Oct–Dec 2018

Who designed the Kranji War Cemetary? What's the historic value of a James Bond rip-off? Why was traditional Malay medicine seen as magic? The answers to these questions and more in this issue.

Director’s Note

Wheels of Change 1896–1970
Advertisements targeting aspiring car owners have come a long way since the first automobile was launched in Singapore in 1896, as Mazelan Anuar tells us. (PDF)

Five Ashore in Singapore: A European Spy Film
Raphaël Millet sits through a B-grade movie dismissed by critics as belonging to the genre of Eurospy flicks that parody James Bond – and discovers a slice of Singaporean celluloid history. (PDF)

Magic or Medicine: Malay Healing Practices
Is traditional Malay medicine based on superstition and folklore or grounded in scientific evidence? Nadirah Norruddin uncovers the varying perceptions of Malay medicine in colonial Malaya. (PDF)

In Honour of War Heroes: The Legacy of Colin St Clair Oakes
Who was the architect behind Singapore’s Kranji War Cemetery and other similar memorials in South and Southeast Asia? Athanasios Tsakonas has the story. (PDF)

Blazing a Trail: The Fight for Women’s Rights in Singapore
The Singapore Council of Women was the city’s first female civil rights group that took bold steps to champion laws affecting women. Phyllis Chew documents its hard-won victories. (PDF)

An Ode to Two Women
Acclaimed poet and playwright Robert Yeo pays tribute to his daughter and a noted author in chapter two of his work-in-progress sequel to his memoir Routes. (PDF)

The House of Ripples
Martina Yeo and Yeo Kang Shua piece together historical details of the little-known River House in Clarke Quay and discover that it was once a den for illicit triad activity. (PDF)

“The German Medicine Deity”: Singapore’s Early Pharmacies
Timothy Pwee charts the history of Singapore’s first Western-style pharmacies through old receipts and documents from the National Library’s Koh Seow Chuan Collection. (PDF)

சிங்கை பத்திரிகை விளம்பரங்கள் 1920-1960 வரை ஒரு பார்வை
Sundari Balasubramaniam examines Tamil print advertisements published between the 1920s and 1960s, and discovers fascinating insights of life during this period. (PDF)

Papers from the Past: The Lee Family Archives
The personal papers of a noted Peranakan family provide a window into the lives of the Straits Chinese community during the colonial era, as Ong Eng Chuan reveals. (PDF)

Makan Places and Coffee Socks
Barbara Quek highlights publications that showcase Singapore’s unique hawker fare from the National Library’s Legal Deposit Collection. (PDF)

Archiving the Singapore-Wide Web
Recent amendments to the National Library Board Act now allow the National Library to preserve Singapore websites without the express permission of content owners. Shereen Tay explains. (PDF)