cladding, a tiled roof telemovie).30 ation, very few bothered to do much fact and ceramic bamboo window bars, 2021. historian Julian Davison.28 Not long after, it was reported that checking; through sheer repetition, the year, it was discussed in Jonathan Lim’s story recounted by the long-dead Uncle (2005), a book Foon Da to Chia in the 1930s had become 29 the official version of the German girl tale. In his 2006 book, The Sinicisation of the original , popular author Neil to the “ Sceptically, the man followed the instruc- structure itself. In 2015, a down-on-his- yellow sign in English, German and tions and was surprised to find a Barbie direction of the “German Girl shrine”. exactly.31 Batu Pahat, Johor, where monks told him Humphreys had taken the information beside the urn, perfectly, if coincidentally, 32 of the shrine from a 2003 timed with the rise of social media. article he found tacked to the wall of This “haunted Barbie” of Pulau Ubin the shrine. (The story was written by proved digital catnip to journalists, blog- cladding, a tiled roof and ceramic bamboo ethnomusicologist Tan Shzr Ee, who The German girl shrine as it appeared in 1999, prior to its renovation in 2015 and becoming a well-known attraction on Pulau Ubin. Image reproduced from Chua Ee Kiam, Pulau Ubin: Ours to Treasure (Singapore: Simply Green, 2000), 47. (From National Library, Singapore, call no. RSING 333.78095957 CHU). in 2021, , a television show hosted by local actor Adrian Pang, The author is grateful to Hikari D. engraved on it, meaning “Berlin Sanctu- 34 Azyure and the Urban Explorers ary” in German, beneath the date 1896, Punters seeking a fortune do not of Singapore; Derek Chee of Aik Hwa Pte Ltd; Ho Choon Hiong; of World War I. A three-foot-tall (around and Professor Lee Chow-Yang, 90 cm) statue of the German girl now sits luck, they will continue to descend on Endowed Presidential Chair in Urban Entomology, University doll, a beatific smile on her face and a sprig As for myself, I first chanced upon of California Riverside, for their of coffee berries grasped in her hand. the shrine in 2006 and continue to visit it help with the essay, and to Ow Popular fascination with the German frequently to this day. On a recent trip, I Eng Tiong, Yap Sew Heng and girl story shows no signs of abating. In noticed a termite mound outside the wall Doris Loh for their assistance in 2018, Singaporean composer Emily Koh directly behind the altar. Despite all the changes over the decades, perhaps the old titled “Fräulein Datuk”.33 More recently, spirit still lingers around the place. (Singapore: Mission Press, 1881), 78. (From Women and Children,” , 28 October 1914, 8; 16 Ah Teck, interview, Pulau Ubin, 5 April, 2021. 2016), 55. (From National Library, Singapore, Call no. 12 (Singapore: Produced by the Moving Visuals Co. for the BooksSG; Call no. RRARE 382.09595 STR; Accession no. “Local Prisoners of War,” , 31 October 1914, 17 “奇庙” [“Strangely Wondrous Temple”]. RSING 333.78095957 CHU) Media Development Authority of Singapore, 2004). (From 1 “洋女变成‘拿督姑娘’供奉在乌敏岛小庙内当地人视 B03013713G; Microfilm no. NL1176) 10. (From NewspaperSG) 18 Burris, “The White Girl of Pulau Ubin.” 24 Ban Lee Goh, “Spirit Cults and Construction Sites: National Library, Singapore, Call no. RCLOS 959.57 SIT) 为神灵” [“Foreign Girl Becomes a ‘Datuk Girl’”], 新明日报 3 Hans Schweizer-Iten, One Hundred Years of the Swiss Club 9 Saadon Ismail, “Cerita Puteri Jawa di ‘Bukit Puaka’,” 19 Manisha Nayak, “A Powerful, Mysterious Singaporean Trans-Ethnic Popular Religion and Keramat Symbolism in 29 Jonathan Lim, (Singapore: Xin Ming Ri Bao], 29 December 1987, 4; “奇庙” [“Strangely (Singapore: Swiss Club, 1981), , 27 October 1985, 11. (From NewspaperSG) Shrine Dedicated to a German Girl Who Died in WW1,” Contemporary Malaysia,” in Engaging the Spirit World: Cavendish International, 2005). (From National Library, Wondrous Temple”], 联合晚报 ], 14 July 396. (From National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING 10 Saadon Ismail, “Cerita Puteri Jawa di ‘Bukit Puaka’.” 23 February 2017, https://buzz.viddsee.com/how-did- Popular Beliefs and Practices in Modern Southeast Asia, Singapore, Call no. RSING 133.1095957 LIM) 1990, 2. (From NewspaperSG); Samuel J. Burris, “The White 367.95957 SCH) 11 Susan Tsang, Discover Singapore: The City’s History & Culture german-diety-singapore-shirne. ed. Kirsten W. Endres and Andrea Lauser (New York: 30 Neil Humphreys, Girl of Pulau Ubin,” , November 1993, 4 Crown lease 933. Singapore Land Authority (SLA) Deed Redefined (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2007), 106. (From 20 Ong Siew Fong, interview, Pulau Ubin, 5 April 2021; “90 Berghahn Books, 2011), 149. (From National Library, (Singapore: Marshall accessed 30 July 2021, http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/ Registry, volume 58 number 179 and Index to Land Book, National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING 959.57 TSA) 年前住在乌敏岛洋姑娘变拿督神” [“90 Years Ago a Singapore, Call no. RSEA133.90959 ENG) Cavendish, 2006), 201–202. (From National Library, heritage/ubin/stories/2005/12/white-girl-of-pulau-ubin.html; volume 46 page 404. 12 This hill is sometimes called Kopi Sua (Coffee Hill). Kopi Foreign Girl Living on Ubin became a Datuk God”]. 25 Ng Koh Yee, “Recreational Land Use on Pulau Singapore, Call no. RSING 959.57 HUM) Ho Choon Hiong, German Girl Shrine (film), 2000; Tan Shzr Ee, “New Companies,” Sua was in fact located to the north, near Batu Kekek. 21 Cheu Hock Tong, “The Sinicization of Malay Keramats in Ubin” (bachelor’s thesis, National University of 31 “乌敏岛姑娘庙竟拜芭比娃娃” [“Ubin Girl Temple “Mystery Girl of Ubin,” , 9 March 2003, 20; “90年 , 24 March 1910, 10. (From NewspaperSG) See Seow Soon Hee, et al., eds., Ubin Our Heart and Malaysia,” Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Singapore, 1998), https://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/ Actually Worships Barbie Dolls”], 联合晚报 前住在乌敏岛洋姑娘变拿督神” [“90 Years Ago a Foreign 6 (Singapore: Fraser and (Singapore: Our Heart and Soul Commemorative 71, no. 2 (275) (1988): 45–47. (From JSTOR via NLB’s handle/10635/173038. ], 18 June 2007, 8. (From NewspaperSG) Girl Living on Ubin became a Datuk God”], 新明日报 Neave, 1914), 787–88. (From National Library, Singapore, Publication Editorial Committee, 2019), 30. (From eResources website). See also Lee Chow-Yang, “The Worship 26 “开发宝贵的旅游资源” [“Develop Valuable Tourism 32 Anonymous informant, interview, Pulau Ubin, 5 April 2021. Ming Ri Bao], 26 December 2003, 13. (From NewspaperSG); Call no. RRARE 382.09595 STR; Microfilm no. NL1185) National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING 959.57 PUL) of Termite Mounds,” 9, no. 2 (1999): 3, Resources”], 联合早报 ], 19 November 33 Emily Koh, “Fräulein Datuk 拿督姑娘 (2018)”, accessed 4 Chia Yeng Keng, oral history interview, 23 June 2004, transcript 7 Annual Reports of the Straits Settlements for 1914, 13 Ahmad bin Kassim, email to author, 29 March 2021. http://www.chowyang.com/uploads/2/4/3/5/24359966/ 1998, 8. (From NewspaperSG) August 2021, https://emilykoh.net/fraulein-datuk-拿督 and MP3 audio, Reel/Disc 1 and 3 of 7. (From National Archives (Slough, UK: Archive Editions, 1998) 646–47. (From 14 Kenny Fong, isoptera_newsletter_9_page_3_1999.pdf. 27 Chua Ee Kiam, Pulau Ubin: Ours to Treasure (Singapore: Simply 姑娘-2018/. of Singapore, accession no. 002860) National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING 959.51 STR) Investigation in Singapore (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish 22 Ong Siew Fong, interview. Green, 2000). (From National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING 34 “The German Girl Shrine,” S1, Ep 3, 2 8 “German Prisoners,” , 24 October 1914, Editions, 2008), 50. (From National Library, Singapore, Call 23 Chua Ee Kiam, Choo Mui Eng and Wong Tuan Wah, 333.78095957 CHU). Chua cites the 1993 article as his source. 2021, MeWatch, accessed 4 August 2021, https://www. 8; “Untitled,” , 26 October 1914, 8; “Our no. RSING 133.1095957 FON) Footprints on an Island: Rediscovering Pulau Ubin 28 “The Last Wild Place to Change its Face,” In mewatch.sg/watch/History-Mysteries-E3-The-German- the Protected Native States of the Malay Peninsula and Prisoners,” , 27 October 1914, 5; “German 15 Madam Tan, interview, Pulau Ubin, 5 April 2021. (Singapore: Simply Green and National Parks Board, with Julian Davison. The Story of Singapore. Series 2, episode Girl-Shrine-207218. 18 19

(Left) , fish slices are marinated with spices and infused with flavourful foliage and herbs, before being wrapped in banana pastime for the Malays, many of whom , or simply boiled them, stir-fried with vegetables, or skewered into

							commonly collected for consumption were				-
								(dog conch; genus		),	-
							(spider conch;			- ants relocated to the mainland, the islands
							natively		in the Johor-Riau	were home to various Malay communities
							dialect),	(noble volute),		(sea who had an intimate relationship with the
Foraging for food in the hills, the forests and the
							urchin),	(sea cucumber),		(sea marine ecology around them. Juria Tora-
---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---------	-----------------	------------------	----------------------------------------------	---
							grape),		(jelly seaweed),	mae, an independent researcher, artist
centuries, as (mussel), (surf clam), and marine conservationist, has written
							(Venus clam) and		(cockle).
---	---	---	---	---	---	---	-----------------	---	-----------	---	---
like Pulau Sudong lived off collecting corals
							entire west coast of the Malay Peninsula and			and seaweed, in a place where land was too
---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---------------------------------------------	---	---	-------------------------------------------	---
Sulalat al-Salatin1 ( ), food was for coastal Malays. In fact, identified different types of terrestrial fea- gathered for consumption. The flowers
better known as (plains), of the durian tree – prior to their fruit- in bucketfuls and carefully rinsed, these how “corals and seaweeds were popular
, tells us that when Sang Nila Utama time immemorial. (knolls), (hills), (valleys) and ing – were often collected and enjoyed shellfish are “a favourite article of diet” of
– the Sumatran prince of Palembang who Foraging, requiring little to no spe- (mountains). But even flat land (a dish of raw vegetables eaten the Malays,4 decoration and jelly-making”.
sired the Malay kings of old Singapura –		itself was differentiated based on eleva-			with rice).
-----------------------------------------	---------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------	-----------------------	---	----------------------------------	---	---	---	---	---	---
	exertion than agriculture and hunting,	tion, with	(upland) distinguished		Besides foliage, flowers, shoots,
Foraging at low tide.
1299,2 the shores were at a dry low tide is likely the oldest means of acquiring (lowland). Forests, or , roots, stems and tubers, the forests also
( ). We know this because the tale were classified as either (virgin for- occasionally turned up rare extrava- Sea urchin consumption was once common among coastal Malays. In many parts of the world today,
reports that the first thing his men did after sources has not been abandoned entirely est) or (secondary forest). Rivers gances, like wild honey. A person skilled
	today. Certainly not in the Malay world,		(upstream) and		in the dangerous task of extracting
---	-----------------------------------------	---	----------------	---	------------------------------------	---	---	---	---	---	---
Sang Nila Utama is referred to by his title where foraging – or (to collect (downstream). Freshwater swamps, honey ( , literally “bee’s
Sri Tri Buana, which means “Lord of Three	all sorts of materials) – has survived well	, were different from mangrove
------------------------------------------	--------------------------------------------	-------------------------------	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
Worlds” (the upper realm of the gods, the into modern times. The verb swamps, or . Formations on the ) from a hive was the
world of humans and the underworld):	prefixed form of the root	coast were also differentiated into			(beekeeper).
------------------------------------	------------------------------------------	------------------------------------	---	-------------	-------------	---	---	---	---	---	---
	word for ingredients – as in those needed	(bays and coves) and		(capes). At
“And when [the men] reached the in a recipe – is sea, the Malays identified from the swamps, both freshwater and
shore, the ship was brought close in (patch reefs), (coral reefs) and mangrove, which were a rich source of
		(mudflats).			edible flora and fauna.	, a native
---	------------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------	---	---	------------------------	-----------	---	---	---	---	---
		On land, the Malays foraged in the			watercress (	), was
	The Malays foraged in multiple ecological	spacious yards around their rural homes,
3
their well-oriented understanding of local
This gives us an idea of just how	geography, which was made legible by	could be made of the leaves, shoots, stems
--------------------------------------	---------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------	-------------------------------	---	-----------------------------------------	---	---	---	---	---	---
embedded the practice of foraging for	the use of specific nomenclature. They
			, fish steak is marinated with			-
		spices and infused with flavourful foliage			ering shellfish, seaweed and other inter-
tidal products (
Society. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from Santa Clara University and a Masters in
) was an important
education from Stanford University. (2021) is his first book.
20											21
---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---

In a paper published in 1982, Chew her neighbours were ordered to resettle Kampong Wak Hassan and Pasir Panjang, for wild is either banned or subject to approval (sea snails) collected from mudflats. on the mainland. Singapore’s authorities example, also engaged in foraging for sea- by a state-issued permit. of the Pulau Sudong islanders before they (Bottom) Picking the seasonal , which is boiled down and its gelatinous by-product made into dessert then amalgamated Pulau Semakau with food on beaches, intertidal zones, estuaries In 2009, the - were resettled into high-rise public housing Pulau Seking to form Semakau Landfill, and rivers. This spontaneous relationship paper reported that two women – Che’ on the mainland in the late 1970s: which began operations on 1 April 1999. Kamsiah and Che’ Saemah – were seen Of course, mainland Singapore itself is odds with post-independence Singapore’s picking cockles and shellfish from Sungai “Groups of women row their an island, and Malays residing in its coastal - Ketapang, a tributary of the Bedok River settlements lived much the same way. cured city-state, fishing is allowed only at (Sungai Bedok).8 That an activity once of the exposed portions of the reef - designated waterways, and picking of any jong Irau, Telok Mata Ikan, Padang Terbakar, fallen fruit, vegetable or mineral from the newsworthy attests to the radical trans- formation in the way of life of Malays in gaiety, seeming to be an enjoyable Singapore. Sungai Ketapang has since by the Laguna National Golf and Country (hibiscus) in their hair. In teams Club before flowing into the Bedok River. of threes or fours, usually to form a line, they combed the reef for Conscious Consumption (an edible seaweed), , Prior to reclamation and more recent de- velopment, one can imagine how Sungai Ketapang was perhaps one among many were low, the gathered chatter of the natural cornucopias for Malay settlements in old Tanah Merah. More importantly, village where the men, excluded from the offshore merriment, conversed intimate knowledge that indigenous com- 6 munities have of their natural world, one that has even withstood – in its own little way – the displacement brought about by urbanisation. Riau Islands in Indonesia where such time- This knowledge extends to under- standing what can be acquired at which times of the day and year, as well as the The fishing and gathering expeditions (tender young coconut fronds), destined for transformation into of Singapore’s southern islanders often that make such foraging practices sustain- sides of the Singapore-Indonesia border together formed a contiguous maritime their shape and form, such as Kuching Bound by ties of kinship, these island Unlike the coconut and the pineapple, Tidur (Sleeping Cat). Kachapuri referred durian, while a single seed with communities transcended the artificial its edible flesh adjoining is durian, international borders that divide the cultivated as a commercial crop by the found right in the centre (hence kacha-

• Malays in the past. Durian trees were puri, the central chamber of a palace). nesia, first drawn up by the British and either encountered in the wild, or one Varieties whose names were inspired by Dutch colonial powers in the Anglo-Dutch the shape of their pulp include Durian Treaty of 1824.7 Prior to the 1997 Asian (orchard or private fruit grove). The Kepala Gajah (Elephant’s Head), Kepala Very small Financial Crisis, the Singapore dollar was Malay expression (like a Rusa (Deer’s Head), Telor (Egg), Daun When thorns first fallen durian) – used to convey unex- (Leaf), Kembar Dua (Pair of Twins), Gempa when Riau islanders got married, dowry pected bounty or good fortune – best Bumi (Earthquake), Raja Asmara (King of exchange was made in the Singapore dollar Passion), Juring Panjang (Long Slice), Jan- Larger but dry as well. This affinity with Singapore was tong (Heart), Gelok (Water Vessel), Mata Mentimun ayer made possible by geographical proximity. Ketam (Crab’s Eye) and Sultan Bersandar juicy Islanders on Pulau Pemping (on the varieties that are now mostly lost, (Reclining Sultan). Durian Bantal (Durian Riau side of the border), for example, can Pillow) probably had a “pillowy” texture. Getting Due to aggressive commercial culti- vation, durian consumption is now fruit, such as Durian Nasi Kunyit (Turmeric Rice), Mentega (Butter), Emas (Gold), Batil
• popular cultivars, such as Mao Shan Suasa (Rose Gold Bowl), Tembaga (Brass), Getting soft Wang (Musang King) and the blandly Gading (Ivory), Susu (Milk) and Otak Udang Fruit first falling be more porous. Mak Imah, who lived on named D24. Gone are the heirloom (Prawns’ Brains). Pulau Semakau (on the Singapore side of varieties known to Malays of old. - Falling plentifully the border), simply dismantled her home, The evocative names of these crossed over to Pulau Pemping and reas- sebutir 22 23

able. For Malays living in pre-industrial			of the fronds,	, had multiple uses too:
times, where natural resources were readily						(fiddlehead fern;
shared with the community, the principle of			( ), and could also be bundled together			) while these were
conscious consumption was largely upheld.			to form an egg-beater or even a broom if		tightly furled. While	(
For instance, it was never in the long-					) can be consumed even before it ripens,
			often used as a beam in construction,		as some find it appealing in its sour stages,
to harvest all the fish in a water body at
once, even if one had the means. Some
foraging practices could even help in the			Modern-day exploitation of natural		(	), the fruits emerge only
-------------------------------------------	---	-----------	----------------------------------------------	---	--------------------------------------------	--------------------------	---	---	---	---	---
propagation of certain plants, such as			resources and industrial capitalism, how-		once every five years, making it a waste to
(Sesbania grandiflora) and			ever, challenged the viability of foraging as		chop the tree down in its “unproductive”
(cassava;		), where a	a way of life. Just as the last of the Malay
broken-off stem regenerates into two					Industrialised food production has
or more new ones. Even when flowers			in the 1970s and 80s, growing awareness
were picked, it was important not to strip			was afoot in the West about this fast-		now enjoy durian at any time of the year,
the entire plant bare, but to leave some			disappearing mode of consumption.
flowers behind to ensure that there was			In 1971, Alice Waters, one of the key
their position within the food chain, no
If an entire tree had to be killed, no			the United States, opened her restaurant		longer subject to its natural processes or
---------------------------------------	---	---	-----------------------------------------	---	-------------------------------------------	---	---	---	---	---	---
Chez Panisse (which is still in operation
	– the prized heart of a		today) in Berkeley, California. The restau-		danger, perhaps, in this growing distance
---	-------------------------	---	-------------------------------------------	---	------------------------------------------	---	---	---	---	---	---
palm – was acquired. Once the
was removed, the palm ceased to live. For ingredients from sustainable sources, In Singapore, a contemporary move- generations that understood food within
coconut palms, the leaves were gathered ment is advocating for a revival of organic an ecological context, and one in which
(rice cakes) cases seasons, serving only what is available at our ingredients were once traditionally food production. Social enterprises run for-
(fish mousse that time of the year. harnessed, the less control and discern- -
mixed with spices, wrapped in banana or This sensitivity to seasonal constraints farming industry. This has been attributed ing concern, it is perhaps timely to remind
coconut leaves and then grilled). The spines was also a crucial characteristic of forag- to a “global food trend” of picking and ourselves that not so long ago, it was still in
eating plants growing in the wild, drawing
							inspiration from the likes of Michelin-star	region to – at least in part – feed themselves
---	---	---	---	---	---	---	--------------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------------	---	---	---
(curry) of young fern fronds.
							Danish restaurant Noma, started by chef	by directly harnessing nature’s gifts.
---	---	---	---	---	---	---	--------------------------------------------	---------------------------------------	----------------	---	---
							René Redzepi in 2003.9	-
							turn towards sustainable practices in light	1 Sulalat al-Salatin (	) is one of the
of growing concerns about climate change,
form was compiled in the 17th century based on older
prototypes by Bendahara Tun Seri Lanang, the most
							our forebears in Singapore is nothing new,	senior minister of the Johor Sultanate.
---	---	---	---	---	---	---	-------------------------------------------	---------------------------------------	---	---	---
2 Sang Nila Utama subsequently founded the city of Singapura
							Journalist and food writer Michael Pol-	last ruler, Parameswara, fled to Melaka after an attack by the
---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---------------------------------------	---------------------------------------------------------------	---	---	---
Javanese, establishing the Melaka Sultanate in around 1400.
3
Boon Keng and transcribed by Abdul Rahman Haji Ismail.
living in nature once played in mediating
(Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic
							our relationship with food.10 “The human	Society, 1998), 91. (From National Library, Singapore, Call		Khir Johari, published by Marshall
---	---	---	---	---	---	---	-----------------------------------------	------------------------------------------------------------	---	-----------------------------------	---
no. Malay R 959.5 SEJ)
							omnivore,” he writes, “has the incalculable			Cavendish Editions (2021). The book
---	---	---	---	---	---	---	--------------------------------------------	---	---	------------------------------------	---
4 John Frederick Adolphus McNair,
							advantage of a culture, which stores the			explores in detail the history and
---	---	---	---	---	---	---	-----------------------------------------	---	---	-----------------------------------	---
(London: Tinsley Brothers, 1878), 90
(From BookSG, Call no. RRARE 959.5131 MAC; Accession
experience and accumulated wisdom of
no. B03013449B)
							11			and raises questions such as: How did
---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	--------------------------------------	---
Juria Toramae, “Notes on Some Outlying Reefs and
							Whereas an ecologically conscious exis-			Malay cuisine evolve to its modern-day
---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------------------	---	---------------------------------------	---
								Islands in Singapore,” , no. 1 (October 2016): 130,
Academia, https://www.academia.edu/35691230/Notes_
form? How has geography influenced
6 Chew Soo Beng, “Fishermen in Flats,”
when, these decisions today have been , no. 9 ([Clayton, Vic.]: Centre of Southeast
Asian Studies, Monash University, 1982). (From National
Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING 301.4443095957 CHE)
7 The signing of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty by Great Britain and
							Cultural knowledge on consumption	the Netherlands in London on 17 March 1824 resolved			-
---	---	---	---	---	---	---	----------------------------------------	----------------------------------------------------	---	---------------------------------------	---
							– providing a system of ethics, taboos,			lished in October 2021. Thereafter, it
influence of these two colonial powers in the region, leading
							and other do’s-and-don’ts with regard to	to the formation of British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies.
---	---	---	---	---	---	---	-------------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------------------------	-----	---------------------------------------	---
							nutrition – has also become increasingly	8 “Nak lala? Pergi ke Sungei Ketapang,”	, 6	Lee Kong Chian Reference Library and
							less relevant as advancements in nutrition	April 2009, 3. (From NewspaperSG)
								9 “Foraging in Singapore: Field to Table,”	, 28
							science offer more systematic guidelines.	February 2015, 6–7. (From NewspaperSG)		It will also retail at major bookshops
							While the latter ought to be celebrated,	10 Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural
(New York: Penguin Press, 2006), 7.
we cannot help but mourn, however little,
(From National Library, Singapore, Call no. 394.12 POL)
11 Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, 4.
24											25
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(Left) Two women, one with a scarf wrapped around her head (left) and the other with a wavy bob (right), in Penang, 1930s. Local Modern Girls often drew inspiration from both Western in an Interconnected World, 1500–1950 (Singapore: Asian Civilisations Museum, 2014), 271. (From National Library, Singapore, Call no.: RSING 391.20899510595 LEE-[CUS]). (Bottom《) 良友》( Liangyou; The Young Companion) was a pictorial magazine produced in Shanghai. It featured the 良友 = The Young Companion, no. 90 (Shanghai: Shanghai Liangyou Book Printing Co., Ltd, 1934). (From National Library, Singapore, Call no. Chinese R059.951 YC).

