Articles Calling for volunteer photographers  Ruminating on 2006/2007 SOCH 1st gathering Save Our Chinese Heritage, SOCH initiative East or West, where do you stand? Lessons from the Royal Plaques Welcome to my blog! Links to Historic Chinese Architecture in South-East Asia Nanyang Architecture Kim Mui Hoey Kuan, 1870, demolished Chinese Chamber of Commerce, 1878, rebuilt Koon Seng Ting, 1908, needs to be gazetted   Map 4 Telok Blangah Drive (S) 109257 Chua Village Temple, Tan Kong Tian Temple, 1919 Map 14 Jalan Kebaya (S) 278319 Nanyang Sacred Union, 1938, needs to be gazetted Map 231-235 River Valley Road (S) 238289 Tel: 6737 2985; 6235 5975 Unidentified temple in Kampong Mata Ikan, demolished   Hokkien Architecture Fuk Tak Chi, 1820, gazetted  Map 43 Pekin Street (S) 048773 Soon Thian Keng, 1821, demolished Hang San Teng, 1828, destroyed by fire Hong San See, 1836, gazetted Map 31 Mohamed Sultan Road (S) 238975Map 249 Balestier Road (S) 329708 Kim Lan Beo, 1839, demolished & relocated  Map 119A Kim Tian Road (S) 169263 Thian Hock Keng, 1842, gazetted Map 158 Telok Ayer Street (S) 068613 Wu Cao Da Bo Gong, 1847, needs to be gazetted  Qing Yuen Zhen Zun Miao, 1849, demolished Chwee Eng Chinese School, 1854, needs to be gazetted  Map Amoy Street (S) 048773 Siang Cho Keong, 1869, needs to be gazetted Map 66 Amoy Street (S) 069886 Po Chiak Keng, 1876, gazetted Map 15 Magazine Road (S) 059568 Hougang Dou Mu Gong, 1881, gazetted Map 779A Upper Serangoon Road (S) 534648 Giok Hong Tian, 1887, needs to be gazetted  Map 495 Havelock Road (S) 169635 House of Goh Sin Koh at Sin Koh Street, 1896, demolished Hoon San Temple, 1903, needs to be gazetted Map 27 Jalan Lim Tai See (S) 268360 Siong Lim Sian See, 1903 - 1907, gazetted & expanded Map 184E Jalan Toa Payoh (S) 319941 Bukit Purmei Shun Thian Keng, 1905, demolished Hock San Teng, 1906, demolished & relocated Tang Gah Beo, 1907, needs to be gazaetted  Map 6 Bukit Purmei (S) 099866 Leong San See, 1913, gazetted  Map 371 Race Course Road (S) 218641 Kusu Tua Pek Kong Temple, 1923, needs to be gazetted  Map Get Ferry at Harbourfront Centre Qing Long Gong, 1938 Map 98A Lorong 23 Geylang (S) 388397 Tioh Hin Cho Beo, 1961 Map 121A Langsat Road (S) 426774 Sian Keng Tong, 1965 Map 216 Changi Road (S) 419736 Kiew Lee Tong, 1979  Map 5 Jalan Tambur (S) 576778 Unidentified Tua Pek Kong Temple in Changi, demolished Unidentified Temple along Thomson Road, demolished Mohammed Sultan Tua Pek Kong Temple, ?, demolished Teochew Architecture Wak Hai Cheng Bio, 1820, gazetted Map 30B Phillip Street (S) 048696 Tang Suahn Kiong San Soh Hoo Chu, Henderson Road, 1858, demolished Tong Xian Tng, 1870, needs to be gazetted  Map 31 Devonshire Road (S) 239851 House of Tan Yeok Nee, 1882, gazetted  Map 101 Penang Road (S) 238466 River House, 1880s, needs to be gazetted  Map 3A River Valley Road (S) 179020 Waterloo Kuan Yin Temple, 1884, rebuilt Seng Ong Beo, 1905, needs to be gazetted  Map 113 Peck Seah Street (S) 079332 Hainanese Architecture Hainan Mazu Temple, 1878, rebuilt  Map 47 Beach Road, Kheng Chiu Building (S) 189683, Tel : 6336-3457 Ban Siew San Temple, 1880, needs to be gazetted  Map 2 Telok Blangah Drive (S) 109256 Cantonese Architecture Ning Yeung Wui Kuan, 1821, demolished Mun Sun Fook Tuck Chee, 1876, needs to be gazetted  Map 124 Sims Drive (S) 387379 Kwong Fook Gu Miu, 1880, demolished Peck San Theng, 1891, rebuilt Old Thong Chai Medical Institution, 1892, gazetted Map 50 Eu Tong Sen Street (S) 059803, Tel 6222 2221 Unidentified Temple along North Bridge Rd, demolished   Hakka Architecture Ying Fo Fui Kun, 1822, gazetted Map 98 Telok Ayer Street (S) 048474, Tel 6533 6726 Fook Tet Soo, 1844, needs to be gazetted Map 50H Palmer Road (S) 079426, Tel 6533 6726 Fong Yun Thai Chong De Tang, 1882, needs to be gazetted  Map 33 Holland Link (S) 277711, Tel 6533 6726 Yu Shan Teng, 1885, demolished, Lorong Panchar Wu Shu Temple, 1903, needs to be gazetted Map 9 Commonwealth Lane (S) 149551, Tel 6533 6726 SOCH 1st gathering Dear supporters of the SOCH initiative, For a start, we will have the 1st SOCH tour at the Palmer Road Tua Pek Kong temple to show you the important architectural features and artifacts to record with your cameras. Those of you who do not have a 8mp or above SLR camera, you are also welcomed to join us in the inspection of this Hakka temple built in traditional Teochew style architecture. We are starting the 1st field work at this temple because this building is facing the possibilty of demolition. If it happens, an almost two century historical artifice will be obliterated in the name of property value. Whatever it is, at least we can archive it in digital images for the benefit of our future generations. Time: 10.30am Date: 24 June 2006 Venue: 50H Palmer Road, Hock Teck See Kent Neo Founder , SOCH Save Our Chinese Heritage, SOCH initiative Dear all, I am glad to announce that an initiative to save all heritage pertaining to the immigrant Chinese of the various dialect groups has been drawn up by me and a photographer friend. For a start, we will be archiving all architectural heritage plus artefacts within these buildings for