Shedding Some Light: Rifle Range Road

by Kevin Lee
Leading into a quiet residential area in posh Bukit Timah is a road that doesn’t conjure up images of quiet or residents: Rifle Range Road.

But the area does seem to have been a residential area even before the present houses there were built - except that early residents, though living on landed property,… »

Review: Ancient Discoveries - ‘Chinese Warfare’

by Wong Koi Hin

Ancient Discoveries is a television programme produced for the History Channel by Wild Dream Films. The series focuses on ancient inventions and methods which often seem remarkably modern, challenging the laypersons’ view of the level of technology and sophistication of the ancients. This series is popular with audience and is still showing… »

The Oka 9420 Unit in Singapore

by Chew Yong Jack
As a subordinate unit of the infamous Japanese biological warfare Unit 731, the Oka (岡in kanji or Steel) 9420 unit based in Singapore had been not much more than a mere footnote in history. In fact, in Daniel Barenblatt’s “Plague Upon Humanity” (Harper Collins, 2004), which got me acquainted to this little… »

The Zero in the Mitsubishi A6M Zero Fighter

by Fumihito Yamamoto

The Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter was one of the most famous fighter planes of the Second World War. But do you know what the “Zero” signifies? The Zero of the Mitsubishi Zero fighter represented the last two digits of Year 2600 in Kōki (皇紀) calendar – the year it was first commissioned –… »

Singapore: Story of Possibilities

by Sarah Ismail

How many ways to tell the story of Singapore?
It’s August again, and it’s National Day Parade time, where the obligatory reference to Raffles, the Japanese Occupation, and Separation are made. In the later years of the NDP, Sang Nila Utama started making an appearance – possibly because Malay costumes are more… »

Review: Georgette - the musical

by Sarah Ismail

Just who is that woman on the wall?
The play Georgette begins with this question – appropriate enough for a woman whose early life is relatively unknown. Georgette Chen is mainly known as a pioneering Singaporean artist and one of the few women of that time. As a result, it is Georgette Chen’s arrival… »

Reading Culture in Singapore: Searching for (Good) Second-Hand Bookstores

by Dinesh Sathisan
One of my passions is travelling. Whenever I travel to places like Paris, London or New York (amongst others), I never do what Lonely Planet has advised tourists to do, but rather love taking the off-beaten track in exploring these cities or learning about its people and culture. And the highlight of my… »

Fashion, Glamour and Spirituality

by Minami Orihara
One of my favourite things to do in my free time is reading random women’s magazines from Japan. Lately however, these magazines actually got me thinking, instead of helping me to unwind from my work. Along with news on latest fashion trends, movie reviews, cooking recipes, and tips on relationships, many of the… »

The Path of Demystifying: Mao in the Post-Maoist Era

by Ng Eng Ping

In 1975, Mao Zedong was having a conversation with one of his secretaries on Sima Guang, the famous Song historian, noting that his Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government – which traced the chronological history of China from the Fifth Century BC – ended just before the foundation of the Song Dynasty… »

Elvis and Singapore

by Lim Cheng Tju

The king is dead. Long live the king. 16 August 2007 marked the 30th death anniversary of Elvis Presley, the king of rock ‘n’ roll. Not much is made of his passing in Singapore. Last year’s date was only marked by a weekend performance by the Singapore Elvis Alt-Country Meetup Group at… »