						panies started adopting the advertising	could now participate in the public
						strategies of international companies.10	sphere, look for paid work, have more
						By the 1930s, local businesses had begun	opportunities for self-expression and
						constructing a Modern Girl relatable to	leisure, and engage in various cultural
						the masses in Singapore. Advertisements	and political movements. They would
						-	have also been exposed to more possi-
explores how the enigmatic Modern Girl asserted her new-
						lish press targeted at local Asians often	bilities of modern life through education
---	---	---	---	---	---	------------------------------------------	------------------------------------------
found identity, femininity and independence in interwar Singapore. and various cultural products and, with
						from elsewhere, yet sporting elements	these, new identities.
---	---	---	---	---	---	--------------------------------------	-----------------------
distinctive to the cultures of the region
(such as the muslim headscarves and the
					corporations were “the most important		Singapore’s Modern Girl challenged exist-
---	---	---	---	---	--------------------------------------	---	-----------------------------------------
In the first half of the 20th century, major international distributor of imagery asso- women wear on their foreheads). ing gender norms through her expres-
cities around the world began to witness a were in part motivated by the rise of ciated with the Modern Girl, especially sions of femininity, most visibly through
feminism, the development of women’s because of US pre-eminence in the inter- fashion and style. From the 1920s, she
1 suffrage movements in places like Britain, national distribution of advertising and The print media – such as pictorial maga- adopted Western-style clothing (with
recognisable with her distinctive wavy America and India, and more women film”.7 Hence, the image of the Modern zines, journals and newspapers – also short hemlines and high heels), wore
bobbed hair, painted lips, slim body (often participating in nationalist movements.6 Girl, and her associated iconology and 16
with her arms and back exposed), and ideologies, found their way across the culture. In cities like Shanghai, pictorial One such young woman was Betty
《良友》(Liangyou; The Lim, who later wrote A Rose on My Pil
2 A historically specific expres- University of Washington, American multinational corporations, print media ), featured the latest in low: Recollections of a Nyonya
sion of modernity and femininity, she and the American film industry. By the fashion, makeup and celebrities.11 - the popularity of the Modern Girl look,
appeared almost simultaneously in cities late 1920s, the Modern Girl had made able in Singapore, -
like Beijing, Bombay, Tokyo and New York presented a different way for women to tional Straits Chinese (plaited hair
12 that was coiled up) for formal events. In
			-			According to historian Chua Ai Lin,
---	---	---	---	---	---	------------------------------------	---
enon in Singapore of course. As diplomat- While the term “Modern Girl” first ap- Hollywood played a key role in influencing
turned-writer R.H. Bruce Lockhart noted					peared during the 1920s and 30s, the
----------------------------------------	---	---	---	---	-------------------------------------	---	---
in his memoirs, women here – particularly use of the term “girl” was popularised and the city’s modern identity. Singapore’s
Straits Chinese women – had changed					in England in the late 19th century and
------------------------------------	---	---	---	---	----------------------------------------	---	---
significantly by 1933 compared with the referred to “working-class and middle- only for fashion and beauty tips and
early 1900s. “Gone, too, is the former trends, but also for contemporary views
seclusion of the better-class Chinese - on love, sex and romance. Chua suggests,
women, and to-day Chinese girls, […] all hood and adulthood”. By the 1920s and however, that cultural products such as
					30s, however, “girl” had come to refer to	film appeared to effect greater change in
---	---	---	---	---	------------------------------------------	------------------------------------------	---
			-			- women due to the parallel evolution of
ness, and all dressed in semi-European ventional female roles and expectations.8 13
fashion, walk vigorously through the					The Modern Girl went by different
-------------------------------------	---	---	---	---	------------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------	---
					names in different places. In the US, she	drastic changes in women’s societal roles.
3
					was sometimes known as a “flapper”, in	For the first time, a significant number of
-------------------------------	---	---	---	---	---------------------------------------	--------------------------------------------	---
Departing from the traditional					摩登小姐 (		-
female roles of “dutiful daughter, wife (Left)Portrait of a woman with a permed bob and floral young lady) and in India as force, consumers of public amusements
and mother”,4 , 1930s. Also known as the Shanghai dress, (college girl). In Singapore, the English- and, more importantly, students.14
was popularised by Shanghai’s film
increasingly involved in activities such as
working, sports, and smoking and drink- First of all, there were simply more women
Studio Collection, courtesy of National Archives of
ing, which were previously considered the					Regardless of what she was called, Modern
------------------------------------------	---	---	---	---	------------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------	---
					Girls were identified as young women with	emigration in China eroded, more Chinese
This advertisement for Mysore Sandal Soap
an “up-to-date and youthful femininity”,
features a woman with shaped brows, painted lips
					provocative in behaviour and fashion that	15
---	---	---	---	---	------------------------------------------	---	---
and bobbed hair. However, the inclusion of a
National Library, Singapore, who works with the					drew influence from other countries.9
------------------------------------------------	---	---	---	---	-------------------------------------	---	---
head covering – elements of her Indian heritage – give
Singapore	and Southeast	Asia collections. Her
----------	---------------	------------------------	--------------------------------------------	---	---------------------------------	----------------------------------------	---
			her a distinctively hybrid Modern Girl look.		As international companies began	also evolving due to changing attitudes
responsibilities include collection management and
				தமிழ் முரசு	customising their advertisements to	towards female education. And as more
---	---	---	---	-----------	------------------------------------	--------------------------------------	---
5 May 1936, 5. (From NewspaperSG).
					appeal to domestic markets, local com-	women received an education, they
---	---	---	---	---	--------------------------------------	----------------------------------	---
26 27

the late 1920s, Lim cut her hair in the style		letter-writers used pseudonyms, making
Whiteawy department store introduced Singapore’s first-ever female lift operator when it opened its new store in May 1936.
of American actress Colleen Moore – a	adopted a hybrid East-meets-West style,	it a challenge to ascertain their identities
--------------------------------------	----------------------------------------	---------------------------------------------	---	---	---	---	---
Tribune, 1 May 1936, 11. (From NewspaperSG).
straight bob with a fringe – and showed	combining Western trends, such as wavy	and verify the content. Nonetheless, these
------------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------------	---	---	---	---	---
off her new “radical” look at a party she	bobs and makeup, with local fashions.	letters offer valuable insight into the voices
attended with her sibling.17	The quest for modernity expressed	of educated Asians in colonial Singapore.)
	through fashion was riddled with anxi-	In March 1931, a “Miss Tow Foo
influenced by fashion styles from the	eties about what constituted the ideal			-
region, such as the sarong (a	modern feminine aesthetic, especially in
tight-fitting sheer embroidered lace	a cosmopolitan city where multiple ideas	Western-style dresses that were “much
blouse paired with a batik sarong skirt),		too short above the knees”, describing
which was first worn in Java in the Dutch		them as “disgraceful”.22 Similarly, another
East Indies. In the 18th and late 19th	without controversy – she faced criticism	writer who used the name “Evelyn”
centuries, Peranakan women typically	for dressing immodestly, overspending on	expressed that “a skirt that is six inches
	cosmetics and being too “Westernised”.	above the knees or a flear[sic]-skirt with
(a knee-length tunic worn over a batik		the upper part exposed is a disgrace to
sarong), but by the 1920s the sarong		put on. […] It is better for us to put on
had become the attire of choice	back and make their case, their letters	skirts exactly up to the knees or an inch
for Peranakan women in the Dutch East	affording a glimpse of how these young,		23
Indies and younger Peranakan women in	educated and assertive women articu-	In defence, a “Miss Anxious” argued:
the Straits Settlements.18	lated their own identities and expressions	“If short skirts give comfort as well as add
(or charms to one’s personality, why shouldn’t
as the Shanghai dress) was also gaining	and individuality. One of these platforms	one wear them? […] As long as it makes us
----------------------------------------	------------------------------------------	------------------------------------------	---	---	---	---	---
, the most popu- fascinating and fashionably elegant what
women in Singapore. Popularised by	lar English-language newspaper among			24
------------------------------------------	--------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------	---	---	---	---	---
Shanghai’s film stars, the	middle-class anglophone Asians in Sin-			-
was cut to fit – and flatter – the female	gapore and Malaya in the 1930s.21	ern-style attire were often criticised for
figure.19 Prior to this, young, educated
, were mainly English-educated embarrassment to national pride.25 Also commonly under fire was the retaining traditional representations of love with men and settle down before
33
a long sleeve blouse paired with a calf- Straits Chinese men and women, hence Helen Chan and “A Modern Chinese Girl” Modern Girl’s use of cosmetics. In his “proper” femininity such as not wearing
20 By the 1930s, Straits Chinese when the topic was discussed, it tended astutely pointed out that Chinese men, letter to the in 1938, a makeup or jewellery.29 Thanks to education, Modern Girls
to centre on the Chinese Modern Girl. (It too, wore Western-style clothing but were Chia Ah Keow called Modern Girls super- were able to break with conservative norms
is important to note, however, that many not subjected to the same judgement.26 ficial and criticised their excessive expen- and seek jobs outside the home. The
					diture on cosmetics and beauty products,	Singapore’s Modern Girl also defined her	reported in 1939 that an increas-
---	---	---	---	---	-----------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------	----------------------------------
modern identity through her attitude
Colleen Moore, a popular American actress who starred in multiple films in the 1920s and 30s, popularised the Modern Girl’s quintessential short bob. – highlighting ones with questionable towards life and aspirations for her fu- Malaya were taking up professions, even
reproduced from Malayan Saturday Post, 5 May 1928, 36. (From NewspaperSG).
					names like “Forget-me-not” and “Kiss-	ture. In her letter to the	, “invad[ing] the mercantile offices” and
---	---	---	---	---	-------------------------------------	---------------------------	-------------------------------------------
This watch advertisement features a Modern Girl, characterised by her distinctive wavy bob hairstyle and trendy shoulder-baring dress. me-again” lotions.27 “Evelyn” explained that Modern Girls now “ousting young men from their positions”.
from the Malaya Tribune, 2 December 1927, 5. (From NewspaperSG).
					Chia’s letter provoked responses		It added that after leaving school, many
---	---	---	---	---	---------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------	--------------------------------------------
					from “A Modern Girl” and a Juliet Loh,	could freely go “shopping or to a friend’s	women furthered their studies by attending
					who described him as “ridiculous” and	house unchaperoned sometimes”, in	classes to study shorthand, typewriting and
					“out of his mind”, noting that there	sharp contrast “to our grandfather’s	book-keeping so as to prepare themselves
for office careers. Other professions that
her letter, Loh pointed out that most 30
						More and more non-European	retail, nursing and teaching.34
---	---	---	---	---	---	---------------------------	-------------------------------
makeup,28 one of the key characteristics
						becoming more active in public life. The	traditionally male dominated jobs. In
---	---	---	---	---	---	-----------------------------------------	--------------------------------------
May 1936, the Singapore branch of the
not use cosmetics also highlights how to
31 A 1938
some of the city’s Modern Girls, wearing article reported
					make-up was not part of their identity	that modern Chinese youths, particularly
---	---	---	---	---	------------------------------------------	------------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------
					even though globally, it was seen as a	those who had been educated at English-	lift, the true marker of its modernity was
						medium schools, believed that marriage	the introduction of Singapore’s first-ever
					The notion of modernity as under-	should be founded on “love and courtship”	female lift operator. Whiteaway was
					stood among the locals was not fixed, and	and thus rejected arranged marriages.	praised for following the lead of “other

ain, Europe and America and the young

						instead of living with their in-laws.32	lift operator was described as having
					a Chinese woman, Loh could have been	Women like “Adelina” also wrote let-	“courageously given the lead” on the
modernisation of the store.35
influenced by the overseas Chinese’s inter-
					pretation of modernisation, which drew		article, the
---	---	---	---	---	---------------------------------------	----------------------------------------	------------------------------------------
					heavily on Chinese national and ethnic	outlook on life before getting married,	employing a woman to be a lift attendant,
warning that “many girls fall blindly in
28 29

modern principle that “girls are as good women to develop “talents… peculiar to For instance, Betty Lim might have looked Nanyang Girls’ School athletes at a sports meet, 1930s. as men at some jobs”.36 their sex” such as homemaking, teaching, like a Modern Girl, but she did not share Previously relegated to the sidelines, changing gender norms in the early 20th century saw more young 39

Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

Asian anglophones in the press. In a 1938	sets. “Educated Female” wrote in response
opinion piece, Zola, a	to Zola: “Singapore is still trailing behind	was, in fact, not allowed to go out with
correspondent, mused whether young the times if it harbours such an ignora- her fiancé unchaperoned.43 work, and attire favoured by the Modern
mus as ‘Zola’ who dares to submit that - Girl, such as the , became
compete with men for commerce jobs.37									more affordable.50
-------------------------------------	----------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------	---	---	---	---	---	---	------------------	---	---	---
	‘boys in every way are far more capable	tend with prevailing patriarchal expecta-
of discharging their duties than girls’.”40 tions of becoming wives and mothers, as Whatever the case, the Modern
	Another female reader, Sunny Girl, high-	well as those who were anxious about
---	----------------------------------------	-------------------------------------	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
opportunity because they were “naturally initiating discourse and debates about
use their educational qualifications and “traditional structures of authority”.44 the expectations of modern woman-
claimed that, unlike men, women were In 1931, a robust discussion on hood, and in defining young women’s
incapable of withstanding the “strain and 41 whether Modern Girls were “unmarriage- identities in a world vastly different from

and women as playing inherently differ- tion of the Despite the criticisms and limits sparked by an article about the problem placed on Modern Girls, they actively,

He added that if the “future tendency of		of unmarriageable modern Chinese girls,
educated girls is to usurp the ‘bread and	prescribed for women. Mrs H.A. Braid,	citing the Modern Girls’ “ultra-modernism,
butter’ positions of men, we might then née Lona Soong Tong Neo, was a Modern materialism, misinterpretation of life being seen solely as wives and mothers,
envisage a time, when we boys must learn Girl who, despite her father’s lectures on desire for so-called emancipation and and confined only to domestic chores.
how to cook, sew, look after the homes “how a good daughter should behave”, Their attempts at disrupting social
38 to find willing husbands.45 conventions were important and sig-
Another reader, C.T.C., argued against unconventional for her time: she cut her nificant steps toward establishing and
women working in “men’s work” because hair short, found employment as a clerk, lacked the ability to manage domestic normalising greater gender equality in
it was not what “Nature has best equipped 42 affairs to “lessen their husbands’ bur- all aspects of life.
	However, conservative ideas were	dens”,46
-----------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------	---------------------------------------	---	---	---	-----------------------------------------------	---	---	----------------------------------------------------------	---	---	---
						13, no. 4 (December 2012):			29 Karen M. Teoh, Schooling Diaspora: Women, Education,
in traditionally male spaces, he advised	still pervasive even among Modern Girls.	that Modern Girls possessed “the power
						595, 597. (From EBSCOhost via NLB’s eResources			and the Overseas Chinese in British Malaya and Singapore,
to lead young men along the right path”,
					1 Alys Eve Weinbaum, et al., eds., “The Modern Girl as	website).			1850s–1960s, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020),
---	---	---	------------	---	--------------------------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------------------	---	---	--------------------------------------------------------	---	---	---
			47 However,		Heuristic Device: Collaboration, Connective Comparison,	14 Chua, “Singapore’s ‘Cinema-Age’ of the 1930s,” 595.			7–8. (From National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING
A 1930s studio portrait of a couple dressed in Western-style clothing. The woman is wearing a straw cloche both sides ultimately placed the value of 15 Saw Swee-Hock, “Population Trends in Singapore, 370.8209595 TEO)
hat, a popular hat style for women in the 1920s to early 30s. Lee Brothers Studio Collection, courtesy of National 1819–1967,” 10, no. 1, 30 “Evelyn”, “The Modern Girl.”
		Modern Girls on their abilities to be good			(Durham: Duke University Press, 2008), 1. (From National				31 Lewis, 229.
---	---	-------------------------------------------	---	---	---------------------------------------------------------	---	---	---	---------------	---	---	---
Singapore Commemorative Issue 1819–1969 (March
					Library, Singapore, Call no. R 305.24220904)	1969): 43–44. (From JSTOR via NLB’s eResources website).			32 “Conservatism Must Give Way to Modern Ideals
---	---	---	---------------	---	------------------------------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------------------------	---	---	------------------------------------------------	----------------------------	---	---
			article, June		2 Alys Eve Weinbaum, et al., eds., “The Modern Girl Around	16 Kung Yuseng, “Woman’s Corner. Revolt of the Modern Girl,”			and Ideas,”	, 9 October 1938, 12. (From
the World: Cosmetics Advertising and the Politics of
							, 22 August 1931, 4. (From NewspaperSG)		NewspaperSG)
---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---------------------------------------	---	------------	---	---	---
Lee said that despite the new freedoms 17 Betty Lim, A Rose on my Pillow: Recollections of a Nyonya 33 “Adelina”, “The Ways of Girls,” , 28 March
enjoyed by the Modern Girl, it was (Durham: (Singapore: Armour Publishing, 1994), 17–18. (From 1931, 3. (From NewspaperSG)
unquestionable that they would eventu- Duke University Press, 2008), 25. (From National Library, National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING 920.72 LIM) 34 “Fascination of Careers for Malayan Chinese Girls,”
					Singapore, Call no. R 305.24220904)	18 Peter Lee,			, 2 February 1939, 1. (From NewspaperSG)
---	---	---	---	---	-----------------------------------	--------------	---	---	----------------------------------------	---	---	---
ally have to marry: “[The Modern Girl] 3 Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart, Return to Malaya Interconnected World, 1500–1950 (Singapore: Asian 35 “Spore’s First Girl Lift Attendant,” , 1 May
may take up a career – an escape from (London: Putnam, 1936), 116. (From National Library, Civilisations Museum, 2014), 253, 260. (From National Library, 1936, 11. (From NewspaperSG)
					Singapore, Call no. RCLOS 959.5 LOC-[ET])				36 “Around Malaya,”		, 6 May 1936, 10. (From
---	---	---------------------------------------	---	---	--------------------------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------------------	---	---	--------------------	---	------------------------	---
		domestic boredom for a while – but her				Singapore, Call no. RSING 391.20899510595 LEE-[CUS])
					4 Weinbaum et al., eds., “The Modern Girl as Heuristic	19 Su Lin Lewis, Cities in Motion: Urban Life and			NewspaperSG)
ultimate aim is marriage.”48 Other articles
					Device,” 1.	Cosmopolitanism in Southeast Asia, 1920–1940			37 Zola, “What Readers Are Saying: Girls & Unemployed
---	---	---	---	---	------------	--------------------------------------------	---	---	------------------------------------------------------	---	---	---
Su Lin Lewis, “Cosmopolitanism and the Modern Girl: A
				-		(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2016),			Youths,”	, 13 April 1938, 18. (From
---	---	---	---	---	-------------------------------------------	---------------------------------------------------	---	---	------------	---------------------------	---	---
					Cross-Cultural Discourse in 1930s Penang”,	247. (From National Library, Singapore, Call no.:			NewspaperSG)
cation as a path that opened up greater
					43, no. 6 (November 2009): 1385–86. (From JSTOR	R 307.7609590904 LEW)			38 G.S. Teo, “The Weaker Sex,”		, 27 April 1938,
---	---	---	---	---	-------------------------------------------------	----------------------	---	---	-------------------------------	---	-----------------	---
career opportunities, but in the same
					via NLB’s eResources website)	20 Lee Chor Lin, (Singapore:			20. (From NewspaperSG)
---	---	---	---	---	-------------------------------------------------------	------------------------------------------------------	---	---	-------------------------------	---	------------------	---
					6 Rachel Leow, “Age as a Category of Gender Analysis:	Editions Didier Millet; National Museum of Singapore,			39 C.T.C., “Girls in Offices,”		, 4 May 1938, 20.
breath also noted it made her an “asset
					Servant Girls, Modern Girls, and Gender in Southeast Asia,”	2012), 20. (From National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING			(From NewspaperSG)
---	---	---	---	---	------------------------------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------------------------	---	---	------------------	---	---	---
to her husband” by being a better com-
					71, no. 4 (2012): 980. (From	391.00951 LEE-[CUS])			40 Educated Female, “‘Zola’ Did Start Something,”
---	---	---	---	---	------------------------------	--------------------	---	---	--------------------------------------------------	---	---	---
panion. After marriage, many husbands JSTOR via NLB’s eResources website) 21 Francis T. Seow, The Media Enthralled: Singapore , 20 April 1938, 20. (From NewspaperSG)
					7 Weinbaum et al., eds., “The Modern Girl as Heuristic	Revisited (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998),			41 Sunny Girl, “Another Girl’s Views,”			, 20 April
---	---	-------------------------------------	---	---	--------------------------------------------------------	------------------------------------------------------------	---	---	---------------------------------------------	---	---	-----------
					Device,” 5.	8. (From National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING			1938, 20. (From NewspaperSG)
		home to “learn the career of being a			8 Weinbaum et al., eds., “The Modern Girl as Heuristic
						323.445095957 SEO)			42 “She Shocked Father by Bobbing Her Hair,”
‘helpful wife and wise mother’”.49 Device,” 9. 22 “Miss Tow Foo Wah”, “Skirts Too Short,” , 7 (Singapore), 3 April 1949, 4. (From NewspaperSG)
Despite modernity’s promise of 9 Weinbaum et al., eds., “The Modern Girl as Heuristic March 1931, 2. (From NewspaperSG) 43 Lim, Rose on my Pillow, 20–24.
					Device,” 9.	23 “Evelyn”, “The Modern Girl,”		, 21 March	44 Lewis, “Cosmopolitanism and the Modern Girl”, 1387.
---	---	---	---	---	------------	--------------------------------	---	-----------	-------------------------------------------------------	---	---	---
a more liberated lifestyle for women, 10 Weinbaum et al., eds., “The Modern Girl Around the 1931, 3. (From NewspaperSG) 45 “Audi Alterem Partem”, “‘Unmarriageable’ Chinese
					World,” 28, 30.	24 “Miss Anxious”, “The Modern Girl and Her Fashions,”			Girls,”	, 20 November 1931, 5. (From
---	---	---	---	---	--------------------------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------------------	-------------------------------------	-----------------------	-------------------------------------------	-----------------------------	---	---
					11 Sarah E. Stevens, “Figuring Modernity: The New Woman		, 4 April 1931, 2. (From NewspaperSG)		NewspaperSG)
					and the Modern Girl in Republican China,”	25 Jay Bee, “Dancing,”		, 14 October 1931, 11.	46 Goh Tong Liang, “Unmarriageable Girls,”			,
women, especially those from poorer 15, no. 3 (Autumn 2003): 84. (From JSTOR via NLB’s (From NewspaperSG) 20 December 1931, 3. (From NewspaperSG)
families in interwar Singapore, still had eResources website) 26 Helen Chan, “The Modern Girl,” , 20 47 “Srikrishnan”, “Unmarriageable Girls,” ,
12《 良友》was also distributed in Singapore. See Paul G.
limited freedoms and found it difficult to October 1931, 14; “A Modern Chinese Girl”, “The Modern 7 December 1931, 3. (From NewspaperSG)
					Pickowicz, Kuiyi Shen and Yingjin Zhang, eds.,	Girl,”	, 2 November 1932, 2. (From		48 June Lee, “Chinese Girls Now Choose Their Husbands,”
---	---	---	---	---	-----------------------------------------------	-------	----------------------------	---	--------------------------------------------------------	---	---	---
break with conventional gender roles. It NewspaperSG) , 20 July 1939, 1. (From NewspaperSG)
was only after the war that more women Metropolis, 1926–1945 (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 250, 258. (From 27 Chia Ah Keow, “The Modern Girl,” , 22 49 “Fascination of Careers for Malayan Chinese Girls.”
					National Library, Singapore, Call no. R 302.2320951132 LIA)	September 1938, 7. (From NewspaperSG)			50 Lee,		, 123–24.
---	---	---	---	---	-----------------------------------------------------------	-------------------------------------	---	---	--------	---	---------	---
across different social classes began
					13 Chua Ai Lin, “Singapore’s ‘Cinema-Age’ of the 1930s:	28 Juliet Loh, “The Modern Girl,”		, 24
---	---	---	---	---	--------------------------------------------------------	----------------------------------	---	-----	---	---	---	---
venturing out of the domestic sphere to
					Hollywood and the Shaping of Singapore Modernity,”	September 1938, 16. (From NewspaperSG)
---	---	---	---	---	---------------------------------------------------	--------------------------------------	---	---	---	---	---	---
30												31

