Accidental Tourist of Singapore - Sep 2015: Singapore National Museum: 50 made in Singapore Products Exhibition

What does Mercedes-Benz, Bridgestone Tyres and Rollei Cameras have in common? Maybe brands like Star Brand (sugar), Woh Hup (Oyster Sauce) and Khong Guan (biscuits) are easier for those familiar with cooking / food items? Brands like Kwanpen and Bata pop up on the fashion front. On medicinal side, there's the Axe Brand (Universal Oil), Three Legs Cooling Water and all famous Tiger Balm.

All these brands have links back to our little red dot. For example,

 

• Cycle and Carriage, renamed in 1899 by the Chua brothers, had its 1^st Singapore branch in Orchard Road in 1916 and its Singapore HQ in 1926. 1951 was when it acquired the franchise of Mercedes-Benz.
   
• The Singapore shores was the 1^st overseas factory for Bridgestone Tyres back in the 60s.
   

 

• One of Singapore’s largest sugar suppliers, Star Brand (Sugar) was started back in 1940s.

• Woh Hup now known to be a sauce brand was back in the day also a noodle manufacturer.

• Khong Guan Singapore was established in the 1940s.

• Kwanpen was started in 1930s by Kwan Pen Seng who used to repair bags owned by the British in Singapore.

• Bata opened its Singapore store in 1930s when the Czech brand was Europe’s largest shoe manufacturer.

• Three Legs Cooling Water was developed using traditional Chinese herbs in 1930s to treat ‘heatiness’ related ailments.
   
• Tiger Balm (known to me as Hor Yiu) is by far the most famous medicinal brands which started as a traditional ointment paste for aches and pains by the famous Aw Brothers who started its Singapore operations in 1920s. The same Aw Brothers started the Haw Par Villas (other blog entry).

 

I hope you will spare some time to pop in to the '50 made in Singapore products' Exhibition before it ends its run at the Singapore National Museum on 13 September 2015.

 

Till the next time, onto the world and beyond!

Accidental Tourist of Singapore - 2015 - Visit to the Peranakan 峇峇娘惹 Museum- Great Peranakans: Fifty Remarkable Lives Exhibition

Peranakan 峇峇娘惹 Museum- Great Peranakans: Fifty Remarkable Lives Exhibition 

I was in for some local culture immersion so I took a ride down to Peranakan Museum to join its 1 hour tour with their volunteer guide who walked through the highlights of the exhibition that showcases the achievements of 50 men (and women) for past 200 years. Those ladies and gentlemen were instrumental in  Singapore's life and culture by contributing to the arts, culture, education, business, governance, and public service. 

The Peranakans were very successful as traders as they often acted as middlemen between the British and the local Chinese and Malays because being mostly English educated, they were able to bridge the communication gap by speaking two or more languages.

It turns out that being linguistic during those early years was advantageous with a fair number of Peranakans gaining wealth through opium, land, gambier, setting up of shipping and banking conglomerates. I will strongly recommend that if you want to head down to the exhibition, you will be able to get the most from the exhibition if you pair the visit with the walking tours.

During the tour, I was given very interesting titbits about these greats and their relations for example, I realized that our current President Tony Tan's lineage is way back to his maternal grandmother is the daughter of the notable Peranakan Tan Jiak Kim (http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1846_2011-10-13.html?s=tony tan).

Quick info about who were President Tony Tan's ancestry who were featured in this same exhibition: 

• Tan Jiak Kim (1859-1917) is known as the Colonial Peranakan as he is a strong ally of the British who attended the coronation of George V on 1911. He is the grandson of Tan Kim Seng and son of Tan Beng Swee. More info available at http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1136_2009-06-29.html?s=tan jiak kim
• Tan Jiak Kim's grandfather Tan Kim Seng was also featured as one of the 50 Great Peranakans. He was a prominent merchant and philanthropist in 19th century. There is a Tan Kim Seng Fountain at the Esplanade Park to commemorate Tan Kim Seng's contributions to the first public waterworks in Singapore. He had donated generously towards the construction of MacRitchie Reservoir in the 1860s, one of the 4 main reservoirs of Singapore.

Here's a snap of what this all means graphically:

Another interesting tidbit was the fact that President Tony Tan's grandmother was buried in Bukit Brown cemetery. Here's a copy of the letter that was sent to the President by the people that were trying to protect Bukit Brown: http://blog.bukitbrown.org/post/44373443203/a-plea-to-the-president-discover-your-roots-I. You can see some of my thoughts about Bukit Brown in this earlier posting: http://accidentalsingaporetourist.blogspot.sg/search/label/Bukit%20Brown

Another interesting fact was that 4 out of the 10 cabinet officers in 1965 were Peranakans i.e. Lee Kuan Yee, Toh Chin Chye, Goh Keng Swee and Yong Nuyk Lin. 

