Grace's Reflection

Introduction

The civic district is not an unfamiliar area to me. Rather, after countless pre-dawn jogs by the Singapore river, night time strolls, or merely as part of a route from one place to another, it has become familiar to a point where I fail to switch on my historical consciousness on passing these monuments or memorials. The historical landscape merely becomes part of the everyday, with the past lost in everyday affairs of the present.

Pre-trail Impressions

My pre-existing knowledge about Singapore history and her cultural heritage from schooling days played a strong role in shaping my perceptions of the ‘Singapore story’. Prior to walking our ‘prescribed’ trail, my sentiments towards a local history that would be told through selected pit stops on a prescribed trail were filled with much skepticism- Would that paint a complete picture? Would the story be incomplete and fragmented given the limitations of the ‘stories’ behind 14 pit stops?

Of the recent years there has also been considerable efforts by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and National Heritage Board(NHB) to conserve old monuments, with many of these historical buildings undergoing refurbishment for adaptive reuse. With every conservation project, I held a sense of suspense and anticipation to see the final outcome: how much of the building’s original structure would be kept? Will the intangible aspects of history and nostalgia be lost in the midst of its new purpose? Within our Civic trail district, the most recent refurbishment works would be Victoria Theatre and Concert hall (completed last year), and the City hall and former supreme court that will ‘reopen’ as Singapore’s Nationally Gallery later this year (24 November 2015). Every conservation project usually comes with contestation of some form, a reminder that history and heritage goes through a process of selection. With growing civic voice, it is only healthy that questions are raised about what and why certain aspects of our history are selected and which ones are not.

Historical ‘Expectations’?

I also had an expectation that the historical buildings, memorials and their environs would be very well-maintained along the Civic district, given that it is within the CBD, an area which would be representative of Singapore to foreign guests. For international visitors in Singapore for short stays, the civic district might be their only taste of ‘Singapore history’- something which makes me question: Are the monuments and heritage buildings in the Civic district the ‘most important’ aspect of our nation’s history?

Singapore does have a rich history and cultural heritage to be told, and perhaps I had yet to give it a chance to tell me its story. I looked forward to walking the ground and to experience what is left of some of Singapore’ tangible history amidst our constantly changing urban landscape. On the morning of our walk along civic district trail, I made sure that my historical consciousness was ‘switched on’, and armed myself with a sizeable amount of imagination in order to, as clichéd as the saying goes, bring myself back in time.

The Walk

My group walked the trail on 11^th September, polling day. Given the bad air quality due to the haze, there were not many people (tourists nor locals) out along the streets. Beginning at the Civilian War Memorial rather than the stipulated ‘Raffles Landing Site’ start point, my group had rearranged the order of our pit stops in order to create a historical narrative that made sense to us.

We unanimously agreed that there was no essentiality to start the trail at The Raffles Landing site- Sir Raffles has already been given full glory as the ‘most important’ founding figure of Singapore in our Nation’s mainstream narrative. Given that we are mid-way through our first semester as aspiring ‘historians’, I felt that reorganizing the pit stops in our own way would give us a different perspective of the Singapore story. In some sense we were giving our own order to the ‘bits and pieces’ of historical information and evidence,developing our own historical interpretation of NHB’s Civic district heritage trail.

Memorials and monuments

The first half of our walk took us through memorials built to either commemorate war events or to remember certain historical figures. Some were more obscure and somewhat ‘hidden’, such as the Tan Kim Seng Fountain, Indian National Army marker or the Lim Bo Seng memorial. With all due respect, I have probably visited Lim Bo Seng’s grave at MacRtichie Reservoir many more times; this was my first time taking a close look at the Lim Bo Seng Memorial.

Even for the monuments that were structurally more prominent, such as the Cenotaph and the Civilian War memorial, I am left wondering how many Singaporeans are actually aware of their existence. Perhaps visitors to the Esplanade Park could have bypassed these memorials and monuments without batting an eye, unless of course, they had a NHB ‘Civic district heritage trail’ leaflet in their hands.

Walking the first half of our trail in Esplanade Park left me with more questions about Singapore’s heritage preservation process; although the government has made commendable attempts to conserve these memorials, has there been sufficient efforts to make them visible and relatable to the general public? And if these are the memorials we have selected to conserve (or build), how then can their respective aspects of the Singapore History be told in a way that the new generation will be able to appreciate? Perhaps this responsibility lies with us, being prospective history teachers. With the first 7 pit stops, I found myself trying to fit them into the ‘Singapore Story’ that I knew- the challenge was that the memorials did not have a direct relation to the physical spaces they were in.

I realized that it is no easy feat in attempting to create tangible memories for the achievements and legacies of the heroes, people or events that are part of our history.

Grand structures of the past

The second half of our heritage trail consisted mostly of the colonial buildings that were part of the British administration period, all of which have been artfully preserved to meticulous detail. The conservation process has no doubt preserved the grandeur and stateliness of these ‘super structures’ of the colonial era. The hefty effort and funding put into maintaining the architectural styles of these structures also goes to show how the colonial administration era is something that we take pride of in the ‘Singapore Story’. Most of the buildings have been renamed: Old empress place has become the Asian Civilisations Museum, Old Parliament House is now ‘The Arts House’- new names to suit the new functions they now hold. However, efforts have been made to display the historical information and old names of these places, which in my view are vital in preserving the cultural heritage of these places for younger generations.

One aspect of the conservation process that appealed to me was how the old backrests of the old Victoria Theatre have been made into an artistic installation that now graces the interior of the refurbished theatre. This creative mix of old among the polished ‘new’ performance space served as a decorous reminder of the past.

Old backrests of the Victoria theatre (google image)

Visiting the colonial buildings ‘at one go’ no doubt ignited a historical sense of place, even more so as we walked along the Singapore River which was, as the ‘Singapore story’ goes, once the lifeblood of our island. However, another question that came to mind was whether the same feelings would be evoked if we had been walking instead, along the streets of Chinatown or along the Balestier or Joo chiat with the only traces of the British being the 5-foot walkways.

Closure

Our Civic district trail ended at the Padang, and in some sense the open space allowed me to do a quick ‘rewind’ of the pit stops we visited. Before we retreated to the modernity of Raffles City Shopping Centre for our group discussion, I realized that being made to go on this trail as part of our Course is essential groundwork that we need to do as history teachers. Reading research journals and history books is only one part of building our historical thinking and knowledge. In my view, experiencing Singapore’s ‘historical landscape’ has allowed me to raise new questions about our history and cultural heritage, as well as on the process of how the ‘Singapore story’ has been or is being crafted and written for future generations.

I ended the trail with a greater sense of responsibility to equip myself with the knowledge and skills I would need not just in my profession, but are also necessary in building my identity as a global citizen, and through that, reaffirming my sense of belonging to the place I call home.