It was in 4th century BCE that Southeast Asia “Land of Gold” (Suvaṇṇabhūmi), “Wall of Gold” (Suvarṇakudya), “Islands of Gold” (Suvarṇadvīpa) and “Golden Peninsula”

					(	).8

ciated with gold is that sometime around 300 BCE, there was a disruption in the trade Road to South Asia (specifically the Mau- ryan empire, which at its height, included north and central India, and what is now part of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan). Nomadic invaders destroyed several cities in the Margiana and Aria regions (present- Afghanistan respectively) just before 290 BCE, for example.9

							A 1694 print showing a gold mine (		in Indonesian) in Sumatra by Caspar Luyken and
restored until Roman Emperor Nero’s reign
Retrieved from Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (RP-P-1896-A-19368-994).
(r. 54–68 CE). However, when he tried to
A section of an armband with a kāla motif thought to be from East Java, 9th to 14th century CE. The
Samuel Eilenberg-Jonathan P. Rosen Collection of Indonesian Gold, Bequest of Samuel Eilenberg and Gift of
to counter inflation, this led to Roman gold
those believed to contain gold jewellery local authorities have since put in place Jonathan P. Rosen, 1998. Retrieved from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1998.544.58).

its beauty, rarity and monetary value. To		and artefacts, are being looted.4	- mitigation policies and experts have issued
cial transactions in South Asia where they
		ficking of antiquities is left unchecked, the	recommendations to deal with illegal
-----------------------------------------	---	----------------------------------------------	----------------------------------------------	---	---	---	-------------------------------------------	---	------------------------------------------	---
							by the 1st century BCE.14		said that the “longer a king reigned and
metal in Southeast Asia specifically, we		potential loss of knowledge and heritage	antiquities trafficking, these may not be suf-
							Southeast Asia would have initially relied		the more ingots he left on his death, the
need to look at the historical,1		- would be devastating. For example, the	ficient and greater community awareness
17
on existing trade networks.
2	3	ancient burial site of Bit Meas in Prey Veng		6
---	---	---------------------------------------------	---	---	-------------------------------------------	---	---	---	-------------------------------------	---
					and precious metal controls in 2nd century				Chinese texts such as Wang Dayuan’s18
province, Cambodia (estimated 150 BCE
					10 Roman Emperor Vespasian (r. 69–79				(汪大渊) 島夷志略 (
---------------------------------------------	---	-----------------------------------------	---------------------------------------	---	------------------------------------------	---	-----------------------------------------	----------	---------------------------	---
price of gold at an all-time high, many		to 100 CE), was almost completely looted
					CE), for example, issued regulations that		Abū Zayd al-Sir̄āfi’̄s 9th–10th century		dated 1349)
ancient historical sites in Asia, especially		in early 2006 by treasure hunters.	In 1949, a section of Stamford Road in
					prohibited the exports of precious metals		(	Akhbār al	and Fei Xin’s19 (费信) 星槎勝覽 (
the civic district – an area with potential
Ṣīnwa-l-Hind) carries an early traveller’s tale The Overall Survey of the Star
14th-century Temasek period finds – was
							of how gold collected during a Javanese		Raft, dated 1436) cite gold as an impor-
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------	---	---	------------------------------------------	---	---	---	----------------------------------------	---	----------------------------------------	---
is an Associate Librarian with the National Library, Singapore, who works with the Singapore			dug for “buried treasure” supposedly left
and Southeast Asia collections. Her responsibilities include collection management, content development as
behind from the days of the Japanese
well as providing reference and research services. Her publications on ancient money, shell middens and salt subjects after his death and became a 20 The texts mention that the seats
Occupation (1942–45).7
15
(真臘
					demand in prestige goods encouraged		According to the account, every morn-		) (now parts of Cambodia and
---	---	---	---	---	--------------------------------------	-----------------------------	------------------------------------------------	---	-------------------------------------------	---
					South Asians to explore the Southeast		ing, “the king’s steward would bring an ingot		Laos) were made of gold; that everyone
						11 Sinitic influence is also	of gold [and] place the ingot in [a tidal] pool		used gold tea trays, as well as plates and
[that adjoined the royal palace]. When the
					explored.12 Such theories, however, do not		tide came in, the water covered this and
---	---	---	---	---	---------------------------------------------	---	---------------------------------------------	---	---------------------------------------	---
							the other ingots collected together with it,		was accepted as a medium of exchange.21
					Asians in actively procuring gold nor their		and submerged them; when the tide went
					participation in various aspects of the gold		out, the water seeped away and revealed
Currently, the earliest gold finds in the
					The ancient maritime trade between		sunlight, and the king could watch over		world date to the mid-5th millennium
---	---	---	---	---	--------------------------------------------	---	-------------------------------------------	---	-------------------------------------------	---
					1st century BCE shows that there was a			16	22	-
					two-way transmission of material goods		This continued every day for as long		ties began to view goods made with this
							as that particular king lived. Upon his		new medium as precious and exotic, gold
					areca palm, fruits such as citron, mango		death, the ingots were “counted, melted
					and banana, and sandalwood were known				In India, gold has been found in
							family, men, women, and children, as		graves dating to the first millennium BCE
							and slaves, each according to his rank and		been identified.23 In China, gold was used
					Meanwhile, Indian rouletted ware		to the accepted practice for each class of
					(a kind of pottery with rouletted designs		recipients. Any gold left over afterwards		during the Western Zhou period (11th to
					at the base)13				8th century BCE).24
							needy”. The final number and weight of		The first gold ornaments in Southeast
					Peninsula, Thailand, Vietnam, Java and Bali		the gold would be recorded, and it was		Asia were South and West Asian prestige
32										33

• According to ancient Javanese | | | | | erately hidden, possibly during a Siamese | inscriptions from the 9th to 10th century | Replica of the Padang Roco Mahākāla | | --- | --- | --- | --- | ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------ | statue with a Kāla belt at Museum Siginjei Jambi, | | | | | attack37 at the end of the 14th century.38 | CE, there were two types of jewellery | 2013. | | --- | --- | --- | --- | ------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- | ------ | | | | | | Only four ornaments remained after the | artisans. The first category lived within the | | (Bottom) Japanese Occupation; the whereabouts activities in Candi Sukuh, Central Java. Gold was | | | | | of the other six are unknown.39 The kāla | | sometimes used in Hindu-Buddhist temple | | --- | --- | --- | --- | ----------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | | | | | | motif40 | category fulfilled village commissions, | consecrations. | | | | | | to be similar to a belt from a Mahākāla | with the ring makers ( | | 41 from Padang Roco in Sumatra. Javanese) considered a special class of | | | | | Other ornaments with kāla heads have | jeweller.47 | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------- | --- | | | | | | also been discovered in Java.42 | auspicious inscriptions ( | | in Old Javanese) may also have | | | | | Singapore part of royal regalia, made by | been used as “special purpose” currency | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | ----------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | --- | | | | | | Majapahit artisans? Geologically, Singa- | for temple donations and ritual offer- | | | | | | | pore does not have native gold, so the | 48 | | 43 | | | | | trace element analysis on the artefacts, | Gold was a medium of exchange on | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | ----------------------------------------- | --------------------------------- | --- | the island in the 14th century. Chinese | | | | | from Southeast Asia, may provide clues | traders used something called “red gold” | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | --- | (紫金) as a form of currency in places such | | | | | but as gold is often recycled, the results | as Longyamen (龍牙門) and Banzu (班卒) | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | ------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------- | --- | 44 on the island, thought to be located at or Archaeological excavations in Singa- 49 pore carried out between 1984 and 2017 | | | | | have uncovered additional pieces of gold | found, this could be evidence of local gold | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | ----------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | --- | district, consisting of small ornament frag- | | | | | ments or gold foil, interpreted as part of sec- | theory that a type of stoneware jar found | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | ----------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | --- | 45 The 1994–95 excavation in large numbers in soil layers dating to the | | | | | of the Parliament House site, for example, | 14th century in several sites in Singapore, | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | ------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | --- | The oldest item in the National Library’s Rare Materials Collection is this 1478 copper-engraved map titled by Claudius Ptolemy and published by Arnold Buckinck in Rome. Ptolemy’s (2nd century) refers to Southeast Asia as the “Golden Peninsula” of a jewellery strap; a sheet fragment with such as Kota Cina in Sumatra and Kedah ( ). Collection of the National Library, Singapore (Accession no. B26055962B). | | | | | incised decoration; part of a ring; as well as | and Pahang on the Malay Peninsula, were | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | ----------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | --- | | | | | | a piece of “irregularly” shaped foil, possibly | used for that very purpose. However, a | | goods that appeared around 400 to 300 46
• One theory explaining why gold became Palawan in the Philippines, Giong Ca Vo in | Vietnam and Khao Sam Kaeo in southern | with mantras, rituals and offerings. A | | ornaments and other gold trade objects | | | | | -------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------- | --- | --------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | Karo29 goldsmith in Sumatra, for example, were likely carried or worn by visiting trad- | 25 | would mutter certain prayers and pres- | | ers, and “visually communicated special | | | | | --- | -------------------------------------- | --- | ---------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | ent “the blood, heart, liver and lungs of a scaly, red chicken and also some | Generally, there are two ways of obtaining | lombok [chili]” as an offering to “wake | | by exchanging the items during marriages | | | | | ------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | --- | ----------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | | gold from nature: panning and mining. Pan- | | | and ritual gifting, for example.34 | | | | 30 | and no equipment or specialist knowledge | Temple reliefs depicting smithing | | long-distance trade networks and the gold | | | | | ------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | --- | ------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | | is needed. However, mining does, and in | activities, such as those of Candi Sukuh | | | | | | | Southeast Asia, gold mining has been gener- | in central Java, signified their importance | | burial site of Pangkung Paruk on Bali (2nd | | | | 26 | | in society, where the metal was some- | | to 4th century CE) seems to support this. | | | | | --- | ------------------------------------- | --- | -------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | | | times used for Hindu-Buddhist temple | | The site yielded gold-glass beads typically | | | | consecration deposits.31 | area, the polity would move its base to a | mentioned in Javanese and Balinese | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------- | --- | --------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | | more lucrative area.27 | inscriptions in the 9th to 10th century | | | | | | | Historically, gold was produced in | CE, and taxed according to the number | | Giong Ca Vo in Vietnam and Khlong Thom | | | | | Perak, Kelantan, Pahang, Negeri Sembilan, | | 32 | 35 | | | | | Melaka and Patani on the Malay Peninsula; | Smithing sites are generally identi- | | | | | |
• fied through excavations, surveys and | tra; western Borneo; Luzon and Mindanao | interviews with local informants, and | | In Singapore, 10 ancient gold ornaments | | | | | -------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | --- | ---------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | | in the Philippines; Timor; northern Burma; | by finding tools (furnaces, blowpipes or | | said to be related to the Majapahit em- | | | | | northern and central Vietnam; Laos; as well | | | 36 | | | | | as the Oddar Meanchey, Preah Vihear and | tubes] as well as ceramic crucibles) and | | 1928 during excavation works for the | | | | | Rattanakiri provinces in Cambodia.28 | by-products (slag).33 | | construction of a reservoir at Fort Can- | | | | 34 35

					23 Praveena Gullapalli, “Early Metal in South India: Copper		. (Singapore: ISEAS Publishing, 2020), 72–74. (From		Brigitte Borell, “Money in 14th Century Singapore,” in
50 and Iron in Megalithic Contexts,” National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSEA 959.81 VIE)
					22, no. 4 (December 2009): 439–59; Upendra		34 Demandt, “Early Gold Ornaments of Southeast Asia,”		7th International Conference of the European Association
---	---	---	---	---	------------------------------------------------------------	---	------------------------------------------------------------------	---	---------------------------------------------------------	--------------------------------------	---
					Thakur, “Source of Gold for Early Coins of India,” East and		306, 319.		of Southeast Asian Archaeologists, Berlin, 31 August – 4
					, 30, no. 1/4 (December 1980): 99–115. (From JSTOR		35 Ambra Calo, et al., “Trans-Asiatic Exchange of Glass, Gold and			, ed. Wibke Lobo and Stefanie Reimann
					via NLB’s eResources website)		Bronze: Analysis of Finds from the Late Prehistoric Pangkung
(Hull: Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Hull,
					24 Jianjun Mei, et al., “Archaeometallurgical Studies in China:		Paruk Site,”	94, no. 373 (February 2020), 119. (From	2000), 11–12. (Not available in NLB holdings); Lim Chen Sian,
---	---	---	---	---	----------------------------------------------------------------	---	-------------	-----------------------------------------	--------------------------------------------------------------	---	---
shipwreck discovered by fishermen near Some Recent Developments and Challenging Issues,” ProQuest Central via NLB’s eResources website) Preliminary Report on the Archaeological Investigations at
the island of Belitung, Indonesia, in 1998. 56 (February 2015): 36 The Majapahit empire, founded in 1294 CE, was based Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre
					227–28, ResearchGate, https://www.researchgate.		in East Java. Singapore was said to be a vassal state of		Archaeology Unit Archaeology Report Series 5 (Singapore:
---	---	---	---	---	-----------------------------------------------	---	---------------------------------------------------------	---	---------------------------------------------------------	---	---
(This was the wreck of an Arabian dhow
					net/publication/272846438_Archaeometallurgical_		Majapahit. See Miksic, Singapore & the Silk Road of the Sea:		Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre, ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute,
---	---	---	---	---	-----------------------------------------------	---	-------------------------------------------------------------	---	---------------------------------------------------------	---	---
that might have sunk around 830 CE on Studies_in_China_Some_Recent_Developments_and_ 1300–1800, 185. 2017), 63. (From National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING
							37 Wang Dayuan (汪大渊) mentions an attack by Siam		959.5703 LIM-[HIS])
---	---	---	---	---	---	---	------------------------------------------------	---	-------------------	---	---
its return journey from China to Arabia.)
					25 Thomas Oliver Pryce, Bérénice Bellina-Pryce and Anna		around 1330 CE, when the Siamese were trying to		46 Borell, “Money in 14th Century Singapore,” 11–12.
---	---	---	---	---	--------------------------------------------------------	---	------------------------------------------------------------	---	------------------------------------------------------	---	---
					T.N. Bennett, “The Development of Metal Technologies in		establish influence in the area. According to a text called		47 Lien Dwiari Ratnawati, “Kelompok Pembuat Perhiasan
Tang artisans in the style of Sogdian51 the Upper Thai-Malay Peninsula: Initial Interpretation of , Majapahit military leader Gajah Mada is
pada masa Jawa Kuna: Data Prasasti Masa Kayuwangi-
					the Archaeometallurgical Evidence from Khao Sam Kaeo,”		said to have made an oath to conquer a list of places in the		Balitung,” in
---	---	---	---	---	----------------------------------------------------------	---	-------------------------------------------------------------	---	----------------------------------------------------------	---	---
					Bulletin de l’École Francaise d’Extrême-Orient 93 (2006):		Nusantara region (maritime Southeast Asia). Temasek is		- Analisis Hasil Penelitian Arkeologi IV, Kuningan, 10–16
mid-700s CE. Why the cup was in a ship
Javanese-style gold jewellery dating back to the Majapahit period was discovered at Fort Canning in Singapore 308–11; Michele H.S. Demandt, “Early Gold Ornaments (Jakarta: Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi
					of Southeast Asia: Production, Trade, and Consumption,”		text dated approximately 1365 CE, Gajah Mada was		Nasional, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, 1993),
---	---	---	---	---	--------------------------------------------------------	---	-------------------------------------------------	---	-------------------------------------------------------	---	---
during excavation works in 1928. Courtesy of the National Museum of Singapore, National Heritage Board.
						54, no. 2 (Fall 2015): 323. (From JSTOR	successful in achieving his oath. See Miksic, Singapore & the		225–34, Repositori Institusi Kementrian Pendidikan dan
---	---	---	---	---	---	-----------------------------------------	--------------------------------------------------------------	---	-------------------------------------------------------	---	---
52
					via NLB’s eResources website)		Silk Road of the Sea: 1300-1800, 163, 185.		Kebudayaan, http://repositori.kemdikbud.go.id/3935/.
---	---	---	---	---	---------------------------------------------------	---	------------------------------------------------	---	--------------------------------------------------------------	---	---
					26 Pryce, Pryce and Bennett, “Development of Metal		38 “Treasure Trove: Discovery at Fort Canning,”		48 Jan Wisseman Christie, “Money and its Uses in the Javanese
addition, scholars have begun to collate ancient gold in the region, the ability to Technologies in the Upper Thai-Malay Peninsula,” 308; , 19 July 1928, 9. (From NewspaperSG); Richard States of the Ninth to Fifteenth Centuries A.D.,”
					Killick and Fenn, “Archaeometallurgy,” 563; Paul T.		O. Winstedt, “Gold Ornaments Dug Up at Fort Canning,		the Economic and Social History of the Orient 39, no. 3 (1996):
---	---	---	---	---	----------------------------------------------------	---	-----------------------------------------------------	---	----------------------------------------------------------------	---	---
historical, ethnographic and archaeologi- uncover such information is becoming Craddock, Early Metal Mining and Production (Edinburgh: Singapore,” Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic 243–86. (From JSTOR via NLB’s eResources website)
in the study of gold in Southeast Asia, more difficult due to illicit trafficking of Edinburgh University Press, 1995), 23–87. (Not available in 6, no. 4 (105) (November 1928): 1–4. (From JSTOR via 49 The Chinese sources that mention this are Wang Dayuan’s (汪
there are still some research gaps that of a geographic information system to antiquities. Therefore, we have to ensure NLB holdings); Bennet Bronson and Pisit Charoenwongsa, NLB’s eResources website); John N. Miksic, 大渊) (島夷志略
							Research on the “Forbidden Hill” of Singapore: Excavations at		, dated 1349 CE) and Feixin’s (费信) The Overall Survey
---	---	---	---	---	---	---	--------------------------------------------------------------	---	------------------------------------------------------	---	---
need to be filled. Exploring the history 53 Eye Witness Accounts of the Early Mining and Smelting
					(Bangkok: Thailand		Fort Canning, 1984 (Singapore: National Museum Singapore,		of the Star Raft (星槎勝覽		dated 1436
---	---	---	---	---	-------------------	---	----------------------------------------------------------	---	----------------------	---	------------

