Film Title: David Bowie – Ricochet
Year of Release: 1984
Directed by Gerry Troyna

Synopsis:
A film diary of musician David Bowie’s “Serious Moonlight” concert tour through Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore. Featuring classic performances both on and off stage, Bowie interacts with the local people and culture as he travels across Asia with his band.

In Singapore, he takes time off rehearsals, interviews and preparations for the concert to visit places of interest in Singapore, such as Sungei Road, Little India, and Far East Plaza. He talks to taxi drivers and chinese opera performers, and attempts to weave together an ambiguous narrative of his exploits through “other-worldly” landscapes. Features the 1980s street scenes of Singapore.

The Film Locations:

1. Sri Mariamman Temple, South Bridge Road.

Sri Mariamman Temple, Singapore oldest Hindu Temple, founded in 1827. Located in the heart of Chinatown.

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2. Masjid Abdul Gafoor, Dunlop Street. Little India.

David Bowie stumbles into places of religious interest. Here, he comes across the Abdul Gafoor Mosque, an Indian Muslim Mosque, in Kampong Kapor, Little India. The mosque stands opposite a row of shophouses, used as residences in the 1980s, now used for Quran classes and communal activities.
Lower right: Bowie walks to the junction of Dunlop Street and Perak Road. The tall building in the distance is the Rowell Court HDB Housing Complex.

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The filming locations in “Ricochet” as they are today (December 2012). Masjid Abdul Gafoor, Dunlop Street, Perak Road and Rowell Court HDB Flats.

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3. Thian Hock Keng Temple 天福宫, Telok Ayer Street.

Thian Hock Temple, or the Temple of Heavenly Happiness, the oldest Hokkien temple in Singapore, founded in the 1820s. The main temple is dedicated to Ma Zu 妈祖, the mother goddess of the sea and protector of all seamen.

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4. Sakya Muni Buddha Gaya Temple, Race Course Road. Farrer Park.

Sakya Muni Buddha Gaya Temple, founded in 1927 by Thai monk Vutthisara. It is most renown for the 15-meter-tall statue of a seated Buddha. Bowie seems to stand in awe of the towering religious icon, and tries his hand at the ‘Wheel of Fortune’.

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I paid a visit to the temple in December 2012.

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David Bowie boards a yellow-top taxi. (Yellow-top taxis were a collective group of individually owned taxis in Singapore, common in the 1960-90s. They have a yellow top and black body, hence their name. Yellow-top taxis are no longer in operation now. Taxi drivers are now coerced to rent their taxis from taxi companies or public transport conglomerates.)

Bowie has a casual discussion with the taxi driver about the chewing gum ban and drug offenses in Singapore.

In the film, Bowie’s chat with the taxi driver is immediately followed by a montage of scenes of our beloved city — skyscrapers, urban redevelopment, social engineering banners, a portrait of a politician, a school military band — accompanied by the march of the Singapore national anthem, “Majulah Singapura”.
Lower right film-still: Shophouses along Beach Road being demolished. Shaw Towers in the background.

Watch an excerpt from the film here, which contains sequences of the taxi-driver-Bowie chat and the “Majulah Singapura” montage.

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5. An Unknown Building, and Shaw House at the junction of Orchard Road and Scotts Road.
(Updated on 1 Feb 2013: The “unknown” building was the Tropicana Theatre Restaurant along Scotts Road, where Pacific Plaza is today.)

Bowie’s taxi passes several buildings, two of which have facades reflective of the 1970s-80s architectural style in Singapore. On the left film-still is a building which I am not yet able to identify, but it has a distinctive facade. On the right film-still is the Shaw House along Orchard Road, in 1983. In the 1990s, this will be torn down and replaced with two new office buildings owned by the Shaw brothers and a Shaw cineplex-cum-shopping-mall.

(Updated on 1 Feb 2013): The building on the left film-still has been identified as the Tropicana Theatre Restaurant along Scotts Road, courtesy of A.Lim who left a comment below. It was Singapore’s first entertainment complex to feature a cabaret theatre, restaurants and nightclubs. Opened in 1968 with the support of the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board, it was best known for introducing topless revues to Singapore. Jazz greats such as Duke Ellington and Count Basie had performed there.
The building was also designed by architects from Kee Yeap & Associates. It later closed in 1989 and a shopping centre, Pacific Plaza (still standing today), was built in its place.

I looked through the Singapore Archives’ online database PICAS and found photos of the interiors of the theatre and nightclubs in Tropicana.

PICAS’ description: Owner of Tropicana Theatre at Scotts Road, S C Shaw (Shaw Sung Ching) overlooking The Orchid Lantern Room as the nightclub closed after 21 years of operation.

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6. Ming Court Hotel Lobby and Emperor Suite

Bowie returns to his place of accommodation at the Ming Court Hotel. He had checked into the Emperor Suite. The Ming Court Hotel, located along Tanglin Road, was renamed Orchard Parade Hotel in 1991.

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7. Far East Plaza, Scotts Road.

Bowie leaves the comfort of his hotel suite and wanders into the night. He seems to take on another persona. The film departs from its documentary inclinations and the mood, colours, and background music henceforth evokes a quasi-sci-fi-apocalyptic narrative, with Bowie as a traveller in an alien landscape.

Here, he walks past the bus-stop in front of Far East Plaza (then a rather new shopping centre which had opened in 1982). The bus-stop has pyramidal roofs and spherical lights lining the edge of the roof. A “Trans-Island” bus drives into the bus-stop. Bowie walks non-chalantly  towards the neon-blue-strip-lit escalators — almost like a portal to another place and time.

