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6-1996

The Notion of Place in the Construction of History, Nostalgia and

Heritage in Singapore
Brenda S. A. Yeoh
National University of Singapore

Lily Kong
Singapore Management University, [email protected]

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Citation
Yeoh, Brenda S. A., & Kong, Lily.(1996). The Notion of Place in the Construction of History, Nostalgia and
Heritage in Singapore. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 17(1), 52-65.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/1721

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 Published in Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 17(1), 52-65.
http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9493.1996.tb00084.x

THE NOTION OF PLACE IN THE CONSTRUCTION

OF HISTORY, NOSTALGIA AND
HERITAGE IN SINGAPORE

Brenda Yeoh and Lily Kong

Department of Geography, National University of Singapore,
Kent Ridge, Singapore

ABSTRACT
In this paper, we investigate the links between place and time, and the intersections between the
geographical imagination and the historical mind. These issues are explored in the context of Singapore by
looking at the links between place and three concepts usually associated with the temporal sense - history,
nostalgia and heritage. We argue that the two imaginations can be simultaneously engaged by means of a
focus on the concept of place. The making of a place is closely intertwined with individual biographies and
collective histories ; at the same time, place does not record history in an unproblematic way . We next argue
that a sense of nostalgia is a yearning to return to a lost period and place and why memory is often best
served by anchoring it in the materiality of place . This is precisely the case in the inscription of heritage into
the concrete elements of specific sites as a state strategy to codify and naturalise its own version of heritage
as part of the the everyday, visible world. In concluding, we reflect on the salience of place . While it lends
itself to ideological uses by the powerful, a sense of place is also equally significant in the experiences and
aspirations of a people .

THE SALIENCE OF PLACE

In the introduction to their book The Power of Asia, the home (a term with emotive connotations
Place, Agnew and Duncan (1989 :1) explore the for individuals) of Singaporeans, or a site which
multiple meanings of the word "place", a commonly lies somewhere in between state and home at the
used and deceptively simple term in the geographical intersection of collective histories and individual
lexicon . Place could, inter alia, mean a "portion of biographies . "Place" in this sense provides
space in which people dwell together", temporal
ordering ("took place"), or "position" in a social both the real, concrete settings from which
order ("knowing your place") . "Place" may also cultures emanated to enmesh people in webs
refer to a specific, concrete setting - Singapore - of activities and meanings and the physical
a state (a politically defined territory) in Southeast expression of those cultures in the form of

Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, Vol. 17, No. 1 (1996), 52-65

 Notion of Place in Singapore 53

landscapes (Agnew & Duncan, of life" and "a way of seeing ."I In practice, these
1989:preface). two ways ofconceptualising "place" are inextricably
interwoven . Following Daniels (1989:206), it is:
It is the local milieu which is "fundamental...in
structuring how people tackle ...the small and usually a dialectical image, an ambiguous synthesis
trivial problems of everyday life" (Johnston, whose redemptive and manipulative aspects
1991 :50); at the same time, it provides the context cannot be finally disentangled, which can
for collective acts of organisation and destruction, neither be completely reified as an authentic
celebration and conflict (Cooke, 1989). object in the world nor thoroughly dissolved
as an ideological mirage .
Alternatively, the phrase "Singapore's place"
could also suggest that Singapore occupies a On the one hand, "place" articulates social
particular moment in time, possibly a critical constructions imposed by those in power-planners,
juncture or turning point in history which calls for architects, administrators, politicians, property
contemplation of time that has passed (the past) as owners, developers - intent on advancing state
well as time to come (the future) . In other words, policies and goals, consumer capitalism or some
Singapore today occupies a place between times, other prevalent ideologies . On the other hand,
from which to survey the past and the future from "place" is also a "multicoded space" which in its
the vantage point of the present . everyday usage, is constantly used and interpreted
by "everyday people who may be `reading' and
Place and time, or period, are interlinked in `writing' different languages in the built
another sense. Places are socially constructed environment" (Goss, 1988:398). For the everyday
positions and sites within the context of a particular users of a particular place, it is an environment of
period, that is, places have meaning only in relation opportunity and constraint . From this perspective,
to an individual's or group's goals and concerns place is an active setting inextricably linked to the
(Entrikin, 1991 :5) . Far from being a rather inert lives, movements and activities of individuals and,
and ahistoric form, place may be thought of as a as such, a location of collective experiences which
process, a "process of becoming" (Fred, 1984). "evokes and organises memories, images, feelings,
People are active participants in the historically sentiments, meanings and the works of the
contingent process of the making of place : within imagination" (Walter, 1988 :21). Putting both
the context of their times they construct places by perspectives together, place is :
investing them with human meaning . This view
recognises that all social life is "regionalised and a synthesis of charisma and context, a text
regionalising" and that place-making is situated in which may be read to reveal the force of
specific time-space contexts (Rogers, 1992:245). dominant ideas and prevailing practices, as
Constructed places are not confined to the here well as the idiosyncracies of a particular
and now (that is, concrete settings of the present) author (Ley & Duncan, 1993:329) .
but include places of past experiences (memory),
those which reside in the imagination (geosophies) People and place are hence intimately integrated
(see Wright, 1947) or even those which exist in and both are locked into relations of power. Place
simulations and iconographies (re-presentations) . has a dual character, as a repository of elite or state
In fact, place is often constituted by a nesting power and as a site of individual and collective
of different but overlapping images and struggle and resistance . The social relations of
interpretations . everyday life are often objectified, and naturalised,