• Academic Publishing Co., 1985). (From National Library, 1985), 42–47. (From National Library, Singapore, Call no. CE). See Rockhill, “Notes on the Relations and Trade of China,” gold sourcing studies, for example. In tinues to advance our knowledge of benefit of future generations.  Singapore, Call no. RSEA 338.2740959 BRO) RSING 959.57 MIK-[HIS]); Shah Alam Zaini, “Metal Finds and 129–32; see also John N. Miksic and Geok Yian Goh, | | | | | | 27 Moh. Ali Fadillah, “Industri Emas di Kotawaringin: Kasus | | Metal-Working at the Parliament House Complex, Singapore,” | | | (London: Routledge, 2017), 177–78, 502. (From | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | --- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | --- | ------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------- | --- | | | | | | | Strategi Ekonomi,” in | | (master’s thesis, Michigan University, 1997), 7, http://hdl. | | National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSEA 959.01 MIK) | | | 344–54, Taylor & Francis Online, https://www.tandfonline. which is thought to date from the 11th to 12th century BCE, handle.net/2027.42/149090. 50 Miksic, Archaeological Research on the “Forbidden Hill” of com/doi/abs/10.1080/00934690.2016.1179539. for example, has uncovered pits that contained spectacular 10–16 September 1991 (Jakarta: Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi 39 “Japs Took Ancient Ornaments,” , 6 March , 68–71, 77, 88; Sharon Wai-yee Wong, “A Case 1 Ancient pre-colonial literary sources for Southeast Asia were 7 “Stamford Road Treasure Mystery Solved: Aussies gold masks. See Gideon Shelach-Lavi, Nasional, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, 1993), 1948, 4. (From NewspaperSG) Report on the Function(s) of the ‘Mercury Jar’: Fort Canning, either stone engravings, perishable palm leaf manuscripts, Buried Heavy Box,” , 11 February 1949, Early China: From Prehistory to the Han Dynasty (New York: 251–55, Repositori Institusi Kementrian Pendidikan dan 40 A decorative pattern with the face of kāla. Kāla is a Hindu Singapore, in the 14th Century,” Archaeological Research | | 3; “Stamford Rd Treasure Hunt Banned,” | | Cambridge University Press, 2015), 242–46. (From National | | | | | | | | | | --- | --------------------------------------- | --- | ---------------------------------------------------------- | --- | ----------------------------------------------------- | --- | ---------------------------------------------------- | --- | ------------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | | | | | | | Kebudayaan, http://repositori.kemdikbud.go.id/3935/. | | deity often synonymous with death, but kāla is also | | 7 (2016): 10–17, Academia, https://www.academia. | | | regions. See Noboru Karashima and Y. Subbarayalu, “Ancient , 3 May 1949, 5; “Singapore Stands to Lose What Library, Singapore, Call no. R 931 SHE) 28 Anna T.N. Bennett, “Gold in Early Southeast Asia,” associated with the passing of time. See W.J. Johnson, edu/28401760/A_Case_Report_on_the_Function_s_of_ Treasure Hunters Find,” (1985, March 15). , 13 Rouletted ware usually refers to a “flat-based shallow 33 (2009): 99–107, OpenEditions Journal, “Kāla,” in (Oxford: Oxford the_Mercury_Jar_Fort_Canning_Singapore_in_the_14th_ dish about 6 centimetres (cm) deep and up to 32 cm in Southeast Asia and China,” in 15 March 1985, 13. (From NewspaperSG). For more https://journals.openedition.org/archeosciences/2072; University Press, 2010), 163. (From National Library, Century_Archaeological_Research_in_Asia_2016_7_10_17. Reflections on the Chola Naval Expeditions to Southeast Asia, information about 14th-century Temasek, see John N. diameter, with an incurved bevelled rim. Decoration Nicholas N. Dodge, “Mineral Production on the East Coast Singapore, Call no. R 294.503 JOH) Mined gold was said to be treated with lead in the 4th ed. Herman Kulke, K. Kesavapany and Sakhuja Vijay (Singapore: Miksic, Singapore & the Silk Road of the Sea, 1300–1800 of Malaya in the Nineteenth Century,” 41 A Hindu-Buddhist deity more popularly found in Indian Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2009), 271–91. (From (Singapore: NUS Press, 2013). (From National Library, rouletted designs on the base of the dish or pot [and based Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 50, no. 2 (232) and Tibetan traditions, the Mahākāla is a “frequent epithet later replaced by the use of mercury in the 10th century National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING 959.01 NAG); Dick Singapore, Call no. RSING 959.57 MIK-[HIS]) on ceramics analysis at the archaeological excavation (1977): 92. (From JSTOR via NLB’s eResources website) of Śiva, either in his role as the destroyer of the universe CE. See Craddock, Early Metal Mining, 114–15; R.P. Kangle, van der Meij, 8 Paul Wheatley, site of Tissamaharama]. Rouletted Ware first emerged 29 The ethnic Karo traditionally live in the North Sumatra and at the end of a cosmological cycle, and therefore lord of The Kautilīya Arthaśāstra Part II: An English Translation (Leiden: Brill, 2017). (From National of the Malay Peninsula Before A. D. 1500 (Kuala Lumpur: in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE and belongs to a group death […] or in his soteorological role as the conqueror of with Critical and Explanatory Notes (Bombay: Bombay | Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING 091.095998 MEI); Stewart | University of Malaya Press, 1966), 123–62, 177–84. (From | | of pottery that has been found at archaeological sites | | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------- | --- | ------------------------------------------------------- | --- | ---------------------------------------------- | --- | ---------------------------------------------------------- | --- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | | | | | | | 30 J.E. Jasper and Mas Pirngadie, “De Goud-en | | both time and death”. See Johnson, “Kāla,” 163. For more, | | University Press, 1963), 127, Internet Archive, https://archive. | | | Gordon, (New Haven, Connecticut: National Library, Singapore, Call no. RCLOS 959.5 WHE); Zilversmeedkunst,” in see Kurt Behrendt. “Tibet and India: Buddhist Traditions org/details/kautiliyaarthasastrakangaler.p.vol2/page/n9/ Yale University Press, 2008). (From National Library, Singapore, George Cœdès, south to Sri Lanka.” See Himanshu Prabha Ray, “Culture, , vol. 4 (s-Gravenhage: Mouton & Co., and Transformations,” mode/2up. the Written Word, and the Sea, 3rd Century BCE to Call no. R 950.099 GOR) (Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1968), 40. (From National 1927): 26, Leiden University Libraries Digital Collections, 71, no. 3 (Winter, 2014): 37–39. The Metropolitan 51 Sogdians are an “Iranian people whose homeland is 2 Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING 959 COE); Himansha Prabha 4th Century CE,” in Coastal Shrines and Transnational http://hdl.handle.net/1887.1/item:1086942 ; T.M. Hari Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/ located in present-day Uzbekistan and Tajikstan”. See data where there are no historical sources to be found, Ray, “In Search of Suvarnabhumi: Early Sailing Networks in the Maritime Networks Across India and Southeast Asia Lelono, “Tradisi Alat Logam Bagi Masyarakat Jawa (Kajian Judith A. Lerner and Thomas Wide, “Who were the such as in the development and dating of ancient gold, Bay of Bengal,” in (London: Routledge, 2021), 25–27. (From National Library, Awal Ethnoarkeologi),” in Sogdians, and Why Do They Matter?,” Freer Sackler Gallery, and for mining, smithing and the chronology of gold 1990: Proceedings of the 14th Congress of the Indo-Pacific Singapore, Call no. RSEA 294.3435095409146 RAY) 42 Iskandar Mydin and Sharon Lim, “Towards a Shared Smithsonian Institution, accessed 10 August 2021, https:// as a measure of value. See John N. Miksic, “Gold: The Prehistory Association, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 26 August to 2 14 Dorian Q. Fuller, et al., “Across the Indian Ocean: The 10–16 September 1991 (Jakarta: Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi History: The Hill and the Malay Archipelago,” Perspective of an Archaeologist,” in Old Javanese Gold September 1990, ed. Peter Bellwood (Canberra: Indo-Pacific Prehistoric Movement of Plants and Animals,” 85, Nasional, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, 1993), 3, (2018): 113–16, Culture Academy 52 Qi Dongfang, “Gold and Silver on the Tang Shipwreck,” in | (4th–15th Century): An Archaeometrical Approach, ed. | Prehistory Association, 1990), 357. (From National Library, | | no. 328 (June 2011): 544–58. (From ProQuest Central via NLB’s | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | --- | -------------------------------------------------------------- | --- | ------------------------------------------------------- | --- | -------------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | ------------- | | | | | | | 393–95, Repositori Institusi Kementrian Pendidikan dan | | Singapore, https://www.mccy.gov.sg/cultureacademy/ | | | | , ed. Regina | Wilhelmina H. Kal (Amsterdam: Royal Tropical Institute, KIT Singapore, Call no. R 930 IND) eResources website); Ray, “Culture, the Written Word, and the Kebudayaan, http://repositori.kemdikbud.go.id/3935/. researchandpublications/journals/Cultural-Connections- Krahl, et al. (Singapore: Singapore Tourism Board and National Press, 1994), 15–17. (From National Library, Singapore, Call 9 Ahmad Hasan Dani and P. Bernard, “Alexander and His Sea, 3rd Century BCE to 4th Century CE,” 21–53. 31 Stanley J. O’Connor, “Metallurgy and Immortality at Vol-3; Claudine Bautze-Picron, “History of Padang Lawas, Heritage Board, 2010), 221–27. (From National Library, 15 Abū Zayd al-Sir̄āfi, ̄ no. RSEA 739.227 OLD); “What is Archaeology,” Society for Successors in Central Asia,” in Candi Sukuh, Central Java,” no. 39 (April 1985): North Sumatra. II: Societies of Padang Lawas (Mid-Ninth- Singapore, Call no. RSING 910.916474 SHI); Kwa Chong Guan, American Archaeology, accessed 10 August 2021, https:// 52–70. (From JSTOR via NLB’s eResources website); Stanley Thirteenth Century CE),” 43 (2014), 107–28, note “Locating Singapore on the Maritime Silk Road: Evidence from www.saa.org/about-archaeology/what-is-archaeology. Civilizations, 700 B. C. to A. D. 250, ed. János Harmatta, B. N. Ocean, trans. Tim Mackintosh-Smith (New York: New York J. O’Connor, “Ritual Deposit Boxes in Southeast Asian 30, Academia, https://www.academia.edu/43979062/ Maritime Archaeology, Ninth to Early Nineteenth Centuries,” 3 Puri, and G. F. Etemadi (Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 1992), 2: University Press, 2017), 43–44. (From National Library, 28, no. 1 (1966): 53–60. (From Bautze_Picron_2014_Buddhist_Images_from_Padang_

89. (From National Library, Singapore, Call no. RU 958 HIS); Singapore, Call no. R 915.104 SIR-[TRA]) (Abū Zayd al-Sir̄āfi w̄ as a JSTOR via NLB’s eResources website) Lawas; Mai Lin Tjoa-Bonatz, ed., “Early Histories: , ed. Heidi Tan (Singapore: Asian Civilisations on industries, and craftsmen’s workshops can be used to Ray, “In Search of Suvarnabhumi,” 357; Irfan Habib and Faiz seafarer who moved from the Persian port-city of Siraf to Basra.) 32 Titi Surti Nastiti, “Pandai Logam Dalam Kehidupan Historiography and Archaeological Surveys,” in Museum, 2012), 15–51. (From National Library, Singapore, Call construct useful frames of reference. See Lewis W. Binford. Habib, “Mapping the Mauryan Empire,” 16 Abū Zayd al-Sir̄āfi,̄ , 43–44. Masyarakat Jawa Kuno,” in no. RSING 930.102804 MAR); Roxanna M. Brown, “History | Constructing Frames of Reference; An Analytical Method | | 50, Golden Jubilee Session (1989), | 17 Abū Zayd al-Sir̄āfi,̄ | , 43–44. | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------- | --- | ------------------------------------ | -------------------------- | -------- | --- | --- | --- | ------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | | | | | | | | | | (Singapore: ISEAS Publishing, 2020), 39, | of Shipwreck Excavation in Southeast Asia,” in | | | for Archaeological Theory Building Using Ethnographic and 57–79. Retrieved from JSTOR via NLB’s eResources website. 18 Wang Dayuan was a Yuan dynasty traveller known for his two 10–16 September 1991 (Jakarta: Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi 41. (From National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSEA 959.81 , ed. Jayne Ward, Environmental Data Sets. (Berkeley: University of California 10 Cœdès, , 20; William ship voyages. For a study of his writings relating to Singapore, see Nasional, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, 1993), VIE); Maud Girard-Geslan and Martowikrido Wahyona, Zoi Kotitsa and Alessandra D’Angelo (New Zealand: Seabed | | Woodthorpe Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria & India (London: | | Miksic, Singapore & the Silk Road of the Sea, 169–79. | | | | | | | | | | --- | -------------------------------------------------------- | --- | ----------------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | Press, 2001). (Not available in NLB holdings) 274–75; Made Geria, “Kerajinan Logam pada Masa Bali Kuno Explorations, 2004), ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, https://www. 4 Jose Eleazar R. Bersales, “Looking for Yamashita’s Gold,” The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, 1922), 19 Fei Xin was a soldier who served under Ming dynasty di Bali,” in (Queensland: Queensland Art Gallery, 2003), iseas.edu.sg/centres/nalanda-sriwijaya-centre/research-tools/ Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society 44, nos. 3 and 4 104–9, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/in.ernet. Hasil Penelitian Arkeologi IV, Kuningan, 10–16 September 82–83. (Not available in NLB holdings) compilations/the-belitung-wreck-sunken-treasures-from- (2016): 183–210. (From JSTOR via NLB’s eResources website) dli.2015.125997/page/n125/mode/2up; Kenneth R. Hall, 20 W.W. Rockhill, “Notes on the Relations and Trade of China (Jakarta: Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional, 43 Abdul Hadhi, “Gold in S’pore? Definitely No!,” , tang-china; Natali Pearson, “Protecting and Preserving Andreas Reinecke, Vin Laychour and Sonetra Seng, Maritime Trade and State Development in Early Southeast Asia Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, 1993), 381, Underwater Cultural Heritage in Southeast Asia,” in 10 December 1988, 8. (From NewspaperSG) First Golden Age of Cambodia: Excavation at Prohear (Bonn: (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1985), 36–37, 39. (From Ocean during the Fourteenth Century. Part II,” T’oung Pao Repositori Institusi Kementrian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, 44 Mai Lin Tjoa-Bonatz and Nicole Lockhoff, “Java: Arts and , ed. Saskia Hufnagel and Andreas Reinecke, 2009), 19–21, ResearchGate, https:// National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING 382.0959 HAL) 16, no. 1 (March 1915): 61–159. (From JSTOR via NLB’s http://repositori.kemdikbud.go.id/3935/. Duncan Chappell (London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2019). (Not | www.researchgate.net/publication/274251428_2009_The_ | 11 Alastair Lamb, “Indian Influence in Ancient Southeast | | eResources website) | | | | | | | | | | ---------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | --- | ------------------- | --- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | --- | -------------------------------------------------------------- | --- | -------------------------- | --- | --- | | | | | | | 33 T.O. Pryce, et al., “Intensive Archaeological Survey in Southeast | | of Ancient Jewellery (7–16th C.): The Prillwitz Collection of | | available in NLB holdings) | | | First_Golden_Age_of_Cambodia_Excavation_at_Prohear_ Asia,” in , ed. A.L. Basham (Delhi: 21 Rockhill, “Notes on the Relations and Trade of China,” 105–107. Asia: Methodological and Metallurgical Insights from Khao Javanese Gold,” 97 (June 2019): 19–68, OpenEdition 53 Michael Armand P. Canilao, Remote Sensing the Margins of with_Khmer_abstract_Bonn. Oxford University Press, 1985), 445. (From National Library, 22 David Killick and Thomas Fenn, “Archaeometallurgy: The Sai On, Central Thailand,” 50, no. 1/2 Journals, https://journals.openedition.org/archipel/1018. the Gold Trade: Ethnohistorical and GIS Analysis of Five Gold | | Singapore, Call no. R 954 CUL) | | Study of Pre-industrial Mining and Metallurgy,” | | | | | | | | | | --- | ------------------------------ | --- | ------------------------------------------------ | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | 6 Denis Byrne, “The Problem with Looting: An Alternative (Spring/Fall 2011): 57–61. (From JSTOR via NLB’s eResources 45 Rohaniah Saini, “Exciting 14th-Century Relics in Fort Canning Perspective on Antiquities Trafficking in Southeast Asia.” 12 Reinecke, Laychou and Seng, , Review of Anthropology 41 (2012): 562–63. (From JSTOR via website); Mai Lin Tjoa-Bonatz, ed., Find,” , 31 March 1990, 3. (From NewspaperSG); (Oxford: BAR Publishing, 2020). (From National Library, 41, no. 3 (20 June 2016): 155. The site of Sanxingdui (三星堆) in the Sichuan basin, NLB’s eResources website) Shah Alam Zaini, “Metal Finds and Metal-Working, 31–32; Singapore, Call no. RSEA 305.80095991 CAN) | 36 | | | | | | | | | | | 37 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |

extend from Arabia, Peru, India and Ceylon

curious and interconnected world, also		to numerous places in Southeast Asia,
featured in these flights of fancy.		including the Malay Peninsula (which
antiquity called the “Golden Chersonesus”,
For would-be explorers and adventurers		meaning the “Golden Peninsula”).
----------------------------------------	---	------------------------------------------------	---	---
of the sea, the Bible contains lines of		Given the speculation as to its loca-
tempting mystery. In the Book of Kings,		tion, it is not at all surprising to learn that
it is written: “And King Solomon made
a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which is		site for the mystical Ophir. This suggestion
-------------------------------------------	---	---------------------------------------------	---	---
beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea,		was advanced by the Calabrian theologist,
geographer and occasional demonologist,
the navy his servants, shipmen that had		Giovanni Lorenzo d’Anania.
----------------------------------------	---	--------------------------------------------	------------------	------------------------------------------
knowledge of the sea, with the servants		Universale Fabrica del Mondo,
of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and		overo Cosmografia (Universal Fabric of the		Singapura, which overlooks the southern
fetched from thence gold, four hundred			), d’Anania takes	part of the continent, where many islands
and twenty talents, and brought it to				extending east are [located]”.
King Solomon.”2		16th-century world. The first and second
		editions contain nothing extraordinary but		mentions make little sense to us today:
brought back other commodities: silver,		it is the third edition, published in 1582,		there is Temian, Campar and the island
From a letter written by a human-monkey ivory, apes and peacocks, algum-wood that includes certain interesting additions of Poverera, and close by the shallows
	3		4	of Capaccia, the mouth of the river Dara,
---	---	---	---	------------------------------------------
chimera to a dog who became king,
Where, then, is this Ophir? To date,		“But we return”, d’Anania writes,		Capasiacar, with the little islet of Cana-
-------------------------------------------	---	------------------------------------------	---	------------------------------------------
there is no agreement. Suggested locations		“close to the equinox, beyond the cape of		dos, then Ciagna and Saban and its Strait
fantastical tales that reflect European
Calatigan, and after that, Andrapara and
Manancavo, where great quantities of
Detail showing Singapore and the Malay Peninsula from the map titled
lesquelles sont Sumatra, Java, Borneo, &c. (The Sunda islands among which are Sumatra, Java, Borneo, etc.)
However, after the roving eye is satis-
Nicolas Sanson, 1652. Collection of the National Library, Singapore (Accession no. B16132429F).
fied, presumably with the aid of a map,
Portrait of French writer Nicolas-Edme Rétif, who used the pen name Restif de la Bretonne. Among
d’Anania directs the reader to “make a
, published
turn towards Singapura” where “quanti-
in 1781. Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons.
ties of ivory, aloe[wood] and all sorts of
From the 16th to 18th centuries, European “Solomon Receiving the Queen of Sheba” by Peter Paul Rubens, 1620. Solomon is seen receiving gold,
aromatics” can be found, the island “to
ships returned from their sojourns to dis- spices and precious stones, similar to the ships from Ophir. Image from Courtauld Institute.
which Solomon’s fleet navigates every
6
fine spices and finer haberdasheries but
Singapore’s tenuous connection to
also descriptions of these faraway places.
first-hand observations and are unparal-
and a collection point for the merchandise
leled in historical detail, while others are
of the world, for which it was known in
highly embellished accounts, infused
earlier times. As d’Anania, approximating
with heightened sentiments of atypicality
knowledge from the Portuguese histo-
and danger. Mixed in with this basket are
rian João de Barros, relates, Singapura
fictional accounts that occasionally mirror
was a “market” ( ), where all the
closely the narratives of real ones.
traffic of Melaka.7
remarkably popular. Indeed, the endur-
The Monkey’s Letter
fact that they provided readers with “the
If Ophir seems familiar, much less well-
shoes of flight”, allowing them to dream of
Nicolas-Edme Rétif. Rétif, who used the
inaccessible and imagine societies vastly
pen name Restif de la Bretonne, was the
different from the ones they lived in.1
author of several salacious titles such as
Unbeknownst to many, Singapore
Le Paysan Perverti (
and the Malay Peninsula, situated as they
1775)(

1769. and L’Anti-Justine; ou, Les Delices de is a research officer at ISEAS- (The Anti-Justine; or, The Delights Yusof Ishak Institute and a 2020/21 Lee Kong Chian ; 1798). In all, Rétif produced over 200-odd works ranging from biographies to science fiction and short stories, cover- networks of knowledge and diplomatic encoun ing topics that vary from politics to incest. 38 39

nial history, scientific imagination and lively	In the original tale, there was once	After the Siamese king departed,
publications is one often acclaimed as a of a letter written by a fantastical half- anecdotes into a trenchant social critique a certain mandarin, the viceroy of Johor, both mutt and man got on extremely well.
proto-work of science fiction, Lettre d’un of his times that would not be out of place who ruled his province with an iron fist. Each played his role to perfection; the dog
, (Letter by a Monkey), the epistle given his revolutionary milieu. However, if Injustice and cruelty led the people to Barkouf strutted in pageantry and presided
( relates the extraordinary circumstances change was afoot, we would certainly be rebel, defenestrate their tyrant and over his royal councils, while the minister
).8 Published in
1781 in four volumes, it is a novel of great This demi-simian was said to be born came to incur the wrath of King Chaou-
eccentricity and social critique although its Malon of Siam, who arrived with his The province of Johor was well gov-
a baboon. Considered an abomination, the In 1860, the Parisian elites were witness to army to subjugate Johor. Frightened at erned until an army of barbarians from the
by the passage of time. chimera was destined to be drowned but a the ill-starred debut of by Jacques the king’s might, the Johorese quickly “Peninsula of Melaka” attacked. Barkouf
Offenbach, a German-born French com-	surrendered and submitted in tears, and
----------------------------------------------	----------------------------------------	----------------------------------------
poser, cellist and impresario of the Romantic		they drove out the intruders, winning a
(1781) by Nicolas-
period. Over three acts, the audience
Edme Rétif. Retrieved from Gallica, Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
was treated to courtly intrigues, forced	“Base vermins [in other versions,	was wounded in battle and died from a
-----------------------------------------	----------------------------------	--------------------------------------
César of Melaka, the human-monkey, writing a letter to his own species. vile insects] who have dared to offend poisoned dart. Mani then led a deputation
Nicolas Edme Restif de La Bretonne, La Découverte Australe par un Homme-volant, ou Le Dedale Francais, vol.
entirely fictitious Mughal Empire, the comic	the King of the White Elephant,” the
---------------------------------------------	-------------------------------------	---
3 (Paris: Leipzig, 1781). Retrieved from Gallica, Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
	king thundered, “you do not deserve to	Pleading for a successor, Mani cried,
---------------------------------------------	---------------------------------------	--------------------------------------------
dog, the titular character of the opera, who		“deign therefore to order that we always be
under the rule of a mastiff!” Upon hearing
Offenbach had exercised much creative	and placed it on the throne of Johor.	this, King Chaou-Malon grew pensive. “If the
--------------------------------------	--------------------------------------	---------------------------------------------
licence; in fact, he had lifted much of his
opera from a fable set in the Malay Pen-	Mani, who had long been established	quadrupeds as chiefs,” he mused, “they
----------------------------------------	------------------------------------	---------------------------------------
insula. The original 1784 work, titled	in Johor, he appointed him as prime
, came from the pen of the Abbé		rule of my mandarins. Why, even my own
François Blanchet, a French priest.	the affairs of the king.
The cover of the musical score (1861) for Jacques Offenbach’s Retrieved from Gallica, Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
the “Peninsula of Singapore” saved him.
From there, the creature was transferred
Salocin-emdé-fitre (an anagram
of Nicolas-Edme Rétif), who made him a
present to a respectable dame thereafter.9
Now writing from Paris, where he had
ways, César of Melaka had cause to write
Man, the “king of the world (
)”, César rages, only thinks of
inflicting misery, perpetuating fopperies,
and consecrating barbarism in blasphemy
espouses equality and fraternity but
10
and hypocritical, especially in enslaving his
fellow men, and exhibits slavish pretence

ments, César of Melaka twists his verbal knife – it is Man who is the true chimera, “engendered of a Tiger and a Hyena”, with To his simian brothers, César exhorts a singular warning – apes should not ape man, for he is a base ape. The dream of humanity is a mere nightmare. “Yes, fortu- nately I am a monkey,” he writes, “and not subject to human laws and prejudices!”11 Rétif’s monkey from the Peninsula or Strait of Singapore mixes natural and colo- 40 41

