When Lee Kwan Yu took over the government of Singapore 45-odd years ago, the Chinese population here was composed of three main groups: Hokkien, Cantonese, and Teochew. The Hokkien were locally known as “pigs,” because if they came to Singapore and did well, they tended to settle down, have eight children and plant firm roots. […]
I saw this bird flying overhead on my walk this morning. It perched high in a tree, so I mostly saw a dark shape against the sky, of a medium-sized black bird with two long tail wires hanging down and black tear-shaped appendages at the end of the tail wires.
We were given free tickets to a student-association dinner in a nice hotel, so we went. Interesting experience. The crowd was mostly students, of course, and that’s great. They’d worked hard to find sponsors for a high-end social experience they could share, in the ballroom of a downtown hotel, and they provided the entertainment as […]
Cafe Trung Nguyen opened a third outlet in April on Raffles Boulevard: it’s #01-09 Marina Square. This is in addition to the one on the second floor of Liang Court Mall, and the one in the departure lounge of Changi Airport’s Terminal 2. Let joy be unconfined! Let the coffee flow like water! Let everyone […]
A double delight! Thursday, August 20, saw the beginning of both the Taoist Hungry Ghost Festival and the Ramadan fast. Singaporean TV celebrates the start of Ramadan by having lots of people interviewed on the news saying that you should be mindful that not everybody does everything the same way but they’re all worthy of […]
The air is hazy these days, and smells of forest fires. But it’s not California! It’s Singapore, and we’re getting the smoke from farmers in Indonesia and Malaysia burning off their fields after the harvest. The Malaysian government, you’ll be glad to know, has actually outlawed this activity and prescribed that their farmers clear their […]
OK, maybe not running amok, but certainly off the reservation. I think I’ve mentioned that you frequently bump into Buddhist monks in electronics stores in Singapore, shopping for cellphones and stuff. Well, here are a couple (the men in orange) taking pictures of each other outside the Fullerton Hotel – on the River Walk downtown, […]
OK, so we joined the Unitarians for a tour of the Lotus Mountain Twin Groves Monastery. This was founded by a rich Chinese-Singaporean businessman in 1885 or so, and used to be surrounded by serene groves, babbling brooks, etc., but now is hemmed in on 3 sides by HDB housing highrises, and on the fourth […]
Yes, there are some! Mostly Americans, but include at least one Singaporean – a lapsed Buddhist(!). They got going about 2 years ago. Here’s their website: http://uusingapore.org/ We joined them for a field trip to a Buddhist monastery yesterday; apparently they meet in each other’s homes or various public venues (mosques, temples, etc.) for religious education. And […]
Here are some old shophouses we visited a few months ago, in a part of the city that hasn’t been redeveloped yet. In fact, these are Chinese/Peranakan shophouses dating back to the turn of the 20th century, that are getting restored by their owners (when the owners can afford it). It’s an historical district (also […]