Culture Vulture

More artefacts of Singapore waiting to be unearthed

Exhibitions commemorating the bicentennial show there are untold stories that can still be added to the national narrative, if institutions here dig deeper

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The unexplored depths of foreign archival collections could hold untold stories about Singapore's past. This has been a recurrent thought recently as I looked at exhibitions at various institutions here.

The first spark was the recently ended Packaging Matters show at the National Museum of Singapore. One of the highlights was an astonishing black-and-white film clip, courtesy of the British Film Institute, which depicted the process of harvesting, processing and canning pineapples in Singapore. I was gripped by the clip, which captured the routines of early Chinese immigrants, including a grim-faced young boy stuffing cubed fruit into a can.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on October 01, 2019, with the headline More artefacts of Singapore waiting to be unearthed. Subscribe