Category Archives: Cultural

Sago Lane’s Grim History of “Death Houses”

According to a 1840s map, Sago Street appeared earlier than Sago Lane. Sago Street was located at the westernmost boundary of the Chinatown area, a Chinese precinct created as part of the British’s town planning and ethnic segregation in the … Continue reading

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Creative and Unique National Day Parade Floats Procession Through the Years

Floats procession was one of the highlights of Singapore’s National Day celebration event. Starting from 1967, various local organisations, ministries and statutory boards would spent tons of efforts to design their floats, wowing spectators with different flashy, creative and sometimes … Continue reading

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Back Then When Jurong’s Drive-In Cinema Was All The Rage

Although it was eventually cancelled, the drive-in movie screening at Downtown East has gotten many movie lovers excited. The screening originally scheduled on 8 August 2020 was sold out. The news did, however, bring back fond memories of the good … Continue reading

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A Thousand Buddhas at Telok Blangah Hill

The Telok Blangah ridge area was made up of at least seven small hills. In 1845, Singapore’s superintending engineer Captain Charles Edward Faber (1807-1868) was tasked to clear the thick vegetation and construct a road and signal station on top … Continue reading

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Past and Present Cemeteries of Singapore (Part 2) – Malay/Muslim Burial Grounds

One of the early records of Muslim cemeteries was carried by the Municipal Engineer in 1875, when he was tasked to conduct site surveys on those burial grounds situated within and on the outskirts of the Singapore’s city area. As … Continue reading

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Past and Present Cemeteries of Singapore (Part 1) – Old Chinese Graveyards

The Chinese Tomb Sweeping Festival, or Qing Ming, is here once again. It is a period when tens of thousands of local Chinese make their way to the major cemeteries and columbaria to pay their respects to the deceased. Today, … Continue reading

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Sembawang’s Kampong Mosque and Former Coastal Villages

Located in the secondary forest at the corner of Sembawang is an old mosque called Masjid Petempatan Melayu Sembawang. Built in 1963, the mosque served as a place of worship for the Muslim community living at Sembawang. Prior to that, … Continue reading

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Enter a World of Advertisement in Old Singapore (Part 2)

The National Library’s “Selling Dreams: Early Advertising in Singapore” exhibition features many advertising materials from the 1830s to 1960s, with snippets of information about the advertisers and their publications, their dreams and aspirations, as well as the way the changes … Continue reading

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Roads Named after Cargo Boats, and the Vanished Charcoal/Firewood Trade at Tanjong Rhu

The Tanjong Rhu area once had four roads of interesting names – Twakow Place, Tongkang Place, Sampan Place and Mangchoon Place. They were named after the local cargo boats that plied the rivers of Singapore for decades. The boats, also … Continue reading

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Vanished Traditional Teochew Games

The older Teochew folks in Singapore may have known the game called ngeow cher kay chow kia (老鼠嫁女儿). It was an old Teochew game said to have brought over to Singapore from China during the pre-war era. The name of … Continue reading

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