This essay seeks to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the Singapore History Gallery in the National Museum of Singapore. Analysis in this paper will be done by examining the intersecting of memory, heritage and history in the museum’s representation of Singapore’s past, the relationship established by the museum between Singapore’s past and present, as well as the representational strategy of the museum by which meanings are conveyed. While the Singapore History Gallery does have educational value, and provides a seemingly complete narrative of Singapore’s history from the 1300s to the modern era, the gallery is not without inadequacies. The flaws of this gallery are most glaring in exhibits dealing with Singapore’s post independence history.
Intersecting of memory, heritage and history in the museum’s representation of Singapore’s past.
The Singapore History Gallery, by intersecting memory, heritage and history, tried to provide a clearer picture of Singapore’s history, with an overarching historical narrative.
History, according to John Arnold, “begins with sources” . However, while history starts through the examination of sources, “[historians] need to be aware of the nuances of sources, the gaps between what is said and what is not said; their rhythms and syncopation” . Throughout gallery, it is evident that much emphasis was placed on the historical aspect of Singapore, where artefacts and sources were employed to provide background knowledge of Singapore’s past. Sources included transcripts of Eunos Abdullah trying to fight for the improvement of education of Malay boys in Singapore, to have Malay boys in vernacular schools taught English. The source also showed how British officials, who thought that they did eno...
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...exhibits following Singapore’s independence were more geared towards the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) narrative of Singapore’s history, of how Lee Kuan Yew built the nation whose success we enjoy today. There seems to be a deliberate silencing of PAP’s political opponents. The exhibits from the 1960s onwards made no mention of political opponents. The exhibition comes to an abrupt end, where little is mentioned about Singapore’s progress during and beyond the 1970s, and it seems to suggest that Singapore’s history had come to an end with the economic success achieved during the 1970s, with successful nation-building represented by the 9th August video, which commemorates Singapore’s national day. This is the inherent weakness of the exhibition, where it lacks in the provision of the entire picture of Singapore’s history, of Singapore’s struggles post independence.
...t be read in such a light and contrast to other sources on early colonial history.
In Stephen Weil’s essay, he argues “the museum’s role has transformed from one of mastery to one of service” (Weil, 196). According to him, museums have changed their mission from one that cultures the public to one that serves
Second, the historian must place himself within the existing historical debate on the topic at hand, and state (if not so formulaically as is presented here) what he intends to add to or correct about the existing discussion, how he intends to do that (through examining new sources, asking new questions, or shifting the emphasis of pre-existing explanations), and whether he’s going to leave out some parts of the story. This fulfills the qualities of good history by alerting readers to the author’s bias in comparison with the biases of other schools of scholarship on the topic, and shows that the author is confident enough in his arguments to hold them up to other interpreta...
The study of past events have been a common practice of mankind since the verbal telling of stories by our ancestors. William Cronon, in his article “Why the Past Matters,” asserts that the remembrance of the past “keeps us in place.” Our individual memories and experiences shape how we act in our daily lives. In addition to influencing us at an individual level, our collective history binds us together as a society. Without knowing where we have been or what we have experienced, it is nearly impossible to judge progress or know which courses of action to pursue. The goal of the historian is to analyze and explain past events, of which they rarely have firsthand memory of, and apply the gained knowledge to make connections with current and future events.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has one of the finest Asian art collections that has enlightened and strengthened my understanding in my personal art experience. The Museum itself is an artistic architectural structure that graces the entire block on 82nd Street in Manhattan. Entering inside, I sensed myself going back into an era, into a past where people traded ideas and learned from each other. It is a past, where I still find their works of yesteryears vividly within my grasp, to be remembered and shared as if their reflections of works were cast for the modern devoted learner.
Neal, Mary. Battle of Singapore. The Globe and Mail [Toronto, Ont] 13 Nov 1990: A.16.