Here's some photos to showcase the exhibits: 

Till the next time, onto the world and beyond!

Accidental Tourist - 2015 - Singapore Art Museum - 'After Utopia' exhibition

Singapore Art Museum - 'After Utopia' exhibition till 18 Oct 2015

I am not an art person least of all, avant garde art. Not cultured enough I think but I saw some interesting exhibits at the Singapore Art Museum when I wandered onto the 'After Utopia' exhibition by chance. 

What caught my eye for the 'After Utopia' exhibition was the exhibit by Svay Sareth for which he videoed himself walking from his home in Siem Reap to Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, dragging a 8kg sphere. When I first saw the video, the first thing that came to my mind was "Boh liao (Singlish for no sense) video of man dragging a silver ball." But as I stood there watching the video, which has no accompanying music or narration, I was somehow drawn to it. Only after reading the explanation did I realize that the artist was doing this to come to terms with a painful past. I like the exhibit for making me want to find out more about the art piece. 

The next exhibit is done by Thai artist, Kamin Lertchaiprasert called Sitting. This installation consists of 366 papier mâché figures seated in meditative style, their number representing the days in a leap year. Kamin Lertchaiprasert’s works are interesting as each artwork is unique. 

Here are a collection of my photos taken at the 'After Utopia' Exhibition: 

Till the next time, onto the world and beyond!

Accidental Tourist - 2015 - Asian Civilizations Museum exhibition: Buddhist treasures from the oldest museum in Asia - Indian museum of Kolkata (Calcutta) 亚洲文明博物馆

Asian Civilizations Museum (ACM) of Singapore: Exhibition: Buddhist treasures from Asia's oldest museum - the Indian museum of Kolkata (Calcutta)

亚洲文明博物馆 最新的展览: 佛教珍品从亚洲最古老的博物馆-加尔各答印度博物馆 (加尔各答)

This museum has been named the top museum in Singapore and ranked 9th in Asia by TripAdvisor’s Travellers’ Choice awards for Museums released in Sept 16 2014.

这个博物馆在 2014 年 9 月 16 日定名为新加坡的顶级博物馆排名第 9 的 TripAdvisor 的旅客选择亚洲奖博物馆发布。

I was fortunate enough to spend an hour walking amongst the Buddhist treasures on loan to ACM from Kolkata Museum, Asia's oldest museum on 13 August 2015. I chanced upon this last guided tour expertly managed by the ACM's volunteer guide and was transported to lands far away in India across centuries of Buddhist art that spans some 2200 years from Gandhara (2nd century), Mathura (1st to 3rd century), Gupta (5th century) to Pala (10th - 11th century).

在 2015 年 8 月 13 日，我很幸运加入最后一个小时的步行游览。在ACM导游指导下，运送到很远的印度政局跨越几个世纪的跨越从一些 2200 年的佛教艺术 Gandhara (2nd century), Mathura (1st to 3rd century), Gupta (5th century) to Pala (10th - 11th century).

Singapore's links to Calcutta started during the British rule with Singapore being ruled together with Melaka and Penang by the British based in Kolkata. Founded in 1814 (some 5 years before Sir Stamford Raffles reached Singapore shores), the Indian Museum, Kolkata contains one of the greatest collection of Indian sculptures.

加尔各答,新加坡,马六甲和槟城一起在英国统治下。成立于1814年（5年后，莱佛士爵士成立现代新加坡作为英国殖民地），印度馆，加尔各答印度包含雕塑最大的收藏之一。

The pieces on display showcase different phases and interpretations of Buddha and his teachings. Buddha (literally the 'enlightened one') was an Indian prince named Siddhatha Gautama born sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BC. He is sometimes called Shakyamuni which means 'sage of the Shakya clan'. It was a visual treat showcasing centuries old depictions of Buddha's birth, life, enlightenment and death (nirvana) carved out of sandstone, Schist, stucco, bronze, basalt and stone.