the benefit of future generations and conservation purposes. So far, we have archived 2 buildings of great heritage value - Tong Xian Tng at Devonshire Road and Ying Fo Fui Kun at Telok Ayer Street. As this is a non-profit initiative, our progress has been rather slow due to our involvement of the project only during weekends. We are calling for photographers equipped with 10 megapixel or more digital SLR cameras to participate in this SOCH initiative. In the spirit of open source collaboration (e.g. wikipedia, Linux), a central repository of archived jpegs is needed for a start. I suggest that the Singapore History Museum(or Ying Fo Fui Kun) to be used as a place to convene and depositing of archived pictures. Meanwhile, we are in the process of getting support from URA and the NHB in this project. Interested photographers, please send me an email at kwneo@nafa.edu.sg I will personally show you the salient architectural features and artefacts to record. Thank you Kent Neo East or West, where do you stand? Whilst researching on the 4 royal plaques, came across accidentally on many web resources on the fall of China and its awakening. While Singapore has been favourably praised by Western visitors with terms like ‘Asia lights’, ‘everybody speaks English here’, and ‘its so clean’ etc, the Chinese-speaking countries view Singapore as an anamoly and backward in cultural sophisication due to the Chinese population’s superficial understanding of mainstream Chinese culture. In a rather chauvanistic manner, Taiwan’s prominent political figure and commentator derides Singaporeans as ’stupid’. I can understand what he is talking about having worked in China myself. I vividly remembered how I was criticized by a Beijing friend as having ‘no culture’ when a group of his friends were discussing Chinese poetry and history. I felt stupid, Li Ao was absolutely right. The Chinese speaking world just cannot fathom why Chinese Sngaporeans could not speak or write Chinese properly. It is only natural for them to think Singaporean Chinese are not very educated on this light as this is their usual gauge for sophisication - Chinese must speak and write Mandarin, even more so when they watch your Mandarin soaps for the past decade! On a more objective comparison between the Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia, one would notice that there are more interests in Chinese heritage and culture across the causeway. Yet, these Malaysian Chinese perform equally well when put in an overseas context. Yes, we use alot of English in Singapore, but sometimes I feel that Singlish seems to be the norm nowadays. Most educated Chinese Singaporeans write in English, while majority speaks Mandarin. English is merely a working language to the majority Chinese Singaporeans. Singlish becomes the informal social language. The hybriding of local dialects with English is a natural choice as speaking in a manner like one would in a ‘Masters of the Seas’ manner would be rather alien to most Singaporeans. Even for Mandarin speakers in Singapore, the form of local Mandarin slang mixed with dialects appear a little strange to the mainstream Chinese speaking world. What is the conclusion? In a span of about 40 years since interpendence, we have created two dialects - Singlish and Singdarin. Given another 100 years, I am sure a new language would have evolved! From this observation, it is clear that many of us are unwilling to part with our dialects. Our dialects are important as these are our actual mother tongues. Try tellng a French to use English as their first language and French as their second, see what will happen. Yet the problem in Sinapore is that we are not made up by one majority dialect group as in Taiwan, Hong Kong or provinces in China. In a tiny place like ours, we are alomst like a mini Southern China in terms of the eclectic mix of Chinese from the different provinces. We can witness this from our diverse heritage of Chinese architecture in Singapore. The elite ruling class in Singapore with their scholarly backgrounds speaks English. Meaning, if you want to be ‘Atas’, you had better speak English. Also, due to the displacement of Malay as the common language, English has become the common language for inter-racial communication. For me, there are no reasons to be pro-East or pro-West, I would be happy just to speak Cantonese, a language which was my first language learnt when I was young. However, in order to carry on daily communications with other people, knowing Chinese and English is a necessity. Triligualism is the best for all Singaporeans I think. I remembered that when I was working in Shanghai, the Shanghainese told me that during the colonial days, educated Shanghainese could speak English, Shanghainese and Mandarin. Now, that is truly cosmopolitan. It is my hope that Singaporeans would be proud of their multilingual abilities and yet bring them to a profienciency that can be appreciated by a global audience. For more information on the history of language divide in the Chinese community, see http://www.globalpublishing.com.sg/chinese/bookshop/g059_g061_4.html (in English)