\r\nProspective students turned out in force for the NUS Open House 2026, one of the University's largest events of the year, with some 21,500 visitors packing University Town on 7 March for a first-hand look at the University's distinctive academic programmes and its vibrant campus community.<\/p>\r\nFeaturing an extensive line-up of programme booths, faculty talks, special classes, and campus tours, this year's event - which spotlighted NUS' suite of AI-focused programmes, cutting-edge innovations, and a sampling of student performances - also marked a new chapter for\u00a0NUS Law<\/a>, which hosted its entire showcase at UTown for the first time since\u00a0moving to Kent Ridge<\/a>\u00a0in January.<\/p>\r\nComplementing the full-day showcase was a six-day virtual segment featuring online talks on global and career opportunities, as well as information sessions by\u00a0NUS Business School<\/a>,\u00a0NUS Pharmacy<\/a>, and the\u00a0Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\"I found the programme talks and student sharing sessions especially enjoyable and informative because they provided real insights into student life and the academic experience at NUS,\" said Suriya Selvarayar, a Ngee Ann Polytechnic student who is interested in applying to technology-related programmes.<\/p>\r\n<\/article>\r\nNew \"AI+X\" degrees for emerging careers<\/strong>At a panel led by NUS Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost Professor Aaron Thean entitled \"Earth, Space, Data and AI: Degrees that Launch You into the Future\", visitors were introduced to NUS' expanding slate of \"AI+X\" programmes, designed to integrate AI across diverse disciplines to meet the demand for new careers and fields driven by the technology.\r\nIts latest effort is the\u00a0new Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Geospatial Intelligence Cross-Disciplinary Programme (GIX)<\/a>, the first bachelor's degree of its kind in Asia, which welcomes its first cohort in August 2026. Co-hosted by the Department of Geography at the\u00a0College of Humanities and Sciences (CHS)<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0NUS Computing<\/a>, it will train students to synthesise earth, space, and environmental data - such as those collected by satellites, drones and mobile devices - with AI tools to tackle challenges in urban planning, transportation, and climate change. With courses spanning geography and computer science, and an emphasis on integrated problem-solving, the programme opens doors to sectors including smart cities and sustainable development, as well as the space and satellite industries.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11573\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] Prospective students had the chance to hear from NUS Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost Professor Aaron Thean (third from left) at a talk on NUS' suite of AI-focused degree programmes. Joining him were (from left to right) Associate Professor Peter Chan from the College of Design and Engineering, Associate Professor Kan Min-Yen from NUS Computing, Associate Professor Wang Yi-Chen from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and Professor Gary Ang from NUS Enterprise.<\/strong>[\/caption]\r\nThree other \"AI+X\" degrees were also highlighted. Admitting its second intake in August, the\u00a0Bachelor of Computing in Artificial Intelligence<\/a>\u00a0provides students with deep technical expertise, preparing them to design solutions to real-world problems using AI systems and models, grounded in a critical understanding of AI governance.<\/p>\r\nFormerly known as Information Systems, the\u00a0revamped Bachelor of Computing in Business Artificial Intelligence Systems<\/a>\u00a0integrates AI systems with business expertise to solve enterprise challenges and drive digital innovation.<\/p>\r\nAlso welcoming its second cohort in August is the\u00a0College of Design and Engineering<\/a>'s (CDE)\u00a0Bachelor of Engineering in Robotics and Machine Intelligence<\/a>\u00a0programme. Combining hardware, software, and AI, it prepares students to lead the applications of AI-enabled robotics - systems capable of sophisticated decisions and learning from their environments - in markets that are fast expanding beyond manufacturing to sectors such as healthcare, agriculture and logistics.<\/p>\r\nProf Thean emphasised that while NUS seeks to produce graduates who can capitalise on AI, the human element remains essential. \"New jobs and careers are emerging, and the question is how we prepare for them,\" he added, noting that the ultimate goal is for graduates to be adept at using the tools while possessing the critical thinking, decision-making and creativity to excel in the AI era.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11572\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye (second from right) visited the various booths, including the CDE's showcase of its innovative projects and models.<\/strong>[\/caption]\r\nFuture-ready engineering\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\nAside from showcasing the new robotics and machine intelligence degree, CDE delivered a comprehensive overview of the available programmes tailored to the evolving landscape - from\u00a0Mechanical Engineering<\/a>\u00a0to the\u00a0Minor in Artificial Intelligence (Design and Engineering)<\/a>.<\/p>\r\nThe Mechanical Engineering talk explored AI's applications in a wide range of industries, from aeronautics and urban transportation to sustainable energy and future cities. Students were given an overview of their career prospects, ranging from thermal R&D engineers to process development scientists.<\/p>\r\nAnother exciting new programme highlighted was the Artificial Intelligence minor. In the light of AI's position as a national priority in Singapore, prospective students got a snapshot of the industry landscape, as well as how the minor's industry-focused approach provides hands-on learning experiences in fundamental AI concepts like machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11571\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] The interactive Innovation and Robotics Showcase drew visitors to experience the cutting-edge technological innovations created by NUS faculty and students that are transforming our world for the better.<\/strong>[\/caption]\r\n<\/article>\r\nInnovations in action<\/strong>An interactive experience awaited visitors at the Innovation and Robotics Showcase, which featured futuristic projects by faculty and students at CDE,\u00a0NUS College<\/a>\u00a0(NUSC), and the\u00a0Centre for Quantum Technologies<\/a>\u00a0(CQT) that exemplify the spirit of cutting-edge innovation at NUS.<\/p>\r\nCDE presented an array of technologies making an impact in the real world, from virtual reality simulations that help users identify safety hazards in the construction industry to robot dogs that assist in search and rescue operations in hazardous terrain.<\/p>\r\nNUSC's \"Gut Guard\", a gamified learning\u00a0Impact Experience<\/a> project that tackles misconceptions about gut health, as well as CQT's technologies developed for Singapore's National Quantum-Safe Network testbed, were also on display.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11570\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] The College of Humanities and Sciences unveiled a refreshed programme booth experience, grouping related disciplines into thematic zones to help prospective students better understand each discipline and how they can be meaningfully combined within the college's flexible curriculum.<\/strong>[\/caption]\r\nExploring real-world connections at CHS<\/strong>CHS, which brings together the\u00a0Faculty of Science<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences<\/a>, traded individual programme booths for immersive thematic zones, allowing visitors to understand how diverse disciplines converge in the real world as part of a new approach that brought its interdisciplinary ethos to life.\r\nIn \"Understanding People and Societies\", which linked anthropology with sociology and psychology, they explored the role of these social sciences in understanding human behaviour, while \"Science in our Lives\" demonstrated the interconnected fields of chemical, biological and pharmaceutical science in contributing to better therapies.<\/p>\r\nUnderscoring this approach was \"Beyond the Textbook: Play, Policy, and Plants\", a panel which gathered faculty members from three interdisciplinary courses to discuss timely issues such as the importance of play in learning, the multifaceted aspects of drug regulation, and the study of plants as a lens for examining Southeast Asia's ecology, communities and livelihoods.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11569\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] Apart from introducing its new campus at University Town, Law hosted an engaging line-up of talks, moot court demonstrations and masterclasses to welcome prospective students.<\/strong>[\/caption]\r\nA new chapter at UTown<\/strong>Following its\u00a0relocation from Bukit Timah<\/a>\u00a0to Kent Ridge, NUS Law offered prospective students a one-stop shop of what the faculty had to offer, with mooting sessions, thought-provoking masterclasses, and talks that highlighted its world-class faculty and illustrious alumni network.\r\nUnlike previous years, visitors no longer needed to shuttle between both campuses to explore all the Open House activities, said Mr Justin Tan, NUS Law's Vice-Dean (Student Affairs), who gave a welcome talk to prospective students. Remarking on the vibrant setting of its newly upgraded campus, he said, \"I think (visitors) will really love the fact that there are literally thousands of people living in UTown's apartment blocks, all within a few minutes' walk of our new campus. This translates to endless possibilities for a fantastic undergraduate life!\"<\/p>\r\n<\/article>\r\nBeyond the books<\/strong>NUSC<\/a>, the University's honours college, held sessions showcasing its\u00a0Global Experience<\/a>\u00a0(GEx) programme, which immerses students in 14 overseas sites for a month to engage deeply with their themes. In GEx New York, students examine its identity as a global city, investigating its urban development and cultural heritage through interactions with high-level diplomats, non-government organisations, and industry professionals.\r\nNUS Nursing<\/a>\u00a0held special classes where users learned empathetic communication in palliative care by conversing with an AI chatbot, and showcased its\u00a0new Concurrent Degree Programme<\/a>, which combines the Bachelor of Science (Nursing) (Honours) with the Master of Science (Biomedical Informatics).<\/p>\r\nMeanwhile,\u00a0NUS Medicine<\/a> offered a hands-on look at the future of medical education through clinical simulations, virtual reality stations, and insightful talks on its curriculum.<\/p>\r\nInside scoop on residential life<\/strong>Through talks, booths, and guided tours, Masters, Resident Fellows, and student leaders from the Residential Colleges, Halls, and Houses offered prospective students insights on the culture of their residences, the partnership between resident fellows and residents, and the vast array of student-led initiatives that foster vibrancy, community spirit, and inclusivity.\r\nNUS' newest hostel, the sports-themed\u00a0Valour House<\/a>, highlighted its key pillars of courage, strength, and resilience - characteristics not just of athletes but of students - to demonstrate its culture of supporting sporting achievements and encouraging residents to step out of their comfort zones.<\/p>\r\nVibrancy of NUS student life<\/strong>A dynamic line-up of performances and showcases, spotlighting some of NUS' finest talents in the performing arts, was presented by the various student clubs and interest groups at the Student Village. From upbeat, catchy tunes by\u00a0NUS Fingerstyle Guitar<\/a>\u00a0and a capella groups\u00a0NUS Resonance<\/a>,\u00a0RHythm<\/a>\u00a0from Raffles Hall, and\u00a0Eusoff Chorapella<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Eusoff Hall<\/a>\u00a0to skilful renditions by\u00a0Helix House<\/a>'s Helix Band and\u00a0Sheares Hall<\/a>'s Sheares Band, visitors were treated to a glimpse into the vibrant student experience at NUS beyond academic pursuits.<\/article>\r\n\r\nThis story\u00a0first appeared in <\/em>NUSnews<\/a> on 13 March 2026.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/div>New Centre for Computational Social Science and Humanities at NUS to advance interdisciplinary research on complex societal challenges<\/a><\/h3>05 March 2026 <\/div>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11537\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] Present at the launch of the Centre for Computational Social Science and Humanities at NUS today were (from left) CSSH Deputy Director Assoc Prof Dandan Qiao from NUS School of Computing; CSSH Co-Director Prof Atreyi Kankanhalli from NUS School of Computing; Prof Tulika Mitra, Dean of NUS School of Computing; Prof Liu Bin, NUS Deputy President (Research and Technology); Prof Lionel Wee, Dean of NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences; CSSH Co-Director Prof Peter Millican from NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences; and Assoc Prof Miguel Escobar Varela from NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.<\/strong>[\/caption]\r\nA new research centre at the National University of Singapore (NUS) is bringing together data science, AI and computational methods with deep insights from social sciences and humanities to better understand complex social phenomena and develop solutions to pressing societal challenges. By combining technological innovation with human insight, the Centre for Computational Social Science and Humanities (CSSH) aims to generate research that improves lives, strengthens institutions, preserves cultural knowledge, and shapes more inclusive and resilient societies in Singapore and beyond.<\/p>\r\n\r\nOfficially launched today, CSSH is the first in Singapore to systematically bring together computational social science and the humanities within a single centre to bridge research, policy and real-world applications.<\/p>\r\nThe Centre draws on expertise across disciplines including computing, new media, linguistics, geography, public policy and healthcare, amongst others. This interdisciplinary foundation enables CSSH to examine how digital technologies intersect with social systems, such as assessing the societal implications of AI-enabled platforms, using digital tools to help preserve Singapore's cultural heritage, and strengthening digital literacy in vulnerable communities.<\/p>\r\nNUS Deputy President (Research and Technology) Professor Liu Bin said, \"Rapid advances in digital technologies and AI are transforming our world. But technological breakthroughs are only as valuable as the difference they make to peoples' lives. CSSH reflects NUS' commitment to ensuring that innovation translates to tangible improvements in how we live, work and build stronger communities. By integrating computational methods with social science and humanities, the Centre will help translate research insights into policies and practices that deliver real-world impact.\"<\/p>\r\nShe added that the Centre complements Singapore's broader push for innovative, responsible harnessing of technology and AI which emphasises that progress should be not only technically advanced, but trusted, inclusive and grounded in real social needs.<\/p>\r\nDriving real-world impact through interdisciplinary innovation<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\r\nCSSH is led by Co-Directors Professor Atreyi Kankanhalli from the\u00a0NUS School of Computing<\/a>\u00a0and Professor Peter Millican from the\u00a0NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences<\/a>. The Centre supports both seed funding for emerging ideas and larger projects, all designed to generate real-world impact.<\/p>\r\nProf Kankanhalli said, \"What distinguishes CSSH is our ability to study human behaviour, institutions and societies at a scale and depth that was not previously possible. By combining computational methods with rich domain expertise in the social sciences and humanities, we can uncover patterns, test ideas, and generate evidence that directly informs policy and practice. Our goal is not just to analyse social problems, but to help shape systems that work better for people.\"<\/p>\r\nSince beginning operations in the second half of 2024, CSSH has embarked on more than 50 interdisciplinary projects involving 105 researchers from across NUS and their external collaborators. The projects demonstrate the breadth of its work - from AI-enabled analysis of social media impacts to digital preservation of historical archives.<\/p>\r\nAmongst the major research projects currently being undertaken by CSSH is one titled \"Computational Social Simulations for Aiding Policy Design\", led by Prof Kankanhalli. In this five-year project, researchers from NUS and three other local universities are collaborating to develop an AI-driven social simulation platform for policymakers to help test and refine policy interventions before they are rolled out.<\/p>\r\nUsing large language models (LLMs), the platform will model diverse public personas to enable policymakers to conduct swift preliminary testing of policy ideas. The simulations will complement traditional research methods by reducing the frequency of costly, time-consuming large-scale surveys and field studies during early policy development, while retaining real-world validation and community engagement at critical decision points. CSSH Deputy Director Associate Professor Dandan Qiao from the NUS School of Computing is also contributing her expertise to the project.<\/p>\r\nAnother project titled \"The Jawi AI Project\", led by NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Associate Professor Miguel Escobar Varela, harnesses AI to enable large-scale transliteration and analysis of Jawi texts. Early Malay-language newspapers in Singapore, published between 1870 and 1970 were written in Jawi, a script few can read today.