Ruminating thus, the king decreed that his mandarin, Miracha, should take A caricature of Jacques Offenbach by French caricaturist André Gill, with Barkouf the dog in the lower right,

1866. Jacques Offenbach composed the music for	, his opera bouffe in three acts, which premiered at
charge of the province of Johor instead. the Opéra-Comique in 1860. Retrieved from Gallica, Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
Needless to say, the people lived unhap-
pily ever after as the king’s minister was
incomparable to the ruler-dog. Blanchet’s
moral is this: “the next best to an efficient
emperor is an indifferent prince who
12
Monarch haters, dog lovers and the
general cognoscenti were tickled pink by
this entirely fictitious fable of the dog-king
An aquatint print of Pedra Branca with dark storm clouds in the background
of Johor. The story was reprinted in many
by Thomas Daniell and his nephew William Daniell, 1810. The two princes of
fashionable magazines of the day, such as
Golconda were said to be shipwrecked off this island, which is located about 24
The Universal Magazine of Knowledge of
nautical miles (44 km) to the east of Singapore. Courtesy of the National Museum
, The Edinburgh Magazine, of Singapore, National Heritage Board.
Lady’s Magazine, and even in
( ). Such was which is also what “Pedra Branca”18 for the biblical Ophir, meeting animals
		they celebrated, recounting their story	in Portuguese), a Malabarese Arcadia,	that criticise the prevailing social mores
---	---	----------------------------------------	--------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------
rendered into poetry in French and English, to every curious individual, one of the whose location was kept secret among the and cultural practices, or encountering
and later, as we know, turned into an opera. utopian societies of idealised equality,
Blanchet’s story was immensely creative Johor and Sumatra.
distinctively European imagination, tied
Setting the Imaginary Against
and most imaginative tale for the last. to the events and preoccupations of the
asked the princes to continue with the rest 19
An Antipodean Arcadia
		of the story. When they had finished, she	These four entertaining vignettes that	Finally, we also have to be aware
---	---	------------------------------------------	---------------------------------------	----------------------------------
In 1718, a travelogue divided into four fell on them, saying, “Ah my children! My touch on Singapore and the Malay Penin- that these imaginative visions impinge
parts appeared in print with the title dear children! It’s you, I have the pleasure upon the realities of the world they drew
Relations de Divers Voyages Faits dans
		to see you both… the joy to be reunited! O		inspiration from. These stories work to
---	---	-------------------------------------------	---	----------------------------------------
l’Afrique, dans l’Amerique, et aux Indes heavens, is it possible?”16 Soon after, the assemble and reduce the complex reali-
Occidentales (Relation of Several Voyages information for narrative verisimilitude, ties of these very real places to the level
made to Africa, America, and the East throughout the whole settlement, bringing
).13 through this Strait,” Grandpierre relates, joy to all and sundry. Singapore and the Malay Peninsula was the last two narratives, where the region
story of the French naval officer Dralsé de “we find there such a great quantity of left them there. This island is no ordinary place, -
Grandpierre who, at 16, runs away from his 15 After reaching man’s estate, the two ropean reading public between the 16th place where a dog can be king, an image of
father’s house in Rochefort, southwestern Later, Grandpierre’s vessel narrowly was a true picture of the “Age of Gold”. and 18th centuries, but also that it was nonsensical despotism allowed free rein.
France, for Bueno Aires.14 From Argentina, Friendship and harmony reigned, liberty consciously and creatively put to use. Fuelled by expanding geographical
we follow him on his various adventures, of religion existed, egality subsisted, there knowledge, the writers of these fantasti-
that Grandpierre and his crew noticed a (present-day Jakarta), they decided to was no lack of needs and joy flourished stories closely reflect European intel-
small prow sailing towards them, carrying join them, hoping to then find a way back always. There were no judges, no lawyers, in the world, all the while changing how
Africa. Later, he becomes involved in the a woman, three men and a young child. to India. However, after encountering a no executioners and no need of doctors space and time. Whether it is a search people made sense of the world.
Two distinguished-looking young men	vicious tempest near the island of Pedra	even, since the air was the best in the
------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------	----------------------------------------	---	---
Martinique, Benin and Mexico. boarded Grandpierre’s ship, and were Branca (a small island about 24 nautical world, and for over 20 years only 10 had 11 Restif de la Bretonne,
given food and lodging. They subsequently miles, or 44 km, to the east of Singapore), , 82; See also Londa
			1 Mary B. Campbell, The Witness and the Other World:	Schiebinger, Nature’s Body: Gender in the Making of
---	---	---	------------------------------------------------------	----------------------------------------------------
the places he visited and their inhabitants, all lives were lost except for the two fortu- Their mother’s tale, how she ended up
Exotic European Travel Writing, 400–1600 (Ithaca: Cornell (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press,
University Press, 1998), 146. (Not available in NLB holdings)
-				2004), 109. (Not available in NLB holdings)
---------------------------------------	---	--------------------------------------------	---------------------------------------------------------	--------------------------------------------------------------
			2 1 Kings 9:26–28. The Holy Bible (King James Version).	12 François Blanchet, Apologues et Contes Orientaux, etc. par
be princes of Golconda (in Hyderabad).		this perfect society, is perhaps a tale too
			3	l’auteur des Variétés Morales et Amusantes (Paris: Chez
There is, however, one small problem: his After the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb After wandering about and barely surviv- long to be repeated here, but it suffices to
			1 Kings 10:12, 14; 1 Kings 10:21–23; 2 Chronicles 8:16.	Debure, 1784), 72, Google Books, https://books.google.com.
--------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------	--------------------------------------------	--------------------------------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------------------------
			4 Giovanni Lorenzo d’Anania, L’universale Fabrica Del Mondo,	sg/books?id=CpWoSyxBoQAC&pg=PR55&lpg=PR55&dq=IV.
took the Kingdom of Golconda in 1687,	ing, they arrived at a fourth island where	know, as the princes said, “there is no one
			overo Cosmografia Divisa in Quattro Trattati (Venezia:	13 Dralsé de Grandpierre, Relation de Divers Voyages Faits
entirely fictitious nature of some of his as they related to Grandpierre, their they stumbled upon a settlement. 17
			Presso il Muschio, 1582), 265, Internet Archive, https://	dans l’Afrique, dans l’Amerique, et aux Indes Occidentales
---	---	---	---------------------------------------------------------	----------------------------------------------------------
travels, no other external verifications of grandmother, a member of the disper sed If there was one slight imperfection, which archive.org/details/ARes37419.
(Paris: Chez Jombert, 1718). (From National Library,
Dralsé de Grandpierre himself seem to harem, escaped with her infant daughter. discovered, to their great surprise, not induced the princes to leave, it was that D’Anania, L’universale Fabrica Del Mondo, overo Singapore, Call no. RRARE 910.41 DRA; Accession no.
			Cosmografia Divisa in Quattro Trattati, 265.	B20025321D; Microfilm no. NL29328)
---	---	---	--------------------------------------------	----------------------------------
exist. But before we dismiss this fiction out The daughter grew up, married a general there was no priest, sacrament nor proper
			6 D’Anania, L’universale Fabrica Del Mondo, overo	14 De Grandpierre, Relation de Divers Voyages Faits dans
---	---	---	---------------------------------------------------	---------------------------------------------------------
of hand, his work contains a story within a and lived in luxury. However, after giv- language ( ) but church – this their belief could not abide by. Cosmografia Divisa in Quattro Trattati, 268. l’Afrique, dans l’Amerique, et aux Indes Occidentales, 1–3.
story, describing a marvell ous island newly ing birth to two sons, her husband died 7 D’Anania, L’universale Fabrica Del Mondo, overo 15 De Grandpierre, Relation de Divers Voyages Faits dans
			Cosmografia Divisa in Quattro Trattati, 268–9.	l’Afrique, dans l’Amerique, et aux Indes Occidentales, 297.
---	---	---	----------------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------------------------
discovered in the Straits of Singapore, while fighting a war. The family lost their - 8 See Mark Poster, The Utopian Thought of Restif De La 16 De Grandpierre, Relation de Divers Voyages Faits dans
bearing a name many might find familiar. shipwrecked on the same island. After (New York: New York University Press, 1971). l’Afrique, dans l’Amerique, et aux Indes Occidentales, 325.
Beset by sudden destitution, their mother they had explained their life story and fall under the domination of the Dutch, (Not available in NLB holdings) 17 De Grandpierre, Relation de Divers Voyages Faits dans
			9 Nicolas Edme Restif de La Bretonne,	l’Afrique, dans l’Amerique, et aux Indes Occidentales, 348.
---	---	---	---------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------------------------
brought the two young boys to São Tomé how they came to be shipwrecked, the , vol. 3 (Paris: 18 Not to be confused with the earlier Pedra Branca

• de Mylapore (present-day Chennai) where in the region at the time. This island was Leipzig, 1781), 14, 20, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, tion of his position in the straits between she sought the protection of a rich Por- named Isle de la Pierre Blanche (“pierre https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1019190.texteImage. 19 Paul Longley Arthur, | | | | 10 Restif de la Bretonne, | Antipodes, 1605–1837 (London: Anthem Press, 2011), 3. | | --- | --- | --- | -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | Johor and Sumatra. “As we advanced tuguese man. Although he took them in, betel and tobacco, toured the settlement blanche” being French for “white stone”, , 31–32, 34, 55, 81. (Not available in NLB holdings) 42 43

be a difficult engineering task because of the soft clay of the river bed, so it would tower. Photo by Shawn Ang, 16 March 2020. Retrieved from Unsplash. need special compaction equipment,”

		3	Paya Lebar Airport, 1960s. The airport only had a single runway. Seen on the tarmac is a plane belonging
		But Lee was not keen on expanding	to the Malaysia-Singapore Airlines which existed from 1966 to 1972. The predecessor of Singapore Airlines.
Courtesy of National Museum of Singapore, National Heritage Board.
Paya Lebar Airport. “I felt then that Paya
		Lebar had inherent disadvantages. It was	(Bottom) Aerial photograph of the Royal Air Force base in Changi, 1950s. In 1975, parts of the air base were
---	---	-----------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------	---
acquired to build Changi Airport. RAFSA Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.
located near the city centre. Expansion
would be limited. Worse, noise and air
pollution would become worse because
the flight path footprint was already over
4
The alternative was to build a new
airport in Changi, taking over the former

centre and flights into and out of Changi would be over water. In addition, there was the possibility of future expansion Lee revealed that the consultants initially had not recommended Changi As Singapore’s Changi Airport marks its 40th anniversary in 2021,

• because of “the cost of relocating to uncovers fascinating facts behind the decision to | | ever, what many people do not know is | Changi plus the loss of $800 million | | | | --- | ----------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | --- | --- | | | the particular set of circumstances that | in investments already made on Paya | | | | | led to its existence. | Lebar”. He recalled that the Cabinet had | | | On 1 July 1981 at 7.10 am, SQ 101 made history when it became the first com- upon arrival. Less than an hour later, Before Changi Airport opened in 1981, - mercial flight to land at the newly opened SQ 192 headed for Penang, becoming the commercial flights landed in Paya Lebar mented, however, the world was gripped | first flight to depart from Changi.1 | Airport, which had begun operations in | by the oil crisis that began in 1973. The | | | | ------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | --- | --- | Kuala Lumpur’s Subang Airport and car- In the four decades since, Changi 1955. However, within two decades, Paya price of oil had quadrupled leading to ried 140 passengers, some of whom had Lebar’s shortcomings became obvious. a reduction in air traffic. Also, with the | - | “By mid 1970s, it was clear that | larger-capacity Boeing 747s taking to the | | | | --- | --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | --- | --- | tal just so that they could be on this flight. Paya Lebar Airport would not be able to skies and carrying more passengers, there To mark the occasion, all passengers turn Singapore into a major aviation hub cope with the growing traffic for much were fewer smaller planes landing at Paya received certificates and were treated to and international gateway. Today, it is longer,” said Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Lebar. All these meant that the pressure Yew in 2006 at Changi Airport’s 25th anniversary dinner. “We needed a bigger | | airport, with at least two runways. The | “I appointed Howe Yoon Choong, | | | | --- | ---------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------- | --- | --- | | | proposal put to me was to expand Paya | then chairman of the Port of Singapore | | | National Library, Singapore. She is part of the digital | | Lebar and construct a second runway.”2 | Authority, to head a team to study if we | | | | --- | -------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | --- | --- | heritage team and works on curating and promoting access to the library’s digital collections. External consultants recommended could move to Changi in time before a sec- expanding Paya Lebar’s terminals and ond runway was necessary,” Lee recalled. [the] cost of relocating the airport to was responsible for updating Lee on | | building a second runway by filling up | “The team concluded that Changi was | Changi was high, some $1.5 billion”, Lee | | | --- | ---------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | | | the nearby Serangoon river. “This would | possible and could be ready by 1981.”6 | believed that this would be the better | | | | | In the early days, when Changi was | option in the long term. When Lee was | be at least five times bigger than Paya | | | | still being considered, Pek Hock Thiam, | in Washington in April 1975, Goh Keng | Lebar Airport. To accommodate the new | | | | | - Swee, as acting prime minister, sent him | airport, existing land had to be cleared | | | | tions, organised helicopter and Skyvan | an urgent message to say that a quick | | | | | | - | Site preparations began in June | | | | tee members and ministers, including | was to be built by 1981.8 Lee cabled back | 1975, which eventually involved demol- | | | | Lee, to view the Changi site. He recalled | | ishing 558 buildings, exhuming 4,096 | | | | their excitement mixed with the fear | | graves and clearing nearly 200 acres | | | | of the unknown. As Pek noted: “There | | (80 hectares) of swampland.9 | | | | was nothing there. Worse, we knew | | The land reclamation was a mam- | | | | | of the airport, Sim Kee Boon, permanent | moth undertaking as 870 hectares of land |
• had to be reclaimed. While some 200 | | | | cations, was appointed chairman of the | hectares came from cutting down hills | | --- | --- | ------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | | | | in 2½ years?”7 | Executive Committee for Airport Devel- | on existing land, the rest was reclaimed | | | | The final decision to build the new | opment (ECAD). Howe Yoon Chong, who | | | | | airport at Changi came quickly. “Although | chaired the airport steering committee, | five giant cutter suction dredgers, each | 44 45

costing $50 million. Operating some		deliver them at one end of the building,		“So very early on, we impressed on all
3 kilometres from the shore, the five it could be a one-kilometre walk to the the officers that the contractors problems Passengers on board Singapore Airlines
flight SQ 101 from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore on
machines began dredging up 50,000 cubic			13	were their problems, and in the end, my
----------------------------------------	---	---	---	----------------------------------------	---
1 July 1981. It carried 140 passengers, some of whom
problems, because I’m in charge.”15
Airport under construction,
just at the start of the project; running					board the flight.
------------------------------------------	---	---	---	---	-----------------

1980. The three-storey bowl-like Times, 2 July 1981, 8. (From NewspaperSG). | at full capacity, these machines were | | the works. Every time it rained, workers | | | | | -------------------------------------- | --- | ----------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | expected to double the output. Some would not show up for work. In fact, on As with any big event, there were a number (Bottom) Passengers boarding a Singapore Airlines jacks and eight cables at the rate 41 million cubic metres of earth were one occasion in 1978, a flood turned of dry runs before actual operations com- flight at Changi Airport, 1981. Civil Aviation Authority of six metres a day. Civil Aviation of Singapore Collection, courtesy of National Archives menced on 1 July 1981. The first test flight, Authority of Singapore Collection, | 10 kilometres of metal pipeline to the | | pool and ruined the expensive machinery | | a Boeing 747, touched down at 7.25 pm on | | | --------------------------------------- | --- | ---------------------------------------- | --- | ----------------------------------------- | --- | courtesy of National Archives of | filling site.10 | | there, holding up work for a month. The | | 13 May – two weeks before the big day.16 | | | ------------------------------------------- | --- | ------------------------------------------ | --- | -------------------------------------------- | --- | | Other infrastructural projects | | challenges extended even to landscaping. | | The first flight with paying passengers, | | | included reconstructing and extending | | Pek Hock Thiam recalled: “I had to argue, | | SQ 100, landed on 31 May at 9.50 am. It | | | the existing military runway to double | | beg and cajole the Parks and Recreation | | was a chartered flight with 246 passengers, | | | its length from 2,000 to 4,000 metres. | | Department to give us big trees instead | | | | | A 40-aircraft parking apron, taxiways, | | | 14 | Organised by a travel agent, the flight | | | | - | The Changi project had a very | | had taken off from Paya Lebar Airport | | | | | tight deadline because Paya Lebar was | | and flown up the east coast of peninsular | | | the airport, there was also the design and | | approaching saturation, which is why | | | | 17 Lee Kee Foon, a housewife who | building was based on an initial plan | | Changi would not be delayed, Sim said | | flew first class with her family, said: “We | | | ---------------------------------------- | --- | -------------------------------------------- | --- | -------------------------------------------- | --- | | submitted for the expansion of Paya | | that there had to be a mindset shift in the | | | | | Lebar, the final design for Changi devi- | | Public Works Department, which was in | | is open to the public.” After the flight, | | ated significantly from this. Sim noted | that the original design gave “very little | | “The traditional method of opera- | | souvenir medallion and flight certificate.18 | | | ------------------------------------------- | --- | ------------------------------------------- | --- | -------------------------------------------- | --- | | consideration to aesthetics”. “We finally | | tion is that the [Public Works Department] | | | | | extension of our garden city,” he said. | | does the work. After that, if the contrac- | | Chen, assistant secretary at the Minis- | | “This is because the first point of contact tor has a problem, the engineers will say try of Finance, noted: “Very few people In addition to careful planning for the tourist visiting Singapore, apart appreciate this – we moved from Paya and dry runs, the authorities also went | | | goes bankrupt, too bad. Employ another | | Lebar to Changi in one night without any | abroad to learn from the experience of | | ---------------------------------------- | --- | -------------------------------------------- | --- | ----------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------- | | plane, is the airport. So we took great | | one. If the project is delayed, never mind, | | disruption in [air transport] service… | | care to combine the aesthetics with the because the time factor is usually not “The Civil Aviation Authority sent functional aspects.”11 critical. But for us, it was. 19 officers to observe moving operations in the location of the now-iconic control tower. Built at a cost of $8.5 million, it of an administration building. However, focal point. “Finally, we decided to have to put the administration block over the finger piers,” said Sim.12 In all, the air traffic control tower’s design underwent more than 20 changes before the final project, the construction process inevi- Takao Kitamura, the director in charge of international operations at Takenaka Komuten, the main contractor for the airport’s passenger terminal building, recalled that after the company began work on the project, the price of sand rose by about 300 percent, and labour costs rose by 50 percent. Extremely detailed plans were also necessary. “We even had to plan where to deliver the materials,” he said. “If you 46 47

Taiwan when they switched operation from 17 April 2019. A joint venture between Air traffic controllers at work in the control tower of Changi Airport, 1985. Civil Aviation Authority of The Rain Vortex at Jewel Changi Airport. With water cascading down 40 metres, it is the world’s tallest indoor the old airport to Chiang Kai-shek Airport at Changi Airport Group and CapitaMalls Asia, Singapore Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. waterfall. Photo by Jansen Yang, 8 October 2019. Retrieved from Unsplash. Taoyuan,” said Ong Teng Cheong, who was the project took three years to gain the minister for communications between 1978 (Bottom) The finger pier at Changi Airport Terminal 2, 1996. Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore Collection, 26 courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. and 1983. “They also went to Tokyo to see the [move] from Haneda to Narita… So it’s a question of observing the experience of Over the years, Changi has developed an international reputation. In 1988, just switching-over operation.”20 seven years after it opened, The last plane to land at Paya Lebar – Traveller UK SQ 11 from Los Angeles and Tokyo – did so at 10.50 pm on 30 June 1981, while the last 27 commercial flight, SQ 28 to Abu Dhabi and The following year, airport officials from 16 Frankfurt, left shortly after at 11 pm. That countries visited Changi Airport to attend same night, personnel from the Republic a seven-week airport management course, learning from Changi’s experiences.28 equipment necessary to facilitate Paya Lebar 21 other such awards: it clinched the “Best Traveller US a total of 27 times between Changi Airport began operations on 1991 and 2020.29 1 July 1981 with just one terminal and one Changi Airport turned 40 in 2021 in what is a very challenging time for the air completed in 1983 and commissioned the travel industry. The Covid-19 pandemic

