Gladys’ Reflection

Gladys’ Reflection

My perspective was that Singapore had always been a multicultural society even from back then. This includes the Nyonya and Baba Straits Chinese, Malay Immigrants and workers from the Malayan Peninsula, Indian migrant workers and European culture. Perhaps each particular culture is not as assimilated as it is now in Modern day Singapore, but there was pockets of different cultures brought over from region wide of South East Asia and maybe even further.

I would think of Chinatown as Chinese dominated area, even the Chinese itself are sub-divided into Straits Chinese and Chinese Immigrants themselves. Depending on social status, I think there are specific parts allocated to them, the richer will have bigger houses whilst maybe the coolie and working class have to cram up in small shophouses.

As spices are one of the main trade that goes through singapore, It would make sense why Peranakan food are mostly spicy and have a strong exotic flavour to them.



Mainly the purpose of why the architecture of buildings are constructed the way they were and how they function in the society. For example, there was no need for pavements as shophouses provided a walkway for people to pass (even though only 5-foot in width).
Interesting how we maintained some cultural practices today, where clothes are still hung on bamboos similar to the one in the depicted picture above. This practice is still found in current day HDBs where buildings are adopted now to be able to hang bamboos in and out of your house.

One very prominent representation are the shophouses in Chinatown that are still preserved till present day. These unique style of architectures represents a very important aspect about Singapore’s past culture and serve as predecessors to our modern day Singapore HDB flats.

The local name for Chinatown is also another symbol to represent Singapore’s past - Niu Che Shui in Chinese and Gu Chia Zui for dialect. The name itself tell us about how the people in the past access fresh water, by making use of bullock carts to retrieve water.

Overall, it was a pleasant experience to be able to “travel” back and forth in time to be in the past and the present. We were able to contrast and see the evolution of Chinatown then and now. To be able to live through the past with the recreation of the environment then and experience what were some of the cultural practices back then which may or may not have survived to today’s context was the appealing part of the trail.



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