<\/p>\r\nIn collaboration with the National Library Board (NLB), the team comprising local and foreign experts is transforming thousands of archived pages into searchable Malay text, significantly expanding the range of materials available at NLB's digitised archives. Assoc Prof Escobar Varela, who is also Deputy Director at CSSH, noted that the project could significantly expand research into Malay-language journalism and public debate in the region, broadening how Singapore's history is understood and taught.<\/p>\r\nProf Millican highlighted that a core mission of CSSH is to break down the walls between disciplines. By connecting humanities and social science researchers with computing and data science experts, the Centre fosters collaborations that neither field could achieve alone. \"Many of today's biggest challenges demand both deep specialist insight and serious technical firepower\", he explained, \"whether they involve untangling complex social issues, tackling health crises, anticipating future problems, or building the tools to address these. CSSH provides a natural home for such interdisciplinary conversations.\"<\/p>\r\nHe added that the Centre looks forward to developing more projects addressing societal challenges to which computational insights can make the greatest difference. Focus areas include AI and emerging technologies, sustainability and environmental policy, population trends and demographic change, public health and social care, and the preservation and understanding of history and cultural heritage.<\/p>\r\n<\/article>\r\n\r\nThis story\u00a0first appeared in <\/em>NUSnews<\/a> on 4 March 2026.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/div>Teaching with heart: The human side of higher education<\/a><\/h3>30 December 2025 <\/div>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11500\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1920\"] Participants for the Play Installation \"Playful Minds: Learning Through Play\", where educators explored the role of play in teaching.<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nForget the confines of a lecture theatre, abstract theories and math equations. For their core Economics introductory course at NUS, students found themselves not in a classroom, but outside Sri Mariamman Temple where their phones buzzed with a Telegram chatbot's cryptic challenge: \"All are welcome past the door. So when footwear outside are a-plenty, the temple is a ______, and when footwear outside are a-wanting, the temple is a ______.\"<\/p>\r\nExchanging puzzled looks, the students typed \"\/hint\" into the chat. \"If there are many pairs of footwear outside, it must be crowded (and uncomfortable) inside,\" the chatbot prompted. After recognising the relevant concepts, they typed the answers into the Telegram chat before receiving a clue to their next location.<\/p>\r\nIt is not every day that students participate in a chatbot-guided scavenger hunt as part of their core Economics introductory course. But Associate Professor Ong Ee Cheng, Mr Chan Kok Hoe and Dr Timothy Wong from the Department of Economics at the\u00a0Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences<\/a>\u00a0believe that experiential learning can help students better understand key economics concepts in everyday contexts.<\/p>\r\nThis was one of many innovative teaching strategies presented at the Higher Education Conference in Singapore (HECS) 2025. Organised by the NUS Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT), the event held on 10 December 2025 gathered educators from universities across Singapore to explore how to enrich learning experiences.<\/p>\r\nThis year's theme, \"Building Relationships in Teaching and Learning\", echoes Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's call for education to move beyond narrow definitions of success, and empower learners to discover and develop their unique strengths,\u00a0in his speech at the Debate on the President's Address 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\"It is most fitting that HECS 2025 is championing the human dimension of education. This focus on relational teaching aligns with PM Wong's call to broaden meritocracy, creating environments where learning is joyful, fulfilling, collaborative, inclusive and future-ready,\" said NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye in his opening speech.<\/p>\r\nThe power of play<\/strong><\/p>\r\nA recurring theme throughout the conference was the role of play in teaching - widely used in early childhood education but often undervalued in higher education despite being found to increase student engagement.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11499\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1920\"] HECS 2025 participants discussing the role of play in teaching at the \"Playful Minds: Learning Through Play\" installation.<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nAt NUS, faculty members have been experimenting with such approaches, several of which were showcased in the \"Playful Minds: Learning Through Play\" installation.<\/p>\r\nOne example is the use of tableau, where students create a frozen, dramatic image with their bodies to interpret an abstract prompt. While tableau is most commonly associated with theatre studies, it is also used across humanities disciplines such as anthropology and philosophy, combining embodied, experiential and collaborative learning.<\/p>\r\nIn\u00a0HS2902: Do Play Play: The Importance of Play,<\/i>\u00a0an interdisciplinary course offered as part of the common curriculum of the College of Humanities and Sciences, students design card games about a social issue of their choice. In \"We Just Bought a Zoo\", for instance, players juggle the welfare of animals against profit-making, exploring ethical dilemmas surrounding captive animal welfare.<\/p>\r\nOn the sidelines of the \"Playful Minds: Learning Through Play\" installation, Assoc Prof Ong added, \"In the context of higher education, play is about moving away from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation - the feeling of 'I'm doing it because it's interesting and I'm curious, not just because I want an A'.\"<\/p>\r\nDifferent strokes for different folks<\/strong><\/p>\r\nWhile much of the conference focused on undergraduate learners, speakers also highlighted the need to tailor teaching to different learner profiles.<\/p>\r\nIn a paper presentation, Dr Ng Boon Yuen and Dr Ganthi Viswanathan from the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) examined how adult learners' sense of belonging affects their learning in online classes.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11498\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1920\"] Dr Ng Boon Yuen from the Singapore University of Social Sciences sharing about adult learners' sense of belonging in online learning.<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nUnlike undergraduates who place greater emphasis on social connection, adult learners prioritise practical factors like convenience and flexibility. While the majority of surveyed students reported that they did not feel a sense of community with their peers, most were satisfied with online courses and planned to continue taking them.<\/p>\r\nHowever, this absence of a sense of belonging still manifests in challenges such as a lack of trust among members during group work, noted Dr Ng. To foster stronger rapport,\u00a0one suggestion was for instructors to facilitate early relationship building through icebreakers and breakout rooms.<\/p>\r\nCreating a culture of care<\/strong><\/p>\r\nSpeakers also emphasised that meaningful relationships form the foundation of fulfilling learning experience, whether between educators and learners, or learners and communities. Within classrooms, small, intentional gestures can reshape dynamics. Dr Daryl Ooi, a lecturer at the\u00a0NUS Department of Philosophy<\/a>, called these \"pedagogies of care\".<\/p>\r\n\"There are a lot of acts that happen to us and in our hearts, we are sorting out what is caring and uncaring,\" said Dr Ooi, who was representing an NUS learning community on pedagogies of relationality and care, at the workshop. Pedagogies of care respect students' autonomy and the plurality of their experiences, opinions and emotions. One participant shared how simply sitting on the floor with her students helped to reduce hierarchical barriers.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11497\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1920\"] The HECS 2025 Organising Committee and CTLT team brought the educators together for stimulating discussions.<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nReinforcing the importance of relationships in her closing keynote, Associate Professor Chng Huang Hoon, Director of the\u00a0Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Centre at NUS<\/a>, said, \"High-impact experiences have to be founded on relationships, community bonds and mutual trust. If we can enact an educational experience that is relationship-rich in- and outside our classrooms, we would have gone some ways in restoring the human in the work we do.\"<\/p>\r\n\t\r\nThis story\u00a0first appeared in <\/em>NUSnews<\/a> on 26 December 2025.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div><\/div>Photos from the Singapore Heritage Roundtable<\/a><\/h3>17 December 2025 <\/div>Check out the photos from our Singapore Heritage Roundtable!<\/p>\r\nThe roundtable was chaired by FASS Assistant Dean of Research and Foo Hai Associate Professor in Buddhist Studies Jack Meng-Tat Chia and opened by Ms Melissa May Tan, Director of Heritage Policy & Research at the National Heritage Board.<\/p>\r\nThe programme featured four National Heritage Board Heritage Research Grant recipients from FASS:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Yang Yan (NUS Chinese Studies) \u2013 In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine<\/li>\r\n \tDr Clay Eaton (NUS Japanese Studies) \u2013 Mapping Middle Road: Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore<\/li>\r\n \tDr Jinna Tay (NUS Communications and New Media) \u2013 Re-Interpreting Fashion Narratives in Singapore: De-colonising the Modern<\/li>\r\n \tAssistant Professor Guo-Quan Seng (NUS History) \u2013 Small Businesses and Shops of Chinatown, 1819\u20131980s<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nYou can also watch the full video recording here<\/a>, and download the programme booklet here<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11470\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1246\"] Assoc Prof Jack Meng-Tat welcomes attendees to the Singapore Heritage Roundtable.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11465\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Ms Melissa May Tan delivers the opening remarks at the Singapore Heritage Roundtable.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11469\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1185\"] Dr Yang Yan introduces her project, \"In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore's Chinese Medicine\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11468\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan\u2019s slide outlining theoretical concepts, specifically differentiating between Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the localisation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine (SCM).[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11467\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan\u2019s presentation slide displaying historical texts and book covers illustrating regional schools of thought in Chinese Medicine and the Ming Dynasty.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11466\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan shares specific examples of local medicinal adaptations, such as \"Cooling Water\" and \"Cat Whisker Tea\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11464\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton presents the \"Mapping Middle Road\" project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11462\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton discusses the \"Curiocity Map\", developed in collaboration with the National Library Board, as part of the \"Mapping Middle Road\" project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11460\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton highlights a digital article in MUSE SG titled \"Mapping the Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11451\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2560\"] Dr Jinna Tay introduces the Singapore Fashion Histories Website using a slide featuring archival photography of women's fashion in Singapore.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11458\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Jinna Tay examines cultural history through vintage covers of Her World<\/em> magazine.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11457\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng presents the opening slide for the project titled \"Small Businesses & Shops of Chinatown, 1819\u20131980s\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11456\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng acknowledges the collaborators involved in the project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11455\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng discusses the history of remittance shopkeepers in Chinatown, referencing Wong Chin Soon.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11454\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng explains the historical density of tailor shops on Pagoda Street.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11453\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng reflects on a past panel discussion about small businesses and shops in Chinatown.[\/caption]<\/div><\/div>Photos from the Singapore Heritage Roundtable<\/a><\/h3>15 December 2025 <\/div>Check out the photos from our Singapore Heritage Roundtable!<\/p>\r\nThe roundtable was chaired by FASS Assistant Dean of Research and Foo Hai Associate Professor in Buddhist Studies Jack Meng-Tat Chia and opened by Ms Melissa May Tan, Director of Heritage Policy & Research at the National Heritage Board.<\/p>\r\nThe programme featured four National Heritage Board Heritage Research Grant recipients from FASS:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Yang Yan (NUS Chinese Studies) \u2013 In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine<\/li>\r\n \tDr Clay Eaton (NUS Japanese Studies) \u2013 Mapping Middle Road: Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore<\/li>\r\n \tDr Jinna Tay (NUS Communications and New Media) \u2013 Re-Interpreting Fashion Narratives in Singapore: De-colonising the Modern<\/li>\r\n \tAssistant Professor Guo-Quan Seng (NUS History) \u2013 Small Businesses and Shops of Chinatown, 1819\u20131980s<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nYou can also watch the full video recording here<\/a>, and download the programme booklet here<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11470\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1246\"] Assoc Prof Jack Meng-Tat addresses the audience, standing before the opening slide for the Singapore Heritage Roundtable.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11465\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Ms Melissa May Tan delivers the opening remarks at the Singapore Heritage Roundtable.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11469\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1185\"] Dr Yang Yan introduces her project, \"In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore's Chinese Medicine\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11468\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan\u2019s slide outlining theoretical concepts, specifically differentiating between Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the localisation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine (SCM).[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11467\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan\u2019s presentation slide displaying historical texts and book covers illustrating regional schools of thought in Chinese Medicine and the Ming Dynasty.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11466\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan demonstrates specific examples of local medicinal adaptations, such as \"Cooling Water\" and \"Cat Whisker Tea\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11464\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton presents the \"Mapping Middle Road\" project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11463\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton discusses the \"Curiocity Map\", developed in collaboration with the National Library Board, as part of the \"Mapping Middle Road\" project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11460\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton highlights a digital article in MUSE SG titled \"Mapping the Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11451\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2560\"] Dr Jinna Tay introduces the Singapore Fashion Histories Website using a slide featuring archival photography of women's fashion in Singapore.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11458\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Jinna Tay examines cultural history through vintage covers of Her World<\/em> magazine.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11457\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng presents the opening slide for the project titled \"Small Businesses & Shops of Chinatown, 1819\u20131980s\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11456\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng acknowledges the collaborators involved in the project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11455\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng discusses the history of remittance shopkeepers in Chinatown, referencing Wong Chin Soon.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11454\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng explains the historical density of tailor shops on Pagoda Street.