Ongoing Movement – Preservation & Conservation

In an era of internet connectivity, whereby people are inter-connected via social media channels and applications, along with the proliferation of smart phones and tablets, it brought out different impacts and changes to how our lifestyle has changed and adapt in this modern highly connected internet world.

While social media makes/turns people into anti-social (sometimes or many a times) at the dining table or gatherings, between friends and relatives e.g. everybody just keeping quiet and looking at their smartphones and busy typing away with their fingertips, without talking to each other and looking at each other face to face. On the other hand, social media today allows the boom and growth of community activism further and reaching out to a wider audience than before. Here’s the Channel News Asia report on the blossoming of Singapore’s social activism!

Being involved actively in the social media, I slowly got myself more actively involved, mainly through my photography, documentation and sharing of my journeys and thoughts. The photojournalism journey of my projects and causes can be found here on my photography site while my personal site here is an in-depth writings on my inner most thoughts and feelings.

Here’s a brief recap on some of my past writings and photojournalism stories

– History, Heritage, Preservation and Conversation

– Saving Bukit Brown

– The Start of the End of Rochor Centre

– Regenerating Communities – Regenerating Puppetry in Singapore

– What lies ahead for the Green Corridor 

– Old Places Singapore ~ collection of my photojournalism stories and adventures

The above personal collection of mine is a testimonial of how all of us can use and harness the power, impacts and outreach of social media, to spread a noble cause, rally the interest and support. Every drop makes an ocean, every one of us can make an impact, no matter how small it is, just imagine each of us just broadcast it out, each word spreads to 3 people and these 3 people continue to spread out 3 more people each. This is the power of Pay-It-Forward.

My most recent heritage, conservation and preservation project was covering Sin Hoe Ping Puppet Troupe performance during Regenerating Communities at Empress Place, it was a very enriching and humbling experience, to learn something new, about our heritage and culture. The challenges that they faced in this modern era, their succession issues and whether this traditional art performance can continue into the future down the road, remains a question mark. It was an honour to cover their story behind the story, as much as possible, to help spread a meaningful cause and hope the few of us (think about 20 of us), would be able to reignite the community’s interest in puppetry, thus helping them in their growth, continuation and succession.

For Bukit Brown, it’s an ongoing movement getting stronger in interest and publicity, check out the Chinese newspaper coverage on Bukit Brown here! The decision is made to make way for the 8 lanes expressway and this is going to impact the natural beauty and heritage of Bukit Brown, with the newspaper report on Straits Times – “Development of Bukit Brown Cemetery will proceed as planned“. Do keep a lookout for more news and updates on the community group’s activities and findings on their Facebook Group – Heritage Singapore – Bukit Brown Cemetery and join in their walks, to learn about the history and heritage, as well as enjoying the greenery, flora and fauna, with the peace and tranquility, away from the hustle and bustle of city living.

What’s next up for me ? Currently, I would be going back to Bukit Brown again soon, my maternal Great-Grandfather and 2 Great-Grandmothers are buried there and they are slated for the land needed to build the 8 lanes expressway. Therefore, I would like to do some documentation and photography before the crunch time for my ancestors to leave their “homes”.

Other projects would be the continuation on covering the Green Corridor, Old Places e.g. Rochor Centre HDB blocks and the Old Provision Shops. Besides, there might be more other heritage, conservation, history and cultural events/places that might have an opportunity to document and photograph them.

The year 2012 is going to be a year of History, Heritage, Preservation and Conversation !