“Bowie commissioned (Gerry Troyna the director) to make the official document of what was openly referred to as ‘The Bungle in the Jungle.’ This wouldn’t be a conventional tour-film, Troyna hired screenwriter, Martin Stellman, to draft a rough script…”
- sporeana.blogspot.sg

“Troyna says that the script outlined the “points we wanted to make about each country”, Singapore was intended to reflect “alienation and submission to the state”, but of course there would be a great deal of improvisation. The director walked around Orchard Road and discovered Far East Plaza, Singapore’s newest and (at that time) largest, shopping mall, opened only a few months earlier. It was a suitably “alienating” place. Bowie agreed.”
- sporeana.blogspot.sg

“(David Bowie) walks through the night in a black trenchcoat. Heads down Scotts Road and up an escalator to an overhead bridge drenched in blue neon, his yellow hair the only sign of life. The eerie-sinister soundtrack is ‘Sense of Doubt’, a Bowie/(Brian) Eno collaboration (from the ‘Heroes’ album). Here it’s used to lend atmosphere to the sterile sci-fi weirdness of ‘The Biggest Tourist Shopping Centre in South-East Asia’. After his escalator odyssey and a surreal scolding from a diminutive security guard, Bowie sits, looking pensively unimpressed, beneath the glittery kitsch of the musical fountain and a row of fake, plastic Christmas trees.
- sporeana.blogspot.sg

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8. Raffles Hotel, and Raffles City under construction.

The next morning, Bowie boards another taxi and makes a rather pointed request to driver: “Can we go somewhere, like, where there are no skyscrapers?” The taxi driver offers him two options — “the old building or the new building”. Bowie chooses the former and is driven to the Raffles Hotel…

“Then he’s amidst ghosts of a different kind. Inside the faux-colonial splendour of Raffles Hotel, Bowie seems as equally apprehensive as he did back in the mall. He’s swapped cold futurism for tropical nostalgia and found both equally wanting.”
- sporeana.blogspot.sg

Unfortunately, even within the snug confines of the Raffles Hotel verandas, Bowie is troubled by the relentless noises of construction next door – the Raffles City shopping mall and hotel under construction (in 1983).

Bowie had made a critical remark earlier in the film: “They are tearing a lot of buildings down, eh?” The Raffles Institution, the first school in Singapore, was demolished to make way for the construction of Raffles City, which includes a massive multi-storey shopping mall and a one-time world’s tallest hotel. Designed by world renown architect I.M Pei and completed in 1986. The old tends to make way for the new in Singapore; the global preferred to the vernacular.

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9. Former National Stadium, Kallang (demolished)

They tore this one down too. It was where Bowie held his first concert in Singapore. In its place will be a new Singapore Sports Hub, inclusive of a new stadium that features a retractable roof, due to open in 2014. They want a spanking new and glitzy, world-class stadium to boast of. No room for nostalgia.

David Bowie wrote of his landmark concert performance in the former Singapore National Stadium:

“I rip through a welcome and an introduction to the band in Chinese. It is received with dutiful sympathy by the crowd as my pronunciation is so dreadful that not one word is understood. The audience end of the ramp is so far away from the band that I am singing half a beat behind them. I look back and see a tiny, jumping Carlos Alomar leading a badly lit rock’n'roll group. I peer out and see paramilitary cops at the ratio of about one to two with the first row. They finger their billy clubs, their hands on their guns.

My jacket style is designer Tokyo — skyscrapers and diamante searchlights. There is so much lacquer in my hair that a hurricane couldn’t move it. My shirt is held into my pants by elastic thongs round my legs. I have two pairs of socks on because of oversized shoes. I am imploring the crowd, “put on your red shoes” … there is a scream of recognition —15,000 strong. A tiger-print-clad girl is slapped back over the security boundary by a ferocious swing of a billy club.

In a city where you can be arrested for chewing gum, a demand to put on red shoes is deemed unhealthy.”

(Source: http://thisrecording.com/today/tag/david-bowie)

Is Bowie being overly critical of the billy-club-toting boys?

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10. Sungei Road, Jalan Besar, and Rochor Centre HDB Complex.

Troyna the film director and Bowie contrived to juxtapose footage of his rock concert with those of a stage performance of the vernacular kind — Chinese street opera, otherwise known as “Wayang”. They found one opera troupe operating in Jalan Besar, with the outdoor stage built at the junction of Kelantan Road and Sungei Road, next to the Rochor River.

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Aerial shots of the city (recorded from the top floor of HDB Block 30, Kelantan Road) offer themselves as establishing shots for sequences involving the day-to-day activities of the street opera troupe members.

Film-still from “Ricochet”. Shot from HDB Block 30, Kelantan Road. Sim Lim Tower on the extreme right of the film-still. The Rochor Canal extends from the lower left corner. The Rochor Centre HDB Complex is in the centre (it will soon be demolished to make way for a new expressway). Bowie’s “tearing buildings down” remark still ring true after thirty years; the perpetual drive to renew, upgrade, redevelop, forget and blank-out.
The shophouses in the lower right corner were first to go twenty years back; torn down, and the site left vacant (except for an open-air laissez faire flea market) until the recent development of an underground MRT station on the site.

A similar view from the top floor of Block 30, shot in December 2012. The buildings are more colourful now, but that doesn’t deflect the gloom of their eventual demise. Sim Lim Tower, being old and relatively unpopular, may have to make way for a new shopping-cum-entertainment complex in the future?

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Film-stills from “Ricochet”. Close-ups of the facades of the Rochor Centre HDB housing flats. Bowie would have been critical of the design – cold, hard, uniform, regular, ultra-functional and boring. Nonetheless, these HDB blocks are representative of an era of rapid mass housing developments and experimentations with types — the housing-cum-retail shops-cum-communal centres all-in-one complex.
Apologies, no room for nostalgia. Make way for more roads to ease the traffic jams.

Close-up shots of the now-colourful facades of the Rochor Centre HDB flats. Also shot from Block 30, Kelantan Road. December 2012. A fresh coat of makeup before the funeral.