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11453\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng reflects on a past public talk regarding small businesses in Chinatown.[\/caption]<\/div><\/div>Recording now available: Singapore Heritage Roundtable (11 November 2025)<\/a><\/h3>05 December 2025 <\/div>As part of the \u201cCelebrating Singapore Studies: Sixty Years of Nationhood\u201d campaign, the Singapore Research Nexus hosted a richly informative Heritage Research Roundtable<\/a> that featured four National Heritage Board Heritage Research Grant recipients from FASS and brought fresh scholarly light to lesser-known chapters of Singapore\u2019s past. The full video recording is now available here.<\/a><\/p>\r\nProgramme<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tWelcome Remarks and Chair: Assoc Prof Jack Meng-Tat Chia (NUS History & Assistant Dean of Research, FASS)<\/li>\r\n \tOpening Remarks: Ms Melissa May Tan (Director, Heritage Policy & Research, National Heritage Board)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nPresentations<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Yang Yan (Research Fellow, NUS Chinese Studies)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nIn Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine<\/em><\/p>\r\nExplores how Singapore\u2019s Chinese medical tradition diverged from mainland TCM, developing distinctive doctrines, diagnostics, and formulae shaped by local climates, migration patterns, and everyday clinical practice.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Clay Eaton (Lecturer, NUS Japanese Studies)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nMapping Middle Road: Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore<\/em><\/p>\r\nReconstructs the vibrant yet largely forgotten \u201cLittle Japan\u201d centred on Middle Road \u2013 home to merchants, photographers, dentists, schoolchildren, and karayuki-san<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 \u2013 and its place within colonial Singapore\u2019s cosmopolitan society.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Jinna Tay (Senior Lecturer, NUS Communications and New Media)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nRe-Interpreting Fashion Narratives in Singapore: De-colonising the Modern<\/em><\/p>\r\nDraws on decades of newspaper archives (1950s-1990s) to reveal how fashion became a site where colonial ideas of modernity persisted, and how contemporary research can help deconstruct those inherited frameworks.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tAsst Prof Guo-Quan Seng (Assistant Professor, NUS History)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nSmall Businesses and Shops of Chinatown, 1819-1980s<\/em><\/p>\r\nA social history of the modest shophouses and enterprises that formed the backbone of Chinatown\u2019s economy, tracing flows of textiles, rubber, remittances, and credit across regional Chinese networks.<\/p>\r\nWe invite researchers alumni, heritage enthusiasts, and the wider public to watch the recording and discover how NUS FASS scholars are uncovering the diverse, lived textures of Singapore\u2019s past.<\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\ud835\uddd8\ud835\udde9\ud835\uddd8\ud835\udde1\ud835\udde7 | \ud835\udde6\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf4\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddfd\ud835\uddfc\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddf2 \ud835\udddb\ud835\uddf2\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddf6\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddf4\ud835\uddf2 \ud835\udde5\ud835\uddfc\ud835\ude02\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf1\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddef\ud835\uddf9\ud835\uddf2 | \ud835\udfed\ud835\udfed \ud835\udde1\ud835\uddfc\ud835\ude03, \ud835\udfef:\ud835\udff1\ud835\udfec-\ud835\udff2:\ud835\udfec\ud835\udfec \ud835\uddfd\ud835\uddfa<\/a><\/h3>06 November 2025 <\/div>\r\nThe Singapore Research Nexus at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) is holding \u2018Singapore Heritage Roundtable\u2019, an event featuring four research projects on Singapore Heritage:<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n1. \u2018In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine\u2019 by Dr YANG Yan (Research Fellow, NUS Chinese Studies)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n2. \u2018Mapping Middle Road: Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore\u2019 by Dr Clay EATON (Lecturer, NUS Japanese Studies)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n3. \u2018Re-interpreting Fashion Narratives in Singapore: De-colonising the Modern\u2019 by Dr Jinna TAY (Senior Lecturer, NUS Communications and New Media)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n4. \u2018Small Businesses and Shops of Chinatown, 1819-1980s' by Dr Guo-Quan SENG (Assistant Professor, NUS History)<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nDate and Time:<\/strong> Tuesday, 11 November 2025, 3:50-6:00 pm<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nVenue<\/strong>: FASS AS7 Research Division Seminar Room (6-42) and Zoom<\/div>\r\nVenue Address<\/strong>: NUS AS7 Shaw Foundation Building, 5 Arts Link, 117570<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nRegister<\/strong>:<\/div>\r\nIn-person<\/strong>: https:\/\/SG_Heritage_Roundtable.eventbrite.sg<\/a><\/span><\/div>\r\nZoom<\/strong>: https:\/\/shorturl.at\/WINeX<\/a><\/span><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nGet the programme here<\/strong>: https:\/\/shorturl.at\/Q7NLe<\/a><\/span><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n[video width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" mp4=\"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/jps\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2025\/10\/Singapore-Heritage-Roundtable-Video-3-2.mp4\"][\/video]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>2025 Valedictorian's Speech by Wang Lei<\/a><\/h3>17 July 2025 <\/div>https:\/\/youtu.be\/4pex9bBXEY4\r\n\r\nWang Lei graduated with a BA with Honours (Highest Distinction), having majored in Japanese Studies with a minor in Art History. She received university-level awards for Best Student in Japanese Studies and the prestigious Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) Scholarship. Lei also served as Publicity Director of the Japanese Studies Society (JSS). Congratulations, Lei!<\/div><\/div>Uncovering hidden stories of the pre-war Japanese community in Singapore<\/a><\/h3>23 May 2025 <\/div>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11145\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] \"Hylam Street, Singapore\" was situated between Middle Road and Bugis Street. Many Japanese residents lived along this street prior to World War II. (Photo taken from the Collection of the National Museum of Singapore. Courtesy of Roots.gov.sg.)<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nSingapore is home to cultural neighbourhoods such as Little India, Chinatown, Kampong Glam and the area around Tanjong Pagar that has become affectionately known as 'Koreatown'. But did you know that there was once a 'Little Japan' too?<\/p>\r\n'Little Japan' was an area around Middle Road - part of what we know as Bugis today - that comprised businesses, schools and places of worship for a Japanese community that settled in Singapore in the 1800s and 1900s. A community of thousands, they were far from little. Their presence in pre-war Singapore was significant in shaping Singapore's identity as a cosmopolitan port city in the colonial period.<\/p>\r\nDr Clay Eaton, historian and lecturer in the\u00a0NUS Department of Japanese Studies<\/a>\u00a0and Associate at the\u00a0NUS Asia Research Institute's (ARI's)<\/a>\u00a0Inter-Asia Engagement cluster, said, \"The Japanese wartime occupation of Singapore is well-known to many of us, but Japan and Singapore's relationship predates World War II. The unique role that the Japanese played here, as representatives of a major imperial power as well as a part of the broader Asian community, can help us better appreciate Singapore's rich cultural past. Very little work has been done on this community, especially in English, but they can tell us quite a bit about the social complexity of this period.\"<\/p>\r\nIn an attempt to reconstruct the pre-war Japanese community in Singapore's \"Little Japan\" around Middle Road, Dr Eaton; Professor Naoko Shimazu, also an Associate at ARI's Inter-Asia Engagements Cluster and former Research Cluster Leader; and Dr Chee Keng Lee from\u00a0NUS College<\/a>\u00a0teamed up for a project known as 'Mapping Middle Road', the first public history project of its kind about the Japanese community in Singapore.<\/p>\r\nThe project was carried out under the National Heritage Board's (NHB) Heritage Research Grant and was hosted by ARI. It took two years to complete and was published as a\u00a0story map<\/a>\u00a0for the National Library Board's Curiocity[1]<\/a>. Mapping these historical findings allows users to better visualise how past movements of the Japanese communities around Middle Road unfolded and changed with significant events, thus turning abstract historical change into something we can see and trace across a real-world landscape.<\/p>\r\nThe findings in 'Mapping Middle Road' were widely discussed at conferences and talks in Asia and Europe.<\/p>\r\nThe researchers' findings were also further expanded and later developed into an online resource named 'Middle Road: Pre-War Japanese Community in Singapore' that is accessible to the public at\u00a0MUSE<\/a>, NHB's digital heritage publication hosted on Roots.<\/p>\r\nBringing the Japanese community's shifting past to life through maps and movement<\/strong><\/p>\r\nDeveloping this digital map to help users see not only where events and communities existed, but also how they shifted over time, was no easy task.<\/p>\r\nA team of faculty and student researchers combed through resources such as photos, advertisements, newspaper articles, travelogues and guides in various English- and Japanese-language materials residing in the National Library's NewspaperSG online archive, the Japanese Association of Singapore's collections, and the National Diet Library (the national library of Japan); to locate specific references to the Japanese community associated with particular places in the country.<\/p>\r\nThey identified over 20 locations and institutions to feature in the story map, with their efforts culminating in the visual reconstruction of the presence and movement of various Japanese institutions over time. These included schools, clinics, places of worship and businesses - all of which together help us imagine what life was like for the Japanese community here in Singapore at that time.<\/p>\r\nDr Eaton shared, \"Perhaps our biggest surprise, since this was a mapping project, was how mobile some of the institutions we were tracking ended up being. Just about every prominent business moved at least once (like the clothier Ebisuya) or had multiple branch locations (like the Tamagawa restaurant).\"<\/p>\r\nImportant locations such as the Japanese Consulate, Japanese Association and Toyo Hotel moved multiple times, making it challenging to pinpoint their locations onto a map, Dr Eaton shared. Ultimately, the team embraced the shifts in locations as a key factor in explaining the changes within the community over time.<\/p>\r\nThe Consulate's move from its original location on Sophia Road - located near the Japanese resident community along Middle Road - to the 'Gudan' district (the Japanese term for the Central Business District) came as Japan rose in political power globally. Its eventual return to quieter offices on Mt Emily before World War II presumably symbolised the growing isolation of the Japanese Empire on the world stage.<\/p>\r\nProf Shimazu shared how researchers had also identified a significant class division within Singapore's pre-war Japanese community, noting tensions between the first Japanese settlers in Singapore in the late 1800s and a more affluent and educated wave of Japanese immigrants who arrived after 1910 and worked in the Gudan district.<\/p>\r\nThe establishment of elite institutions like the Japanese Association and Japanese Club did not help to bridge the gap. The Gudan expatriates played a crucial role in ending licensed Japanese prostitution in 1920, which affected the original Japanese community along Middle Road.<\/p>\r\nThe stories the research team uncovered confirmed what they had initially thought - that the Japanese community was diverse just like any other and was made up of interesting and dynamic individuals who were at times at odds with each other, but at other times, brought together by a shared sense of national belonging.<\/p>\r\n[1]\u00a0National Library Board's Curiocity houses digitised maps, photographs and multimedia content that are combined for users to explore the past and see how it has shaped the present.<\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\nThis story first appeared on <\/em>NUSNews<\/a>\u00a0on 16 May 2025.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div><\/div>Make the library a modern kampung<\/a><\/h3>14 April 2025 <\/div>\r\n\r\n\tIN BRIEF | 10 min read<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\nBy Associate Professor Thang Leng Leng, Deputy Head of NUS Japanese Studies<\/a>.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\nClick through image below to read this piece.<\/a><\/p>\r\n
New \"AI+X\" degrees for emerging careers<\/strong>At a panel led by NUS Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost Professor Aaron Thean entitled \"Earth, Space, Data and AI: Degrees that Launch You into the Future\", visitors were introduced to NUS' expanding slate of \"AI+X\" programmes, designed to integrate AI across diverse disciplines to meet the demand for new careers and fields driven by the technology.\r\nIts latest effort is the\u00a0new Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Geospatial Intelligence Cross-Disciplinary Programme (GIX)<\/a>, the first bachelor's degree of its kind in Asia, which welcomes its first cohort in August 2026. Co-hosted by the Department of Geography at the\u00a0College of Humanities and Sciences (CHS)<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0NUS Computing<\/a>, it will train students to synthesise earth, space, and environmental data - such as those collected by satellites, drones and mobile devices - with AI tools to tackle challenges in urban planning, transportation, and climate change. With courses spanning geography and computer science, and an emphasis on integrated problem-solving, the programme opens doors to sectors including smart cities and sustainable development, as well as the space and satellite industries.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11573\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] Prospective students had the chance to hear from NUS Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost Professor Aaron Thean (third from left) at a talk on NUS' suite of AI-focused degree programmes. Joining him were (from left to right) Associate Professor Peter Chan from the College of Design and Engineering, Associate Professor Kan Min-Yen from NUS Computing, Associate Professor Wang Yi-Chen from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and Professor Gary Ang from NUS Enterprise.<\/strong>[\/caption]\r\nThree other \"AI+X\" degrees were also highlighted. Admitting its second intake in August, the\u00a0Bachelor of Computing in Artificial Intelligence<\/a>\u00a0provides students with deep technical expertise, preparing them to design solutions to real-world problems using AI systems and models, grounded in a critical understanding of AI governance.<\/p>\r\nFormerly known as Information Systems, the\u00a0revamped Bachelor of Computing in Business Artificial Intelligence Systems<\/a>\u00a0integrates AI systems with business expertise to solve enterprise challenges and drive digital innovation.<\/p>\r\nAlso welcoming its second cohort in August is the\u00a0College of Design and Engineering<\/a>'s (CDE)\u00a0Bachelor of Engineering in Robotics and Machine Intelligence<\/a>\u00a0programme. Combining hardware, software, and AI, it prepares students to lead the applications of AI-enabled robotics - systems capable of sophisticated decisions and learning from their environments - in markets that are fast expanding beyond manufacturing to sectors such as healthcare, agriculture and logistics.<\/p>\r\nProf Thean emphasised that while NUS seeks to produce graduates who can capitalise on AI, the human element remains essential. \"New jobs and careers are emerging, and the question is how we prepare for them,\" he added, noting that the ultimate goal is for graduates to be adept at using the tools while possessing the critical thinking, decision-making and creativity to excel in the AI era.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11572\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye (second from right) visited the various booths, including the CDE's showcase of its innovative projects and models.<\/strong>[\/caption]\r\nFuture-ready engineering\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\nAside from showcasing the new robotics and machine intelligence degree, CDE delivered a comprehensive overview of the available programmes tailored to the evolving landscape - from\u00a0Mechanical Engineering<\/a>\u00a0to the\u00a0Minor in Artificial Intelligence (Design and Engineering)<\/a>.<\/p>\r\nThe Mechanical Engineering talk explored AI's applications in a wide range of industries, from aeronautics and urban transportation to sustainable energy and future cities. Students were given an overview of their career prospects, ranging from thermal R&D engineers to process development scientists.<\/p>\r\nAnother exciting new programme highlighted was the Artificial Intelligence minor. In the light of AI's position as a national priority in Singapore, prospective students got a snapshot of the industry landscape, as well as how the minor's industry-focused approach provides hands-on learning experiences in fundamental AI concepts like machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11571\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] The interactive Innovation and Robotics Showcase drew visitors to experience the cutting-edge technological innovations created by NUS faculty and students that are transforming our world for the better.