If place is both a specific concrete setting (as

described in our first definition) as well as a
Daniels' (1989) analysis focused on the term "landscape ."
constructed image (following our third definition), We have taken the liberty to transpose some of his ideas to
then it is in Daniels' (1989 :206) words both "a way apply to the word "place ."
54 Brenda Yeoh and Lily Kong

in the specificities of place . The powerful are often (1993 :7) calls "the complexity of our cultural
able to remake place in its own image, as seen in condition ." As Singapore has developed an
the creation of places of nationalism and pageantry open, capitalist economy which is increasingly
such as civic centres and parade grounds (see locked into regional and global dynamics, society
Konrad, 1986) ; places of heroic consumption such has also become exposed to western ideas and
as shopping malls and fairs (see Ley & Olds, 1988) ; norms . The governing elites were increasingly
and "heritagised" places such as historic apprehensive of the dangers of Singaporeans
conservation districts and museums (see Jacobs, losing their "Asian" roots and the consequences
1992). At the same time, places are also sites of for society . For example, in 1988, the then First
negotiation and resistance, not simply as concrete Deputy Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, declared
settings for action but also drawn upon in symbolic that:
ways to express individual and collective sentiments.
An organised group may seize upon a specific public We are part of a long Asian civilisation and
place not simply as an arena to stage a protest, we should be proud of it. We should not be
demonstration or some form of public collective assimilated by the West and become a
behaviour but also to appropriate, manipulate or pseudo-Westem society. We should be a
sometimes invert the symbolic values associated nation that is uniquely multiracial and Asian,
with the place. Individuals and communities may with each community proud of its traditional
also invest specific places with memories and culture and heritage (Goh, 1988 :15).
meanings which may be, if not contradictory,
different, from the views and intentions of the It is in this context of rapid societal change
powerful . In effect, "place" is neither fully defined that questions of place and time, roots and heritage
by those who hold power nor completely have become particularly pertinent in Singapore
appropriated by ordinary people ; instead, "place as since the 1980s . According to a state-appointed
process" implies a politics of place where social Committee on Heritage set up in April 1988, an
relations dependent on particular combinations of understanding of one's roots and the lessons of
social, cultural, economic and political factors are history can help younger Singaporeans "balance our
mediated in different ways. For Agnew and Duncan Asian values and western influences", appreciate
(1989:7), the "power of place" resides in the fact and "draw inspiration" from the city's multicultural
that place: diversity and "constantly renew work values and
maintain the adaptiveness which underlies our
serves as a constantly re-energized repository economic success" (The Committee on Heritage
of socially and politically relevant traditions Report, 1988:6-8). Reclaiming Singapore's rightful
and identity which serve to mediate between place and time is perceived to provide a cultural
the everyday lives of individuals on the one bulwark against the pressures of modernisation
hand, and the national and supra-national and westernisation and "can play a vital part in
institutions which constrain and enable those nation building" (The Committee on Heritage
lives, on the other. Report, 1988:6) . Considerations of history, nostalgia
and heritage have thus entered both official and
public discourses in the form of pronouncements
PLACE AND TIME and debates on a number of themes urging or
obstructing the preservation of "Asian" and
Singapore's rapid transformation from a city of "traditional" values and the maintenance of "local"
squatters and slums with a serious unemployment cultural identity.
problem in the 1950s to a foremost newly
industrialising country with a "showcase economy" In the light of this critical juncture in Singapore's
(Lim, 1991 :197) is well-known . The rapidity of development, we explore the links between place
economic change brought in train various social and time, the intersections between what some have
impacts and, by the 1980s, unease over what Kwok called the geographical and the historical or
 Notion of Place in Singapore 55