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Film-still from “Ricochet”. Dusk. The vicinity of Sungei Road and Jalan Besar. Shophouses line the minor streets in the foreground of the shot — Pitt Street, Larut Road, Kelantan Road and Weld Road. There was even an ice factory along Sungei Road — Singapore Ice Works (established in 1958). All the shophouses to the left of Jalan Besar in this shot were demolished in the 1990s.

A view similar to the previous film-still from “Ricochet”. Vehicles travelling along Jalan Besar make a detour around the site of the construction for a new underground MRT station. Rowell Court HDB flats on the extreme right is still standing.
The open-air flea market in the foreground survives from the days when the shophouses were still standing, through its resurgence in the early 2000s when it took up all the minor streets of the Sungei Road vicinity and became a popular haunt for second-hand goods shoppers and tourists alike.
Today, the flea market has shrunk in size and merely took up three shortened minor streets, remainders from the spaces occupied by the diverted Jalan Besar, and the MRT station construction sites and offices.

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A current map (December 2012) of the Sungei Road vicinity. Jalan Besar makes a diversion due to the construction of a new underground MRT station.

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Film-still from “Ricochet”. Shophouses lining Larut Road and Pitt Street. A spate of fire destroyed some of the shophouses in 1991. The rest were torn down soon after as they were deemed to be potential fire hazards. It is suggested in the film that the street opera troupe members featured lived in these shophouses, close to the outdoor Wayang stage set up along Sungei Road, next to the Rochor Canal.

A view similar to the previous film-still from “Ricochet”. Larut Road is occupied by the remnant flea market in the lower left corner. Pitt Street is shortened due to the diversion of Jalan Besar.

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Film-stills from “Ricochet”. The living spaces of the street opera troupe members. It is suggested in the film that they live in the shophouses in the vicinity of Sungei Road.

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In the evening, the street opera troupe members (some with their babies in tow) take a stroll down Sungei Road from their homes to the “Wayang” stage and prepare themselves for the night performance.
Sim Lim Tower and Rochor Centre are in the background.

The state of Sungei Road in December 2012. A view from an angle similar to the previous film-still from “Ricochet”.

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Film-still from “Ricochet”. The open-air “Wayang” stage in front of HDB Block 30, Kelantan Road. Spectators stream in for the next night performance.

A view from an angle similar to the previous film-still from “Ricochet”. December 2012. Rochor canal is currently fenced up for redevelopment.

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Film-still from “Ricochet”. A view from the opera stage. Rochor Canal is on the left of the film-still. Sungei Road in the middle. The Singapore Ice Works on the right. Sim Lim Tower and Rochor Centre in the background. This view has undergone changes (the Ice Works no longer exist) and will continue to change (Rochor Centre will be demolished by year 2016).

Film-still from “Ricochet”. Will there still be room for open-air Chinese street opera stages in the future? Truth be told, I don’t even watch chinese opera. Can’t understand what is sung, but keen to understand. I will get there.

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More photos of the Sungei Road vicinity, recorded in December 2012:

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“Bowie performing (the song) ‘Heroes’ is intercut with scenes from the Chinese wayang, so much so that the song eventually seems be placed into the mouths of the singers. Before he turns his back on the audience in the stadium Bowie grins, almost laughing, suddenly, finally happy. Then for a moment, Bowie’s in the audience at the opera, surrounded by aunties and uncles, looking extraordinarily handsome, and Heroes has become their song, Singapore’s song. Its final chords played out over a beautiful close-up of an opera performer. An equilibrium is found between music and image. A symbolic moment for a weary showman; performer gives way to other performers and becomes the audience, a final reversal. It’s ambiguous, but it’s also hopeful. And that’s how David Bowie and Ricochet leave Singapore.”

- sporeana.blogspot.sg

Watch Bowie’s “Heroes” juxtaposed with Chinese Street Opera here.

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As you can see, the run was near the northern portion of an island in a loop — starting and ending at Banzai Cliff, which is a monument area looking out over the ocean. Eleven of us started at 5:30 in the morning and watched the sun peek through the clouds through the run. It’s just 9:30 AM, and I’m already home, showered and comfortable. I’ve got an iced coffee to my right and just finished off my egg breakfast sandwich. I can’t say it’s a bad way to start my day off!

The hospital abated the immediate threat to terminate Medicaid/Medicare’s funding for us as of December 3rd but it is now just pushed back until the new termination date in February 2013. In the next 10 days, we must submit corrective action for the remaining citations we were cited for and there must be evidence of change before the next possible termination date next year. In other news, the lack of enough staff in the pediatrics department is starting to put a strain on things and as department chair I’m going to a few more meetings — including some last minute ones — hopefully I can share soon some positive changes that may be made. It has helped me learn what it means to really think long-term about what I’m in charge of and take responsibility for those things. I feel like I have lots of answers to the interview question “Can you tell me about an experience where you were challenged and had to rise to the challenge?” I’m hoping I can make some useful and lasting improvements during my time.

Despite my grumpiness during the run (and a recent run of a lot of working days), I really do love living here and working here and am so fortunate to be doing so. Happy December everyone!

Here are some pictures from Beach Road at sunset. I found this random setting on my camera that blurs the edges of the picture…

Also, in case you were wondering.. here are all the other islands in the Marianas chain. I took this picture off our whiteboard in one of the conference room that is labelled as “Typhoon tracker” for emergencies.. thank goodness so far we have not had to use that whiteboard. As you can see, Guam is part of the Marianas Chain, but not part of this commonwealth known as the “Northern Marianas Islands.”

Just a quick reminder about this coming Saturday’s scrub clearance at Newton.

We will be meeting at Beach Road Car park at Newton at 10.00a.m and we’ll be out until about 12ish.