<\/strong>[\/caption]\r\n<\/article>\r\nInnovations in action<\/strong>An interactive experience awaited visitors at the Innovation and Robotics Showcase, which featured futuristic projects by faculty and students at CDE,\u00a0NUS College<\/a>\u00a0(NUSC), and the\u00a0Centre for Quantum Technologies<\/a>\u00a0(CQT) that exemplify the spirit of cutting-edge innovation at NUS.<\/p>\r\nCDE presented an array of technologies making an impact in the real world, from virtual reality simulations that help users identify safety hazards in the construction industry to robot dogs that assist in search and rescue operations in hazardous terrain.<\/p>\r\nNUSC's \"Gut Guard\", a gamified learning\u00a0Impact Experience<\/a> project that tackles misconceptions about gut health, as well as CQT's technologies developed for Singapore's National Quantum-Safe Network testbed, were also on display.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11570\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] The College of Humanities and Sciences unveiled a refreshed programme booth experience, grouping related disciplines into thematic zones to help prospective students better understand each discipline and how they can be meaningfully combined within the college's flexible curriculum.<\/strong>[\/caption]\r\nExploring real-world connections at CHS<\/strong>CHS, which brings together the\u00a0Faculty of Science<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences<\/a>, traded individual programme booths for immersive thematic zones, allowing visitors to understand how diverse disciplines converge in the real world as part of a new approach that brought its interdisciplinary ethos to life.\r\nIn \"Understanding People and Societies\", which linked anthropology with sociology and psychology, they explored the role of these social sciences in understanding human behaviour, while \"Science in our Lives\" demonstrated the interconnected fields of chemical, biological and pharmaceutical science in contributing to better therapies.<\/p>\r\nUnderscoring this approach was \"Beyond the Textbook: Play, Policy, and Plants\", a panel which gathered faculty members from three interdisciplinary courses to discuss timely issues such as the importance of play in learning, the multifaceted aspects of drug regulation, and the study of plants as a lens for examining Southeast Asia's ecology, communities and livelihoods.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11569\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] Apart from introducing its new campus at University Town, Law hosted an engaging line-up of talks, moot court demonstrations and masterclasses to welcome prospective students.<\/strong>[\/caption]\r\nA new chapter at UTown<\/strong>Following its\u00a0relocation from Bukit Timah<\/a>\u00a0to Kent Ridge, NUS Law offered prospective students a one-stop shop of what the faculty had to offer, with mooting sessions, thought-provoking masterclasses, and talks that highlighted its world-class faculty and illustrious alumni network.\r\nUnlike previous years, visitors no longer needed to shuttle between both campuses to explore all the Open House activities, said Mr Justin Tan, NUS Law's Vice-Dean (Student Affairs), who gave a welcome talk to prospective students. Remarking on the vibrant setting of its newly upgraded campus, he said, \"I think (visitors) will really love the fact that there are literally thousands of people living in UTown's apartment blocks, all within a few minutes' walk of our new campus. This translates to endless possibilities for a fantastic undergraduate life!\"<\/p>\r\n<\/article>\r\nBeyond the books<\/strong>NUSC<\/a>, the University's honours college, held sessions showcasing its\u00a0Global Experience<\/a>\u00a0(GEx) programme, which immerses students in 14 overseas sites for a month to engage deeply with their themes. In GEx New York, students examine its identity as a global city, investigating its urban development and cultural heritage through interactions with high-level diplomats, non-government organisations, and industry professionals.\r\nNUS Nursing<\/a>\u00a0held special classes where users learned empathetic communication in palliative care by conversing with an AI chatbot, and showcased its\u00a0new Concurrent Degree Programme<\/a>, which combines the Bachelor of Science (Nursing) (Honours) with the Master of Science (Biomedical Informatics).<\/p>\r\nMeanwhile,\u00a0NUS Medicine<\/a> offered a hands-on look at the future of medical education through clinical simulations, virtual reality stations, and insightful talks on its curriculum.<\/p>\r\nInside scoop on residential life<\/strong>Through talks, booths, and guided tours, Masters, Resident Fellows, and student leaders from the Residential Colleges, Halls, and Houses offered prospective students insights on the culture of their residences, the partnership between resident fellows and residents, and the vast array of student-led initiatives that foster vibrancy, community spirit, and inclusivity.\r\nNUS' newest hostel, the sports-themed\u00a0Valour House<\/a>, highlighted its key pillars of courage, strength, and resilience - characteristics not just of athletes but of students - to demonstrate its culture of supporting sporting achievements and encouraging residents to step out of their comfort zones.<\/p>\r\nVibrancy of NUS student life<\/strong>A dynamic line-up of performances and showcases, spotlighting some of NUS' finest talents in the performing arts, was presented by the various student clubs and interest groups at the Student Village. From upbeat, catchy tunes by\u00a0NUS Fingerstyle Guitar<\/a>\u00a0and a capella groups\u00a0NUS Resonance<\/a>,\u00a0RHythm<\/a>\u00a0from Raffles Hall, and\u00a0Eusoff Chorapella<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Eusoff Hall<\/a>\u00a0to skilful renditions by\u00a0Helix House<\/a>'s Helix Band and\u00a0Sheares Hall<\/a>'s Sheares Band, visitors were treated to a glimpse into the vibrant student experience at NUS beyond academic pursuits.<\/article>\r\n\r\nThis story\u00a0first appeared in <\/em>NUSnews<\/a> on 13 March 2026.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/div>New Centre for Computational Social Science and Humanities at NUS to advance interdisciplinary research on complex societal challenges<\/a><\/h3>05 March 2026 <\/div>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11537\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] Present at the launch of the Centre for Computational Social Science and Humanities at NUS today were (from left) CSSH Deputy Director Assoc Prof Dandan Qiao from NUS School of Computing; CSSH Co-Director Prof Atreyi Kankanhalli from NUS School of Computing; Prof Tulika Mitra, Dean of NUS School of Computing; Prof Liu Bin, NUS Deputy President (Research and Technology); Prof Lionel Wee, Dean of NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences; CSSH Co-Director Prof Peter Millican from NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences; and Assoc Prof Miguel Escobar Varela from NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.<\/strong>[\/caption]\r\nA new research centre at the National University of Singapore (NUS) is bringing together data science, AI and computational methods with deep insights from social sciences and humanities to better understand complex social phenomena and develop solutions to pressing societal challenges. By combining technological innovation with human insight, the Centre for Computational Social Science and Humanities (CSSH) aims to generate research that improves lives, strengthens institutions, preserves cultural knowledge, and shapes more inclusive and resilient societies in Singapore and beyond.<\/p>\r\n\r\nOfficially launched today, CSSH is the first in Singapore to systematically bring together computational social science and the humanities within a single centre to bridge research, policy and real-world applications.<\/p>\r\nThe Centre draws on expertise across disciplines including computing, new media, linguistics, geography, public policy and healthcare, amongst others. This interdisciplinary foundation enables CSSH to examine how digital technologies intersect with social systems, such as assessing the societal implications of AI-enabled platforms, using digital tools to help preserve Singapore's cultural heritage, and strengthening digital literacy in vulnerable communities.<\/p>\r\nNUS Deputy President (Research and Technology) Professor Liu Bin said, \"Rapid advances in digital technologies and AI are transforming our world. But technological breakthroughs are only as valuable as the difference they make to peoples' lives. CSSH reflects NUS' commitment to ensuring that innovation translates to tangible improvements in how we live, work and build stronger communities. By integrating computational methods with social science and humanities, the Centre will help translate research insights into policies and practices that deliver real-world impact.\"<\/p>\r\nShe added that the Centre complements Singapore's broader push for innovative, responsible harnessing of technology and AI which emphasises that progress should be not only technically advanced, but trusted, inclusive and grounded in real social needs.<\/p>\r\nDriving real-world impact through interdisciplinary innovation<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\r\nCSSH is led by Co-Directors Professor Atreyi Kankanhalli from the\u00a0NUS School of Computing<\/a>\u00a0and Professor Peter Millican from the\u00a0NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences<\/a>. The Centre supports both seed funding for emerging ideas and larger projects, all designed to generate real-world impact.<\/p>\r\nProf Kankanhalli said, \"What distinguishes CSSH is our ability to study human behaviour, institutions and societies at a scale and depth that was not previously possible. By combining computational methods with rich domain expertise in the social sciences and humanities, we can uncover patterns, test ideas, and generate evidence that directly informs policy and practice. Our goal is not just to analyse social problems, but to help shape systems that work better for people.\"<\/p>\r\nSince beginning operations in the second half of 2024, CSSH has embarked on more than 50 interdisciplinary projects involving 105 researchers from across NUS and their external collaborators. The projects demonstrate the breadth of its work - from AI-enabled analysis of social media impacts to digital preservation of historical archives.<\/p>\r\nAmongst the major research projects currently being undertaken by CSSH is one titled \"Computational Social Simulations for Aiding Policy Design\", led by Prof Kankanhalli. In this five-year project, researchers from NUS and three other local universities are collaborating to develop an AI-driven social simulation platform for policymakers to help test and refine policy interventions before they are rolled out.<\/p>\r\nUsing large language models (LLMs), the platform will model diverse public personas to enable policymakers to conduct swift preliminary testing of policy ideas. The simulations will complement traditional research methods by reducing the frequency of costly, time-consuming large-scale surveys and field studies during early policy development, while retaining real-world validation and community engagement at critical decision points. CSSH Deputy Director Associate Professor Dandan Qiao from the NUS School of Computing is also contributing her expertise to the project.<\/p>\r\nAnother project titled \"The Jawi AI Project\", led by NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Associate Professor Miguel Escobar Varela, harnesses AI to enable large-scale transliteration and analysis of Jawi texts. Early Malay-language newspapers in Singapore, published between 1870 and 1970 were written in Jawi, a script few can read today.<\/p>\r\nIn collaboration with the National Library Board (NLB), the team comprising local and foreign experts is transforming thousands of archived pages into searchable Malay text, significantly expanding the range of materials available at NLB's digitised archives. Assoc Prof Escobar Varela, who is also Deputy Director at CSSH, noted that the project could significantly expand research into Malay-language journalism and public debate in the region, broadening how Singapore's history is understood and taught.<\/p>\r\nProf Millican highlighted that a core mission of CSSH is to break down the walls between disciplines. By connecting humanities and social science researchers with computing and data science experts, the Centre fosters collaborations that neither field could achieve alone. \"Many of today's biggest challenges demand both deep specialist insight and serious technical firepower\", he explained, \"whether they involve untangling complex social issues, tackling health crises, anticipating future problems, or building the tools to address these. CSSH provides a natural home for such interdisciplinary conversations.\"<\/p>\r\nHe added that the Centre looks forward to developing more projects addressing societal challenges to which computational insights can make the greatest difference. Focus areas include AI and emerging technologies, sustainability and environmental policy, population trends and demographic change, public health and social care, and the preservation and understanding of history and cultural heritage.<\/p>\r\n<\/article>\r\n\r\nThis story\u00a0first appeared in <\/em>NUSnews<\/a> on 4 March 2026.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/div>Teaching with heart: The human side of higher education<\/a><\/h3>30 December 2025 <\/div>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11500\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1920\"] Participants for the Play Installation \"Playful Minds: Learning Through Play\", where educators explored the role of play in teaching.<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nForget the confines of a lecture theatre, abstract theories and math equations. For their core Economics introductory course at NUS, students found themselves not in a classroom, but outside Sri Mariamman Temple where their phones buzzed with a Telegram chatbot's cryptic challenge: \"All are welcome past the door. So when footwear outside are a-plenty, the temple is a ______, and when footwear outside are a-wanting, the temple is a ______.\"<\/p>\r\nExchanging puzzled looks, the students typed \"\/hint\" into the chat. \"If there are many pairs of footwear outside, it must be crowded (and uncomfortable) inside,\" the chatbot prompted. After recognising the relevant concepts, they typed the answers into the Telegram chat before receiving a clue to their next location.<\/p>\r\nIt is not every day that students participate in a chatbot-guided scavenger hunt as part of their core Economics introductory course. But Associate Professor Ong Ee Cheng, Mr Chan Kok Hoe and Dr Timothy Wong from the Department of Economics at the\u00a0Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences<\/a>\u00a0believe that experiential learning can help students better understand key economics concepts in everyday contexts.<\/p>\r\nThis was one of many innovative teaching strategies presented at the Higher Education Conference in Singapore (HECS) 2025. Organised by the NUS Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT), the event held on 10 December 2025 gathered educators from universities across Singapore to explore how to enrich learning experiences.<\/p>\r\nThis year's theme, \"Building Relationships in Teaching and Learning\", echoes Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's call for education to move beyond narrow definitions of success, and empower learners to discover and develop their unique strengths,\u00a0in his speech at the Debate on the President's Address 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\"It is most fitting that HECS 2025 is championing the human dimension of education. This focus on relational teaching aligns with PM Wong's call to broaden meritocracy, creating environments where learning is joyful, fulfilling, collaborative, inclusive and future-ready,\" said NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye in his opening speech.<\/p>\r\nThe power of play<\/strong><\/p>\r\nA recurring theme throughout the conference was the role of play in teaching - widely used in early childhood education but often undervalued in higher education despite being found to increase student engagement.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11499\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1920\"] HECS 2025 participants discussing the role of play in teaching at the \"Playful Minds: Learning Through Play\" installation.<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nAt NUS, faculty members have been experimenting with such approaches, several of which were showcased in the \"Playful Minds: Learning Through Play\" installation.<\/p>\r\nOne example is the use of tableau, where students create a frozen, dramatic image with their bodies to interpret an abstract prompt. While tableau is most commonly associated with theatre studies, it is also used across humanities disciplines such as anthropology and philosophy, combining embodied, experiential and collaborative learning.<\/p>\r\nIn\u00a0HS2902: Do Play Play: The Importance of Play,<\/i>\u00a0an interdisciplinary course offered as part of the common curriculum of the College of Humanities and Sciences, students design card games about a social issue of their choice. In \"We Just Bought a Zoo\", for instance, players juggle the welfare of animals against profit-making, exploring ethical dilemmas surrounding captive animal welfare.<\/p>\r\nOn the sidelines of the \"Playful Minds: Learning Through Play\" installation, Assoc Prof Ong added, \"In the context of higher education, play is about moving away from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation - the feeling of 'I'm doing it because it's interesting and I'm curious, not just because I want an A'.