A little armchair museum-hopping

Posted by Tym under Explore Singapore 2006, Explore Singapore!
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From a peephole in Chinatown to a “bleeding” angsana tree, from human skulls carved by Dyak headhunters to a Malay cartoonist — the first episode of Explore Singapore! certainly shows a different and unexpected side of our museums. Part fiction, part documentary, the TV show dips into 4 museums over half an hour, which must be something of a new record. Talk about being jam-packed with local trivia …

The fiction lies in the show’s premise: former museum curator Mr Heng (played by Moses Lim) offers to help a Eurasian girl from England, Sarah Thompson (played by Elizabeth Tan), to find her long-lost mother in Singapore. Their joint investigation takes them on a whirlwind tour of Singapore museums, starting with the Chinatown Heritage Centre, Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall, Asian Civilisations Museum and Malay Heritage Centre — yes, all in one episode.

It might come across as a little artificial, but never mind that, because the show whizzes viewers from one startling fact to another before you can figure out how long it must have taken the characters to travel from one museum to another. Didn’t know the Chinatown Heritage Centre had those old wooden planks (chinatownboy highlighted it as a Chinatown trivia question on his blog last year) that provide stout security once they’re carefully lined up behind the main door? They’ve got a little re-enactment of it. Never scrutinised a carved headhunter’s skull before? Here’s a close-up for you. Didn’t know Sun Yat Sen had a faithful girl Friday while he was organising the revolution from Singapore? Here’s her life story in a nutshell.

The stories come flying in from all over the place, while deepening the mystery of finding Sarah Thompson’s mother. Was she a Peranakan Chinese or a Dyak? (Okay, the latter seems highly unlikely.) Did she live at 48 Pagoda Street, the present-day address of the Chinatown Heritage Centre — a street that was known for opium dens and coolie quarters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries? If Sarah draws well enough to impress Mr Heng within the first few minutes of their meeting, why is her mother’s sketch of a Malay cartoonist’s work so unrecognisable? Or maybe it’s just that me that’s bothered by that last observation.

As they say, tune in next week to find out…

The first episode of Explore Singapore! airs tonight on Thursday, 14 December at 7:30 pm on Channel 5.

Tags: Explore Singapore, Chinatown Heritage Centre, Asian Civilisations Museum, Malay Heritage Centre, Sun Yat Sen, National Heritage Board, Singapore