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 – 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!