sociological imaginations? How does a sense of significance because they are part of an individual's
the durie feature in a sense of place and vice versa? routinised biographical traces . They may also
We explore these questions by looking at the links feature prominently because of their identification .
between place and three concepts usually associated with exceptional events (such as the rites of passage ;
with the temporal sense - history, nostalgia and events of momentous or tragic proportions) which
heritage - in the context of Singapore . In brief, form part of an individual's life history. Beyond
we argue that the two imaginations can be individual memory, some places are given meaning
simultaneously engaged by means of a focus on the through association with the life and times of
concept of place. prominent personalities . Villages such as the now
defunct Chong Pang Village (a Chinese village
formerly located in the northern part of Singapore
HISTORY : THE INTERLOCKING named after its founder Lim Chong Pang) stood
NATURE OF PLACE AND TIME testimony to the renown of its founder (Sequerah,
1995) . Similarly, Haw Par Villa (formerly a rich
The making of a place is closely intertwined man's pleasure gardens) despite its transformation
with individual .and collective biographies ; at the into a theme park evokes memories of the brothers
same time, the unfolding of personal and social Boon Haw and Boon Par and their Tiger Balm
histories is not only about the passage of time, but kingdom of Chinese medicinal products (Tao &
also about being "in", moving "through" and Yeoh, forthcoming) ; and Tanjong Pagar (an old
experiencing changing places. In fact, the invisible residential area which developed around the docks)
"established for itself a landmark position in our
movement oftime is sometimes indexed by changes
which have taken place in the visible landscape : post-1955 history by electing Mr Lee Kuan Yew to
the demolition of the last kampung (rural village) Parliament in every election" (Kwa, 1989:15).
on the main island of Singapore signals the passing Places also become identified with national histories
of an era while the construction of skyscrapers of because they feature in an integral manner in events
steel and glass heralds the arrival of the and episodes of collective proportions . For example,
the Padang (a sward of greenery located at the heart
technological age.
of the city dating from colonial times) with its
backdrop of imposing civic buildings and its use as
As the palimpsests on which people write their
stories, not only are places repositories of history the venue for National Day Parades takes on national
and memory, they often contain multiple levels of significance while Changi Beach (a beach along
sedimented history . Everyday places gain the eastern shoreline used as an execution ground
during the Japanese Occupation) still evokes
memories of bloody massacres . Places thus have a
2 The sociological imagination, according to C.W . Mills, is "depth" which goes beyond the visible landscape :
something which "enables its possessor to understand the they contain layers of meaning derived from
larger historical scene in terms of its meanings for the inner different biographies and histories . Place meanings
life and the external career of a variety of individuals . . .(It]
enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations are further strengthened when levels of personal
between the two in society . . ." (quoted in Harvey, 1973 :23). biography and collective history are compounded .
In contrast, the geographical imagination "enables the
individual to recognise the role of space and place in his [sic]
own biography, to relate to the spaces he sees around him, Places are hence prodigious (but not
and to recognise how transactions between individuals and unproblematic) recorders of the passage of history .
between organisations are affected by the space that separates Not only do social and cultural change necessarily
them . It allows him to recognise the relationship which exists
between him and his neighbourhood, his territory, or, to use occur in places, they are often inscribed and
the language of the street gangs, his 'turf.' It allows him to transmitted in places . In the words of Johnston
judge the relevance of events in other places (on other people's (1991 :50):
'turf . . .wherever he is now" (Harvey, 1973 :24). Apart from
Harvey (1973), others, including Harris (1978), Daniels
(1985), Driver (1988) and Soja (1989) have also discussed Places differ in. . ."collective" memory. For
the relation between the two . a variety of reasons .. ..people's responses to
56 Brenda Yeoh and Lily Kong