Please dress appropriately fort the weather conditions and nothing too new as we’ll be lighting a fire!

 Please can you let me know that you intend to come along, so I’ll know to expect you.

Hope to see you there, Rob

Rob.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation says crews this week will begin hauling materials adjacent to the Beach Road ramp off eastbound Highway 36 in Oak Park Heights.

Piles of dirt will be monitored during the winter to measure the weight-bearing ability of soils beneath the piles.

Crews also will build a parking lot this fall for use by the city of Oak Park Heights and a restaurant, to replace parking spaces lost to changes in the frontage road.

The St. Croix Crossing project will replace the 80-year-old Stillwater Lift Bridge with a four-lane bridge that will connect expressways on both sides of the St. Croix River.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

And here it is zoomed in..

It really is right on the water!

I also found this feature.. your speed plotted on the y-axis and your length of time running along the x-axis. Haha, you can tell where I gave up and walked… so embarrassing! This thing keeps you honest. They should design the watch to notice huge swings in speeds and say something like, “Hey! What happened? Why are you slowing down?” instead of just beeping. (Actually, I bet there is an app for that!)

Well, today I am grateful for the things that keep you honest… and being able to run and being able to enjoy running by the water and being on a tropical island. After having my arm trapped in a little sling-thing from Sept to October makes me appreciate being able to run and just enjoy this island at my leisure.

P.S. It was fun trying to keep up with election results today from the other side of the world. I watched Obama’s victory speech live and realized that it was 2 AM eastern time!  (my 5 PM after work!)

With Immy and I towel-less (I accidentally left mine in Bangkok and Immy got rid of his to make more room) and us not being prepared to pay we decided we would go and play some football golf. It looked really good fun in the leaflet with some celebs even giving it a go. First we went for a quick lunch at a spot called ‘Terminal D’. This place is remarkably cheap compared to everything around it and has very good value meal deals. I got a bottle of sprite, chicken baguette, and plate of watermelon and pineapple, all for B99 (£2). It’s no takeaway either, it’s a proper sit in restaurant with wifi.

It was then, during lunch, that all our plans went down the pan. It started to rain, and rain and rain some more. Infact, it pretty much rained constantly for the rest of the day. We hung around here for a couple of hours making the most of the free wifi and with our options limited we had some more food here. Our waiter was a ladyboy. It was easy to tell because despite having a sort of feminine body they always had massive heads and an adams apple and abnormally deeper voices than average Thai woman. I accidentally said “cheers mate” when our food was brought over, not sure if he/she heard but Jordan’s laughing implied I had said something. My bad.

We had now eaten twice and it was still raining. With nothing else to do in Thailand when it rains, Jordan and I went for a massage while Immy went for a coffee. The massage was good, it was supposed to be an hour but it felt quicker than that. I didn’t check the time it started so I didn’t really have a case to argue, but it did the trick anyway and got my knots out.

We all met up again for dinner at the ‘Islander’. It was run by an English guy and from the pictures on the wall, it had been visited by some well known sports personal such as Ricky Hatton. This place was slightly more expensive but the football was on so we had some entertainment for the next hour or so. The food was pretty decent as well. Afterwards, Jordan and I went for a few beers at Henry Africa. This was a really cool little bar with an awesome vibe. It had a good mix of music and had a lively atmosphere but best of all it had multiple televisions showing various sports including football, rugby and formula one.

After a couple chilled beers we returned to hotel to pack our bags ready for check out in the morning. Immy and I didnt end up getting to sleep till about 5am so i’m sure we’ll be tired. Krabi is the destination for tomorrow, we’re heard mixed reviews so not too sure what to expect…

Do not be put off my the sight of the long queue, they move as fast as the customers add on.

Alright, let’s go straight to the food. Besides the rice and the curry, you have a variety of side dishes, such as chicken wing, fried egg and ngoh hiang to choose from. But one of the most popular add-ons would be the fried chicken cutlet. So after the side dishes have been furiously cut into pieces by a snappy scissors, 3 different sauces are poured over the plate. So what do you get at the end? A plate of aw-curry-some. The 3 different sauces work so well together to give a slightly curry-spicy, milky and sweet taste to complement the steaming hot rice and side dishes. My friend and I finished the plate in around 5 minutes. We were either super hungry or it was that good. Wait, make that both.

Yepp, that’s the man snapping away with his “japanese hand” scissors. You can hear the blades clanging away as you eat.

Beach Road Scissor Cut Curry Rice
229 Jalan Besar (Junction of Jalan Besar and Kitchener Road)
Singapore 208905
11am to 3.30am daily

View from Agingan Point..

Sunset along Beach Road..

Personal 4-seater plane flight around Saipan..

With my dad flying!! (only for 30 seconds though)

Hiking from Banzai Cliff to the ocean at Cowtown ..

Spa visit for mom..

Old Man by the Sea Hike..

Then tonight we’re going to stay at the Hyatt for a night, go kayaking (and I’m going to try paddleboarding) and eat a fancy dinner!

It’s a pretty lucky life I’m leading right now. It’s fun to be sharing all of these places with my parents!  The island is pretty small though.. they are here for three more days and I’m running out of places to go because we have such jam-packed days here.

There are times where you see long snaking queues of hungry people waiting in line to have plate of steaming rice drenched in their signature curry sauce!

You can select the variety of side dishes to have with your the curry rice, my favourite being, 1 serving of Pork Chop and 2 servings of cabbage! The stall holders are very generous with their servings so be careful not to over-order!

Although it looks all brown, gooey and sloppily mixed, it is simply one of the most divine meals that I will constantly crave for, that sometimes I go back once a month to satisfy my tastebuds!

The best thing? This plate cost me less than $5!

If you have been missing out on this plate of goodness, tonight will be a good time to try it out cause this place only close at 3.30am!

