Reflections

Dylan's Reflection

Going on the heritage trail and researching for materials for this project have certainly got me thinking about the history of Singapore.

Personally, I feel that much of the rich history of Singapore goes unnoticed, or perhaps not even thought of, by the apathetic younger generations of Singaporeans. As cultural pratices are lost through the passing of the older generations, what is left is but the forgotten stories the early nation-builders or the untold memories of unsung heroes. Alas, who is to be blamed for the withering heritage of this fateful land? After all, the culture inbuilt in her inhabitants stems not from the exaggerated multicultural societal harmony but the emphasis to always work towards the future.

Although there has been effort put into the conservation of some historical sites, it is undoubtedly insufficient in preserving our national heritage. While some historical information has been put up around the area of Chinatown, many of them are poorly located or even blocked from vision.

In all, while these efforts would probably pass as historical entertainment for tourists, they are far from being adequate in preserving our historical heritage among citizens. The issue is not about the demolishing of physical sites of history due to the lack of land, but one of the loss of emotional history; the disintegration of Singapore's heritage will be inevitable unless tales of the past are continuously told to children, people start to focus more on our past and identity, and less on future possibilities. Many a times, we are prompted of the past only when we realise that what lies ahead is difficult. Historical sites must not turn out to be hollow shells but to harbour pearls of cherished memories that guide our lives.

Jin Hao's Reflection

Our Heritage trail is to tour around the Chinatown area which I do not really know much before that, I only know it gets very crowded whenever Chinese new year is round the corner.
It was really an eye opener for me to be really touring around the different streets and various attractions in Chinatown like a tourist. I had learnt and found out many interesting history such as Sago Lane where people who were poor and near death came to die as dying in one’s home brought bad luck to the remaining residents according to their superstition.

Some of the sites such as the Sri Mariamman Temple, Thian Hock Keng Temple and the Chinese Heritage Museum are all tourists attractions now. Buildings along the streets of Chinatown gave us a walk back into olden days where the houses were not as high and paintings were not as bright though there are still some exceptional like the shophouses on Ann Siang Hill where they are all bright in colours to attract business.

Most of the places we went were named after their founder or what was supposed to be there during the past such as Eu Yan Sang, Ann Siang Hill and Sago Street. Out of all the places we visited, I loved Maxwell Food Centre the most as that was the place I got all my cravings settled. Maxwell Food Centre started off as a wet market and eventually got famous because of all the delicacies even up till now.

At the end of the day, the trip was rather a fruitful one as I realized I had acquired much knowledge which I did not have in the past. By visiting the sites personally definitely broadened my understanding towards their histories. This trip had also ignited that long lost fire which I once had, spurring me to find out more about the interesting facts and histories of the other attractions, especially the war related sites such as fort canning, the batteries and the beaches etc.

Sahira's Reflection

The trip to chinatown was awesome. As a malay, it was the first time in my life visiting Chinatown after 19 years of living in Singapore. The best part was that when we visited Chinatown, it was a week before the Chinese New Year celebration.I could feel the joy of the chinese community as they welcome the festive season. The place was crowded with people shopping for last minute new year goodies.

I had the opportunity to look at the beautiful Chinese temples located in that area and people offering their prayers in the temple for good luck. I also saw and smelt the different type of aromatic delicacies which are available during chinese new year. The only regret i had was that i was not able to give it a try as most of them are not halal but I am very sure it taste great.

Visiting the historical site at the different places in Chinatown, educated me about the lives of the chinese people in the past and present. However the thing that caught my attention was that although the place is known as chinatown, ironically we could find muslim mosque and indian temple located at Chinatown itself.

If chinatown is a place for the chinese people, why was a sacred place for the different races built in a supposingly Chinese district?

Therefore going on this field trip has thought me that perhaps there is no one specific district specially reserved for one racial group. People in the past live harmoniously with other races here in Singapore and Singaporean still live hapily together up till today.

Dipna's Reflection

My trips to Chinatown –like most Singaporeans- would be limited to the Chinese New Year period where my family and I would hunt for the best new year goodies then queue for hours for some famously overpriced bak kwa (only to buy one piece for each child because we couldn’t afford to buy a big pack) and maybe get a few new brightly coloured accessories for our house.

As we grew older, my 3 siblings and I took turns to accompany my mum to Chinatown –the crowd, the lights… they didn’t seem to excite us anymore. Chinatown only meant good Dim Sum with our friends over the weekend, or meeting my Dad for lunch at Maxwell Food Centre if I was in the area (he works in URA).

When our group first got Chinatown I think we were more excited about the food. HAHA. But as we went about the trail I think we all got a new perspective on Chinatown, well, at least I did.
The trail allowed me to have a greater understanding for things that I previously took for what it was.

For example, growing up to Eu Yan Sang commercials, I associated “Eu Yan Sang” with “famous Chinese medicine shop” and assumed that Eu Yan Sang was the guy who founded it. I now know that Yan Sang (which is Ren Shen in Mandarin) means “caring for mankind” and Eu was the surname of the founding family (ok, maybe I wasn’t so far off on that one :P ). It was also enlightening to find that the original founder provided medicine to ease Coolies off the use and reliance on Opium through better healthcare.