the problem of surviving collectively vary paradise of warrior spirits buried at an adjacent
from place to place.. . How they respond island, Pulau Brani) as "Sentosa" (meaning "peace
becomes part of the local culture, the store and tranquillity") to foreshadow its development as
of knowledge on which they draw as they a resort island are but two examples where place-
face the problems of survival. They add to name changes signal a reworking of history . Place
that store as they tackle new problems and histories may also be obscured if not obliterated by
their success in some cases provides the rapid, radical changes of the natural or built
resources with which to alter their mode of environment . The metamorphosis which Tiong
living . That store of knowledge then Bahm (formerly cemetery ground) underwent in the
becomes the inheritance of those who construction of a Singapore Improvement Trust
succeed, being transmitted inter- housing estate between the 1930s and 1950s and
generationally to others who will modify it the more recent transformation of Bishan into a
as they in turn tackle problems old and new . middle-class Housing and Development Board
Thus cultures develop in places and are (HDB) public housing estate erase from people's
passed on in places. memories their older histories as places with
extensive Chinese burial grounds . Curiously, in
If places are the amalgam of forms and meanings these two instances, the only hint of its more
laid down in various historical eras, interpreting macabre past can be found in the place-names :
places involves understanding the human legacies "Tiong Bahm" means "new cemetery" while Bishan
of the past. However, as Driver (1988:499) has is the hanyu pinyin (Mandarin system of romanising
observed, "the past does not bequeath an immutable Chinese characters) version of "Pek San Theng"
legacy, if only because history is continually which is a Cantonese burial ground.
rewritten by its inheritors." As such, the association
of a place with its own history is not a In recent times, social theorists have called for
straightforward one . As history is constructed and a conceptualisation of human action and agency
reconstructed, as each generation emphasises "as a continuous flow of conduct in time and space"
particular historical "truths" and subject others to (Driver, 1988 :501). Postmodern geographers (as
the workings of amnesia, places also change in well as those who would eschew the label
meaning . "postmodern") such as Michael Dear (1988) and
Edward Soja (1989) have argued that modem social
Conversely, history may also be rewritten theory has been overly preoccupied with historicism
through the rewriting of places . The renaming of with its emphasis on individual and collective
streets in postcolonial societies, for example, divests biographies at the expense of spatiality. The power
the landscape of colonial associations and reinforces of a "space-blinkered" historical imagination which
the legitimacy of the newly independent state has created a "critical silence" where space is
(Lewandowski, 1984; Yeoh, 1992) . In the local concerned, however, is increasingly challenged by
context, the change of "Japan Street" to "Boon Tat the postmodern move towards dismantling
Street" 3 at the close of World War Il and the re- disciplinary privileges and the attention to a
christening of "Pulau Blakang Mati" (literally consideration of space and time in tandem as
translated as "the island of those who die behind" signposted in the works of Michel Foucault (1979),
refering to its legendary roots as the material Henri Lefebvre (1991) and John Berger (1972) . Soja
(1989:22) reminds us of Berger's view that
"prophesying now involves a geographical rather
This street was renamed by the Municipal Commissioners than historical projection; it is space not time that
in 1946 after the Japanese Occupation . The new name hides consequences from us ." He also claims
commemorated the Singapore-born businessman and former
Foucault as a "postmodern geographer" and
Municipal Commissioner, Ong Boon Tat (1888-1941), the
elder son of Ong Sam Jxong (Minutes of the Proceedings
applauds his "provocative spatialisation of power"
of the Municipal Conunissioners at an Ordinary Meeting, (Sofa, 1989:16 ; 21). Philo (1992:142) has further
23 May 1946 ; Song, 1984:99). argued that Foucault's critique of a "total history"