Feed your Round Tum Tums @

Beach Road Scissors-Cut Curry Rice
229 Jalan Besar Singapore 208905‎
Opening Hours: 11am – 3.30am

The Film Locations (Part 2):

9. Japanese Commemoration of the War Dead — Singapore City Center, Padang,  Raffles College & other unknown locations

After the climactic scene of the surrender at the Fort Motor Factory, the documentary film exhibits a series of events that were representative of the Japanese military’s psyche and mood after the completion of the conquest of Singapore. We would see desecrated landscapes, vehicles on fire, a dirtied flag of the Union Jack, a short moment of “banzai” and proceedings to commemorate the war dead. There is almost an attempt to avoid showing overt celebrations in the documentary. More time is indeed dedicated to the pertinent post-war matters – commemoration of the dead and remembrance of their sacrifices to the war effort, recovery of the Japanese civilians who had been interned by the British and the management of the prisoners-of-war. Acts of violence, such as the Sook Ching massacre which occurred within a few days after the surrender, are not represented though. The sequence of events depicted in the film suggests a peaceful and sombre transference of power from an aging British empire to the emergent Japanese imperialists. Atrocities are concealed from the public sphere. Propaganda at work.

After the surrender, General Yamashita reportedly sent a telegram to the Imperial Army Headquarters: “The battle is no more than a prelude. The Army will not hold a celebration. Instead of a triumphal-entry ceremony, a ceremonial commemoration service for the dead will be solemnized on 20 Februrary, and immediately after, we will begin operations in Sumatra.”

The commemoration service on the 20 February 1942 was held at the Raffles College (now NUS Bukit Timah campus), where Yamashita’s headquarters had moved to from the Ford factory after the surrender. However, the  documentary shows several commemoration services for the war dead, and one of them would have been the 20 Feb service. The locations in the film where the services were conducted are not immediately clear to me due to the dearth of identifiable features in the landscape and my lack of proficiency in the Japanese language. So, expect speculations ahead…

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Commemoration of the war dead on a modest scale. Japanese soldiers who were killed in action were often buried at the battle sites and commemorated with grave markers and offerings such as flowers and wine. Before burial, their wrists would first be severed so that the survivors could return the hands or the ashes of the hands to their homes.
The specific locations of the grave markers depicted in the film-stills above are not clear to me. The grave markers would also be temporary as the buried corpses might have been cremated at a later stage and the ashes housed in the shrine next to the Syonan Chureito (also known as the “Syonan Memorial to the Spirits of the Loyal Soldiers who died in the Battle for Singapore”), which was unveiled on the Bukit Batok Hilltop  on 10 September 1942.

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Prior to the aforementioned 20 February memorial service,  the Japanese army had already organised a commemorative parade of tank soldiers on the 16 February 1942. From the film-stills above, I can’t really make out the location of the parade. The soldiers were bearing the ashes of the war dead (in urns wrapped in white cloth hung around their necks) and readying themselves on a grass field before the tank convoys went on a procession around the Singapore city area.

The procession of the tanks entered the Singapore city, passing the Padang.
Upper left:  The Singapore Cricket Club can be seen in the distance. Upper right:  The Supreme Court.
Lower left and right:  Dignified poses of the Japanese soldiers who bore the urns containing the ashes of their dead comrades in front of their chests.
Consider the symbolic nature of such a gesture. No triumphal parade. Sombre procession of the dead and the living riding on tanks into the city area where there was a concentration of architectural icons of the British empire, the past masters.

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The tanks would parade pass the Raffles’ Statue in front of the Victoria Memorial Hall. It almost seemed like a march past for an abdicating leader. Soon, the statue would be taken down and stored in the Raffles Museum, and there was a plan to replace it with Yamashita’s statue. That, however, did not materialise. Raffles’ statue would be reinstated after the return of the British in 1945.

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The tank procession travelled to other places in Singapore, locations that I am not able to identify. It passed a John Little advertisement billboard, a building with “Sin Chew Jit Poh Ltd.” painted on its side, a non-descript village, and a colonial building (lower right). Which colonial building was that? Can anyone identify that building?

(18 Oct 2012: Update – The building in the lower right film-still above was the Singapore Sailors Institute, located in the vicinity of Anson Road, close to the Tanjong Pagar wharves and godowns. Not much information is available on this building, but it has appeared on an old postcard from the 1930s…)

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This group of film-stills from the documentary are of the aforementioned 20 February commemoration service under General Yamashita’s initiative. It was dedicated to the 3,500 Japanese soldiers who were killed in the Malayan Campaign. The location of the service depicted above was definitely the Raffles College grassfield, as the buildings depicted in the lower right film-still above matched the ones in photographs of Raffles College that were taken pre-war.

These 1938 photographs of the Raffles College Administration & Science Blocks and the grass field were extracted from the National Archives of Singapore. The Kanji characters written on the memorial in the film-still, “戰殃將兵之英靈”,  may be translated as “Memorial for Spirits of the Valiant Soldiers who Died in Battle”.

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A grand memorial for the Japanese War Dead would be constructed on top of the Bukit Batok Hill and unveiled in September 1942. The ashes of the war dead would also be moved to this new memorial, named “Syonan Chureito“. The memorial was destroyed before the Japanese surrender in 1945 and only the ceremonial steps leading to the memorial and some base pillars remain at the site today. I visited the memorial site (now renamed Bukit Batok Memorial) was I was preparing for this blog post.

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As a matter of interest, I had also visited the Japanese Cemetery Park situated along Chuan Hoe Avenue, near Serangoon Gardens. There is a section in the cemetery that is dedicated to the war dead of the Second World War. The ashes of 10,000 Japanese war dead collected from the destroyed Syonan Chureito are also interred in the cemetery park.