展出的作品展示佛陀和他的教导的解释不同的阶段。佛陀(从字面上开明的人) 是一个名为Siddhatha的印度王子在第6和第4公元前数百年间的某个时候出生的。他有时称为释迦牟尼这意味着 '释迦族的圣人。这是一种视觉享受。展示百年佛陀的诞生、生活、启迪和死亡（涅槃）用砂岩，片岩，粉刷，古铜色，玄武岩石。

Here are some of the photographs of the exquisite pieces that were on loan - captured on iPhone

下面是一些租借的精美作品的照片:

Till the next time, onto the world and beyond!

我们在这里告别。去环游世界!

Accidental Tourist - Bricks, bricks & more bricks! "The Art of the Brick" Exhibition at Singapore ArtScience Museum

What can a humble brick do?

Well, from the looks of what was displayed at the "The Art of the Brick" Exhibition at Singapore ArtScience Museum, a humble brick can certainly do wonders. I went there frankly because my son is crazy about Lego bricks and he basically pestered non-stop the minute he knew about the exhibition coming to Singapore. So armed with my trusty Nikon P7000, the entire family set off to see the exhibition on its 1st day of opening on 17 November 2012.

'Marvelous' is certainly a word that comes to mind when viewing the exhibition of sculptures made from the humble brick. Another word will be "WTW?" (aka "What in the World?" more a phase I know but with abbreviations, I can cheat ;)) - human torsos, gigantic skulls etc all conjured out with thought provoking ideas of what we are, who we are and what do we want to become.

Finish off the exhibition with a ginormous 6m long Dinosaur (T Rex no less) and you know you have entered a world that you can only exclaim "Wow!" at the end. My best take-away was from my son, who basically summed in all by saying "I want to be able to do this with my Lego bricks!"

Till the next time, onto the world & beyond! 

The artist Nathan Sawaya 

Thought provoking pieces

The Think-er & the Kneel-er 

Accidental Tourist – Museum exploration: National Museum

For those in the know, Singapore is actually a fabulous place for museums. Frankly I didn’t know this even though I stayed here all my life until it was pointed out by an overseas cousin. Then I discovered that there are many many museums in Singapore – something like 15 or so (large and small). That’s quite some for a tiny island country.

I got my “Friends of the Museum” card earlier this year (entitles me to free entry to many of the museums) and explored a few of the known ones like National Museum, Peranakan Museum, Singapore Art Museum, Asian Civilisation Museum and not so known ones like Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (long way down to National University of Singapore), Singapore Philatelic Museum and Mint Museum of Toys.

I blogged about my little trip to Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research earlier and this write-up is about my trips down to the National Museum.

2 Photos taken at the “Quest for Immortality – Egypt” exhibition (all photos of this exhibition were taken using a "point & shoot" Olympus U-tough camera which accounts for the high noise level given the low light conditions in the museum):

Colossal head of a king – 332-222 BCE. Location probably Alexandria, Lower Egypt. The deep eye sockets were probably once inlaid with another coloured material.

photo of Egyptian Mummy

3 photos taken at the recent “Pompeii – Life in a Roman Town 79CE” exhibition:

iconic image of the victims of the deadly volcanic blast

Detailed mosaic work from one of the exhibits

(you can see the seashells used as part of the decoration on this piece)

Vibrant fresco that survived the volcanic eruption

Onto the world and beyond!

Accidental Tourist - Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research

This post is about a trip down to the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research which is now housed in National University of Singapore.

Firstly, it’s not easy getting there (even though I am a Singaporean and supposed to know the way around my little island). Secondly, the display is a bit morbid (preserved animal specimens no less). Thirdly, it’s one of a kind in Singapore. Pity that it is not really that accessible to the general public as it’s only open from Mondays to Fridays working hours and closed for Saturdays, Sundays and Public holidays. Thankfully, it is reported that the Museum will be moving to another new building in 2014 – hopefully, it will be more accessible at the new location.

Here’s what I extracted out from a ChannelNews Asia article in July 2010 about this museum:

“The museum is the custodian of one of the earliest natural history collections in Southeast Asia.

The 160-year-old collection was inherited from the then Raffles Museum and Library at Stamford Road in the 1970s, after the museum was renamed the National Museum and refocused its attention on the arts and history.

Over the past 40 years, the collection has grown to more than 566,000 specimens.

Today, NUS said the museum is the leading biodiversity research centre in Southeast Asia.”

My 2 photos:

1^st photo shows a picture of some of the biggest preserved specimens at the Museum – this photo shows the fox, turtle & tiger most clearly. I recall some of these specimens are some 100 years old.

The 2^nd photo of the rhino head was displayed since 1900.

Until my next foray to places I have never been in Singapore, onto the world and beyond!