r
 Notion of Place in Singapore 57

which "posits a `central core' to the social world" Greek roots coined by Johannes Hofer,'a medical
can be read as a critique (which often draws on student, for the well-known symptoms of
spatialised vocabularies) of historians' and social homesickness or Heimweh) originally described a
scientists' : longing for a place from which one is removed
(Tuan,1971 :189).
insensitivity to the geography of the social
world that manifests itself in stressing the According to Chase and Shaw (1989), there are
homogeneity of events, phenomena, and their at least three conditions for nostalgia. First, societies
hypothesised determinations within spatial with a secular and linear (as opposed to cyclical)
"great units" (continents and perhaps sense of time are more prone to the syndrome of
countries) and thereby ignoring the reality nostalgia. Second, the stance of nostalgia requires
of smaller-scale areal differences and some apprehension of the deficiency of the present.
distributions (emphasis added) . Third, nostalgia is likely when social change is rapid
enough to be detectable in one lifetime; at the same
It is by "the taking seriously of space, place and time, there are must be available evidences of the
geography as sources of fragmentation" that past - artefacts, images and texts - to remind
Foucault negotiates "the snares of totalisation" one of how things used to be. We would like to
(Philo, 1992:144). Of interest in critical social show that particular constructions of place and time
theory today are manoeuvres which focus on the are both strongly implicated in the stance of
difference that space and place makes to historical nostalgia.
modes of understanding and at the same time anchor
places in social practice and historical context . The In societies where both public time (as measured
importance of integrating space and time or period by the public clock) and private time (the subjective
and place is clear in recent developments such as experience of time as measured by our
structuration theory (Giddens, 1984) and time- psychological-intemal clocks) are viewed io move
geography (Hagerstrand, 1973; Pred, 1981). in one direction, people carry "the memory of an
age when the experience of time was different"
At both the theoretical and substantive levels, (Chase & Shaw, 1989:4) . This is time which is
time and place are interwoven in complex ways . irretrievably lost, a period which will never return,
Just as time and place are indivisible in real life, and such a sense of loss engenders a nostalgic
thinking historically is no luxury in the perspective . Drawing on Mircea Eliade's work on
understanding of place ; neither is thinking sacred and profane space and time, Woods and
geographically in the pursuit of historical Gritzner (1990:234) describe the logic of nostalgia
knowledge . as the desire to "overcome and transcend the bonds
of profane or historical time and to recapture the
wholeness of sacred time." This search is often
expressed symbolically as a quest for paradise : "a
NOSTALGIA: YEARNING FOR THE universal desire to transcend humankind's existential
LOSS OF A PERIOD AND PLACE crisis, which has resulted from his or her
ensnarement in profane or historic time and space",
Just as history, concerns the interlocking nature hence Eliade's term, "nostalgia for paradise"
of place and time, our second concept "nostalgia" (Woods & Gritzner, 1990:236). Such a sense of
requires an understanding of the links between the nostalgia is thus a yearning to transcend the
two. Nostalgia is an attitude towards the past constrictions of time and space, to return to a lost
wherein elements of the past are viewed favourably, period and place, a lost social world . In the local
celebrated and even glorified . While the modem context, Chua (1995) argues that the disappearance
sense of the word usually implies a yearning for a of the kampung from the Singapore landscape
point in time (childhood, pre-war days etc .) rather symbolises the conflation of a lost time and a lost
than for a point in space, . "nostalgia" (a word of place, which in turn translates into a loss of
58 Brenda Yeoh and Lily Kong

community and the innocence of childhood on and images of the past, the further we are distanced
both individual and collective levels. In the stance from the reality they represent. The danger is that
of nostalgia, lost time is inextricably linked to a "the past as `referent' finds itself gradually
lost place: the remembered characteristics of the bracketed, and then effaced altogether, leaving us
lost place are often used as referents to signify the with nothing but texts" (Chase & Shaw, 1989:10).
passing of an era . Individual and collective While individuals collect the past in the form of
memories are transformed into nostalgic sentiments family memorabilia, photographs and increasingly
not only when a period has passed but also when video-recordings, the nation-state also retains and
place has changed beyond recognition. occasionally manufactures clues to its past. The
need to conserve and deepen the nation-state's
By characterising past time and place as "lost" memory has been expressed by political leaders from
and mourned, nostalgia compares the present time to time, as seen in the following words of S.
unfavourably with the past. As Chase and Shaw Rajaratnam, the former Senior Minister (quoted in
(1989:15) put it, "some elements of the present are Urban Redevelopment Authority, n.d.):
felt to be defective and [yet] there is no public
sense of redeemability through a belief in progress ." A nation must have a memory to give it a
The past, "defined not by the painstaking sense of cohesion, continuity and identity.
investigation of the historical record but by positing The longer the past, the greater the awareness
a series of absences" (Chase & Shaw, 1989:8), is of a nation's identity .. .A sense of a common
held up as a critical foil to the present. Nostalgia is history is what provides the links to hold
hence a critique of the present time and place . together a people who came from the four
Chua's (1995) work shows that the popularisation comers of the earth.
of nostalgia for kampungs in the 1990s reflects an
unease with the frenetic pace of life, high stress To conserve "our remarkable past" (Urban
levels and new-found materialism characteristic of Redevelopment Authority, n.d.) in a manner most
modem living driven by the logic of capital . It is a accessible to all, an important strategy on the part
critique of the present historic moment when of the state is to impress the form of the past onto
Singapore has "arrived" in an economic and material the visible landscape . The Urban Redevelopment
sense but lost the meaning of leisure and time to Authority (URA), for example, explains its aim to
stand and stare . It is also a critique of the place conserve the past in specific places in the following
Singaporeans find themselves, a city bristling with manner:
efficiency and productivity but without a certain
intangible spirit and soul. In retaining parts of old Singapore, we are
retaining the memory of early immigrants
Nostalgia is hence a construction of the past but who transformed Singapore from a fishing
a condition of the present . As it is positioned in the village to a bustling city. The languages,
present but draws on resources of the past, nostalgia cultures and beliefs of the immigrants as
is paradoxically best nurtured not in circumstances embodied in their churches, temples,
when the past has been completely obliterated but mosques, houses, street names and localities
when remnants of the past remain to constantly are reflected in the conservation of these
remind one that the past was different, a "foreign historic districts (Urban Redevelopment
country" where "they do things differently" (Hartley, Authority, n.d.).
quoted in Lowenthal, 1985 :xvi). Pervasive nostalgia
thus requires the presence of artefacts, images, texts To resist the ravages of time, memory is best served
and other visual and oral records of the past. Indeed, by anchoring it in the firm bedrock of place (as well
a nostalgic harking back to common roots is well as pictorial representations of places such as
served by continuous exposure to landscape texts postcards, photographs and prints, commonly sepia-
and visual images of the past. It has been argued toned) . While a place comprises both the material
that paradoxically, the greater the exposure to texts built environment as well as the activities and lifestyle
 Notion of Place in Singapore 59