Used as a burial ground since 1891, it is supposedly the largest Japanese cemetery in Southeast Asia, consisting of 910 tombstones that contain the remains of members of the Japanese community in Singapore, including young Japanese prostitutes, civilians, soldiers and convicted war criminals executed at Changi Prison in Singapore. Burials at the site continued until 1973. It has since been gazetted as a memorial park by the Singapore government, and is currently maintained by the Japanese Association of Singapore.

Here is a selection of the photographs I took on the trip to the cemetery park:

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10. Recruitment for Indian National Army – Farrer Park

Two days after the surrender on 17 February 1942, some 45,000 Indian Army prisoners-of-war that had assembled at Farrer Park were addressed by Major Fujiwara Iwaichi (of the Japanese special operations unit F-Kikan) and Captain Mohan Singh, who was one of the first British Indian military officer to defect to the Japanese during the Malayan Campaign. Major Fujiwara had “recruited” Captain Mohan Singh after the defeat at Jitra and requested him to form an Indian Army comprising the captured Indian soldiers. It was the early beginnings of the Indian National Army (INA), which would become the military arm of the Indian Independence League (IIL).

The intent of the address by Fujiwara and Mohan Singh was to convince the Indian prisoners-of-war to join the INA to fight for a free and independent India, with support from the Japanese military. Fujiwara had said during the address that “Japan is fighting for the liberation of the nations in Asia which have been for so long trodden under the cruel heels of British imperialism. Japan is the liberator and the friend of Asiatics… The independence of India is essential for the independence of Asia and the peace of the world; and it is the duty of Indians to free themselves. Japan is willing to give all-out aid and assistance to Indians in East Asia to achieve their aspirations.”

Mohan Singh had also asked the crowd to raise their hands if they would like to volunteer to join the INA. He recounted in his memoirs “Soldiers’ Contribution to Indian Independence”(1974): “There was a spontaneous response from all the soliders. Along with the raising of hands, thousands of turbans and caps were hurled up in the air… soldiers jumped to their feet… with prolonged shouts of ‘Inqilab Zindabad’ (Long Live Revolution).”

.

Film-stills from the documentary. The massive crowd at Farrer Park on 17 February 1942.
Lower right: Captain Mohan Singh was one of those who addressed the crowd. He urged them to join the Indian National Army to fight for the liberation of India from British colonial rule. (Note: This image of Mohan Singh is not from “Malayan War Record”. I had extracted it from archive footage that is presented in another documentary “Singapore 1942 End of Empire”.)

..

A pre-war map showing the location of Farrer Park.

Farrer Park was the first race course built in Singapore and doubled as a golf course, grazing pasture and rifle range. It also served as an air strip for aircrafts landing in Singapore during early 20th century. After World War Two, it became a sporting arena for the masses and was a popular venue for political rallies during the post-war struggle for independence. Today, part of the Farrer Park open plains remains while the rest are redeveloped for public housing and commercial purposes. It is now a rather quiet and spacious “backyard” to the thronged alleys of Little India.

In my opinion, the best time to visit Farrer Park these days is on a late Sunday afternoon, when thousands of weekenders descend upon the fields to while the time away or play some leisure sports:

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11. Aftermath of the Japanese invasion – Street Scenes

War-ravaged streets. Possibly Chinatown.
Lower left: Sandbags stacked up at the entrance to the shops. Air-raid and artillery shelling precautions.
Lower right: “Uyeda Shoten”. A Japanese bookstore. Could this be shot in Middle Road, a Japanese enclave before the war?

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12. Recovery of Japanese Civilian Residents – Singapore Japanese Elementary School and the Japanese enclave in Singapore

One of the foremost tasks of the Japanese military after the British surrender was to free the Japanese civilian residents of Singapore, around 40 of them, held at Changi Prison since the outbreak of the Pacific war. The British Special Branch had rounded up all the Japanese nationals after the air raid on 8 December 1941 and interned them with the intention of sending them away to India.

Prior to the sequence depicting the recovery of the Japanese civilian residents, the editor of the documentary had included two shots of the Singapore Japanese Elementary School (新加坡日本小學校) — one of the school gate and the signboard, and the other of a statue that presumably stood inside the school.  The purpose of that might have been to make known the vicinity of the location of where the Japanese civilians would be recovered to. The elementary school had been located within the Japanese enclave, at the junction of Waterloo Street and Middle Road.

Pre-war map of Middle Road, the Japanese Street (日本人街). The Singapore Japanese Elementary School was marked no. 53.

Two shots of the Singapore Japanese Elementary School in the documentary.

The former Singapore Japanese Elementary School. The current Stamford Arts Centre. The same gate pillar that was shown in the documentary.

The other gate pillar with a sign stating the current name of the building and its address.

The stoic cat and a curious onlooker.

The Stamford Arts Center is where a number of performing arts troupes are based. One of them is the Nrityalaya Aesthetics Society. It conducts traditional Indian dance and music classes.

The facade of Stamford Arts Centre. A strange design. An imposing pillar that stood in the center of the entrance axis…

…which made taking class photos a tad challenging? (Year of photo: 1936.)

The Singapore Japanese Elementary School in 1931.

Jovial times in the elementary school. Battledore match. 1936.

Pre-war Middle Road. The Japanese Street. The Japanese community had called it the “Chuo-dori” (which translates into “Central Street”).

(18 Oct 2012: Update – According to Mamoru Shinozaki in his book “Syonan: My Story”, the  Singapore Japanese Elementary School had also been used as temporary accommodation for members of Singapore’s pre-war Japanese community returning from Japan after the British surrender. Those Japanese civilians who had been interned in India and returned to Syonan in August 1942 were also quartered at the Japanese school — the Japanese and the British had agreed to a prisoner of war exchange.)

