Mr Tan Boon Hui, 41, grew up in a three-room HDB flat in Jurong and holds a Bachelor of Arts and a master's degree in geography from the National University of Singapore.

The only child of a retired bus driver father and a housewife mother, he studied at Whitley Secondary School and Jurong Junior College.

He says with a laugh: 'Even today, my parents don't quite know what I do. All they tell me is, 'It is good you have a government job.''

On Aug 1, he takes over from established museum hand Kwok Kian Chow.

Read the full report in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times' LIFE!.