Architecture wise, I found the presence of non-Chinese places of worship such as the Jamae mosque and the Sri Mariamman Temple intriguing especially after knowing that Singapore was divided into ethnically subdivisions (reflected in the Raffles Plan).

My group mates and I all have very different schedules that made it hard for us to meet :/ I felt that all of us were extremely understanding towards one another and tried hard to work around our schedules to meet and discuss project details even if it was 10 minutes during our lunch breaks and even during CNY (public holiday leh!!)! We would also frequent emails and SMSes.

To me, the trail gave me a more well rounded view of Singapore's history, with mention of drug abuse and other dark memories versus a more sheltered story that only focuses on the success stories. Cliché as it sounds, all in all I feel that the heritage trail has made me more aware of the impact history has on our lives today; discovering this with good friends just made it more memorable :)

Ci Hui's Reflection

To me, Chinatown is just like another historical place where we always go during our primary and secondary school years. I remember Chinatown as a boring place with many stalls selling similar Chinese ornaments and tradition Chinese clothing. And besides going to Chinatown for school trips, my family will also bring us there to shop for Chinese goodies and decorations during Chinese New Year. When I was younger, I enjoy heading down to Chinatown during the festive season due to the large crowd and decorations there. However now as I am older, all these no longer enliven me.

So when I first know that we were assigned to Chinatown, I didn’t feel quite excited about it. Instead, I thought the whole trial is going to be boring.

However, the heritage trial to Chinatown turned out to be awesome. After much research and walked through the trial, I have realized that Chinatown is full of historical facts. I am also amazed by why and how each street is given its name. For example, a street was named Temple Street due to the abundance of temples in the area and Smith street was named after Sir Cecil Clementi Smith, the Governor of the Straits Settlements from 1887-1893.

During the trial, we had to trace our route properly so that we could cover all the historical sites without wasting much time on travelling. It was a tough job finding the streets as the street names were all covered by the decorations and stalls set up for Chinese New Year. Fortunately, Jin hao was a good navigator and our members were all very co-operative.

If I have not done this trial, I wouldn’t have known of so many places in such a small area like Chinatown. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a lot more places I haven’t been to in Singapore. And I would love to visit other heritage sites of Singapore in the future.

Wan Xiu's Rflection

All along, I have known Chinatown to be more of a bustling tourist destination, plenty of elderly, good dessert shops and good food. In fact, I hardly went to Chinatown, not even during the Chinese New Year period so as to avoid the crowd. However, since I have shifted into the Tanjong Pagar neighbourhood recently, Chinatown has been my family’s newest hangout. Coincidentally, Chinatown was the area where my group was assigned to. The project proved to be more gratifying than expected.

Prior to the trail, I knew Chinatown as an area full of history and heritage. However I did not know the specifics. After we had done our research and walked through the trail, I was amazed at the number of heritage buildings there are. For some, I was very surprised at its past. For example, Eng Aun Tong at 89 Neil Road was a building I have to walk past to get to Chinatown and little did I know it housed the Old Tiger Balm factory, a famous brand of ointment especially in my grandparents’ generation and a permanent presence in my childhood days. Additionally, I find it hard to imagine throngs of rickshaws stationed at the Former Jinricksha Station whenever I passed by it to get to Maxwell Food Centre.

As for the group dynamics, I thought we came together well despite not having worked with anyone in my group before. We managed to bond over these few weeks, especially during our “makan” session at Maxwell. It is not easy to co-ordinate with 7 people in a group and complement one another’s working style. Hence, we solve the former by going ahead with meetings if majority can make it so as to minimise procrastination. As for the latter, we usually brainstorm face to face, then split into groups to complete the different parts based on our proficiencies. In this way, each one of us can be more comfortable and achieve better results.

In terms of time management, we always planned ahead. For example, we did the trail early and hence managed to get relevant information without any rush. However, one problem we faced was piecing all our parts together at the end which was time consuming and tough. Moreover, 4 out of 7 did not have any blogging experience before. As for me, it brought back memories of secondary school days when I used to have a blog under Blogger. This is the first time I am using a blog as an academic platform which is refreshing.

Overall, the heritage trail gave me a great opportunity to better understand my new neighbourhood, which makes me appreciate my surroundings even more. It makes me more curious about the buildings I notice whenever I walk around. Personally, knowing the history of an area gives me more vivid imaginations of Singapore in the past. Knowing that historical buildings are being conserved feels like a consolation as without it, imagining the scene would be more difficult. If that’s the case, Singaporeans would have a harder time appreciating the beauty of Chinatown against the backdrop of modern Singapore. As a bonus out of this heritage trail, I am able to now enlighten my family on the heritage of Chinatown whenever we walk past for our meals or shopping.

Xiao Xuan's Reflection