of inhabitants, state conservation efforts have paid of time and space by looking back to and
greater attention to the former (Kong & Yeoh, envisioning a different period and place.
1994:260). This can be seen in the meticulous Alternatively, nostalgia may also be constructed on
restoration of the physical fabric in historic districts the basis of specific images and texts (and in
such as Tanjong Pagar and Kreta Ayer (two particular landscape texts with strong visual
subdistricts within the Chinatown Historic District qualities) which represent the past in ways which
designated in 1988 as part of the URA's Conservation serve present-day purposes .
Master Plan) and close attention to "authentic"
architectual styles and ornamentation, original roof
forms and colour schemes and so forth to create HERITAGE LANDSCAPES : THE
physical verisimilitude vis-a-vis a much more liberal
policy with regard to the types of trades and activities POWER OF HISTORIC PLACES
to be retained in conservation areas. As a landscape
text to generate awareness ofthe nation's past, place While nostalgia describes a general and
is invoked as a concrete showcase of history rather somewhat nebulous sentiment of looking back into
than as an active process . Emphasis is given to the and yearning for the past, heritage refers to the
visual qualities, the facades and concrete forms which making of "an apparently immutable history present
constitute place rather than the lifeworlds integral to in the now of society - as a logic of the concrete"
the making of place. Part of the reason for this (Crang, 1994:341) . This fixing of history into
could be that while lifeworlds are much less heritage is by no means an uncontested process
susceptible to state control and can only be retained because what constitutes heritage is differently
with warts and all, built forms are easily amenable interpreted in different quarters with different
to sprucing up to reflect an idealised picture of the sectoral and communal interests . Hardy (1988:333)
past. The re-creation of the past in a place gives the reminds us that the term "heritage" does not simply
state the opportunity to filter out what it deems describe an assemblage of cultural traditions and
undesirable and to retain what it considers beneficial artefacts belonging to a particular community but
to cultivating a sense of cohesion and national is a value-laden concept, "embracing (and often
identity. History is thus recycled as nostalgia. obscuring) differences of interpretation that are
dependent on. ..class, gender and locality; and with
Thus, while nostalgia is in one sense a critique the concept itself locked into wider frameworks of
of the present as argued earlier, it may also be dominant and subversive ideologies." The question
reshaped to serve the present needs ofnation-building of what constitutes heritage that is worth conserving
and national cohesion . Selective visual reminders of is thus highly problematic as it depends on what is
the past embedded in the landscape which people thought to be historically significant .
encounter in everyday life - historic districts and
conservation areas, monuments and memorials, icons For the sake of polarising the issue, Hardy
and signage - are intended not only to evoke a (1988:333) draws a distinction between "heritage
positive evaluation of the past but also to inspire a used in a conservative sense" and "heritage as a
collective sense of where we have come from. As radical concept ." In the former sense, the definition
Lowenthal (1985:13) puts it, "nostalgia has of heritage is strictly circumscribed to include ideas
compensating virtues ...Attachment to familiar places and artefacts of "high culture meaning ." By this
may buffer social upheaval. .. Nostalgia reaffirms measure, elements of the urban landscape which
identities bruised by recent turmoil . .. ." qualify as heritage include the majestic and
monumental, such as palaces, stately homes, national
The phenomenon of nostalgia thus entails certain symbols and civic buildings . More recently, the
constructions of time and place. Nostalgia is most perspective on heritage has been widened by those
acute when a sense of the loss of time is conflated who advocate "more cogent, credible, realist
with a loss of place. It may also emerge as an alternative views [of the past], centred on the lived
unfavourable appraisal of the present organisation experiences of a wider spectrum of the populace"
60 Brenda Yeah and Lily Kong

