A passage to the National Museum of Singapore

The rickshaw of the early 20th century

The National Museum of Singapore is the most interesting place I’ve seen so far. It is the oldest museum in Singapore. It is once called the “Raffles Library and Museum”. It’s address is 93 Stamford Road. The ticket price is $S15 for adult, and 10 for student.

The Galleries tell us about Singapore history includes things (I write “things” instead of “objects” because the Museum nowadays is very modern with interactive media) represent the live of the Chinese when they first immigrated to Malaysia and Singapore during the 19^th century, along with their life in early 20st century such as the shops in the street-market, the goods made from bamboo and even an opium-smoking set. We can imagine the live of the Hakka people in Singapore. “Hakka” means “Visitor” or “Visitors.”

A replica of a “Mitsubishi type 95 Ha-Go” tank

There is a very big gallery of the “Japanese invasion of Singapore”. In 1942, Japan invaded Singapore, the British surrendered. In 1945, Japan surrendered, Singapore was liberated by the Allies. At the wartime period Gallery, there is replica of a “Mitsubishi type 95 Ha-Go” tank. There are only four replicas like this in the world now and Tom Hanks used those replicas to make the miniseries “The Pacific”(2000).

I was surprise when I saw the objects of a special period of the Malaysia’s history. During this period, the Maoism communists had terrorists activities and then the Malaysian Government had to repress them.

In 1965, Singapore had to leave the Federation of Malaya, to an independance. There we can see the video that Lee Kuan Yew was giving speech in tears about this historical event. There are also things that shows Singapore development from 1965 until now: from a fishing village becoming a polluted city (in the 1960s) to a modern city as we see today.

Inside an apartment in the 1980s

The latest gallery appeared there named “Story of the forest”. It is related to the nature protection of the Singaporean. When I write these words, I remembered the conversation between my father and the taxi driver who took us to the Airport in chinese. The driver said: “Singapore and Vietnam were the same before, but…” And my father comleted the sentence: “… but nowadays Singapore has made progress fastly.”

 The “Zoetrope”

The best thing I’ve seen was the “Zoetrope”. Zoetrope is to celebrate the legacy of Tang Pui Wah, Singapore’s first female Olympian. Including 55 trophy models in different postures, when the visitor push the button the Zoetrope will rotate. According to the Insert Coin (the Singapore company who built these models) the Zoetrope rotates 133 rpm for 45 seconds each time. The visitors can see the animation just like real motions. But how? You can see more explanation if you watch my video “Zoetrope in National Museum Singapore (slow motion)”:

“Zoetrope in National Museum Singapore (slow motion)” 

In fact, the “Zoetrope” has diecast models, but the models have different postures. When the visitors’ eyes stare at one model, they think that they see only one, but they are staring at one fixed position. On that postion, there are continuous replacements of the models. When the light turns off, the replacements are occurred. When you watch my slow motion video, you’ll see no-moving models but they stand on a rotating rim.

So, the point is the synchronization of the models with different postures on a rotating rim and the strobe light. That’s very simple to understand how. Enjoy yourself!!...