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The recovery of Japanese civilian residents from internment, as documented in the film “Mare Senki”. I am speculating that these were shot somewhere in and around the Japanese enclave along Middle Road, since the two shots of the elementary school mentioned above had presented immediately before this sequence. But I am still unable to identify the buildings in the film-stills here.
Lower right: Bowing to the new masters. Some of these civilian residents would later serve as translators or administrators during the Japanese occupation. After the end of second world war, they would be repatriated to Japan, and Japanese citizens were to be denied entry into Singapore for the next four years.

Alliances were constantly changing. Even till today.

(18 Oct 2012: Update – I have found out that the set of film-stills above was indeed shot in and around the Japanese enclave. The location where the Japanese civilians were disembarking from the lorries was along Beach Road — which was still part of the Japanese enclave as indicated in the map presented earlier.

Mamoru Shinozaki, then press-attache of the Foreign Ministry, was jailed by the British for spying for the Japanese Imperial Army and held in Changi Prison since September 1940. After the start of the Pacific War, Mamoru Shinozaki was joined by other Japanese civilians and officials. Most were sent to India, leaving a group of around 40 still interned at Changi Prison — Shinozaki had written in his book “Syonan: My Story” that the group consisted of “a few old women, some Okinawan fishermen, Dr Nakamura from Malacca, and Masaji Hirayama.” After the fall of Singapore, they were recovered from Changi Prison on 16th Feb 1942 by the Kempei Tai (military police) and “taken to Beach Road, to the 2nd Field Military Kempei Tai headquarters.”

Moreover, I discovered that the building in the background of the film-still on the lower left (the one with the old lady holding a Japanese flag), was the Chin Chin Hotel located along Beach Road:

A postcard showing Beach Road, c.1920-1930s.

The design of the building top of Chin Chin Hotel matched the one in the film-still from “Mare Senki”. So, it can be surmised that the Japanese civilians were indeed dropped off at Beach Road after recovery from Changi Prison by the Kempei Tai, as mentioned by Mamoru Shinozaki in his book.

Coincidentally, a “Chin Chin Eating House” can be found near the junction of Beach Road and Purvis Street today. The “Chin Chin” in both instances differ though — the “Chin Chin” for the hotel in 1920s translates from “真真”, while the one for the eating house today translates from “津津”.)

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[to be continued in the next post... British and Australian prisoners-of-war, Changi Prison and the Johore Battery... ]

But anyway! Since we worked till 7am, we also have lots of options for breakfast! Rather than the usual dim sum/prata suppers, we decided to go for a soupy breakfast!

Beach road prawn mee is one of the most popular prawn mee outlets in Singapore! And apparently they open at 6am and they close once the soup finish(like 12-2pm) that kind. So must go early!

When we arrived at about 7.30am, half of the area was filled with people eating alr!

I love love love the soup! So tasty and prawn-y! Must take it when it’s hot! I ordered the prawn and pork ribs soup, and at $5.50 there’s a lot of pork but the prawns are too small in my opinion!

Mine had no yellow mee and only thick beehoon because I hate yellow mee! (my dear readers should know by now) haha. I usually cannot finish one portion of food but yeah I totally polished this bowl of goodness!

It is especially good on rainy days! So go ahead and eat it anytime!

However, I find that the tea is damn ‘siap’, literally ‘not my cup of tea’. Hahaha. I love my tea light brownish-yellow (lots of condensed milk type), but when this cup came it was like dark brown! Can you imagine how bitter it is alr? Eew.

Okay, gonna crash till evening again. Wheeeee! Nights, you makan loyals

There is a great path along “Beach Road” that is paved and is a common place to find the bikers, walkers, and joggers of Saipan. I recently took some pictures along the road to show you what it looks like. It is surprisingly literally night next to the beach with occasional sections lined by trees. The trees here are generally either palm trees/banana trees/betel nut trees or pines as you can see.

You’ll see a picture I caught of a guy spearfishing, some pictures of this mornings’ sunrise (I was too early for work so I took my coffee and sat by the pier and took some pictures), and a huge bunch of bananas one of my patients brought us today (that’s just 1/3 of what the brought!!).

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Pinchy and I decided, seemingly along with the rest of the tens of thousands of Around the Bay in a Day participants, to get serious about our training. We’ve signed up for the 250km version of the seminal loop around Port Phillip, and the date is looming. We knew we needed some training on the flats, but as a climbing junkie I knew I’d feel a bit unfulfilled if we didn’t hit at least one hill, thus Arthurs Seat became our midpoint.

I really enjoyed the luxury of starting the ride from my house and not having to fold up into a car before and after the ride, but unfortunately Pinch didn’t have that luxury, so I met him in St Kilda. The early Sunday morning run through the city is always fun, everyone else is tired/drunk/barefoot/stranded/hung over/notridingtoday and I’m flying through the city at 40km/h with the wind in my beard. I was especially buoyed by the fact that that wind in my beard was only a gentle wind, after a gale force opening week to spring.

At St Kilda we kept the foreplay to a minimum and got going. It was easy to forget that we had 170km to cover when we were hooking along at 45km/h. We kept on trying to chill out, saying we have to save ourselves, but we’d creep back over 40km/h within seconds. It remained like this pretty much all the way to Frankston, shedding layers of clothing along the way as the weather got more and more perfect. Pinchy is from around those parts, so he found some traffic-free back street sprints for us to enjoy all the way to Franga, but not before he turned my Garmin off for a while, the darling.

After a delicious coffee in Frankston we took the less scenic route by cutting inland on the Nepean, for some reason. Next time I’ll remember to hug the coast, but hey, I hit some climbs I’d never done before. Eventually we got to the high point of the day (so to speak): Arthur’s Seat. Pinch was a little nervous about the short but brutal climb, since it was his first proper attempt, but thanks to me only planning rides centred around climbing (and modifying his to include MORE climbing) he was turning into quite the closet grimpeur. I must admit my confidence was brought to heel very early on the climb, and moreso after some unexpected cramps halfway (I’m not generally a cramper). I’d expected to smash my time, but in the end only took a measley minute off, which was probably about my stoppage time on my first climb up. I guess it’s ok.