(Butlin, 1987 :37). Such a "radical" concept of Board to oversee museums, archival and heritage
heritage focuses, inter alia, on reclaiming the lived centres set up to "make sure that Singaporeans have
landscapes of common people such as the homes of a deep sense of the past, which will provide
the labouring classes, neighbourhood streets and Singaporeans with 'cultural depth' to see [them]
alleys, factories and workplaces, and community through crisis" (The Straits Times, 18 March 1992).
structures . According to Lowenthal (1985 :388), in
the west, conservation efforts formerly reserved for Given the contentious nature of heritage and the
"features of renown and widely venerated multiple meanings it holds in different quarters,
monuments" are now more generally extended to inscribing heritage into the concrete elements which
the "everyday neighbourhoods of purely local constitute place furnishes the state a strategy of
import ." More specifically, Tunbridge (1989 :316) codifying and naturalising its version of heritage.
argues that in Canada, the awareness of "vernacular By becoming part of the everyday, visible world,
heritage, that of the common people" was already the landscape text of a place acts as a powerful
firmly established by the 1970s. ideological tool which:
...masks the artifice and ideological nature
In Singapore, from the state's perspective, of its form and content . Its history as a
heritage has important social, economic and political social construction is unexamined . It is,
purposes. Not only does it represent the city's therefore, as unwittingly read as it is
cultural wealth and diversity, it serves to bind unwittingly written (Duncan, 1989:19) .
Singaporeans in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural state
together and also to "sell" Singappore abroad as an By objectifying heritage in concrete, visual form,
exotic tourist destination (Kong & Yeoh, 1994 :253- values and ideologies are reified and fixed, and made
55). For heritage to serve these purposes, it must much less transparent. For example, in the creation
be carefully defined and packaged . In codifying of the Tanjong Pagar conservation area as a
heritage, the state's strongest strategy is to objectify landscape spectacle,4 three themes were highlighted
heritage either in "specialist" places (such as and firmly put in place: architectural splendour ;
museums) or broader showcase-type landscapes economic vibrance and viability ; and the idea of an
(such as historic streets and districts or sites where "aesthetic" (as opposed to "social") community
signage and other markers help signify historicity) . which represents the wider "nation" of Singaporeans
Carving out a place for heritage in society literally (Yeoh & Lau, 1995) . The production of Tanjong
involves furnishing heritage a place in a visual sense. Pagar as the repository of spectacle obscures more
Thus, the Preservation of Monuments Board was problematic tensions and contradictions such as the
established in 1971 with the aim of preserving reduction of history to architecture ; the uneven
specific sites including buildings, structures, competition between new commercial joints and
memorials, and places of interment or excavation older activities; and the wiping out of a localised
(Section 2(1), Preservation of Monuments Act, sense of community constituted by social
1985). In the 1980s, the URA expanded the biographies, affective ties, local referents and daily
definition of preservation to include the conservation routines to make way for the "imagined community"
of whole areas. Conservation master plans were (Anderson, 1983) of nation-building .
released for historic districts such as Chinatown,
Little India, Kampong Glam (a Malay heartland) As ideological tools, heritagised landscapes and
and the Civic and Cultural District and in recognition historic sites convey powerful impacts : for example,
of these efforts, the URA was appointed the national
conservation authority in 1989. More recently, a
precinct with a five-museum network comprising a 4 Yeoh and Lau (1995) interpret the conserved area as a
landscape of spectacle, a socially powerful landscape which
Singapore History Museum, a Fine Arts Museum,
allows the elite to exert control not only in the area of
an Asian Civilisations Museum, a People's Museum commodity relations in the economic sphere but also beyond,
and a Children's Museum was proposed (The Straits in the realm of social life and popular consciousness (Ley
Times, 31 January 1992) and a National Heritage &Olds, 1988).
 Notion of Place in Singapore 61