\"<\/p>\r\nDifferent strokes for different folks<\/strong><\/p>\r\nWhile much of the conference focused on undergraduate learners, speakers also highlighted the need to tailor teaching to different learner profiles.<\/p>\r\nIn a paper presentation, Dr Ng Boon Yuen and Dr Ganthi Viswanathan from the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) examined how adult learners' sense of belonging affects their learning in online classes.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11498\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1920\"] Dr Ng Boon Yuen from the Singapore University of Social Sciences sharing about adult learners' sense of belonging in online learning.<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nUnlike undergraduates who place greater emphasis on social connection, adult learners prioritise practical factors like convenience and flexibility. While the majority of surveyed students reported that they did not feel a sense of community with their peers, most were satisfied with online courses and planned to continue taking them.<\/p>\r\nHowever, this absence of a sense of belonging still manifests in challenges such as a lack of trust among members during group work, noted Dr Ng. To foster stronger rapport,\u00a0one suggestion was for instructors to facilitate early relationship building through icebreakers and breakout rooms.<\/p>\r\nCreating a culture of care<\/strong><\/p>\r\nSpeakers also emphasised that meaningful relationships form the foundation of fulfilling learning experience, whether between educators and learners, or learners and communities. Within classrooms, small, intentional gestures can reshape dynamics. Dr Daryl Ooi, a lecturer at the\u00a0NUS Department of Philosophy<\/a>, called these \"pedagogies of care\".<\/p>\r\n\"There are a lot of acts that happen to us and in our hearts, we are sorting out what is caring and uncaring,\" said Dr Ooi, who was representing an NUS learning community on pedagogies of relationality and care, at the workshop. Pedagogies of care respect students' autonomy and the plurality of their experiences, opinions and emotions. One participant shared how simply sitting on the floor with her students helped to reduce hierarchical barriers.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11497\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1920\"] The HECS 2025 Organising Committee and CTLT team brought the educators together for stimulating discussions.<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nReinforcing the importance of relationships in her closing keynote, Associate Professor Chng Huang Hoon, Director of the\u00a0Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Centre at NUS<\/a>, said, \"High-impact experiences have to be founded on relationships, community bonds and mutual trust. If we can enact an educational experience that is relationship-rich in- and outside our classrooms, we would have gone some ways in restoring the human in the work we do.\"<\/p>\r\n\t\r\nThis story\u00a0first appeared in <\/em>NUSnews<\/a> on 26 December 2025.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div><\/div>Photos from the Singapore Heritage Roundtable<\/a><\/h3>17 December 2025 <\/div>Check out the photos from our Singapore Heritage Roundtable!<\/p>\r\nThe roundtable was chaired by FASS Assistant Dean of Research and Foo Hai Associate Professor in Buddhist Studies Jack Meng-Tat Chia and opened by Ms Melissa May Tan, Director of Heritage Policy & Research at the National Heritage Board.<\/p>\r\nThe programme featured four National Heritage Board Heritage Research Grant recipients from FASS:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Yang Yan (NUS Chinese Studies) \u2013 In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine<\/li>\r\n \tDr Clay Eaton (NUS Japanese Studies) \u2013 Mapping Middle Road: Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore<\/li>\r\n \tDr Jinna Tay (NUS Communications and New Media) \u2013 Re-Interpreting Fashion Narratives in Singapore: De-colonising the Modern<\/li>\r\n \tAssistant Professor Guo-Quan Seng (NUS History) \u2013 Small Businesses and Shops of Chinatown, 1819\u20131980s<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nYou can also watch the full video recording here<\/a>, and download the programme booklet here<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11470\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1246\"] Assoc Prof Jack Meng-Tat welcomes attendees to the Singapore Heritage Roundtable.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11465\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Ms Melissa May Tan delivers the opening remarks at the Singapore Heritage Roundtable.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11469\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1185\"] Dr Yang Yan introduces her project, \"In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore's Chinese Medicine\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11468\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan\u2019s slide outlining theoretical concepts, specifically differentiating between Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the localisation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine (SCM).[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11467\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan\u2019s presentation slide displaying historical texts and book covers illustrating regional schools of thought in Chinese Medicine and the Ming Dynasty.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11466\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan shares specific examples of local medicinal adaptations, such as \"Cooling Water\" and \"Cat Whisker Tea\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11464\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton presents the \"Mapping Middle Road\" project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11462\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton discusses the \"Curiocity Map\", developed in collaboration with the National Library Board, as part of the \"Mapping Middle Road\" project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11460\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton highlights a digital article in MUSE SG titled \"Mapping the Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11451\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2560\"] Dr Jinna Tay introduces the Singapore Fashion Histories Website using a slide featuring archival photography of women's fashion in Singapore.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11458\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Jinna Tay examines cultural history through vintage covers of Her World<\/em> magazine.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11457\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng presents the opening slide for the project titled \"Small Businesses & Shops of Chinatown, 1819\u20131980s\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11456\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng acknowledges the collaborators involved in the project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11455\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng discusses the history of remittance shopkeepers in Chinatown, referencing Wong Chin Soon.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11454\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng explains the historical density of tailor shops on Pagoda Street.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11453\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng reflects on a past panel discussion about small businesses and shops in Chinatown.[\/caption]<\/div><\/div>Photos from the Singapore Heritage Roundtable<\/a><\/h3>15 December 2025 <\/div>Check out the photos from our Singapore Heritage Roundtable!<\/p>\r\nThe roundtable was chaired by FASS Assistant Dean of Research and Foo Hai Associate Professor in Buddhist Studies Jack Meng-Tat Chia and opened by Ms Melissa May Tan, Director of Heritage Policy & Research at the National Heritage Board.<\/p>\r\nThe programme featured four National Heritage Board Heritage Research Grant recipients from FASS:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Yang Yan (NUS Chinese Studies) \u2013 In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine<\/li>\r\n \tDr Clay Eaton (NUS Japanese Studies) \u2013 Mapping Middle Road: Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore<\/li>\r\n \tDr Jinna Tay (NUS Communications and New Media) \u2013 Re-Interpreting Fashion Narratives in Singapore: De-colonising the Modern<\/li>\r\n \tAssistant Professor Guo-Quan Seng (NUS History) \u2013 Small Businesses and Shops of Chinatown, 1819\u20131980s<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nYou can also watch the full video recording here<\/a>, and download the programme booklet here<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11470\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1246\"] Assoc Prof Jack Meng-Tat addresses the audience, standing before the opening slide for the Singapore Heritage Roundtable.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11465\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Ms Melissa May Tan delivers the opening remarks at the Singapore Heritage Roundtable.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11469\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1185\"] Dr Yang Yan introduces her project, \"In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore's Chinese Medicine\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11468\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan\u2019s slide outlining theoretical concepts, specifically differentiating between Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the localisation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine (SCM).[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11467\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan\u2019s presentation slide displaying historical texts and book covers illustrating regional schools of thought in Chinese Medicine and the Ming Dynasty.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11466\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan demonstrates specific examples of local medicinal adaptations, such as \"Cooling Water\" and \"Cat Whisker Tea\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11464\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton presents the \"Mapping Middle Road\" project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11463\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton discusses the \"Curiocity Map\", developed in collaboration with the National Library Board, as part of the \"Mapping Middle Road\" project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11460\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton highlights a digital article in MUSE SG titled \"Mapping the Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11451\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2560\"] Dr Jinna Tay introduces the Singapore Fashion Histories Website using a slide featuring archival photography of women's fashion in Singapore.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11458\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Jinna Tay examines cultural history through vintage covers of Her World<\/em> magazine.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11457\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng presents the opening slide for the project titled \"Small Businesses & Shops of Chinatown, 1819\u20131980s\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11456\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng acknowledges the collaborators involved in the project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11455\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng discusses the history of remittance shopkeepers in Chinatown, referencing Wong Chin Soon.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11454\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng explains the historical density of tailor shops on Pagoda Street.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11453\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng reflects on a past public talk regarding small businesses in Chinatown.[\/caption]<\/div><\/div>Recording now available: Singapore Heritage Roundtable (11 November 2025)<\/a><\/h3>05 December 2025 <\/div>As part of the \u201cCelebrating Singapore Studies: Sixty Years of Nationhood\u201d campaign, the Singapore Research Nexus hosted a richly informative Heritage Research Roundtable<\/a> that featured four National Heritage Board Heritage Research Grant recipients from FASS and brought fresh scholarly light to lesser-known chapters of Singapore\u2019s past. The full video recording is now available here.<\/a><\/p>\r\nProgramme<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tWelcome Remarks and Chair: Assoc Prof Jack Meng-Tat Chia (NUS History & Assistant Dean of Research, FASS)<\/li>\r\n \tOpening Remarks: Ms Melissa May Tan (Director, Heritage Policy & Research, National Heritage Board)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nPresentations<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Yang Yan (Research Fellow, NUS Chinese Studies)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nIn Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine<\/em><\/p>\r\nExplores how Singapore\u2019s Chinese medical tradition diverged from mainland TCM, developing distinctive doctrines, diagnostics, and formulae shaped by local climates, migration patterns, and everyday clinical practice.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Clay Eaton (Lecturer, NUS Japanese Studies)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nMapping Middle Road: Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore<\/em><\/p>\r\nReconstructs the vibrant yet largely forgotten \u201cLittle Japan\u201d centred on Middle Road \u2013 home to merchants, photographers, dentists, schoolchildren, and karayuki-san<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 \u2013 and its place within colonial Singapore\u2019s cosmopolitan society.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Jinna Tay (Senior Lecturer, NUS Communications and New Media)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nRe-Interpreting Fashion Narratives in Singapore: De-colonising the Modern<\/em><\/p>\r\nDraws on decades of newspaper archives (1950s-1990s) to reveal how fashion became a site where colonial ideas of modernity persisted, and how contemporary research can help deconstruct those inherited frameworks.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tAsst Prof Guo-Quan Seng (Assistant Professor, NUS History)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nSmall Businesses and Shops of Chinatown, 1819-1980s<\/em><\/p>\r\nA social history of the modest shophouses and enterprises that formed the backbone of Chinatown\u2019s economy, tracing flows of textiles, rubber, remittances, and credit across regional Chinese networks.<\/p>\r\nWe invite researchers alumni, heritage enthusiasts, and the wider public to watch the recording and discover how NUS FASS scholars are uncovering the diverse, lived textures of Singapore\u2019s past.<\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\ud835\uddd8\ud835\udde9\ud835\uddd8\ud835\udde1\ud835\udde7 | \ud835\udde6\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf4\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddfd\ud835\uddfc\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddf2 \ud835\udddb\ud835\uddf2\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddf6\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddf4\ud835\uddf2 \ud835\udde5\ud835\uddfc\ud835\ude02\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf1\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddef\ud835\uddf9\ud835\uddf2 | \ud835\udfed\ud835\udfed \ud835\udde1\ud835\uddfc\ud835\ude03, \ud835\udfef:\ud835\udff1\ud835\udfec-\ud835\udff2:\ud835\udfec\ud835\udfec \ud835\uddfd\ud835\uddfa<\/a><\/h3>06 November 2025 <\/div>\r\nThe Singapore Research Nexus at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) is holding \u2018Singapore Heritage Roundtable\u2019, an event featuring four research projects on Singapore Heritage:<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n1. \u2018In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine\u2019 by Dr YANG Yan (Research Fellow, NUS Chinese Studies)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n2. \u2018Mapping Middle Road: Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore\u2019 by Dr Clay EATON (Lecturer, NUS Japanese Studies)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n3. \u2018Re-interpreting Fashion Narratives in Singapore: De-colonising the Modern\u2019 by Dr Jinna TAY (Senior Lecturer, NUS Communications and New Media)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n4. \u2018Small Businesses and Shops of Chinatown, 1819-1980s' by Dr Guo-Quan SENG (Assistant Professor, NUS History)<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nDate and Time:<\/strong> Tuesday, 11 November 2025, 3:50-6:00 pm<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nVenue<\/strong>: FASS AS7 Research Division Seminar Room (6-42) and Zoom<\/div>\r\nVenue Address<\/strong>: NUS AS7 Shaw Foundation Building, 5 Arts Link, 117570<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nRegister<\/strong>:<\/div>\r\nIn-person<\/strong>: https:\/\/SG_Heritage_Roundtable.eventbrite.sg<\/a><\/span><\/div>\r\nZoom<\/strong>: https:\/\/shorturl.at\/WINeX<\/a><\/span><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nGet the programme here<\/strong>: https:\/\/shorturl.at\/Q7NLe<\/a><\/span><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n[video width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" mp4=\"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/jps\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2025\/10\/Singapore-Heritage-Roundtable-Video-3-2.mp4\"][\/video]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>2025 Valedictorian's Speech by Wang Lei<\/a><\/h3>17 July 2025 <\/div>https:\/\/youtu.be\/4pex9bBXEY4\r\n\r\nWang Lei graduated with a BA with Honours (Highest Distinction), having majored in Japanese Studies with a minor in Art History. She received university-level awards for Best Student in Japanese Studies and the prestigious Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) Scholarship. Lei also served as Publicity Director of the Japanese Studies Society (JSS). Congratulations, Lei!