Director's Note

Emily of Emerald Hill by playwright Stella Kon has touched the hearts of thousands who have watched it performed on stage over the last 40 years. Even though it is one of Singapore’s most popular plays, there is still much about it that many people don’t know. Few people, for instance, know that Stella almost named the monodrama Betty of Balmoral Road. 

This fact only came to light recently thanks to research done by academic Eriko Ogihara-Schuck who wrote about the play for this magazine. She was able to discover this, and other nuggets of information, because Stella had donated the older drafts of her play to the National Library in 1987. Eriko’s article showing how Betty of Balmoral Road evolved into Emily of Emerald Hill amply demonstrates why it is vital for writers to donate their works to the National Library (hint, hint).

Resources available at the library (and the archives) enable us to rediscover things that have largely been forgotten. Everyone is familiar with the Causeway linking Singapore and Johor of course, and its infamous jams. But how many people know that the Causeway was built with a channel on the Malaysian side to allow small ships to pass through? An enormous bridge was erected over the channel that could be raised to allow ships to gain passage. To celebrate this year’s 100th anniversary of the land link, see wonderful photos of this bridge (and channel) in our excerpt from a book about the Causeway, published by the National Archives of Singapore and the National Archives of Malaysia in 2011.

There are too many interesting stories in this issue for me to do all of them justice here. I would like to highlight just three others. Beloved by punters and popular with the ladies, Tan Teng Kee, more popularly known as Battling Key, was one of Singapore’s earliest boxing stars. Alas, his story had a tragic ending, which researcher Abhishek Mehrotra vividly recounts in his fascinating piece on local boxing in the 1920s.

I’m also pleased that this issue delves into the life of Hajah Asfiah Haji Abdullah, a teacher who helped preserve Malay heritage by conducting classes on traditional crafts and writing a book on Malay cooking. An amazing woman who began teaching classes at the age of 10, she dedicated herself to keeping Malay traditions alive. Her story deserves to be better known and librarian Toffa Abdul Wahed’s profile of her goes a long way in ensuring that Hajah Asfiah’s memory lives on.

Finally, as this note is being written, Southeast Asia is experiencing a heatwave. You might then be interested to read about the history of ice-making in Singapore. Just imagine not being able to indulge in ice kacang or ice-cream, or going to a market and buying fish that hasn’t been put on ice. The thought of living without ice is enough to send shivers down my spine.

Alicia Yeo
Director
National Library, Singapore