ASIAN CIVILISATION MUSEUM (ACM)
The Asian Civilisation Museum (ACM), located at Empress Place, is one of the oldest buildings in Singapore today. It was named as the Empress Place Building by the British in honour of Queen Victoria, one that held power in Britain for 64 years. The Singapore government recognises it as a national monument that is worth preservation efforts.
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| Our Group Outside ACM |
The ACM building blends in with the surrounding buildings due to the similar cream colour it possesses. During the times of British rule in Singapore, cream was selected to be the colour of most government buildings where the British worked and lived. As the ACM building functioned as the government offices for the British officials, the cream colour can be said to indicate superiority of the British as a civilised political and social entity that linked to the White Man's Burden theory.
Fun Fact: Two sculptures from the Ming Dynasty can be found sitting just outside the entrance of the ACM. Do keep a lookout for them when you make a trip down!
Somehow, the ACM can trace the historical lineage of the contributions of immigrants to the society of Singapore. Even though the ACM housed British officials, it was the convicts from British India who built the place. In this time of SG50 celebrations when we honour the pioneer generation of post-independence Singapore, the ACM as a monument serves a timely reminder that immigrants were equally, if not more, instrumental in the building of this nation from a settlement to a city.
Entering the insides of ACM brought us back to reality. From the outside, the ACM building, when viewed in conjunction with its surroundings (Singapore River and Raffles Landing Site), gives us a very colonial feel. However, inside the museum, the modernity and the air conditioned ambiance made us realise that changes were embedded within our community.
The idea of ACM is one of reminding Singaporeans of their roots. There is a Raffles statue around Empress Place at his landing site that celebrates him, a British, as the founder of Singapore. In my opinion, this was deliberately kept even after we fought against and attained self-governance from the British due to the racial sensitivity that existed in Singapore, To prevent any racial discourse, no Chinese, Malay or Indian was the founder of Singapore, but an Englishman founded modern Singapore. And that seals the deal. However, interestingly, inscriptions beneath the statue can be found in Mandarin, Malay and Tamil languages along with the English version. This is a nice lead up to the ACM in the heritage trail, as now we will discover that our heritage can be traced back to beyond the British founding of Singapore.
The role of the Singapore River was not only in allowing Singapore to engage in entrepot trade, but it is via this medium that the immigrants came to Singapore. The Chinese from China, the Malays from the Malay Archipelago and the Indians from India. Hence, it was timely that the ACM started off with the Singapore River gallery that documented the arrival of the immigrants from these various parts of the world. We were initially surprised why this particular gallery was not as the National Museum of Singapore, and took us a little bit of brain work to draw the connection.
Overall, the ACM Singapore River gallery was an eye opener for us. Apart from the fact that the Singapore River was polluted and then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew spearheaded a project to clear it up in the first ten years of Singapore's independence, we were not aware that this humble river had such a longstanding and rich heritage and history that flowed with its existence. As a group, we truly understood the historical significance of the river in bringing in the immigrant communities into Singapore, from which today we stand as an immigrant society. The ACM galleries on India, China and Southeast Asia compliment this by once again tapping upon our roots to remind us where our origins were from.
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| At the grand staircase leading us towards the Singapore River gallery. (From Clockwise Left: Ricky, Nicholas Goh, Wendy Hu and Reena) |
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| A write up about the Indians in Singapore |
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| Cards used by the Indian Chettiars (or moneylenders) |
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Notes and coins used under the British administration in Singapore
THE MERLION
In 2009, the Merlion was struck by lightning and was subsequently closed for 2.5 months for repair works. Many Singaporeans, being superstitious, were anxious over the the uncertain future of Singapore, a serious matter that required government assurance!
The Merlion can never be emphasised enough, as it had became the national icon of Singapore. In fact, a recent article written elsewhere also wrongly stated that the national animal of our country was the Merlion instead of the lion, showing how extensive the reach of the Merlion has been beyond our borders.
Fun Fact: Did you know that replicas of the Merlion can be sighted in China (Shenzhen) and Japan?
This mythical creature, that amalgamates the head of a lion and the body of a fish, accurately reflects Singapore's heritage and history that dates back to the ancient times even before British colonisation. The lion is drawn in reference to the Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals) story of how Sang Nila Utama (Sri Tri Buana) discovered this island and named it Singapura (Lion City) after spotting a majestic looking animal that one of his men conceptualised to be similar to a lion. Fish, on the other hand, is a sea creature, and is used to show the closely knit relationship Singapore shared with the sea, whereby the Singapore River was the lifeline of trade and immigration, two pillars that drove growth from colonial Singapore and remains as that til date.
As Singaporeans who have lived in this country for circa 20 years, we just take the Merlion at face value without giving much thought. This heritage trail proved to be otherwise, as it got us thinking about certain aspects of the Merlion, and it was indeed an eye-opener to discover such intricacies in History as we pondered over what we observed.
One such example was the feature of water spurting out from the mouth of the Merlion. Water is such a scarce resource in Singapore despite being lauded for being an island due to its limitedness being unable to match the unlimited wants. Nevertheless, thinking a bit harder, we came to the conclusion, that the Merlion could also be a monument as a form to celebrate Singapore's achievements in the water arena.
Water had always been a thorn in the bilateral relationship between Singapore and Malaysia. These two countries are interconnected in terms of "geography, economics and ties of kinship" (Lee Kuan Yew, 9th August 1965), but yet the separation meant that each had to economically compete against another. Malaysia had always issued threats of cutting of the water supply to Singapore, as well as raising prices. Singapore was, in one way or another, at its mercy because it could not be self sufficient when it came to water.
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