<\/div><\/div>Uncovering hidden stories of the pre-war Japanese community in Singapore<\/a><\/h3>23 May 2025 <\/div>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11145\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] \"Hylam Street, Singapore\" was situated between Middle Road and Bugis Street. Many Japanese residents lived along this street prior to World War II. (Photo taken from the Collection of the National Museum of Singapore. Courtesy of Roots.gov.sg.)<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nSingapore is home to cultural neighbourhoods such as Little India, Chinatown, Kampong Glam and the area around Tanjong Pagar that has become affectionately known as 'Koreatown'. But did you know that there was once a 'Little Japan' too?<\/p>\r\n'Little Japan' was an area around Middle Road - part of what we know as Bugis today - that comprised businesses, schools and places of worship for a Japanese community that settled in Singapore in the 1800s and 1900s. A community of thousands, they were far from little. Their presence in pre-war Singapore was significant in shaping Singapore's identity as a cosmopolitan port city in the colonial period.<\/p>\r\nDr Clay Eaton, historian and lecturer in the\u00a0NUS Department of Japanese Studies<\/a>\u00a0and Associate at the\u00a0NUS Asia Research Institute's (ARI's)<\/a>\u00a0Inter-Asia Engagement cluster, said, \"The Japanese wartime occupation of Singapore is well-known to many of us, but Japan and Singapore's relationship predates World War II. The unique role that the Japanese played here, as representatives of a major imperial power as well as a part of the broader Asian community, can help us better appreciate Singapore's rich cultural past. Very little work has been done on this community, especially in English, but they can tell us quite a bit about the social complexity of this period.\"<\/p>\r\nIn an attempt to reconstruct the pre-war Japanese community in Singapore's \"Little Japan\" around Middle Road, Dr Eaton; Professor Naoko Shimazu, also an Associate at ARI's Inter-Asia Engagements Cluster and former Research Cluster Leader; and Dr Chee Keng Lee from\u00a0NUS College<\/a>\u00a0teamed up for a project known as 'Mapping Middle Road', the first public history project of its kind about the Japanese community in Singapore.<\/p>\r\nThe project was carried out under the National Heritage Board's (NHB) Heritage Research Grant and was hosted by ARI. It took two years to complete and was published as a\u00a0story map<\/a>\u00a0for the National Library Board's Curiocity[1]<\/a>. Mapping these historical findings allows users to better visualise how past movements of the Japanese communities around Middle Road unfolded and changed with significant events, thus turning abstract historical change into something we can see and trace across a real-world landscape.<\/p>\r\nThe findings in 'Mapping Middle Road' were widely discussed at conferences and talks in Asia and Europe.<\/p>\r\nThe researchers' findings were also further expanded and later developed into an online resource named 'Middle Road: Pre-War Japanese Community in Singapore' that is accessible to the public at\u00a0MUSE<\/a>, NHB's digital heritage publication hosted on Roots.<\/p>\r\nBringing the Japanese community's shifting past to life through maps and movement<\/strong><\/p>\r\nDeveloping this digital map to help users see not only where events and communities existed, but also how they shifted over time, was no easy task.<\/p>\r\nA team of faculty and student researchers combed through resources such as photos, advertisements, newspaper articles, travelogues and guides in various English- and Japanese-language materials residing in the National Library's NewspaperSG online archive, the Japanese Association of Singapore's collections, and the National Diet Library (the national library of Japan); to locate specific references to the Japanese community associated with particular places in the country.<\/p>\r\nThey identified over 20 locations and institutions to feature in the story map, with their efforts culminating in the visual reconstruction of the presence and movement of various Japanese institutions over time. These included schools, clinics, places of worship and businesses - all of which together help us imagine what life was like for the Japanese community here in Singapore at that time.<\/p>\r\nDr Eaton shared, \"Perhaps our biggest surprise, since this was a mapping project, was how mobile some of the institutions we were tracking ended up being. Just about every prominent business moved at least once (like the clothier Ebisuya) or had multiple branch locations (like the Tamagawa restaurant).\"<\/p>\r\nImportant locations such as the Japanese Consulate, Japanese Association and Toyo Hotel moved multiple times, making it challenging to pinpoint their locations onto a map, Dr Eaton shared. Ultimately, the team embraced the shifts in locations as a key factor in explaining the changes within the community over time.<\/p>\r\nThe Consulate's move from its original location on Sophia Road - located near the Japanese resident community along Middle Road - to the 'Gudan' district (the Japanese term for the Central Business District) came as Japan rose in political power globally. Its eventual return to quieter offices on Mt Emily before World War II presumably symbolised the growing isolation of the Japanese Empire on the world stage.<\/p>\r\nProf Shimazu shared how researchers had also identified a significant class division within Singapore's pre-war Japanese community, noting tensions between the first Japanese settlers in Singapore in the late 1800s and a more affluent and educated wave of Japanese immigrants who arrived after 1910 and worked in the Gudan district.<\/p>\r\nThe establishment of elite institutions like the Japanese Association and Japanese Club did not help to bridge the gap. The Gudan expatriates played a crucial role in ending licensed Japanese prostitution in 1920, which affected the original Japanese community along Middle Road.<\/p>\r\nThe stories the research team uncovered confirmed what they had initially thought - that the Japanese community was diverse just like any other and was made up of interesting and dynamic individuals who were at times at odds with each other, but at other times, brought together by a shared sense of national belonging.<\/p>\r\n[1]\u00a0National Library Board's Curiocity houses digitised maps, photographs and multimedia content that are combined for users to explore the past and see how it has shaped the present.<\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\nThis story first appeared on <\/em>NUSNews<\/a>\u00a0on 16 May 2025.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div><\/div>Make the library a modern kampung<\/a><\/h3>14 April 2025 <\/div>\r\n\r\n\tIN BRIEF | 10 min read<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\nBy Associate Professor Thang Leng Leng, Deputy Head of NUS Japanese Studies<\/a>.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\nClick through image below to read this piece.<\/a><\/p>\r\n
Exploring real-world connections at CHS<\/strong>CHS, which brings together the\u00a0Faculty of Science<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences<\/a>, traded individual programme booths for immersive thematic zones, allowing visitors to understand how diverse disciplines converge in the real world as part of a new approach that brought its interdisciplinary ethos to life.\r\nIn \"Understanding People and Societies\", which linked anthropology with sociology and psychology, they explored the role of these social sciences in understanding human behaviour, while \"Science in our Lives\" demonstrated the interconnected fields of chemical, biological and pharmaceutical science in contributing to better therapies.<\/p>\r\nUnderscoring this approach was \"Beyond the Textbook: Play, Policy, and Plants\", a panel which gathered faculty members from three interdisciplinary courses to discuss timely issues such as the importance of play in learning, the multifaceted aspects of drug regulation, and the study of plants as a lens for examining Southeast Asia's ecology, communities and livelihoods.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11569\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] Apart from introducing its new campus at University Town, Law hosted an engaging line-up of talks, moot court demonstrations and masterclasses to welcome prospective students.<\/strong>[\/caption]\r\nA new chapter at UTown<\/strong>Following its\u00a0relocation from Bukit Timah<\/a>\u00a0to Kent Ridge, NUS Law offered prospective students a one-stop shop of what the faculty had to offer, with mooting sessions, thought-provoking masterclasses, and talks that highlighted its world-class faculty and illustrious alumni network.\r\nUnlike previous years, visitors no longer needed to shuttle between both campuses to explore all the Open House activities, said Mr Justin Tan, NUS Law's Vice-Dean (Student Affairs), who gave a welcome talk to prospective students. Remarking on the vibrant setting of its newly upgraded campus, he said, \"I think (visitors) will really love the fact that there are literally thousands of people living in UTown's apartment blocks, all within a few minutes' walk of our new campus. This translates to endless possibilities for a fantastic undergraduate life!\"<\/p>\r\n<\/article>\r\nBeyond the books<\/strong>NUSC<\/a>, the University's honours college, held sessions showcasing its\u00a0Global Experience<\/a>\u00a0(GEx) programme, which immerses students in 14 overseas sites for a month to engage deeply with their themes. In GEx New York, students examine its identity as a global city, investigating its urban development and cultural heritage through interactions with high-level diplomats, non-government organisations, and industry professionals.\r\nNUS Nursing<\/a>\u00a0held special classes where users learned empathetic communication in palliative care by conversing with an AI chatbot, and showcased its\u00a0new Concurrent Degree Programme<\/a>, which combines the Bachelor of Science (Nursing) (Honours) with the Master of Science (Biomedical Informatics).<\/p>\r\nMeanwhile,\u00a0NUS Medicine<\/a> offered a hands-on look at the future of medical education through clinical simulations, virtual reality stations, and insightful talks on its curriculum.<\/p>\r\nInside scoop on residential life<\/strong>Through talks, booths, and guided tours, Masters, Resident Fellows, and student leaders from the Residential Colleges, Halls, and Houses offered prospective students insights on the culture of their residences, the partnership between resident fellows and residents, and the vast array of student-led initiatives that foster vibrancy, community spirit, and inclusivity.\r\nNUS' newest hostel, the sports-themed\u00a0Valour House<\/a>, highlighted its key pillars of courage, strength, and resilience - characteristics not just of athletes but of students - to demonstrate its culture of supporting sporting achievements and encouraging residents to step out of their comfort zones.<\/p>\r\nVibrancy of NUS student life<\/strong>A dynamic line-up of performances and showcases, spotlighting some of NUS' finest talents in the performing arts, was presented by the various student clubs and interest groups at the Student Village. From upbeat, catchy tunes by\u00a0NUS Fingerstyle Guitar<\/a>\u00a0and a capella groups\u00a0NUS Resonance<\/a>,\u00a0RHythm<\/a>\u00a0from Raffles Hall, and\u00a0Eusoff Chorapella<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Eusoff Hall<\/a>\u00a0to skilful renditions by\u00a0Helix House<\/a>'s Helix Band and\u00a0Sheares Hall<\/a>'s Sheares Band, visitors were treated to a glimpse into the vibrant student experience at NUS beyond academic pursuits.<\/article>\r\n\r\nThis story\u00a0first appeared in <\/em>NUSnews<\/a> on 13 March 2026.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/div>New Centre for Computational Social Science and Humanities at NUS to advance interdisciplinary research on complex societal challenges<\/a><\/h3>05 March 2026 <\/div>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11537\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] Present at the launch of the Centre for Computational Social Science and Humanities at NUS today were (from left) CSSH Deputy Director Assoc Prof Dandan Qiao from NUS School of Computing; CSSH Co-Director Prof Atreyi Kankanhalli from NUS School of Computing; Prof Tulika Mitra, Dean of NUS School of Computing; Prof Liu Bin, NUS Deputy President (Research and Technology); Prof Lionel Wee, Dean of NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences; CSSH Co-Director Prof Peter Millican from NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences; and Assoc Prof Miguel Escobar Varela from NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.<\/strong>[\/caption]\r\nA new research centre at the National University of Singapore (NUS) is bringing together data science, AI and computational methods with deep insights from social sciences and humanities to better understand complex social phenomena and develop solutions to pressing societal challenges. By combining technological innovation with human insight, the Centre for Computational Social Science and Humanities (CSSH) aims to generate research that improves lives, strengthens institutions, preserves cultural knowledge, and shapes more inclusive and resilient societies in Singapore and beyond.<\/p>\r\n\r\nOfficially launched today, CSSH is the first in Singapore to systematically bring together computational social science and the humanities within a single centre to bridge research, policy and real-world applications.<\/p>\r\nThe Centre draws on expertise across disciplines including computing, new media, linguistics, geography, public policy and healthcare, amongst others. This interdisciplinary foundation enables CSSH to examine how digital technologies intersect with social systems, such as assessing the societal implications of AI-enabled platforms, using digital tools to help preserve Singapore's cultural heritage, and strengthening digital literacy in vulnerable communities.<\/p>\r\nNUS Deputy President (Research and Technology) Professor Liu Bin said, \"Rapid advances in digital technologies and AI are transforming our world. But technological breakthroughs are only as valuable as the difference they make to peoples' lives. CSSH reflects NUS' commitment to ensuring that innovation translates to tangible improvements in how we live, work and build stronger communities. By integrating computational methods with social science and humanities, the Centre will help translate research insights into policies and practices that deliver real-world impact.\"<\/p>\r\nShe added that the Centre complements Singapore's broader push for innovative, responsible harnessing of technology and AI which emphasises that progress should be not only technically advanced, but trusted, inclusive and grounded in real social needs.<\/p>\r\nDriving real-world impact through interdisciplinary innovation<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\r\nCSSH is led by Co-Directors Professor Atreyi Kankanhalli from the\u00a0NUS School of Computing<\/a>\u00a0and Professor Peter Millican from the\u00a0NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences<\/a>. The Centre supports both seed funding for emerging ideas and larger projects, all designed to generate real-world impact.<\/p>\r\nProf Kankanhalli said, \"What distinguishes CSSH is our ability to study human behaviour, institutions and societies at a scale and depth that was not previously possible. By combining computational methods with rich domain expertise in the social sciences and humanities, we can uncover patterns, test ideas, and generate evidence that directly informs policy and practice. Our goal is not just to analyse social problems, but to help shape systems that work better for people.\"<\/p>\r\nSince beginning operations in the second half of 2024, CSSH has embarked on more than 50 interdisciplinary projects involving 105 researchers from across NUS and their external collaborators. The projects demonstrate the breadth of its work - from AI-enabled analysis of social media impacts to digital preservation of historical archives.<\/p>\r\nAmongst the major research projects currently being undertaken by CSSH is one titled \"Computational Social Simulations for Aiding Policy Design\", led by Prof Kankanhalli. In this five-year project, researchers from NUS and three other local universities are collaborating to develop an AI-driven social simulation platform for policymakers to help test and refine policy interventions before they are rolled out.<\/p>\r\nUsing large language models (LLMs), the platform will model diverse public personas to enable policymakers to conduct swift preliminary testing of policy ideas. The simulations will complement traditional research methods by reducing the frequency of costly, time-consuming large-scale surveys and field studies during early policy development, while retaining real-world validation and community engagement at critical decision points. CSSH Deputy Director Associate Professor Dandan Qiao from the NUS School of Computing is also contributing her expertise to the project.<\/p>\r\nAnother project titled \"The Jawi AI Project\", led by NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Associate Professor Miguel Escobar Varela, harnesses AI to enable large-scale transliteration and analysis of Jawi texts. Early Malay-language newspapers in Singapore, published between 1870 and 1970 were written in Jawi, a script few can read today.<\/p>\r\nIn collaboration with the National Library Board (NLB), the team comprising local and foreign experts is transforming thousands of archived pages into searchable Malay text, significantly expanding the range of materials available at NLB's digitised archives. Assoc Prof Escobar Varela, who is also Deputy Director at CSSH, noted that the project could significantly expand research into Malay-language journalism and public debate in the region, broadening how Singapore's history is understood and taught.