These are the only three photos that we took. It just wasn’t scenic enough for us.

After a minute or two Pinch rolled over the top grinning from ear to ear, he too had battled cramps, but victory was his, and the Arthurs seat monkey was off his back. One thing is not in doubt though, he can descend like a beast. While I was actually slowing down to 15km/h for the 15km/h hairpins (Only slightly faster than my ascent speed), he was overtaking bewildered elderly Sunday drivers. It was his turn to wait for me…down the bottom.

We had some eats in Dromana, checked in with the locals, and made sure the tilts of our cycling caps were right, then we were on our way. We pretty much retraced our steps on the return leg, making pitiful attempts to take turns. Pinch likes to take front seat for some reason on the flats, and I find it difficult to complain. Other than a brief bout of asthma, a thrown chain, and both of us having to put up with my incredibly creaky stem/bars (I’ve fixed it Pinch I promise) we got home pretty unscathed. It was a relief to have a little left in the tank after 170km, as we’ll need to add another 80+ to that in a months time. Can I go back to the hills now?

Gareth.

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One of the best Sydney bands going around at the moment, the Laurels are setting off on a tour of the country in celebration of their new album, “Plains”. Their grungy sound will suit the renowned rock-venue the Annandale Hotel to a tee.

Wednesday 5^th September: YesYou – Beach Road Hotel – Free

Celebrated as one of the Triple J Next Crop Artists last year, Brisbane production duo YesYou have been busy writing and producing for the likes of Jinja Safari and DZ Deathrays. They’ve also been finishing off their own debut EP, which will include the current single “Frivolous Life”.

Wednesday 12^th September: The Medics – Spectrum – $15 + bf

Hailing from North-Queensland, the Medics’ debut album Foundations has been one of the highlights of the year, having won a swag of awards at the recent National Indigenous Music Awards.

Wednesday 12^th September: Twerps – Beach Road Hotel – Free

I included Twerps in last month’s gig guide, and in case you missed them (like me!), they’re in Sydney again this month. And this time, it’s free – no excuses dudes.

Thursday 20^th September: Pond – The Metro – $22

For those who weren’t aware, the guys from Tame Impala play in another band, Pond, and funnily enough, they’re just as good! More of a psych-rock vibe to their music, they’re an experience to watch.

We were introduced to Xin Yuan Ji some time ago, and it is now our go-to place for sliced fish soup in Singapore. The restaurant itself is a full service tze-char restaurant, catering both to the one-hour luncher and the relaxed steamboater. It is particularly noted for its steamboat, fishhead curry and fish soup offerings.

The sliced fish soup with condensed milk ($5.80 – $7.00) is one of their specialities. You can have it with thick beehoon, porridge, or a separate serving of rice. The original purpose of adding milk was to mimic the appearance of fish-bone soup that has been boiled for hours, but it also has the effect of giving the soup a smoother texture and a pleasant sour-salty aftertaste. Fried fish slices are also available.

The sanlao fish hor fun ($7.00) comes hot out of the kitchen smelling of wokhei, the smokey, slight charred scent cherished by Cantonese chefs. There is a generous portion of fish and beansprouts, with plenty to share around.

We’ve not tried the rest of the dishes on the menu, but the shrimp prawn paste (belachan) chicken is a best seller and purportedly very good. Just don’t question how healthy it is.

This was a bit of a surprise. I just got sent the new YesYou video clip so I checked it out and, upon playing it, I thought, “Hmm, those graffiti covered walls look familiar,” and “hey, is that my ex housemate?”. So, yeah, it turns out the clip was filmed IN MY OLD HOUSE!

The chance to see what a fucking cool building I used to live in is one reason to check out the above clip, as is the fact that the song is good too. YesYou are production duo Jono Kirkham and Gav Parry. You’ve probably heard their buoyant debut track Half Of It, which made ripples  when it featured on the world wide internet machine throughout 2011. Recently they’ve been holed up in the studio writing and producing tracks with and for the likes of Jinja Safari and DZ Deathrays. Performing live as a four-piece, the band have supported Oscar & Martin, Electric Guest, Neon Indian and Ball Park Music. Frivolous Life (ft. Marcus Azon) is the first single off YesYou’s debut EP, due out in the coming months.

If you are in Aus, you can see them here:
Wed 5 Sept – Beach Road Hotel, Bondi
Wed 12 Sept – Bigsound, Club, Brisbane

Words by Bobby Townsend

Once upon a time,  Peanut Butter & Banana were my favourite couple and I thought they would be together forever. But Life has a funny way of capsizing one’s boat of should-bes and would-bes when she’s bored. So somewhere along the way, Banana shifted out of the plate he cohabited with PB, and one dewy morning, PB met the Apples.

In most versions of this fairytale, the Apples are decked out in tart green, but I think they suit golden-reds best. PB twirled and laughed with the first two brothers, but it was Braeburn Apple with his charming crunchiness she was secretly nutty for.

Their detractors cried out that it was an strange, strange match, but they held fast to each other. In time, as always, the nay-sayers faded away and PB & Braeburn Apple lived happily ever after on their blue plate, travelling about on their silver spoon.

xxxxx

On the same colour palette note, had my nails done at manicurious again. The perk about knowing the people there is that even if I spend a good full half an hour discussing a design and testing out a thousand colours, the manicurists still smile and don’t dump my iced chocolate over my head.

Then again, I think they smile at everyone, so perhaps it’s an imaginary perk. They are an accomodating lot. Loving this simple design Jenny suggested to me when I showed up in a nautical dress.

Perfect