senger traffic, Terminal 2 was opened in globally, leading to a reduction in pas- November 1990, while Terminal 3 began senger air traffic everywhere. As a result operations on 1 January 2007. of the pandemic, Changi’s own passenger In 2006, the Budget Terminal com- traffic levels dropped by over 80 percent menced operations. This was built in between 2019 and 2020.30 response to the increasing trend of low- Group lost a significant revenue stream, cost travel in the region, but it closed in - 2012 to make way for the construction nals continued to suffer. of Terminal 4, which opened in 2017.22 Speaking in Parliament in October Over the years, Changi also improved 2020, then Transport Minister Ong Ye on its connectivity with the city centre. Kung said that the government would In 2001, the Changi Airport Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station on the East-West companies in the aviation sector, “[b]ut Line was opened. Such a link had not been viable back in the 1980s when to our aviation companies is to restore passenger traffic and revive our air hub, relatively undeveloped.23 In future, the in a safe, in a controlled manner”.31 As vaccination rates rise in Singapore the Thomson-East Coast Line as well.24 In 2008, Changi Airport Group was with Covid-19 as an endemic disease, air formed as a result of the corporatisation traffic through Changi Airport will hope- 25 One of the key projects fully increase. With the same foresight, it subsequently embarked on was building fortitude and perseverance that led to Jewel Changi Airport, a large shopping and its genesis, the fortunes of Changi will entertainment complex that opened on undoubtedly rise again. Lee, “Speech by Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Minister Mentor, at 13 Hale, “Billion Dollar Dream Comes True.” 21 “Goodbye Paya Lebar, Here We Come Changi,” 2008, transcript. (From National Archives of Singapore, com/singapore/passenger-traffic-in-changi-airport-fell-828- Changi Airport 25th Anniversary Dinner.” 14 Hale, “Billion Dollar Dream Comes True.” , 1 June1981, 12. (From NewspaperSG). Document no. 20081007996) per-cent-last-year-from-683m-in-2019-to-118m. 1 “SQ 101 Makes First Changi Landing with 140,” 6 Lee, “Speech by Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Minister Mentor, at 15 Hale, “Getting There On Time.” 22 “Major Milestones,” Changi Airport Group, accessed 20 26 Feng Zengkun, Jewel Changi Airport: Through the Eye of 31 Ong Ye Kung, “Parliamentary Ministerial Statement by , 2 July 1981, 8; “All Poised for the Big Take-off,” Changi Airport 25th Anniversary Dinner.” 16 Tan Wee Him, “A Landing that Made History,” June 2021, https://www.changiairport.com/content/ (Singapore: Woh Hup-Obayashi Joint Venture Minister for Transport, Mr Ong Ye Kung, on Recovery of , 1 June 1981, 12; “Changi Arrives,” 7 Judith Hale, “Billion Dollar Dream Comes True,” , 13 May 1981, 10. (From NewspaperSG) dam/cacorp/documents/changiairportgroup/CAG%20 [Project Jewel]: Straits Times Press, 2019), 22. (From National Aviation Sector,” 6 October 2020, Ministry of Transport, , 1 July 1981, 1. (From NewspaperSG) , 27 June 1981, 25. (From NewspaperSG) 17 Wendy Yang, “246 in Historic Landing at Changi Airport,” Major%20Milestones%20Jul%202014.pdf. Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING 725.39095957 FEN) https://www.mot.gov.sg/news-centre/news/detail/ 2 Lee Kuan Yew, “Speech by Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Minister 8 Lee, “Speech by Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Minister Mentor, at , 1 June 1981, 8. (From NewspaperSG) 23 “MRT Line Won’t Go to Changi Airport,” , 14 27 Lois Ng, “Changi the Champ,” , 30 July 1988, 5. parliamentary-ministerial-statement-by-minister-for- Mentor, at Changi Airport 25th Anniversary Dinner, Changi Airport 25th Anniversary Dinner.” 18 Yang, “246 in Historic Landing at Changi Airport.” March 1987, 14. (From NewspaperSG) (From NewspaperSG) transport-mr-ong-ye-kung-on-recovery-of-aviation-sector. 1 July 2006, 8.00 pm at the Raffles Ballroom, Swissotel 9 Peter Hutton, Wings Over Singapore: The Story of Singapore 19 Wu Wei Neng, Integrating the Planning of Airports 24 “Land Transport Master Plan 2040,” Land Transport 28 “Airport Officials from 16 Countries Here to Learn from the Stamford,” Raffles Ballroom, Swissotel the Stamford, (Singapore: MPH Magazines, 1981), 41. (From , ed. Cheong Kay Authority, accessed 30 June 2021, https://www.lta.gov. Changi,” , 20 October 1989, 26. (From 1 July 2006, transcript. (From National Archives of National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING 387.736095957 HUT) Teck (Singapore: Centre for Liveable Cities, 2019), 18. NewspaperSG) Singapore, Document no. 20060701991) 10 “Dredges Get to Work to Reclaim Land for Changi Airport,” (From National Library, Singapore, Call no.: RSING transport_master_plan_2040/pdf/LTA%20LTMP%20 29 “Awards and Accolades,” Changi Airport Group, 3 Lee, “Speech by Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Minister Mentor, at , 11 July 1976, 7. (From NewspaperSG) 387.7362095957 CHE) 2040%20eReport.pdf. accessed 20 June 2021, https://www.changiairport.com/ Changi Airport 25th Anniversary Dinner.” 11 Judith Hale, “Getting There On Time,” , 27 June 20 Ong Teng Cheong, oral history interview by Lee Ee Boon, 19 25 Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, corporate/about-us/awards-and-accolades.html. years, scan this QR code. 4 Lee, “Speech by Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Minister Mentor, at 1981, 26–27. (From NewspaperSG) June 1987, transcript and MP3 audio, Reel/Disc 3 of 5. (From “Corporatisation of Changi Airport and Restructuring of 30 Ng Wei Kai, “Passenger Traffic at Changi Airport Fell 82.8% Last Changi Airport 25th Anniversary Dinner.” 12 Hale, “Getting There On Time.” National Archives of Singapore, Accession no. 000794) Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS),” 7 October Year,” , 1 June 2021, https://www.straitstimes. 48 49

			who was also a renowned calligrapher,		This construction programme not
moulding the identity of the Hui’an crafts-
			1,200 metres, with 46 ship-shaped piers		the authorities but also brought with it the
---	---	---	-------------------------------------------	--------------------------------------------	---------------------------------------------	---	---
			supporting its stone structure, the Luoy-		need for large numbers of highly qualified
			ang Bridge’s raft foundations were rein-		architects, engineers and tradespeople.
			forced through the innovative breeding of		At the same time, on account of Hui’an’s
			oysters alongside, whose liquid secretion	Located along China’s southeastern coast	vast repositories of granite, the stone
				of Fujian province, between Quanzhou and	industry flourished, with thousands of
			thus solidified its base.	Meizhou Bay, Hui’an has come under differ-	masons involved in stone-cutting and carv-
			This bridge is significant as it is	ent administrative jurisdictions throughout	ing for such public utilities as gateways,
			believed to be the first stone beam bridge	its history. During the Sui dynasty (581–		8
				618), Hui’an belonged to Nan’an county.	Thanks to Quanzhou’s deep-sea
				In the ensuing Tang dynasty (618–907), it	port, established trade routes and the
			the full span of this boundary wall, other	was handed over to Jinjiang county. In 981,			-
				Hui’an separated from Jinjiang and estab-	nese diaspora, these stone commodities
as Mengjia Qingshan Temple (艋舺青山宮)
				lished itself as a separate county, before	would subsequently find their way to
---	---	---	--------------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------	-------------------------------------	---	---
			in Wanhua District in Taipei,3 the Jingfeng	merging with Jinjiang, Tong’an, Nan’an and
			Temple (净峰寺) and Chongwu ancient	Anxi into the modern-day prefecture-level
city wall (崇武城墙) in Hui’an,4 a mosque in
				city of Quanzhou.	in their essay, “The Manufacture of
---	---	---	-----------------------------------------	-------------------------------	--------------------------------------	---	---
			Baiqi Xiang (百崎乡) in Hui’an, and a scene	Whereas Quanzhou was connected	Chinese Gravestones in Indonesia”, it
of Hui’an women constructing a dam.
its early trade networks, it was during the
				Song (960–1279) and Yuan (1279–1368)	for transporting stone from Hui’an to
---	---	---	--------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------	----------------------------------------	---	---
			Hospital (惠安县惠东华侨医院) and Fujian	dynasties that this city would become an	Southeast Asia. Both plentiful and inex-
			Hui’an Kai Cheng Vocational Secondary	important centre for international com-	pensive, these stone ballasts (壓船石
School (福建惠安开成职业中专学校), both
merce, which also facilitated extensive con- ; literally “stones that keep
the ship down”) would be exchanged
			donations by Hui’an philanthropists from	To promote trade, Quanzhou’s internal	along the journey’s various ports with
---	---	---	-----------------------------------------	--------------------------------------	---------------------------------------	---	---
an equivalent weight in commodities
			Unveiled on 17 November 2012,	roads, bridges and associated works.		9
---	---	---	------------------------------	-------------------------------------	---	---	---
this wall measuring almost 12 metres
by 1.8 metres was the culmination of an
A granite stone wall adorns the premises of the Singapore Hui An Association in Geylang.
with fish, against a background of traditional Fujian junks and a radiating sun.
the association’s leaders that there was a
Members of the Singapore Hui An Association outside their original association building at 7 Teo
growing disconnect between their efforts
Hong Road during its 10th inauguration on 28 December 1947. Singapore Hui An Association Collection,
			to sustain the traditions and ancestral	courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.
---	---	---	----------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------	---	---	---
links to the “homeland”, and the younger
generation who are born and bred in
The committee decided that an
expression of the key elements of the
Hui’an identity could be transposed onto a
physical wall fronting their premises. This
In the heart of Geylang, along a nonde- 惠安公会). A Hokkien (Fujian) clan asso- -
	ciation that traces its origins to 1924,1	who have enjoyed a deep connection with	duction to the rich history of the Hui’an
---	-----------------------------------------	----------------------------------------	------------------------------------------	---	---	---	---
of clan associations, guild houses and community, reinforcing their roots and
Chinese temples, an unusual, grey- immigrants who hailed from Hui’an, a it. It also evokes the trading activity that cultural identity in China and throughout
6
stone-clad boundary wall greets the	county today under the jurisdiction of	occurred in the port city of Quanzhou,
---------------------------------------	----------------------------------------------	--------------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------	---	---	---	---
casual observer. This masonry “canvas”	Quanzhou in China’s Fujian province.	one of the starting points of the historic
		maritime silk route. A close examination of	has a history of over 1,600 years and is
	image depicting a flotilla of traditional tri-		listed as one of the national intangible
	masted Fujian junks with a radiating sun	and narrative of the Hui’an people.	cultural heritages of China, the committee
Upon closer observation, the art-	in the background (see above). The fore-	To the immediate left of the central
image of the man and woman is an oblique
narrative presenting the cultural identity with a woven basket brimming with fish. representation of a multi-pier stone this relief. Tellingly, it was then left to the
of the occupants of the premises behind, Occupying the full height of the wall, the bridge, upon which stands a formally appointed sculptor, Wang Xiangrong (王向
the Singapore Hui An Association (新加坡 garbed official. This is Luoyang Bridge 荣), himself a fifth-generation artist and
(洛阳桥),2
stone mason, to propose the key elements
ancient bridges in China, and the man on it 7
is a practising architect with degrees from the University of Adelaide and National
		is its designer and builder, Cai Xiang (蔡襄,	In all, the carvings on the wall show
---	---	--------------------------------------------	--------------------------------------	---	---	---	---
In Honour of War Heroes: Colin St Clair Oakes and the Design of Kranji War
		1012–67), chief of Quanzhou prefecture,	how the building and construction indus-
---	---	----------------------------------------	----------------------------------------	---	---	---	---
Memorial, was published by Marshall Cavendish Editions in 2020. He is currently based in Melbourne, Australia.
50							51
---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---

to further strengthen Singapore’s defences, tombstones, graves and temples also made with opportunities arising in building as The China Building on Chulia Street, 1964. It was built by Chia Eng Say and completed in 1932. It later served as the headquarters of the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation arising from a merger of the Oversea-Chinese Bank and the Chinese Commercial Bank. Kouo Shang-Wei Collection, PictureSG, National Library, Singapore.

their way across the South China Sea, bring-		valuable trade experience back home, Sin-	well as upgrading new and existing military
gapore’s buoyant building and construction camps and associated defence facilities. In (Bottom) Soh Mah Eng was responsible for building the Cenotaph in 1922. Courtesy of the Singapore Hui An Association.
the reputation of the Hui’an people for			turn, this productive period in building and
----------------------------------------	---	-----------------------------------------	---------------------------------------------	---	---	---
their quality material and workmanship.		opportunities. They began as subcontrac-	construction work would help to elevate
		tors to more established entities before	the reputation of these pioneering Hui’an
expanding their operations and becoming
and, Singapore in particular.		main contractors, inevitably encroaching
-----------------------------	---	-----------------------------------------	---	---	---	---
Raffles in 1819 and the establishment 14
of a British trading port thereafter, the		Many European firms took advantage
------------------------------------------	---	---------------------------------------------	----------------------------------------	---	---	---
early Chinese migration to Singapore was		of this situation by subcontracting to these	Alighting from his car on 31 March 1922
Chinese companies. In many cases, the
	10 Significant	European firms would retain their names	the Esplanade (now Padang) and a guard
----------------------------------------	---------------	--------------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------	---	---	---
migration from Quanzhou would only			of honour consisting of 100 former ser-
commence from the late 19th through			- vicemen, the Prince of Wales (later King
to the beginning of the 20th centuries.		neers. In light of Japan’s growing military	Edward VIII) inspected this ceremonial
Arriving later, along with migrant		might, the British authorities saw the need
groups from Fuzhou, Putian and Fuqing,
the people from Hui’an would find that
what profitable industries were available
others so they initially settled as coolies
(indentured labourers)11 doing back-break-
31 March 1922, officiated by
the Prince of Wales. It was
erected to honour 124 men from
the sea and fishing, made their home on		Singapore who had died in action
----------------------------------------	---	---------------------------------	---	---	---	---
large bumboats by the Singapore, Rochor
and Kallang rivers, navigating between
Courtesy of National
12
labourers in the construction, mining and
agriculture sectors in exchange for three
Before the Hui An Association was of the war memorial, which was erected Hup Heng & Co., became a pioneer in the with a future generation of skilled stone
founded in Singapore in 1924, early Hui’an to honour 124 men from Singapore who craftsmen as well.
				had died in action in Europe during World	Modelled after the Whitehall Ceno-	Before long, fellow Hui’an natives
---	---	---	---	-------------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------	----------------------------------------
				War I. Delivering a speech extolling the	taph in London, the 18-metre-tall Singa-	such as Chia Eng Say, Chia Lay Phor, Ho
				virtues of bravery and sacrifice displayed	pore Cenotaph, raised on a plinth, would	Bock Kee, Zhuang Yuming, Lee Chwee
were finding accommodation and employ- by those men being commemorated, he be entirely constructed of local granite. Kim, Chng Gim Huat and Ong Chwee
				proceeded to push a small button on the		Kow to name but a few, would follow
---	---	---	---	----------------------------------------	---	------------------------------------
Tanjong Pagar area comprising Craig Road, dais. With that action, a large Union Jack, 17
Tras Street, Duxton Hill and Duxton Road in fully draped over the structure, pulled national significance, the quality of its
lodgings known colloquially as 15 finish was expected to be of the highest responsible for some of the most signifi-
(估里间
). Here, dozens of men Following a short dedication by the standard. The British colonial government,
would be crammed into tiny, compart- well aware of Hui’an’s reputation with
mentalised and windowless rooms – most of the last post and reveille, the prince, -
without running water or proper sanitation lier work on Anderson Bridge, appointed
– sleeping on tiered wooden bunk beds that Settlements Laurence Guillemard, greeted
were also shared. Despite the deplorable the invited dignitaries, which included
living conditions, these lodgings kept the the monument’s lauded architect Denis
new migrants together and afforded them Santry of architectural firm Swan & soon after commencing, Soh appealed to
some form of protection. the authorities for additional labour and
Faced with isolation, alliances between was allowed to recruit more than 200
Mah Eng (苏马英), the contractor for the
fellow Hui’an men would form, mostly
through membership in secret societies or 18
triad associations. In the case of the Craig his hand and even offered a few words
of gratitude.16 It was fitting recognition
Road and Duxton Hill areas, where the What is more significant, though, is that
for this Hui’an native who had migrated
pullers, membership was allied under the to Singapore some 20 years earlier and community’s reputation for construction
surnames of Ho, Chang and Chuang.13 subsequently through his company, Chin
52 53

				indentured labour in Southeast Asia, Ho	Capitalising on the opportunity, Ho
Furthermore they did not confine them- Born in 1905 in the small village of Fengqi arrived in Singapore in 1929 as a quali- established his own construction company
selves to the construction industry, soon in Wangchuan town in Hui’an county, Ho fied carpenter. – beginning where he left off before the
diversifying into industries such as quarry- Bock Kee (何穆基) was the eldest of four Initially subcontracting his labour war – repairing and rebuilding old army
ing, rubber, tin mining, steel, trading and
				army camps and military facilities across	for internment. An invaluable listing on
---	---	---	---	------------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------
the island, the Japanese Occupation
				(1942–45) saw Ho resorting to slipping in	Public Works Department soon followed,
---	---	---	-----------------------------------------	------------------------------------------	----------------------------------------
			reality, his early exposure to carpentry	and out of Malaya undertaking odd jobs	and over the next 30 years, Ho Bock Kee
is Chia Eng Say (谢荣西). Born in 1881 in to survive. It was the post-war demand Construction was awarded numerous
Hui’an, Chia first moved with his father construction would prove invaluable. for reconstruction that provided him with public and private contracts, including a
to Sumatra at the age of 11 and then to Ngee Ann Kongsi school on Balestier Road
Singapore at the turn of the 20th century. into main contracting. (1965), Singapore Television Studio Centre
He initially established himself in the
import-export business before moving
Ho Bock Kee was a prominent name in the local construction industry. Among the many projects that his construction company handled include
into construction and, in particular, the
the Singapore Memorial at the Kranji War Cemetery in 1957 and the National Library building on Stamford Road in 1960.
Chia owned several quarries in Bukit The National Library on Stamford Road, 1967. It was built by Ho Bock Kee’s construction company. Ministry of Information and the Arts
Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.
Timah, Mandai and Pulau Ubin. Granite
Chia Lay Phor being congratulated by Colonial
extracted from Chia Eng Say Granite was (Bottom) The Singapore Memorial with war graves of fallen servicemen at the Kranji War Cemetery, 1960s. The memorial was built by Ho Bock Kee’s
Secretary Patrick A.B McKerron upon the completion
used for the foundation of the Supreme construction company. John C. Young Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.
of the Kallang Airport runways extension, 1949.
Court building, the Naval Base at Sem-
bawang as well as the Causeway, where
Self-made millionaire Chia Eng Say owned
he was a major subcontractor to Messrs
quarries in Bukit Timah, Mandai and Pulau
Topham, Jones & Railton of London,
Ubin, and even has a road named after him. His

• construction projects include the Causeway in 1924, the China Building on Chulia Street in 1932 (later tion contract.19 the headquarters of the Oversea-Chinese Banking Other notable projects to his Corporation) and Chung Cheng High School in 1939. | name include the China Building (which | Courtesy of the Singapore Hui An Association. | | | | | | --------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | --- | became the headquarters of the Over- sea-Chinese Banking Corporation after the merger of the Oversea-Chinese Bank in 1932) on Chulia Street,20 Eventually branching off, he became | residential estates in both Singapore | | a contractor for the Public Works Depart- | | | | | -------------------------------------- | --- | ----------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | and Penang. Such was his prominence - | within the local construction industry | their trade through their fathers, the | | | | | | --------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | | | same could not be said of Chia Lay Phor | heavy infrastructure projects for the | | | | | which his quarry was located would be | (谢荔圃), the nephew of Chia Eng Say. | British authorities. These include the | | | | | named Chia Eng Say Road. (This road | | levelling of Kampong Silat Hill for the | | | | | was later expunged but the name was | Huangtangzhen, Chia came from a well- | | | | | | subsequently resurrected; today Chia | to-do family where his grandfather owned | development scheme in 1948, and the | | | | new taxiways and extension of the runway | Timah, just fronting The Rail Mall.21) | | at Kallang Airport a year later. His most | | | | | --------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------ | --- | --- | --- | | It was in education that Chia would | have received an education and be trained | significant accomplishment, though, and | | | | make his most important contribution. - | In 1929, he was appointed as the main | | fessional recognition within the industry | | | | | ------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | | | lack of opportunities back home, Chia’s | occurred just prior to World War II. | | | | | and Commercial Continuation School | motive differed markedly. | Between 1937 and 1940, while | | | | | (南洋工商补习学校) on Outram Road at | Unfortunately, Chia’s ability to | still working for his uncle, Chia Lay Phor | | | | | York Hill.22 A decade later, Chia would | write letters and maintain accounts also | oversaw his largest and most extensive | | | | | join with fellow philanthropists to build | | construction project: building the 356-bed | | | | | Chung Cheng High School on Kim Yan | | British Military Hospital (now Alexandra | | | | | Road in 1939,23 | | Hospital). Chia Eng Kee Chan had been | | | | Needless to say, this was not a tenable | at the time. Sadly, on the final day of the | proposition so he migrated to Singapore | Dobb & Co. and the War Department. The | | | | | -------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | | Imperial Japanese Army’s invasion of Sin- | as a 24-year-old. He immediately went | hospital was equipped with medical, surgi- | | | | | gapore in February 1942, Chia would be | to work at Chia Eng Say’s construction | cal and officer wards as well as ancillary | | | | | caught in a crossfire between Japanese | company, Chia Eng Kee Chan, rising to the | buildings comprising a barracks block, a | | | | laboratory, a mortuary and living quarters | Lorong 31 and mortally wounded.24 | projects in Malaya and Singapore.25 | for staff and their families.26 | | | | | --------------------------------- | ----------------------------------- | ------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | 54

at Caldecott Hill (1966), Bedok Reforma- 2 March 1957 by the Singapore Governor and wing-shaped roof supported by 12 tive Training Centre (1961), Mount Vernon Robert Black and attending international stone-clad pillars.28 of their contributions to the Chinese Crematorium (1962) and the National dignitaries, the event was broadcast 24,000 casualties without known graves homeland – as evidenced by depictions Library building on Stamford Road (1960). of the aforementioned Fujian Hui’an Kai As a main contractor, Ho’s most extensive overseas audience.27 Designed Cheng Vocational Secondary School and internationally recognised work was by the British architect Colin St Clair Oakes, year on Remembrance Day (11 November), the Singapore Memorial at the Kranji as well as ANZAC (Australian and New War Cemetery. Officially unveiled on aeroplane with its 22-metre central pylon Zealand Army Corps) Day on 25 April. homeland also serve another purpose, , By the late 1980s, the Hui’an construction which means “homecoming”. In ancient Greek literature, it describes an epic hero almost 50 enterprises, excluding those in returning home by sea. The term − first the region. By now, the Hui An Associa- The Odyssey − refers tion had expanded to include representa- tion throughout most of Malaysia, Hong hero but to his elevated identity and status Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia upon arriving home. In a similar way, the and greater China. These pan-Asian cul- Hui’an stone frieze depicts the journey tural ties led to further opportunities for a new generation of industry pioneers. Asia and its eventual return back home. Unveiled on 17 November 2012 and measuring almost 12 metres by 1.8 metres, the boundary wall of

• the premises of the Singapore Hui An Association premises is an expression of the key elements of the culture butions both within and outside China Hui’an women, in traditional clothing, removing bits of seaweed, shells and other remnants of the generous research and translation mind that the sculptured wall fronting day’s haul from fishing nets hung out to dry. The nets would be mended before the next day’s catch. assistance from Joseph Chia (谢福 the Singapore Hui An Association at 崧) and Teo Seng Yeong (张成雄) of Lorong 29 Geylang was commissioned. Standing atop the Luoyang Bridge is its designer and builder, Cai Xiang ( 蔡襄, 1012–67), chief the Singapore Hui An Association, of Quanzhou prefecture, and also a renowned calligrapher, structural engineer and poet. Luoyang Bridge is Fiona Lim and Yoke Lin Wong.

