The Singapore River is famous for various things . It’s fancy shopping areas , tall business buildings and night clubs or pubs . But some Singaporeans forget about the most important feature in the Singapore River , the various sculptures of our forefathers working in hardship to develop the modern country we live in today .
And here are some photos and their descriptions i would like to share .
The above photo shows the pioneers of the banking industry. Sitting in the middle is an Indian chettiar. The European banker on his right and a Chinese moneylender to his left. They were the forefathers of modern banking in the island.
The picture above shows a few coolies and a kepala or labour gang leader sitting on a sack of rice. The long plait of hair on their backs make me think that the labourers who came here to work were mostly from China.
This sculpture shows a European man which is probably prominent merchant of early Singapore mediating between a Chinese Trader and a Malay Chief, whilst Indian coolies load sacks onto a bullock cart
After walking around the Singapore River , i realised that we are all very lucky that we do not have to work as hard as the coolies . and we must be thankful to them because they are the ones who developed our country and to make it a suitable place to live in .
As the trade port in Singapore grew , more immigrants came to Singapore as they think that they can live a better life here . they also came her as there are more job options and it is more safe here .
The number of immigrans from different countries grew larger . so raffles divided the river into many parts to avoid racial disharmony .
There are alot of values we can learn from these coolies and our forefathers . one of them is tolerance . The work in the hot sun everyday mostly with only one meal per day . No matter how tired they are , the still continue to do their job rain or shine . another value we can learn is resilience . they are somewhat tortured everyday but yet they manage to get back up to their feet and still continue doing their job . we must think and realise that they died of hardship for us and this statement is usually forgotten by us Singaporeans . we must be grateful to them for giving us a brighter future .
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION :
The northern end of the building covers the site of Fort Fullerton, a fort built in 1829 to defend the settlement against any naval attacks. In 1843, the fort was extended after a sandstone monolith, the Singapore Stone, with an inscription possibly dating back to the 13th century was demolished. A fragment of this monolith was salvaged and preserved in the collection of the National Museum at Stamford Road. The fort gave way to the first General Post Office and the Exchange Building
in 1874.
The museum first opened its doors at the Old Tao Nan School building on 22 April 1997 at Armenian Street, with exhibits largely centred on Chinese civilisation. With the restoration of the Empress Place Building, the museum established its new flagship museum there on 2 March 2003, rapidly expanding the collection to other areas of Asia. The Armenian Street branch closed for renovations on 1 January 2006 and reopened on 25 April 2008 as the Peranakan Museum, specialising in Peranakan culture.
On September 16, 2006, the Museum officially launched its new logo with a new slogan The Asian Civilisations Museum - Where Asian Cultures Come Alive!. This new logo reflects the museum's unique location by the historic Singapore River, the source and origin of Singapore multi-cultural society, which the ACM presents in its collection. The brown reflected image also alludes to the museum as a place for reflection, while the vibrant orange is an invigorating colour which represents activity and energy.
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