<\/p>\r\nProf Millican highlighted that a core mission of CSSH is to break down the walls between disciplines. By connecting humanities and social science researchers with computing and data science experts, the Centre fosters collaborations that neither field could achieve alone. \"Many of today's biggest challenges demand both deep specialist insight and serious technical firepower\", he explained, \"whether they involve untangling complex social issues, tackling health crises, anticipating future problems, or building the tools to address these. CSSH provides a natural home for such interdisciplinary conversations.\"<\/p>\r\nHe added that the Centre looks forward to developing more projects addressing societal challenges to which computational insights can make the greatest difference. Focus areas include AI and emerging technologies, sustainability and environmental policy, population trends and demographic change, public health and social care, and the preservation and understanding of history and cultural heritage.<\/p>\r\n<\/article>\r\n\r\nThis story\u00a0first appeared in <\/em>NUSnews<\/a> on 4 March 2026.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/div>Teaching with heart: The human side of higher education<\/a><\/h3>30 December 2025 <\/div>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11500\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1920\"] Participants for the Play Installation \"Playful Minds: Learning Through Play\", where educators explored the role of play in teaching.<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nForget the confines of a lecture theatre, abstract theories and math equations. For their core Economics introductory course at NUS, students found themselves not in a classroom, but outside Sri Mariamman Temple where their phones buzzed with a Telegram chatbot's cryptic challenge: \"All are welcome past the door. So when footwear outside are a-plenty, the temple is a ______, and when footwear outside are a-wanting, the temple is a ______.\"<\/p>\r\nExchanging puzzled looks, the students typed \"\/hint\" into the chat. \"If there are many pairs of footwear outside, it must be crowded (and uncomfortable) inside,\" the chatbot prompted. After recognising the relevant concepts, they typed the answers into the Telegram chat before receiving a clue to their next location.<\/p>\r\nIt is not every day that students participate in a chatbot-guided scavenger hunt as part of their core Economics introductory course. But Associate Professor Ong Ee Cheng, Mr Chan Kok Hoe and Dr Timothy Wong from the Department of Economics at the\u00a0Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences<\/a>\u00a0believe that experiential learning can help students better understand key economics concepts in everyday contexts.<\/p>\r\nThis was one of many innovative teaching strategies presented at the Higher Education Conference in Singapore (HECS) 2025. Organised by the NUS Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT), the event held on 10 December 2025 gathered educators from universities across Singapore to explore how to enrich learning experiences.<\/p>\r\nThis year's theme, \"Building Relationships in Teaching and Learning\", echoes Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's call for education to move beyond narrow definitions of success, and empower learners to discover and develop their unique strengths,\u00a0in his speech at the Debate on the President's Address 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\"It is most fitting that HECS 2025 is championing the human dimension of education. This focus on relational teaching aligns with PM Wong's call to broaden meritocracy, creating environments where learning is joyful, fulfilling, collaborative, inclusive and future-ready,\" said NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye in his opening speech.<\/p>\r\nThe power of play<\/strong><\/p>\r\nA recurring theme throughout the conference was the role of play in teaching - widely used in early childhood education but often undervalued in higher education despite being found to increase student engagement.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11499\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1920\"] HECS 2025 participants discussing the role of play in teaching at the \"Playful Minds: Learning Through Play\" installation.<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nAt NUS, faculty members have been experimenting with such approaches, several of which were showcased in the \"Playful Minds: Learning Through Play\" installation.<\/p>\r\nOne example is the use of tableau, where students create a frozen, dramatic image with their bodies to interpret an abstract prompt. While tableau is most commonly associated with theatre studies, it is also used across humanities disciplines such as anthropology and philosophy, combining embodied, experiential and collaborative learning.<\/p>\r\nIn\u00a0HS2902: Do Play Play: The Importance of Play,<\/i>\u00a0an interdisciplinary course offered as part of the common curriculum of the College of Humanities and Sciences, students design card games about a social issue of their choice. In \"We Just Bought a Zoo\", for instance, players juggle the welfare of animals against profit-making, exploring ethical dilemmas surrounding captive animal welfare.<\/p>\r\nOn the sidelines of the \"Playful Minds: Learning Through Play\" installation, Assoc Prof Ong added, \"In the context of higher education, play is about moving away from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation - the feeling of 'I'm doing it because it's interesting and I'm curious, not just because I want an A'.\"<\/p>\r\nDifferent strokes for different folks<\/strong><\/p>\r\nWhile much of the conference focused on undergraduate learners, speakers also highlighted the need to tailor teaching to different learner profiles.<\/p>\r\nIn a paper presentation, Dr Ng Boon Yuen and Dr Ganthi Viswanathan from the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) examined how adult learners' sense of belonging affects their learning in online classes.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11498\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1920\"] Dr Ng Boon Yuen from the Singapore University of Social Sciences sharing about adult learners' sense of belonging in online learning.<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nUnlike undergraduates who place greater emphasis on social connection, adult learners prioritise practical factors like convenience and flexibility. While the majority of surveyed students reported that they did not feel a sense of community with their peers, most were satisfied with online courses and planned to continue taking them.<\/p>\r\nHowever, this absence of a sense of belonging still manifests in challenges such as a lack of trust among members during group work, noted Dr Ng. To foster stronger rapport,\u00a0one suggestion was for instructors to facilitate early relationship building through icebreakers and breakout rooms.<\/p>\r\nCreating a culture of care<\/strong><\/p>\r\nSpeakers also emphasised that meaningful relationships form the foundation of fulfilling learning experience, whether between educators and learners, or learners and communities. Within classrooms, small, intentional gestures can reshape dynamics. Dr Daryl Ooi, a lecturer at the\u00a0NUS Department of Philosophy<\/a>, called these \"pedagogies of care\".<\/p>\r\n\"There are a lot of acts that happen to us and in our hearts, we are sorting out what is caring and uncaring,\" said Dr Ooi, who was representing an NUS learning community on pedagogies of relationality and care, at the workshop. Pedagogies of care respect students' autonomy and the plurality of their experiences, opinions and emotions. One participant shared how simply sitting on the floor with her students helped to reduce hierarchical barriers.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11497\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1920\"] The HECS 2025 Organising Committee and CTLT team brought the educators together for stimulating discussions.<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nReinforcing the importance of relationships in her closing keynote, Associate Professor Chng Huang Hoon, Director of the\u00a0Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Centre at NUS<\/a>, said, \"High-impact experiences have to be founded on relationships, community bonds and mutual trust. If we can enact an educational experience that is relationship-rich in- and outside our classrooms, we would have gone some ways in restoring the human in the work we do.\"<\/p>\r\n\t\r\nThis story\u00a0first appeared in <\/em>NUSnews<\/a> on 26 December 2025.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div><\/div>Photos from the Singapore Heritage Roundtable<\/a><\/h3>17 December 2025 <\/div>Check out the photos from our Singapore Heritage Roundtable!<\/p>\r\nThe roundtable was chaired by FASS Assistant Dean of Research and Foo Hai Associate Professor in Buddhist Studies Jack Meng-Tat Chia and opened by Ms Melissa May Tan, Director of Heritage Policy & Research at the National Heritage Board.<\/p>\r\nThe programme featured four National Heritage Board Heritage Research Grant recipients from FASS:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Yang Yan (NUS Chinese Studies) \u2013 In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine<\/li>\r\n \tDr Clay Eaton (NUS Japanese Studies) \u2013 Mapping Middle Road: Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore<\/li>\r\n \tDr Jinna Tay (NUS Communications and New Media) \u2013 Re-Interpreting Fashion Narratives in Singapore: De-colonising the Modern<\/li>\r\n \tAssistant Professor Guo-Quan Seng (NUS History) \u2013 Small Businesses and Shops of Chinatown, 1819\u20131980s<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nYou can also watch the full video recording here<\/a>, and download the programme booklet here<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11470\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1246\"] Assoc Prof Jack Meng-Tat welcomes attendees to the Singapore Heritage Roundtable.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11465\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Ms Melissa May Tan delivers the opening remarks at the Singapore Heritage Roundtable.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11469\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1185\"] Dr Yang Yan introduces her project, \"In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore's Chinese Medicine\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11468\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan\u2019s slide outlining theoretical concepts, specifically differentiating between Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the localisation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine (SCM).[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11467\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan\u2019s presentation slide displaying historical texts and book covers illustrating regional schools of thought in Chinese Medicine and the Ming Dynasty.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11466\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan shares specific examples of local medicinal adaptations, such as \"Cooling Water\" and \"Cat Whisker Tea\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11464\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton presents the \"Mapping Middle Road\" project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11462\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton discusses the \"Curiocity Map\", developed in collaboration with the National Library Board, as part of the \"Mapping Middle Road\" project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11460\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton highlights a digital article in MUSE SG titled \"Mapping the Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11451\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2560\"] Dr Jinna Tay introduces the Singapore Fashion Histories Website using a slide featuring archival photography of women's fashion in Singapore.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11458\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Jinna Tay examines cultural history through vintage covers of Her World<\/em> magazine.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11457\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng presents the opening slide for the project titled \"Small Businesses & Shops of Chinatown, 1819\u20131980s\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11456\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng acknowledges the collaborators involved in the project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11455\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng discusses the history of remittance shopkeepers in Chinatown, referencing Wong Chin Soon.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11454\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng explains the historical density of tailor shops on Pagoda Street.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11453\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng reflects on a past panel discussion about small businesses and shops in Chinatown.[\/caption]<\/div><\/div>Photos from the Singapore Heritage Roundtable<\/a><\/h3>15 December 2025 <\/div>Check out the photos from our Singapore Heritage Roundtable!<\/p>\r\nThe roundtable was chaired by FASS Assistant Dean of Research and Foo Hai Associate Professor in Buddhist Studies Jack Meng-Tat Chia and opened by Ms Melissa May Tan, Director of Heritage Policy & Research at the National Heritage Board.<\/p>\r\nThe programme featured four National Heritage Board Heritage Research Grant recipients from FASS:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Yang Yan (NUS Chinese Studies) \u2013 In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine<\/li>\r\n \tDr Clay Eaton (NUS Japanese Studies) \u2013 Mapping Middle Road: Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore<\/li>\r\n \tDr Jinna Tay (NUS Communications and New Media) \u2013 Re-Interpreting Fashion Narratives in Singapore: De-colonising the Modern<\/li>\r\n \tAssistant Professor Guo-Quan Seng (NUS History) \u2013 Small Businesses and Shops of Chinatown, 1819\u20131980s<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nYou can also watch the full video recording here<\/a>, and download the programme booklet here<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11470\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1246\"] Assoc Prof Jack Meng-Tat addresses the audience, standing before the opening slide for the Singapore Heritage Roundtable.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11465\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Ms Melissa May Tan delivers the opening remarks at the Singapore Heritage Roundtable.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11469\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1185\"] Dr Yang Yan introduces her project, \"In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore's Chinese Medicine\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11468\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan\u2019s slide outlining theoretical concepts, specifically differentiating between Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the localisation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine (SCM).[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11467\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan\u2019s presentation slide displaying historical texts and book covers illustrating regional schools of thought in Chinese Medicine and the Ming Dynasty.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11466\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan demonstrates specific examples of local medicinal adaptations, such as \"Cooling Water\" and \"Cat Whisker Tea\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11464\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton presents the \"Mapping Middle Road\" project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11463\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton discusses the \"Curiocity Map\", developed in collaboration with the National Library Board, as part of the \"Mapping Middle Road\" project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11460\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton highlights a digital article in MUSE SG titled \"Mapping the Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11451\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2560\"] Dr Jinna Tay introduces the Singapore Fashion Histories Website using a slide featuring archival photography of women's fashion in Singapore.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11458\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Jinna Tay examines cultural history through vintage covers of Her World<\/em> magazine.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11457\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng presents the opening slide for the project titled \"Small Businesses & Shops of Chinatown, 1819\u20131980s\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11456\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng acknowledges the collaborators involved in the project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11455\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng discusses the history of remittance shopkeepers in Chinatown, referencing Wong Chin Soon.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11454\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng explains the historical density of tailor shops on Pagoda Street.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11453\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng reflects on a past public talk regarding small businesses in Chinatown.