6 Joseph Chia, online conversations, 20 February 2019 to 17 , 14 February 1938, 6. Mulin; Kua Bak Lim], “敢问路在何方?” [“Who Dares to Want to be His Daughter, Zhuang Manna Recalls Her Father August 2021. islands. See Vernon Cornelius-Takahama, “Bumboats,” in (From NewspaperSG); 中正中学校友会, 源远流长: 中 Ask Where the Road Is?”], 联合早报 , 18 Zhuang Zhulin”], 新加坡新闻头条, 5 February 2020, 1 Established in 1924 as the Singapore Hui Ann Association, 7 “ 故乡的石头会说话: 惠安公会石雕壁画展风情” . National Library Board Singapore. 正中学创校八十周年纪念文集 = A Chung Cheng 80th August 2012, 20. (From NewspaperSG); Victor R. Savage 若有来世还要做他女儿——庄 [“Hometown’s Stones Can Talk: Hui’an Guild’s Stone Article published June 2019. and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, 曼娜忆 instead be either the hanyu pinyin pronoun “Hui An” or the Sculpture Murals Exhibition Style”], 联合早报 13 “Coolie Keng and Their Alliances,” , 31 August High School Alumni 2019 (Singapore: 中正中学校友 (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, 25 Joseph Chia, online conversations, 25 June 2021. noun “Hui’an”. , 24 February 2013, 13. (From NewspaperSG) 1982, 1. (From NewspaperSG) 会, 2019), 44. (From National Library, Singapore, Call no. 2013), 74. (From National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING 26 “Big Singapore Military Hospital,” , 7 August 2 Situated at the mouth of the Luoyang River, the Luoyang 8 Claudine Salmon and Myra Sidharta, “The Manufacture of 14 “European Contractor Gives Evidence in Loveday Case,” Chinese RSING C810.08) 915.9570014 SAV-[TRA]) 1938, 17; “New Singapore Military Hospital,” , Bridge (also known as Wan’an Bridge) in Quanzhou was Chinese Gravestones in Indonesia – A Preliminary Survey”. 22 August 20 Completed in 1932, the five-storey China Building was 22 Established in1920 by Mr Shi Su, the Chinese Industrial and 29 January 1939, 12. (From NewspaperSG) constructed between 1053 and 1059 in the Northern Song 72 (2006): 196, https://www.persee.fr/doc/ 1940, 5. (From NewspaperSG). Many of these practices 27 Athanasios Tsakonas, dynasty. In 2021, the bridge was inscribed on the UNESCO arch_0044-8613_2006_num_72_1_4031. came to light during the 1940 trial by court martial district with its distinctive pagoda-stye roof. It was Chinese school for working adults on Tanjong Pagar Road. St Clair Oakes and the Design of Kranji War Memorial World Heritage List. 9 Salmon and Sidharta, “The Manufacture of Chinese of Captain R.C. Loveday, R.E., who was charged with designed by international architectural firm Keys and It moved to Enggor Street in 1920 and then to York Hill in (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2020), 3 The Mengjia Qingshan Temple is dedicated to Qing Shan Gravestones in Indonesia,” 198–99. conspiracy to defraud the War Department. Dowdeswell, which operated out of Shanghai, China. The 1929. The school closed in 1985 and reopened as Gongshang 184–86. (From National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING Ling An Zun, a general from Hui’an, Quanzhou. 10 15 “At the War Memorial,” 31 March 1922, 6. firm was named after British architects Major P. Hubert Primary School, currently located in Tampines. See also 725.94095957 TSA) 4 Cantonese and Hokkien dialect groups, those from Hui’an (From NewspaperSG) Keys and Frank Dowdeswell. See “New Bank Building,” “工商補習學校建校募捐之第一日,” 南洋商报 28 Colin St Clair Oakes also designed Kanchanaburi War town’s historical centre, the Old Chongwu Fortress, is a spoke either the Xinghua or Minnan dialect. 16 “At the War Memorial.” Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 1 July , 21 February 1929, 4. (From NewspaperSG). Cemetery and Chungkai War Cemetery, both in Thailand; walled city dating back to the late 14th century. 11 The word “coolie” is believed to have originated from 17 Zaubidah Mohamed and Valerie Chew, “Cenotaph,” in 1929, 4. (From NewspaperSG) 23 The Fujian Hui’an Kai Cheng Vocational Secondary School , which is the name of a native tribe in . National Library Board Singapore. 21 Located near the former Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) Chu Lin (庄竹林; Zhuang Zhulin) (1930–57), who was also India; Sai Wan Bay Cemetery in Hong Kong; and Chittagong building was gifted to Hui’an by Ong Chwee Kow, a the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Article published 2010. Railway truss bridge along Upper Bukit Timah Road, Chia War Cemetery in Bangladesh. See Athanasios Tsakonas, “In means “hire” in Tamil. See Naidu Ratnala Thulaja, “Chinese 18 区如柏 [Ou Rubo“], 不做拉车夫走入建筑界的惠安人” Eng Say Quarry is now a lake known as Singapore Quarry Goodman Road in 1947 and was renamed Chung Cheng Honour of War Heroes: The Legacy of Colin St Clair Oakes,” coolies,” in . National Library Board [“Rickshaw Drivers No Longer, the Hui’an People Enter the within Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Chia Eng Say Road, High School (Main). The original campus on Kim Yan Road 14, no. 3 (Oct–Dec 2018), https://biblioasia.nlb. Singapore. Article published 2016. Construction Industry”], 联合早报 , 25 which ran parallel to the KTM Railway line, was a private became Chung Cheng High School (Branch) and has since gov.sg/vol-14/issue-3/oct-dec-2018/. 12 , the bumboat December 1988, 34. (From NewspaperSG) road built by the quarry company to gain access to their moved to Yishun. magnate Liu Mah Choon, which superceded his earlier was a large barge vessel used extensively for transport 19 “Page 5 Advertisements Column 1,” , 2 August quarrying operations. The road also ran through a Chinese 24 莫美颜 [Mo Meiyan], “若有来世还要做他女儿 庄曼 purposes along the Singapore, Rochor and Kallang rivers, 1939, 5; “Page 6 Advertisements Column 1,” kampong called Kampong Chia Eng Say. See 柯木林 [Ke 娜忆父亲庄竹林” [“If There is an Afterlife She Will Still 56 57

					popular exhibits at the fair, featuring some		Lumpur in 1921.10 In the same year, the	Committee was also set up to organise
					20,000 items made by or belonging to the		Singapore Camera Club (SCC) was founded,		-
					indigenous communities of Malaya and		which catered initially to Japanese amateur	phers. In that committee of five, two Asian
							photographers in Singapore and Johor (this	names stood out: Lee Keng Yan (most likely
					6			Lee King Yan; 李镜仁) and S.K. Yamahata.14
					The exhibition included perfor-		club formed in 1950 in Singapore).
					mances to entertain visitors, such as Sulu			1920s, Japanese and Chinese studio photog-
					and Dyak dances,		Malaya Borneo Exhibition in Singapore, the
					dance forms from Kelantan,			photographic trade, and could no longer
					from Penang,		to its connection with the colonial milieu,
shadow play from Kedah,
							selected to chair the Photography (Amateur)	The winners of the professional section
---	---	---	---	---	---------------------------------------------	---	---------------------------------------------	----------------------------------------------	---
					fire dance.7		Committee, which comprised non-Asian	were dominated by Japanese photogra-
					Many major businesses in Singapore,		members, including his wife Muriel. (Norris	phers who blended Japanese tradition with
					such as Fraser and Neave, Robinson and			Western techniques, although the Chinese-
					Co., and Sime Darby and Co., participated in		exhibition’s Agricultural Section Committee.)	owned Empire Studio (established by Low
					the Commerce Section and bagged medals		In January 1922, an open call was held	Kway Song in 1920) and Eastern Studio
							for submissions from “amateur photog-	(founded by Lee King Yan in 1922; he had
					was the key objective for staging the fair			previously set up Lee Brothers Studio on
					in the first place.8		display. At the time, amateur photography	Hill Street) also won awards.15
					Outdoor events included boat races,		connoted an artistic pursuit as opposed to	Selected photographs submitted to
					football matches, “live” Terengganu boat-		professional photography where practitio-	the two committees were displayed in one
					building demonstrations, a circus, a dog		ners engaged in photography for profit.	of the railway godowns on the exhibition
					show, a zoo comprising animals from		One of the conditions stipulated was that	grounds. One of the first portraits a visitor
					different “collections” and even Manila				-
						9	the Malay Peninsula or Borneo.11	tion was that of Lady Guillemard, wife of
					was an exhibit of photographs.		Exhibitors could submit photographs	Laurence Guillemard, placed near a portrait
in 1921 created more opportunities
					F. de la Mare Norris, government		in any of the seven classes (or categories): (i)	of the Sultan of Johor. The power structure
---	---	---	---	---	---------------------------------	---	-------------------------------------------------	--------------------------------------------	---
to exhibit photographs in Malaya.

• pictorial photography; (ii) portrait studies; revisits three significant | | | | | | | | (iii) outdoor or fancy-dress portraits; (iv) | a visual and spatial sense. On a superficial | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | --- | photo exhibitions in pre-war Singapore States, was instrumental to this photo- nature studies; (v) native life studies; (vi) level, the close proximity of the two photos | | | | | | | | places of interest, and (vii) miscellaneous. | indicated an equal relationship between the | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | --- | and examines their implications. | | | | | | | | The first three classes were “intended solely | British and Malay elites. The implication, | | | ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------ | --- | --- | --------------------------------------- | --- | ---------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | --- | | | | | | | (MCC) when it was established in Kuala | | for work of a pictorial and artistic nature”, | however, is that it was the “protection” and | | | | | | | | | | while “photographs exhibited merely for | tutelage of British colonialism that ensured | | | | | | | | | | their interest or technique” should be | the continuity of Malay power. | | | | | | | | | | submitted to the remaining classes.12 | More crucially, the public display of | | | Between the 1920s and the onset of the | was put together in less than six months. | which only started easing in 1922.2 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | surprisingly, the winning submissions were | photographs in the exhibition marked a | | | Japanese Occupation in 1942, there had | After several extensions, the fair ended | was also the minor matter of coinciding | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | dominated by Japanese practitioners of the | significant attempt to utilise the amateur | | | been various efforts to organise photogra- | on 17 April. | with the visit by the Prince of Wales who | | | | | | | | SCC and British members of the MCC. Norris | phy exhibitions in Singapore that featured | Governor of the Straits Settlements | officiated the opening. The souvenir guide | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | and his wife also won multiple awards.13 | - | Laurence Guillemard conceived the idea | also highlighted that the exhibition would | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | --- | | | | | | | | | Professional photographers were | Photography was included in the array of | | | raphers. The organisers of each exhibition | for the exhibition. As he noted in the | show the prince the “natural resources | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | not left out. A Photography (Professional) | displays and performances in the fair, which | | | | souvenir guide, its objective was to “bring | and possibilities of Malayan countries | | | | | | | | | staging the event. Their political affiliations | together, for the first time in history, | under British influence, and to illustrate | | | | | | | | | and sources of patronage were also differ- | representatives of all classes from the | | | - | | | | | | A souvenir guide produced for the Malaya Borneo Exhibition held in Singapore from 31 March ent. By revisiting these initiatives, we can istic features of these countries and their to 17 April 1922. Image reproduced from Guide to the Malaya Borneo Exhibition 1922 and Souvenir of Malaya piece together a narrative of pre-World British influence”, namely British Malaya 3 (Singapore: Malaya Borneo Exhibition, 1922). (From National Library, Singapore, call no. RRARE 607.34595 War II Singapore through the conditions and Borneo, so that “by interchange of To that end, plans were made for MAL; accession no. B02935804I). that made the staging of these exhibitions ideas and discussion of matters of inter- members of the Malay, Dyak and Murut The carnival at the Malaya Borneo Exhibition held in Singapore from 31 March to 17 April 1922. est to each, considerable mutual benefit communities to create life-size replicas Arshak C Galstaun Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. | | might be derived by all, and a revival of | of their traditional houses for display.4 | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Malaya Borneo Exhibition, 1922 | local trade possibly stimulated”.1 | | | | | | | | | While 42 Dyaks arrived from Sarawak to | On 31 March 1922, the Malaya Borneo | However, in truth, the revival of | build their longhouse, the North Borneo | | | | | | | | | --------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | --------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Exhibition opened to much fanfare on | | Chartered Company, however, failed to | | | | | | | | | reclaimed land adjacent to the Telok | reason for organising the exhibition. In | round up enough men to re-create a | | | | | | | | | Ayer basin. Occupying 65 acres (around | Singapore, the post-World War I euphoria | | In any case, the Arts and | | | | | | | | 263,046 sq m), the colonial spectacle | quickly gave way to a recession in 1920, | Crafts Section remained one of the most | | | | | | | | is a writer, curator and artist. He has a PhD from the University of Westminster (London) and was a Lee Kong Chian Research Fellow (2017–18). Wubin is interested in photography’s entangle ments with modernity, colonialism, nationalism, the Cold War and “Chineseness”. | 58 | | | | | | | | | 59 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |

advertised and showcased the products		them eradicate bad habits, strengthen
and “development” of Malaya and Borneo,	Hong Kong were also included.17	their physiques and propagate the national
	By this time, the SCC and MCC had	19 The exhibition organisers also
result of “benign” British rule. In effect, pho-	become inactive. And unlike the public dis-
tography was used by the British to visualise		initiatives revealed the unmistakeable
and shield the specific effects of colonial-	Exhibition in the previous decade, where	imprint of Chinese nationalism on cultural
ism. In the process of decolonisation and	works by the Japanese were featured, it	and artistic matters in Singapore.
nation-building, the national elites retained		The idea of staging the exhibition
a similar faith in photography, mobilising it	1930s for Chinese photographers – who	was first mooted by a small group of
for a variety of cultural, socio-political and	considered themselves cultural elites – to	photo enthusiasts at a New Year’s Eve
diplomatic projects.16	be seen on the same public platform as their	dinner in 1933.20 Application details were
	Japanese counterparts. This was because	disseminated throughout February 1935
Japan’s blatant aggression in China from the
Exhibition, 1935	late 1920s had given rise to anti-Japanese	in Singapore, and also through Keng U
----------------------------------------	---------------------------------------------	--------------------------------------	---	---	---
On 24 March 1935, the Chinese Consul-	sentiments among the Chinese communi-	photo studio in Kuala Lumpur and Kong
General to Singapore, Philip K.C. Tyau,	ties in Singapore and a surge in nationalist	Hing Cheong in Penang.21
18 Kwa Soon Hock, an employee of the
Chinese Photographic Exhibition. Newspa-	The exhibition was held at the prem-	Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation
-----------------------------------------------	--------------------------------------------	------------------------------------------	---	---	---
per reports hailed the exhibition as the “very		(OCBC), was responsible for receiving the
first of its kind in Singapore” and the “first	Society on Prince Edward Road. Founded	22 Despite the hefty entry fee
one promoted by the Chinese in Malaya”,	in Singapore in 1919, the society was a	of $1, the organisers received 352 prints
	self-help organisation targeted at overseas	from 38 entrants in Sitiawan, Seremban,
	Chinese youths, with the aim of helping	Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan,
Perak, Penang, Terengganu, Singapore and
featured a selection of photographs from the Overseas Chinese Photographic		Hong Kong. After two rounds of selection,
---------------------------------------------------------------------------	---	------------------------------------------	---	---	---
Exhibition, held at the premises of the Nanyang Chinese Students Society from 24 to 31 March 1935. Top left photo: The Chinese Consul-General for Singapore Kao Ling-pai opening
83 prints were shortlisted.23
Image reproduced from the Straits Times, 28 March 1935, 20. (From NewspaperSG). the Yunnan-Burma Highway Photo Exhibition at the premises of the Singapore
The participating photographers
Chinese Chamber of Commerce on 24 November 1939. Top right photo: Lee
included well-known amateurs like Chia
Kong Chian, president of the exhibition committee. Bottom photo: Visitors
		Boon Leong and OCBC general manager	at the exhibition.	南洋商报[Nanyang Siang Pau], 25
---	---	------------------------------------	-------------------------------------	----------------------------	---
		Kwa Siew Tee, who was the father of	November 1939, 7. (From NewspaperSG).
Kwa Soon Hock. Chia was no stranger to
photography exhibitions, as he had ear-
lier received two awards at an exhibition When describing the exhibits, the that some of its members enjoyed with collection of funds beyond the city centre
		organised by the SCC in 1926.24 Kwa Siew		the British authorities. Members included
---	---	-----------------------------------------	---	------------------------------------------	---
Tee, on the other hand, was a member of mention their aesthetics, valorising some prominent figures associated with Chinese the colonial authorities as the SCRFC was
the Royal Photographic Society, having been of the works as exemplars of pictorial art.29 banks in Singapore, such as Chew Hock increasingly functioning “like a political
elected in 1913. He was made associate of In contrast, an article in the Chinese news- Leong, Kwa Siew Tee and Teo Teow Peng, 33
the society in 1935,25 and in 1940, he was Union Times (总汇新报) on 25 March 31 In 1938, Japan gained control of Xia-
appointed Justice of the Peace.26
			1935 singled out a particular photograph	Police photographer Liew Choe Hoon (or	men and Guangdong, two major hometowns
---	---	---	-----------------------------------------	----------------------------------------	------------------------------------------
			by Li Ying (黎英). The writer praised the	Liew Chor Hoon), an early initiator and	of the overseas Chinese in Nanyang (South-
manager Chew Hock Leong, who also participant of the exhibition, also became east Asia). By then, China had lost most of its
contributed an essay to the exhibition 32 seaboard connections to the outside world.
		27 In his address, Chew explained	soldiers of the 19th Route Army in the
---	---	----------------------------------	---------------------------------------	---	---
the objectives for organising the exhibition. could enter China, the 1,154-kilometre-long
According to him, the organisers felt that by The photograph had been titled with a Exhibition, 1939–40 Yunnan-Burma Highway (also known as
			Cantonese curse word, most likely to reflect	On 7 July 1937, two years after the Over-	the Burma Road), linking Lashio in eastern
---	---	---	---------------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------
“fellow photographic comrades” to focus seas Chinese Photographic Exhibition Burma (Myanmar) with Kunming in China,
on the exploration of art, their works would 30 The 19th Route Army was held, the Second Sino-Japanese War was rushed through for completion by some
become more artistic and in time measure was lauded when it put up fierce resistance broke out between China and Japan. As a 200,000 Burmese and Chinese labourers.
			against the Japanese troops who attacked	result, Chinese communities in Southeast	Traversing treacherous terrain, the
---	---	----------------------	------------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------	------------------------------------
		in advanced nations.28	Shanghai on 28 January 1932 (known as the
element of nationhood in Chew’s speech, January 28 Incident or Shanghai Incident). transportation vehicles at the start of 1939.
In Singapore, the Singapore China However, China still lacked skilled drivers
		what “nation” meant to the organisers,	Sino-Japanese War (1937–45).	Relief Fund Committee (SCRFC) was set up
---	---	---------------------------------------	----------------------------	-----------------------------------------	---
the participating photographers and the The exhibition was hailed as a “thor- in August 1937 with prominent businessman early 1939, the Kuomintang (Chinese Nation-
exhibition visitors at the time. ough success”, with some 2,000 people and philanthropist Tan Kah Kee as president. alist Party) government of the Republic
			visiting the show before it ended on 31	A year later, in October, Tan helped to
---	---	---	----------------------------------------	----------------------------------------	---
of exhibition venue suggest that the organ- March. As a result of the exhibition, the Around 3,200 people across Nanyang, not
isers felt a certain affinity with the affairs Oversea Chinese Photographic Society was Union (SCRFU) and became its chairman. By all of whom were ethnic Chinese, answered
of China. They identified themselves as formed in March 1936. It was exempted January 1939, the SCRFC had formed over the call. Some gave up well-paying jobs
		(华侨; overseas Chinese) and	from registration by the colonial state,	20 sub-committees with more than 200
---	---	----------------------------	-----------------------------------------	-------------------------------------	---
named the exhibition accordingly. suggesting a certain degree of closeness branches across the island, extending its men to serve in China’s war relief efforts.34
60 61

Knowing that there would be inter- all proceeds from the tickets and prints To reach the masses, the organisers est among readers in Malaya, the Chinese promoted the exhibition by connecting Singapore and the emerging nation in ( 南洋商报) Tapping into SCRFC’s vast network, - - ( 新国民日报) sent activists combed the island, cajoling all graphs with scenes from the ever-popular quences during the Japanese Occupation two journalists – Chang Ch’u-k’un (Zhang Chinese classic, Romance of the Three and the subsequent era of decolonisation. 张楚琨) and Chen Geding (陈戈 tickets. By the time the exhibition opened (三国演义).42 In the early Occupation years, 丁) – to report on the Yunnan-Burma at the SCCC on 24 November 1939, over Originally slated to close on 27 the Japanese military systematically Highway. Setting sail for Rangoon (Yan- 6,000 Straits dollars had been raised from November, the exhibition was extended gon) in August 1939, they spent the next ticket sales.37 to 29 November. The support of the movement in an exercise two months filing dispatches along the reported that some 13,000 people had known as Sook Ching (肃清; “purge Photographic Society was involved in the visited the exhibition at the SCCC.43 through cleansing”). From 21 February 1,000 photographs which Chen brought exhibition, but members of the Society The exhibition was then moved to to 4 March 1942, Chinese males between back on his return trip via Vietnam. of Chinese Artists (SOCA) certainly were. the ages of 18 and 50 in Singapore With Tan Kah Kee’s support, the SCRFC decided to mount a photo exhi- January 1936, with permission granted held there from 1 to 3 December; each screening centres, with those suspected bition to help raise funds for China and by the colonial authorities. In 1938, it ticket was priced at 10 cents. To attract of being anti-Japanese subsequently at the same time provide visitors with - non-Chinese visitors, the text and cap- executed. a comprehensive experience of the emy of Fine Arts (NAFA) with member tions accompanying the photographs After the war, nationalist and anti- 35 An exhibition committee was Lim Hak Tai appointed as the founding 44 On 3 colonial sentiments continued to rise. quickly assembled, with Lee Kong Chian, 38 Lim also headed the exhibi- December, in just three hours from 7 Tan’s son-in-law, as president. tion’s installation committee, while to 10 pm, over 500 exhibition tickets and Singapore (and how one’s relation- A three-tier ticketing structure was SOCA president Tchang Ju-ch’i (张汝器) were sold. Due to popular demand, the ship with China was perceived) was a established: the honorary ticket costing and fellow member Zhuang Youzhao (庄 exhibition was extended another week highly contentious issue, which directly five Straits dollars and came with a com- 有钊) became his deputies.39 and ended on 10 December.45 affected one’s survival. plimentary print, while the special ticket men were responsible for the exhibition’s 1940, the exhibition toured Melaka, was a dollar each and the normal ticket clean and modern design. They utilised Muar and Batu Pahat, again to a rous- Different and Yet the Same cost 20 cents. The Singapore Chinese specially made free-standing panels to ing reception. In revisiting these three photo exhibi- Chamber of Commerce (SCCC) served as display the prints. Red, silk-fabric ropes The Yunnan-Burma Highway Photo tions – held in 1922, 1935 and 1939–40 the exhibition venue where tickets were Exhibition was probably one of the most respectively – in pre-war Singapore, we sold for the duration of the exhibition.36 the exhibition venue.40 visited photographic exhibitions in Malaya see a definite shift in patronage and Prints were available for purchase, and The exhibition featured some 300 during the first half of the 20th century. political affiliations that facilitated these photographs, systematically organised The exhibition attempted to illuminate events. To an extent, these exhibitions its subject matter by organising the pho- enabled participating photographers These two photos accompany the Chinese article in