they are considered the best forms of "psychological conceptions of history, nostalgia and heritage. As
defence" because they bind the Singaporean to "his a concrete, localised setting, place provides the
[sic] mental picture of his country" (The Straits receptacle for the outworkings of history, nostalgia
Times, 16 December 1988) . Through these places, and heritage ; but beyond that, place is also intimately
the state also promotes the ideologies of drawn into individual interpretations, social
multiracialism and multiculturalism as somehow constructions and the political uses of time and the
innate to Singapore . What more immanent proof temporal sense .
of the reality of Singapore's four principal races
(Chinese, Malays, Indians and Others (usually Given the salience of place, both as a concrete
construed as Europeans and Eurasians)) is there than and constructed form, both in the taken-for-granted
a map of historic districts comprising Chinatown realm of everyday encounters and the critical
representing the Chinese, Kampong Glam junctures of official policy making, those of us who
representing the Malays, Little India representing value the past - whether as history, nostalgia or
the Indians, and the Civic and Cultural District heritage- should also be conscious of place . In the
representing the European colonial presence, words of Tuan (1974 :217-19), those who are
especially if authenticated by reference to Raffles' concerned with "the nature of being, becoming,
1822 town plan? It is when socially constructed duration, and experience", should also heed the
categories become embodied as part of the primacy of space and place, for space is "more basic
landscape, that they become more readily accepted to human experience" and "can be comprehended
as natural and unquestionable . more directly" than time. In our present place in the
flow of time, the fleeting nature with which time
Yet, while it is often the powerful whose ideas flies and generations change is often registered in
and categories are inscribed in the landscape, further and apprehended by the way places change . To
contributing to their power (Schorske, 1980), the signal fast-changing times, we often use the language
less powerful do attempt to redefine the constitution of place in speaking of a sense of "dislocation",
of heritage using particular sites of resistance and "displacement", "placelessness", (Relph, 1976) and
negotiation . The failed initiative to save Eu Court, a lack of "rootedness ."
a curved, corner residential cum office building
located in the Civic and Cultural District, from the
By embodying history and meaning, and because
bulldozer, for example, testifies to people's attempts
to secure a stake in defining heritage in everyday it "incarnates the experiences and aspirations of a
places. Similarly, the attempt to save the Convent people" (Tuan, 1974 :213), place signifies history in
both subtle and manifest ways. Beyond that,
of the Holy Infant Jesus, a complex of buildings in
Victoria Street, first, from demolition and then from however, the rendering of memory and history in
commercialisation reflects the efforts to inscribe place solidifies that which is less palpable . This
grassroots interpretation of heritage in place . Yet, has effects : for the individual, a playground captured
it is clear that most of these efforts to define the on a photograph conjures up particular constructions
meaning of heritage fail precisely because of our childhood days while revisiting a former
"ordinary" people do not have the power to "define" home or school which has changed almost beyond
places in the same way that the state does. Defining recognition stirs up emotive memories of what used
our past thus involves defining the nature of place to be. On the collective level, the objectification of
in the present; and because the powerful have control history in the landscape in the form of monuments
over the making of place, the definition of the past and historic districts inevitably ossifies particular
has hitherto remained in their hands. versions of collective memory and at the same time
erases from present consciousness other versions of
the past. Places in the present are historical, but
REFLECTIONS they only represent history in partial ways .

A sense of place, with all its multifarious If this is the case, in constructing history, we
meanings, is thus an integral element in the must heed how we subject places to change and
62 Brenda Yeah and Lily Kong

stability . In changing places, we are rewriting in a quest to better their physical and social place
history, both on the personal and collective levels . strive to own five-room HDB flats while five-room
This consciousness should not be clouded whether HDB flat dwellers reach out for private property
we are considering "public symbols", places which even with their ever-escalating prices. The effect
command attention and inspire awe (Tuan, is that few stay in a place long enough to develop a
1974:236-40), or "fields of care", places which deepening of human relationships in a field of care
evoke affection and provide the everyday material and few will have the "critical historical dimensions"
objects for the "sustenance and deepening" of human (Rowles, 1983:303 ; see also Kong, Yeoh & Teo,
relationships (Tuan, 1974:241-43) . On the national 1993) in relationships with their places. Will there
level, with Singapore poised on the threshold of a be a generation of displaced people, "a people
new generation in urban landuse planning signalled without history" (Wolf, 1982), in the years ahead?
in the Conservation Master Plan of 1986, the Place and history are closely intertwined in the rich
Revised Concept Plan of 1991, and the 55 texture of individual and social life. There is no
Development Guide Plans which translate planning history without place, and no place without history ;
visions into detailed plans for particular areas, to lose sight of one would be to lose a sense of the
planning should move beyond the principles of other.
economic rationality and efficiency to also embrace
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