As I look at the painting of The Adoration of The Shepherds, two artists, Andrea Mantegna and El Greco, showed it different ways with same subjects. First, the title of the paintings is about Jesus's birth. Andrea mantegna artist had lived from ca 1430 to 1506. He established his reputation when he was 20 years old. This painting is the evident of his highly individual style. He worked it during ca 1451 to 1453. He painted it in horizontal format with 153/4x217/8(40x55.6). He used tempera on a canvas that transferred from a wood. In difference, El Greco(Spain 141-1641) worked it with oil color on canvas by vertical format. The size is 125 5/8x707/8(319x180cm). In Greco's painting, the objects are full on the canvas that big two angels and others are placed on top of the middle place, and the people are placed in triangle position based on the landscape. The landscape is very detail. The people I find it that Holy Maria is standing in the middle and the mountain is placed behind of Maria among the landscape things.
Duncan’s (1991) analysis of western museums is defined through the theme of “durable objects” as a criterion to judge the heritage of American and European art as a ritual of the modern state. In this manner western art museums are built like “temples” as a symbolic and figurative representation of greatness of western culture throughout the world: “[They] are more like the traditional ceremonial monuments that museum buildings often emulate—classical temples” (Duncan 90). This interpretation of American/European museums defines a dominant source of cultural heritage that ritualizes
I had an opportunity to visit the oriental institute museum . During my visit to the museum I was made aware of its location and the importance of it to chicago. The museum housed many exhibits of historical value dating civilization back to the paleolithic period of 2,500,000-100,000 B.C. Below you'll find examples of mans rise through the use of tools and refined skills from cave living to structured living throughout evolution. This is an experience that has grounded me to a new interest in structures that we have devised to become the homes we use today for the rest of my life.
One pleasant afternoon, my classmates and I decided to visit the Houston Museum of Fine Arts to begin on our museum assignment in world literature class. According to Houston Museum of Fine Art’s staff, MFAH considers as one of the largest museums in the nation and it contains many variety forms of art with more than several thousand years of unique history. Also, I have never been in a museum in a very long time especially as big as MFAH, and my experience about the museum was unique and pleasant. Although I have observed many great types and forms of art in the museum, there were few that interested me the most.
...a journey of discovery/rediscovery of what the Western world comes to mean, while at the same time, negotiating the redefinition of selfhood and national identity of Hong Kong. The will to search for a reconciliation with the West in these films is certainly deeply embedded in Hong Kong’s search for its own identity in the post-colonial era. After its return to its Chinese motherland, Hong Kong consequently takes up the important position as the bridge between China and the West. Many recognize that its success to find its identity as part of China in the future depends on its ability to come to terms with its colonial past. Indeed, as we have seen, both films positively insist on the possibility of fulfilling such an aspiration. The process is not a comfortable one, and it is often one of pain and risks. Yet the films assure that it is also one of promise and hope.
We visited the Museo Nacional De Antropologa in Madrid, and were assigned to analyse the Asian Room, which is focused particularly on the Philippine Islands because of their historical colonisation with Spain. The display of things in a museum are things that we look at as something that is outside of normal. In contrast to the movie or movies, where scenes substantially show how the person felt and dealt with situations and tools from their own perspective, with their own knowledge and experience and through different means such as real images, sounds, language and others produces a different knowledge on the racial discourse. When looking at exhibitions in museums the other culture is unknown, and almost uncomfortable to us, but in movies we can be standing in their shoes.
Factors of British colonialism in Malaya were because there were vas natural resources in Malaya, strategic location and also to extend their influence; to be seen as a big powerful nation, and finally to spread the Christian ...
Using Singapore to debate has an interesting point of view. After it separation from Malaysia at 9 of August 1965. The nation became an independent state. Singapore was on her own, a tiny island lack of natural resource such as oil and rubber plantation, and on the other hand Singapore own a strategic harbour location.
The political use of history is essentially interlinked to the political culture of the society and identity building of the nation (Kangaspuro, 2010). There is a broad consensus developing across the social sciences that history is an essential ingredient in constructing and maintaining the imagined community of nationhood (Liu, J.H., Hilt...