• tographs into different thematic sections. Top photo: Journalists Chang Ch’u-k’un (second from left) and Chen ics, their transportation work, condi- The exhibition also involved different strata sense of place and loyalty, whether it Geding (extreme right) spent two months reporting on the Yunnan- Burma Highway and took more than 1,000 photographs. Second tions of the highway, sights in Burma, of Chinese society, including NAFA students was directed at Britain, China or Malaya. from the right is Lau Boh-tan (刘牡丹), a representative from the - What remained unchanged, however, was Southseas China Relief Fund Union and Tan Kah Kee’s trusted assistant. lands, Chinese historical sites, tourist volunteers from Chinese-medium schools the involvement of political and cultural Photo on the right: Lau Boh-tan with his family and friends. attractions and educational facilities who served as attendants. 南洋商报[Nanyang Siang Pau], 10 August 1939, 7. relocated to Kunming due to the war, The exhibition helped to visualise exhibitions for their own motivations 41 and strengthen the connection between and desires. 10 “Untitled,” , 13 August 1921, 12; 18 林孝胜 [Lin Xiaosheng], “四海同心 义薄云天—抗 25 “List of Members of the Royal Photographic Society 32 “华侨摄影展览” [“Overseas Chinese Photographic set up The United Painters (朋特画社) in 1934, offering “Government Appointments,” , 24 May 日救亡运动” [“Anti-Japanese Movement”], in of Great Britain,” 56 (1916): 36; Exhibition”], 南洋商报 ], 27 February services such as advertisement graphic design and 1 Guide to the Malaya Borneo Exhibition 1922 and 1920, 10. (From NewspaperSG) 新加坡华人通史 Robert Chalmers, “Report of the Council for the Year 1935, 5. (From NewspaperSG) painting, oil painting, sculpture and badge design. (Singapore: Malaya Borneo 11 “Malaya-Borneo Exhibition: Amateur Photographic , ed. 柯木林 [Kua Bak Lim] (Singapore: 1935,” 76 (1936): 284, The Royal 33 Yong Ching-Fatt, 40 “滇缅公路摄影展览会 举行隆重开幕 Exhibition, 1922), 5. (From National Library, Singapore, Section,” , 20 January 1922, 2. Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations, Photographic Society, https://archive.rps.org/archive. Overseas Chinese Legend (Singapore: World Scientific [“Grand Opening of the Yunnan-Burma Highway Call no. RRARE 607.34595 MAL; Microfilm nos. (From NewspaperSG) 2015), 559. (From National Library, Singapore, Call no. 26 “Certificates of Honour for Penang Malay and Chinese,” Publishing, 2014), 204–21. (From National Library, Photo Exhibition”]. NL9852, NL27451) 2 Constance Mary Turnbull, 12 “Malaya-Borneo Exhibition: Amateur Photographic Section.” Chinese RSING 959.57004951 GEN-[HIS]) , 5 July 1940, 12. (From NewspaperSG) Singapore, Call no. RSING 338.04092 YON) 41 “星华筹赈会主办滇缅公路摄影展览 今日举行开 Singapore 1819–2005 (Singapore: NUS Press, 2020), 13 “The Exhibition,” , 7 April 1922, 5. 19 南洋青年励志学社 27 “Photographic Exhibition.” [Note: The catalogue 34 林孝胜 [Lin Xiaosheng], “四海同心 义薄云天 抗日 幕及预展” [“Singapore China Relief Fund Committee

221. (From National Library, Singapore, Call no. RSING (From NewspaperSG) Society], “南洋青年励志学社组织缘起” [“The Origins exhibition includes the full listing of exhibits and the 救亡运动,” 567–70. Organises Yunnan-Burma Highway Photo Exhibition; 959.57 TUR-[HIS]) 14 Guide to the Malaya Borneo Exhibition 1922 and photographers, essays by writers experienced in the art 35 “滇缅公路写真展览” [“Yunnan-Burma Highway Opening and Preview Would Be Held Today”], 3 Guide to the Malaya Borneo Exhibition 1922 and , 19. (vol. 8), in 马华新文学大系 of photography and halftone reproductions of some of Photo Exhibition”], 南洋商报 ], 南洋商报 ], 24 November 1939, 7. , 5. 15 “Western Arts,” , 8 April 1922, 12. , ed. 方修 [Fang Xiu] (Hong Kong: the best works submitted. Thus far, no extant copy of this 12 October 1939, 7. (From NewspaperSG) (From NewspaperSG) 4 Guide to the Malaya Borneo Exhibition 1922 and (From NewspaperSG) World Publishing Co., 2000), 534–35. (From National 36 “滇缅公路影展助赈 委员会昨成立” [“Yunnan-Burma 42 “第7页 广告 专栏 2” [“Page 7 Advertisements Column , 61. 16 Zhuang Wubin, Shifting Currents: Glimpses of a Library, Singapore, Call no. Chinese RSING C810.08 MHX) 28 “第一届华侨摄影展览会” [“First Edition of the Overseas Highway Photo Exhibition to Aid Relief Fund; Committee 2”], 南洋商报 ], 15 November “Malaya Borneo Exhibition: Progress Reported,” Changing Nation (Singapore: National Library Board, 20 “Photo Exhibition: Artistic Work by Overseas Chinese Photographic Exhibition”], Union Times, Formed Yesterday”], 南洋商报 ], 1939, 7. (From NewspaperSG) , 23 March 1922, 183. 2018), 12–16. (From National Library, Singapore, Chinese,” , 25 March 1935, 2. 25 March 1935, 2, National University of Singapore 11 November 1939, 7. (From NewspaperSG) 43 “Yunnan-Burma Road Pictures Exhibition,” (From NewspaperSG) Call no. RSING 915.957 KOU-[TRA]); Zhuang Wubin, (From NewspaperSG) Library, http://lib.nus.edu.sg/sea_chinese/documents/ 37 “滇缅公路摄影展览会 举行隆重开幕” [“Grand , 1 December 1939, 2. (From NewspaperSG) 6 “M.B. Exhibition: Borneo’s Native Crafts,” Documenting as Method: Photography in Southeast Asia 21 “本坡将有华侨摄影展览会” [“Singapore to Host Overseas union%20times/1935/1935_03_25.pdf. Opening of the Yunnan-Burma Highway Photo 44 “滇缅公路摄影展览会 明日移快乐世界举行 , 13 April 1922, 232. (From NewspaperSG) [doctoral dissertation, University of Westminster, 2021], Chinese Photographic Exhibition”], 南洋商报 29 “Photo Exhibition: Artistic Work by Overseas Chinese”; Exhibition”], 南洋商报 ], [“Yunnan-Burma Highway Photo Exhibition Would 7 “Malaya Borneo Exhibition: Progress Reported.”; “M.B. 67–73, https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/ ], 6 February 1935, 6. (From NewspaperSG) Anak Singapura, “Notes of the Day,” , 25 November 1939, 7. (From NewspaperSG) Exhibition: Borneo’s Native Crafts.”; “Exhibition Closed,” item/v3392/documenting-as-method-photography-in- 22 “Photographic Exhibition.” 26 March 1935, 10. (From NewspaperSG) 38 Yeo Mang Thong, Migration, Transmission, Amusement Park”], 南洋商报 ], , 18 April 1922, 7. (From NewspaperSG); southeast-asia. 23 “Chinese Photographic Exhibition,” , 30 “第一届华侨摄影展览会” [“First Edition of the Overseas Localisation: Visual Art in Singapore (1866–1945) 30 November 1939, 7. (From NewspaperSG) Guide to the Malaya Borneo Exhibition 1922 and 17 “First of its Kind in Singapore,” , 23 March 1935, 12; “华侨摄影展览会” [“Overseas Chinese Photographic Exhibition”]. (Singapore: National Gallery Singapore, 2019), 80, 45 “滇缅公路摄影筹赈展览 再度展期一周” [“Yunnan- , 67. 25 March 1935, 12; “Photographic Exhibition,” Chinese Photographic Exhibition”], 南洋商报 31 “Photography: Singapore Chinese Form Society,” 102–103. (From National Library, Singapore, Call no. Burma Highway Photo Exhibition for the Relief 8 “Malaya-Borneo: Arts and Crafts Section of Exhibition,” , 27 February 1935, 12; “Photographic ], 17 March 1935, 5. (From NewspaperSG) , 14 March 1936, 6; “For RSING 709.5957 YAO) Fund Extended Again for Another Week”], 南洋 , 5 April 1922, 9–10. (From NewspaperSG) Exhibition,” , 7 February 1935, 13. 24 “Singapore Camera Club,” , 6 July Photographers,” , 13 March 1936, 12. 39 Tchang Ju-ch’i and Zhuang Youzhao (also known as 商报 ], 4 December 1939, 7. 9 “Malaya-Borneo: Arts and Crafts Section of Exhibition.” (From NewspaperSG) 1926, 9. (From NewspaperSG) (From NewspaperSG) U-Chow, Chong Yew Chao or Chuang Yew Chao) had (From NewspaperSG) 62 63

The spires, domes and sweeping roofs of	architectural firm Swan & Maclaren in
houses of worship are at once expressions	1912. Over the last 150 years or so, the
church – which was gazetted as a national
The dome of St Joseph’s Church, which tops	monument in 2005 – has accumulated a
-------------------------------------------	-------------------------------------	---
a 20-metre-high octagonal belfry, makes
that overture from its location along busy
Victoria Street.	The 30 or so statues in the church
-----------------	-----------------------------------	---

• are physical connections to the history of | tures are eye-catching at street level, much | the church and the Portuguese Mission in | | | --------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | --- |

ible behind its walls. Inside, its treasures	of festivals, feast days and other activities
that constitute the life of a church. So when
the church authorities decided that a major
figures that are strategically placed around	restoration project for the building was
---------------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------	---
needed to save it, they were determined
various manifestations of the divine.
Filipa Machado in her workshop, Singapore, 2021. She
As with many Catholic churches,
restored all the statues at St Joseph’s Church between
St Joseph’s has its fair share of statues.
2018 and 2021.
But St Joseph’s probably has more statues	The restoration of the church initially
------------------------------------------	----------------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------
than most churches here, given that its	started out as a paint job. But in June 2017,
history dates back to 1853 when it was		individuals, or societies and associations
built by the Portuguese Mission. Known	hidden under decades of paintwork, expos-	affiliated to the church.
as São José (“St Joseph” in Portuguese),	ing floral and foliage motifs.1	There were a number of options for
that Gothic-style building was demolished	triggered a larger investigation into what
in 1906 and subsequently replaced with	else needed to be done, and a professional
the current, larger building by noted		said that the best (and only) approach was
to strip the statues of all paintwork, includ-
	The final report confirmed what had	ing the original layer, and then repair and
---	------------------------------------	--------------------------------------------
Restoration of the statue of a guardian
	long been suspected: a major overhaul was	repaint them. This proposal was rejected
---	------------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------
angel and child revealed their soft and gentle
	needed. The building’s facade facing Vic-	because such a drastic process would result
---	-----------------------------------------	--------------------------------------------
facial expressions and the detailed finery of their
Courtesy of Saint Joseph’s Church (Victoria	toria Street was tilted forward. Over time,	in the statues losing their material past(s)
--------------------------------------------	--------------------------------------------	---------------------------------------------
and become “new”.
	the building’s 45-centimetre-thick walls.	To Monsignor Philip Heng, SJ,3
---	------------------------------------------	------------------------------
Before restoration, the guardian angel had
a nonchalant fixed stare while the child had a look		the church rector, the statues had “a spe-
----------------------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------	------------------------------------------
Courtesy of Saint Joseph’s Church (Victoria	ground to the ceiling, while others were
were not expensive works of art, he felt it
foundation had to be stabilised. 4
After the ran an article
	church in 2018 so that the structural	in July 2017 about the church’s discovery
---	--------------------------------------	------------------------------------------
the restoration of the statues issues could be rectified and the building of treasures hidden under paint,
	restored. The entire restoration project	Machado, a Portuguese art restorer resid-
---	-----------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------
in St Joseph’s Church.
	was estimated to cost $24.4 million.2	ing in Singapore, approached the church at
---	-------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------
the urging of friends to offer her services.
	be undergoing a major restoration, it also	Trained in Lisbon and graduating top
---	-------------------------------------------	-------------------------------------
of her class in 1999, Machado had garnered
	be repaired. As a result, church’s building	about 17 years of experience working on
---	--------------------------------------------	--------------------------------------------
	committee began examining the possibility	restoration projects in Portugal. From 2009
	of restoring its 32 statues as well.	to 2014, she was part of an award-winning
	The statues are relatively young,	restoration team that won the Prémio
	dating from the early 20th century, and	Vilalva award recognising excellence in the
	were mass-produced in plaster. Of the	conservation of Portuguese cultural heri-
	32 statues, 14 were manufactured and	tage at the Sacramento Church in Lisbon.
	distributed worldwide by Maison Raffl	In 2015, she clinched an award from the
	(also known as La Statue Religieuse), a	Portuguese Association of Museology for
	well-known French manufacturer of reli-	her work in restoring a 48-square-metre
	gious statues. Little is known about where	heritage mural painted in 1955 by the
Portuguese artist Luis Dourdil.6
History – From Temasek to Tomorrow
After reviewing Machado’s portfolio,
Singapore at Random:
	the church, while others were donated by	the church building committee got her
---	-----------------------------------------	--------------------------------------
64 65

to undertake a small restoration work in were non-toxic and non-acidic could be been applied over the decades, mostly

	Between 2018 and 2021, a total of 29 statues		based on the painters’ imagination and
and skill. In the meantime, the committee were restored. (Three statues were deemed work from future oxidation, water dam- preference, these had little regard for the
also ran her credentials by the National beyond restoration and decommissioned.) age and exposure to light. original colour, hue, tone and shade.
Heritage Board. She passed the restoration In addition to the technical aspects, Fine details were also painted over,
test with flying colours and was given the - causing the statue to lose definition. It had
	At the start of the project, Machado did	toration faithfully represented the historical	a mildly jaundiced skin tone and its facial
---	-----------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------------	--------------------------------------------	---	---	---
For Machado, the project was particu- and cultural contexts of both the statue and expression was flat and lacked affect. A
		the saint. Her sensitive approach is an indi-	dark-purple stole (a band of cloth used as
---	---	---------------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------	---	---	---
she would be “involved in the [restoration] committee. In her initial assessment, she cation of how the restoration of a material a liturgical vestment by ordained ministers)
project of a Portuguese Church [established	examined 24 statues to ascertain their	object can sit at the intersection of history,
--------------------------------------------	---------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------------	---	---	---	---
in 1853] so far away from Portugal”.7 physical condition. The report was mixed: art, chemistry, material science and more. dirty. In short, St Francis Xavier had aged
14 statues were in good physical condition,
be an easy task. For a project of this size, a but had yellowed over time. Overpainting The first step in the restoration work
team is usually involved in the restoration, Machado’s first restoration piece was the involved cleaning off the surface dirt and
according to Machado. However, in this further loss of detail and definition and statue of St Francis Xavier (1506–52), a task -
case, she was going solo. some statues had missing fingers. Also paint. Small areas were examined by using
The restoration project began in	missing were the objects representing
----------------------------------------	----------------------------------------------	---------------------------------------------	--------------------------------------------	---	---	---
August 2018 and an air-conditioned work-	the saints’ particular attributes or virtues.	of Jesus (also known as Jesuits), St Francis
		Xavier is remembered for his missionary	After exposing the original paintwork, a
ensure optimal storage conditions and	physical condition: there were visible	work in establishing Christianity in Asia,
	cracks, and the original paintwork was	the Malay Archipelago and Japan. Based	dissolve and remove the overpaint. Ethanol,
	damaged and, in some instances, totally	in Melaka for several months in 1545, St	which is colourless and evaporates quickly
	stripped off. A few statues were beyond	Francis Xavier was informed that he had	and cleanly, was then used to remove any
	restoration and repair.	been appointed provincial of the “Indies
Machado’s recommendation was to were also removed. Lumps of plaster, glue the plaster statue of St Sebastian, the
	remove the overpaint, reconstruct the miss-	in Singapore at the end of 1551.8
---	-------------------------------------------	---------------------------------	---	---	---	---
The 150-centimetre-tall plaster
Joseph’s Church (Victoria Street) and
	conservation principles. Every interven-	condition. It was dirty and its surface		-
---	--------------------------------------------	----------------------------------------	---------------------------------------	---	---	---
	tion had to be reversible, using techniques	was marred by cracks, abrasions, holes
	and materials that would only affect the	and other lacunae. Missing fingers had	integrity, physical repairs began. Two
statue minimally. Only durable, high- - there are guardian angels who watch over, plaster statue of St Sebastian, the patron
quality conservation-grade materials that substitutes. Although coats of paint had ment finger were fabricated from plaster guide, protect and accompany the faithful saint of archers, athletes and soldiers.
			and then attached to the statue with		Martyred in third-century Rome during
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			conservation-grade glue. Conservation-	In St Joseph’s, the statue of a guard-	the Roman emperor Diocletian’s persecu-
Restoring the statue of Francis Xavier took two weeks. The original statue (left) was dirty, jaundiced, with grade filler – more durable, has stronger ian angel sits in a niche situated after the tion of Christians, St Sebastian is usually
a flat facial expression, and full of cracks and abrasions. After restoration (below), the original porcelain
			adhesive qualities and is less toxic – was	portico, welcoming worshippers just as	depicted as a handsome, fair-skinned
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white surplice (or tunic) with clear detailing and patterning can be clearly seen, while the dark-purple stole
was restored to its original hue of lustrous, rich gold. Courtesy of Saint Joseph’s Church (Victoria Street) and used to fill in small holes, replace missing they enter the church. The guardian angel, youth pierced by arrows. The difficulty
with a child under its protective mantle
and the shadow of its wings, looks on the
			oxidation, scratches, water damage and	child and points his finger heavenward.	lost. In fact, it was the opposite.
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			dirt, the statue was then varnished and a	Unfortunately, years of overpaint-	When evaluating the statue, Machado
			layer of water-resistant acrylic resin applied.	ing had hardened the facial expressions	“was surprised by the pristine condition
			Next, pigment was used to restore		of the original chromatic layer” because
			St Francis Xavier’s surplice – a tunic with	a nonchalant fixed stare while the child	“when an artwork is so heavily repainted,
			large sleeves, usually knee length, worn		it is because the original condition is bad”.
			by the clergy – to its original porcelain	friendly relationship of trust and protection,	To preserve the original paintwork,
			white, with particular attention given to	so pronounced in the original statue, had		-
the detailing and patterning at its hem.
The dark-purple stole was restored to its
			original hue of lustrous, rich gold using a	dirt and overpaint stripped away, the soft	she had to “remove all the overpaint
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			gilding liquid made from mixing real gold	and gentle aspects of the facial expressions	with a scalpel very slowly and carefully”,
Machado said that she came to “appreci-
			With its now soulful eyes, kindly visage	same process as she did in the restoration		9
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			and handsome vestments, the restored	of the statue of St Francis Xavier, Machado	fortnight, she spent consecutive 12-hour
			statue of St Francis Xavier will once again	reinstated the detailed finery that clothed
It was an effort that fully stretched

St Sebastian judgement calls based on her experience,

			and Catholics traditionally believe that	entire project was the restoration of the	guided by visual inspections and tactile
66						67

Before restoration, the statue of St Agnes of Rome (below) had a flat and lifeless appearance. After the restoration (right), the patterned intricate gold motif can be seen. Joseph’s Church (Victoria Street) and Pixelmusica Pte Ltd. The statue of St Roch, the Catholic patron saint of dogs, is always depicted with a canine at his Courtesy of Saint Joseph’s Church (Victoria Street) was festooned with dusty-vermillion roses,

	which complemented the soft tones of		original flooring reinstated, new lighting
any damage to the original chromatic layer
due to clumsy or hasty execution would
	is St Roch, a male saint canonised in the		nave and transept, their finery revealed
---------------------------------------------	----------------------------------------------	---	--------------------------------------------	---	---
In the end though, all that effort paid	16th century. Among other things, St		by soft illumination.
off. Machado said she was “very moved	Roch is a patron saint of dogs, invalids, the		Reverend Father Joe Lopez Carpio, the
by the [facial] expression of the statue”			current rector, is pleased with the outcome
and she was pleased to be able to “bring	“love[d] all the decorative elements of its		of Machado’s hard work: “The statue res-
it back to its original condition”. 10	clothing” and being an animal lover, the		toration has been executed professionally
Looking back, Machado said she was			alongside the building restoration. The
extremely proud of the work she had been	delighted her. She felt that it was “one of
able to accomplish on this project, “to have	the most beautiful of the male [statues]”
	12		have been restored, together with their
myself in such a short amount of time”.11			facial expressions, which make them come
illumination for the statues so that their
Of all the statues Machado restored, her	As the restoration of St Joseph’s Church
---------------------------------------------	-------------------------------------------	---	---	------------------------------	---
favourite is that of St Agnes of Rome, a	approaches completion in late 2021, after			13 In short, to encounter the
patron saint of virgins, girls and chastity.	almost three years, its full architectural				14
St Agnes was merely a young girl of 12 or
13 when she was martyred during a wave
accessed 16 July 2021, https://prabook.com/web/luis.
of persecutions in 303 CE unleashed by			dourdil/3742719.
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	1 Melody Zaccheus and Adrian Lim, “Treasures Hidden		7 Filipa Machado, interview, 26 February 2021; Filipa
the Roman emperor Diocletian. The statue
	Under Layers of Paint,”	, 30 July 2017, 14.	Machado, email , 22 July 2021.
--------------------------------------	------------------------	--------------------	------------------------------	---	---
depicts a young woman with long, flow-	(From NewspaperSG)
8 “Saint Francis Xavier,” Jesuits, accessed 15 June
ing tresses, wearing a Roman tunic with	2 Saint Joseph’s Church, Restoring Saint Joseph’s
----------------------------------------	---------------------------------------------------	---	---	---	---
2021, https://www.jesuits.global/saint-blessed/
	Church: Bringing Life and Colour to a National Treasure		saint-francis-xavier/.
---	-------------------------------------------------------	---	----------------------	---	---
(long shawl) draped over it. In her
	(Singapore: Saint Joseph’s Church, undated), 44. (Not		9 Filipa Machado, email, 22 July 2021.
---	------------------------------------------------------	---	----------------------------------------	---	---
left arm, she is cradling a lamb.
	available in NLB’s holdings)		10 Filipa Machado, interview, 26 February 2021.
---	----------------------------	---	------------------------------------------------	---	---
Unfortunately, the old paint job
	3 Members of the Society of Jesus – a religious order		11 Filipa Machado, interview, 26 February 2021.
---	-------------------------------------------------------	---	-------------------------------------------------------	---	---
	of the Catholic church headquartered in France – use		12 Filipa Machado, interview, 26 February 2021; Filipa
had given the statue a flat and lifeless
	the letters SJ after their personal names. This is an		Machado, email, 22 July 2021.
---	------------------------------------------------------	---	------------------------------	---	---
appearance. After Machado removed
	abbreviation of their Congregation’s name. The		13 Reverend Father Joe Lopez Carpio, email, 30 July 2021.
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	members of this order are called Jesuits.		14 St John of Damascus wrote: “For the invisible things of
God since the creation of the world are made visible
to its original appearance, the lavishly	4 Monsignor Philip Heng, SJ, interview, 17 July 2021.
-----------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------------------------	---	------------------------------------------------	---	---
	Zaccheus and Lim, “Treasures Hidden Under Layers of Paint.”		through images.” See “Medieval Sourcebook: John
patterned ivory white tunic and emerald
	6 Luis Dourdil (1914–89) was a 20th-century Portuguese		of Damascus, in Defense of Icons c. 730,” Fordham
----------------------------------------	--------------------------------------------------------	---	--------------------------------------------------	---	---
	artist. A self-taught man, he created several notable		University, accessed 18 August 2021, https://
gold motif became visible. The headband			sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/johndam-icons.asp.
wall paintings and murals. See “Luis Dourdil,” Prabook,
68