As part of Bukit Brown : Our Roots, Our Future, a series of talks were programmed to enrich the exhibition which was held at the Chui Huay Lim Club, the  co-organiser of the exhibition..

Here is Part II of the video recordings, released with permission from the speakers. Part 1 is available here

5 th July, 2013

Chan Chow Wah – Screening of “Light on the Lotus Hill” and post-screening talk

Light on the Lotus Hill” is a research project by Chan CW to document a chapter of the almost forgotten history of Singapore and World War Two. After 5 years of research in Singapore, China, Malaysia, and UK, the book was published on 28 May 2009. It documents the life of a Buddhist monk, Venerable Pu Liang, who supported China Relief Fund’s fund raising activities in Nanyang, today’s South East Asia. The Venerable also offered temple grounds for the training of Nanyang Volunteers who later drove on the Burma Road.

After the fall of Singapore, the Venerable was executed by the Japanese during the Chinese massacre. During the research, a British POW’s daughter helped provided vital evidence as her father, a British POW at Changi, witnessed the execution. This research offers an alternative understand of World War Two and how Nanyang Chinese occupied multiple spaces of wars in China and Colonial Singapore. These parallel worlds collapse into one dark reality as the Japanese invaded Singapore converging Sino Japanese War with World War Two.

Speaker’s bio: By training an anthropologist, Chan graduated with a Masters in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics. He was a Lee Kong Chian Research Fellow in 2006, a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, UK, and a Member of the American Anthropological Association, USA. He is also a Member of the International Oral History Association. His publications include the book “Light on the Lotus Hill” and the article “Storm in Shuang Lin” published in the
April 2007 issue of Biblioasia.

The video has a trailer of the documentary followed by the q&a. The screening itself is   not included for copyright reasons

6th July, 2013

Norman Cho – Peranakan Elements at Bukit Brown

Search for Grandpa’s Grave at Bukit Brown and Search for My Ancestry. Discovery of Bukit Brown as the Resting Place of Early Peranakans. A Study of Peranakan Elements like Tiles, Benches, Gates, Stone Carvings and Jewellery worn by the deceased.

Speaker’s bio:
An IT professional who researches on Peranakan material culture, Norman is active in sharing his findings on the internet and through talks.

7th July, 2013

Dr Lai Chee Kien – The Material Culture of Bukit Brown

The Bukit Brown Municipal Cemetery is an important manifestation of the period that consolidated overseas Chinese identity in Singapore. Prior to this period, dialect affinities resulted in spatially-distinct residential enclaves as well as separate burial sites such as the Kwong Hou Sua for Teochews, and Peck San Theng for the Cantonese.

The cemetery at Bukit Brown allows us to examine history through its material culture as well, such as the wide range of materials used for the graves’ construction, like greenstone, granite, bricks, decorative tiles as well as Shanghai plaster. They point collectively to the dedication and wealth bestowed on such afterworld abodes, and to the craftmanship that existed on the island. The epigraphic material may also be deciphered as heritage, and permit the reconstruction of the larger Nanyang community that included Singapore.The talk is an attempt to document such efforts, and to illustrate their importance for Singapore’s collective memory.

Speaker’s bio: Lai Chee Kien is Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore. He is a registered architect, and graduated from the National University of Singapore with an M Arch. by research [1996], and then a PhD in History of Architecture & Urban Design from the University of California, Berkeley [2005]. He researches on histories of art, architecture,settlements, urbanism and landscapes in Southeast Asia. His publications include A Brief History of Malayan Art (1999), Building Merdeka: Independence Architecture in Kuala Lumpur, 1957-1966 (2007) and Cords to Histories (2013).

Dr Lai Chee Kien (photo Bianca Polak

A very big THANK YOU to Brownie Ang Hock Chuan for videoing the talks!