[\/caption]<\/div><\/div>Recording now available: Singapore Heritage Roundtable (11 November 2025)<\/a><\/h3>05 December 2025 <\/div>As part of the \u201cCelebrating Singapore Studies: Sixty Years of Nationhood\u201d campaign, the Singapore Research Nexus hosted a richly informative Heritage Research Roundtable<\/a> that featured four National Heritage Board Heritage Research Grant recipients from FASS and brought fresh scholarly light to lesser-known chapters of Singapore\u2019s past. The full video recording is now available here.<\/a><\/p>\r\nProgramme<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tWelcome Remarks and Chair: Assoc Prof Jack Meng-Tat Chia (NUS History & Assistant Dean of Research, FASS)<\/li>\r\n \tOpening Remarks: Ms Melissa May Tan (Director, Heritage Policy & Research, National Heritage Board)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nPresentations<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Yang Yan (Research Fellow, NUS Chinese Studies)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nIn Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine<\/em><\/p>\r\nExplores how Singapore\u2019s Chinese medical tradition diverged from mainland TCM, developing distinctive doctrines, diagnostics, and formulae shaped by local climates, migration patterns, and everyday clinical practice.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Clay Eaton (Lecturer, NUS Japanese Studies)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nMapping Middle Road: Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore<\/em><\/p>\r\nReconstructs the vibrant yet largely forgotten \u201cLittle Japan\u201d centred on Middle Road \u2013 home to merchants, photographers, dentists, schoolchildren, and karayuki-san<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 \u2013 and its place within colonial Singapore\u2019s cosmopolitan society.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Jinna Tay (Senior Lecturer, NUS Communications and New Media)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nRe-Interpreting Fashion Narratives in Singapore: De-colonising the Modern<\/em><\/p>\r\nDraws on decades of newspaper archives (1950s-1990s) to reveal how fashion became a site where colonial ideas of modernity persisted, and how contemporary research can help deconstruct those inherited frameworks.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tAsst Prof Guo-Quan Seng (Assistant Professor, NUS History)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nSmall Businesses and Shops of Chinatown, 1819-1980s<\/em><\/p>\r\nA social history of the modest shophouses and enterprises that formed the backbone of Chinatown\u2019s economy, tracing flows of textiles, rubber, remittances, and credit across regional Chinese networks.<\/p>\r\nWe invite researchers alumni, heritage enthusiasts, and the wider public to watch the recording and discover how NUS FASS scholars are uncovering the diverse, lived textures of Singapore\u2019s past.<\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\ud835\uddd8\ud835\udde9\ud835\uddd8\ud835\udde1\ud835\udde7 | \ud835\udde6\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf4\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddfd\ud835\uddfc\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddf2 \ud835\udddb\ud835\uddf2\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddf6\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddf4\ud835\uddf2 \ud835\udde5\ud835\uddfc\ud835\ude02\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf1\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddef\ud835\uddf9\ud835\uddf2 | \ud835\udfed\ud835\udfed \ud835\udde1\ud835\uddfc\ud835\ude03, \ud835\udfef:\ud835\udff1\ud835\udfec-\ud835\udff2:\ud835\udfec\ud835\udfec \ud835\uddfd\ud835\uddfa<\/a><\/h3>06 November 2025 <\/div>\r\nThe Singapore Research Nexus at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) is holding \u2018Singapore Heritage Roundtable\u2019, an event featuring four research projects on Singapore Heritage:<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n1. \u2018In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine\u2019 by Dr YANG Yan (Research Fellow, NUS Chinese Studies)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n2. \u2018Mapping Middle Road: Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore\u2019 by Dr Clay EATON (Lecturer, NUS Japanese Studies)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n3. \u2018Re-interpreting Fashion Narratives in Singapore: De-colonising the Modern\u2019 by Dr Jinna TAY (Senior Lecturer, NUS Communications and New Media)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n4. \u2018Small Businesses and Shops of Chinatown, 1819-1980s' by Dr Guo-Quan SENG (Assistant Professor, NUS History)<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nDate and Time:<\/strong> Tuesday, 11 November 2025, 3:50-6:00 pm<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nVenue<\/strong>: FASS AS7 Research Division Seminar Room (6-42) and Zoom<\/div>\r\nVenue Address<\/strong>: NUS AS7 Shaw Foundation Building, 5 Arts Link, 117570<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nRegister<\/strong>:<\/div>\r\nIn-person<\/strong>: https:\/\/SG_Heritage_Roundtable.eventbrite.sg<\/a><\/span><\/div>\r\nZoom<\/strong>: https:\/\/shorturl.at\/WINeX<\/a><\/span><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nGet the programme here<\/strong>: https:\/\/shorturl.at\/Q7NLe<\/a><\/span><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n[video width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" mp4=\"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/jps\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2025\/10\/Singapore-Heritage-Roundtable-Video-3-2.mp4\"][\/video]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>2025 Valedictorian's Speech by Wang Lei<\/a><\/h3>17 July 2025 <\/div>https:\/\/youtu.be\/4pex9bBXEY4\r\n\r\nWang Lei graduated with a BA with Honours (Highest Distinction), having majored in Japanese Studies with a minor in Art History. She received university-level awards for Best Student in Japanese Studies and the prestigious Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) Scholarship. Lei also served as Publicity Director of the Japanese Studies Society (JSS). Congratulations, Lei!<\/div><\/div>Uncovering hidden stories of the pre-war Japanese community in Singapore<\/a><\/h3>23 May 2025 <\/div>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11145\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] \"Hylam Street, Singapore\" was situated between Middle Road and Bugis Street. Many Japanese residents lived along this street prior to World War II. (Photo taken from the Collection of the National Museum of Singapore. Courtesy of Roots.gov.sg.)<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nSingapore is home to cultural neighbourhoods such as Little India, Chinatown, Kampong Glam and the area around Tanjong Pagar that has become affectionately known as 'Koreatown'. But did you know that there was once a 'Little Japan' too?<\/p>\r\n'Little Japan' was an area around Middle Road - part of what we know as Bugis today - that comprised businesses, schools and places of worship for a Japanese community that settled in Singapore in the 1800s and 1900s. A community of thousands, they were far from little. Their presence in pre-war Singapore was significant in shaping Singapore's identity as a cosmopolitan port city in the colonial period.<\/p>\r\nDr Clay Eaton, historian and lecturer in the\u00a0NUS Department of Japanese Studies<\/a>\u00a0and Associate at the\u00a0NUS Asia Research Institute's (ARI's)<\/a>\u00a0Inter-Asia Engagement cluster, said, \"The Japanese wartime occupation of Singapore is well-known to many of us, but Japan and Singapore's relationship predates World War II. The unique role that the Japanese played here, as representatives of a major imperial power as well as a part of the broader Asian community, can help us better appreciate Singapore's rich cultural past. Very little work has been done on this community, especially in English, but they can tell us quite a bit about the social complexity of this period.\"<\/p>\r\nIn an attempt to reconstruct the pre-war Japanese community in Singapore's \"Little Japan\" around Middle Road, Dr Eaton; Professor Naoko Shimazu, also an Associate at ARI's Inter-Asia Engagements Cluster and former Research Cluster Leader; and Dr Chee Keng Lee from\u00a0NUS College<\/a>\u00a0teamed up for a project known as 'Mapping Middle Road', the first public history project of its kind about the Japanese community in Singapore.<\/p>\r\nThe project was carried out under the National Heritage Board's (NHB) Heritage Research Grant and was hosted by ARI. It took two years to complete and was published as a\u00a0story map<\/a>\u00a0for the National Library Board's Curiocity[1]<\/a>. Mapping these historical findings allows users to better visualise how past movements of the Japanese communities around Middle Road unfolded and changed with significant events, thus turning abstract historical change into something we can see and trace across a real-world landscape.<\/p>\r\nThe findings in 'Mapping Middle Road' were widely discussed at conferences and talks in Asia and Europe.<\/p>\r\nThe researchers' findings were also further expanded and later developed into an online resource named 'Middle Road: Pre-War Japanese Community in Singapore' that is accessible to the public at\u00a0MUSE<\/a>, NHB's digital heritage publication hosted on Roots.<\/p>\r\nBringing the Japanese community's shifting past to life through maps and movement<\/strong><\/p>\r\nDeveloping this digital map to help users see not only where events and communities existed, but also how they shifted over time, was no easy task.<\/p>\r\nA team of faculty and student researchers combed through resources such as photos, advertisements, newspaper articles, travelogues and guides in various English- and Japanese-language materials residing in the National Library's NewspaperSG online archive, the Japanese Association of Singapore's collections, and the National Diet Library (the national library of Japan); to locate specific references to the Japanese community associated with particular places in the country.<\/p>\r\nThey identified over 20 locations and institutions to feature in the story map, with their efforts culminating in the visual reconstruction of the presence and movement of various Japanese institutions over time. These included schools, clinics, places of worship and businesses - all of which together help us imagine what life was like for the Japanese community here in Singapore at that time.<\/p>\r\nDr Eaton shared, \"Perhaps our biggest surprise, since this was a mapping project, was how mobile some of the institutions we were tracking ended up being. Just about every prominent business moved at least once (like the clothier Ebisuya) or had multiple branch locations (like the Tamagawa restaurant).\"<\/p>\r\nImportant locations such as the Japanese Consulate, Japanese Association and Toyo Hotel moved multiple times, making it challenging to pinpoint their locations onto a map, Dr Eaton shared. Ultimately, the team embraced the shifts in locations as a key factor in explaining the changes within the community over time.<\/p>\r\nThe Consulate's move from its original location on Sophia Road - located near the Japanese resident community along Middle Road - to the 'Gudan' district (the Japanese term for the Central Business District) came as Japan rose in political power globally. Its eventual return to quieter offices on Mt Emily before World War II presumably symbolised the growing isolation of the Japanese Empire on the world stage.<\/p>\r\nProf Shimazu shared how researchers had also identified a significant class division within Singapore's pre-war Japanese community, noting tensions between the first Japanese settlers in Singapore in the late 1800s and a more affluent and educated wave of Japanese immigrants who arrived after 1910 and worked in the Gudan district.<\/p>\r\nThe establishment of elite institutions like the Japanese Association and Japanese Club did not help to bridge the gap. The Gudan expatriates played a crucial role in ending licensed Japanese prostitution in 1920, which affected the original Japanese community along Middle Road.<\/p>\r\nThe stories the research team uncovered confirmed what they had initially thought - that the Japanese community was diverse just like any other and was made up of interesting and dynamic individuals who were at times at odds with each other, but at other times, brought together by a shared sense of national belonging.<\/p>\r\n[1]\u00a0National Library Board's Curiocity houses digitised maps, photographs and multimedia content that are combined for users to explore the past and see how it has shaped the present.<\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\nThis story first appeared on <\/em>NUSNews<\/a>\u00a0on 16 May 2025.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div><\/div>Make the library a modern kampung<\/a><\/h3>14 April 2025 <\/div>\r\n\r\n\tIN BRIEF | 10 min read<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\nBy Associate Professor Thang Leng Leng, Deputy Head of NUS Japanese Studies<\/a>.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\nClick through image below to read this piece.<\/a><\/p>\r\n
Beyond the books<\/strong>NUSC<\/a>, the University's honours college, held sessions showcasing its\u00a0Global Experience<\/a>\u00a0(GEx) programme, which immerses students in 14 overseas sites for a month to engage deeply with their themes. In GEx New York, students examine its identity as a global city, investigating its urban development and cultural heritage through interactions with high-level diplomats, non-government organisations, and industry professionals.\r\nNUS Nursing<\/a>\u00a0held special classes where users learned empathetic communication in palliative care by conversing with an AI chatbot, and showcased its\u00a0new Concurrent Degree Programme<\/a>, which combines the Bachelor of Science (Nursing) (Honours) with the Master of Science (Biomedical Informatics).<\/p>\r\nMeanwhile,\u00a0NUS Medicine<\/a> offered a hands-on look at the future of medical education through clinical simulations, virtual reality stations, and insightful talks on its curriculum.<\/p>\r\nInside scoop on residential life<\/strong>Through talks, booths, and guided tours, Masters, Resident Fellows, and student leaders from the Residential Colleges, Halls, and Houses offered prospective students insights on the culture of their residences, the partnership between resident fellows and residents, and the vast array of student-led initiatives that foster vibrancy, community spirit, and inclusivity.\r\nNUS' newest hostel, the sports-themed\u00a0Valour House<\/a>, highlighted its key pillars of courage, strength, and resilience - characteristics not just of athletes but of students - to demonstrate its culture of supporting sporting achievements and encouraging residents to step out of their comfort zones.<\/p>\r\nVibrancy of NUS student life<\/strong>A dynamic line-up of performances and showcases, spotlighting some of NUS' finest talents in the performing arts, was presented by the various student clubs and interest groups at the Student Village. From upbeat, catchy tunes by\u00a0NUS Fingerstyle Guitar<\/a>\u00a0and a capella groups\u00a0NUS Resonance<\/a>,\u00a0RHythm<\/a>\u00a0from Raffles Hall, and\u00a0Eusoff Chorapella<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Eusoff Hall<\/a>\u00a0to skilful renditions by\u00a0Helix House<\/a>'s Helix Band and\u00a0Sheares Hall<\/a>'s Sheares Band, visitors were treated to a glimpse into the vibrant student experience at NUS beyond academic pursuits.<\/article>\r\n\r\nThis story\u00a0first appeared in <\/em>NUSnews<\/a> on 13 March 2026.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/div>New Centre for Computational Social Science and Humanities at NUS to advance interdisciplinary research on complex societal challenges<\/a><\/h3>05 March 2026 <\/div>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11537\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] Present at the launch of the Centre for Computational Social Science and Humanities at NUS today were (from left) CSSH Deputy Director Assoc Prof Dandan Qiao from NUS School of Computing; CSSH Co-Director Prof Atreyi Kankanhalli from NUS School of Computing; Prof Tulika Mitra, Dean of NUS School of Computing; Prof Liu Bin, NUS Deputy President (Research and Technology); Prof Lionel Wee, Dean of NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences; CSSH Co-Director Prof Peter Millican from NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences; and Assoc Prof Miguel Escobar Varela from NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.<\/strong>[\/caption]\r\nA new research centre at the National University of Singapore (NUS) is bringing together data science, AI and computational methods with deep insights from social sciences and humanities to better understand complex social phenomena and develop solutions to pressing societal challenges. By combining technological innovation with human insight, the Centre for Computational Social Science and Humanities (CSSH) aims to generate research that improves lives, strengthens institutions, preserves cultural knowledge, and shapes more inclusive and resilient societies in Singapore and beyond.<\/p>\r\n\r\nOfficially launched today, CSSH is the first in Singapore to systematically bring together computational social science and the humanities within a single centre to bridge research, policy and real-world applications.<\/p>\r\nThe Centre draws on expertise across disciplines including computing, new media, linguistics, geography, public policy and healthcare, amongst others. This interdisciplinary foundation enables CSSH to examine how digital technologies intersect with social systems, such as assessing the societal implications of AI-enabled platforms, using digital tools to help preserve Singapore's cultural heritage, and strengthening digital literacy in vulnerable communities.<\/p>\r\nNUS Deputy President (Research and Technology) Professor Liu Bin said, \"Rapid advances in digital technologies and AI are transforming our world. But technological breakthroughs are only as valuable as the difference they make to peoples' lives. CSSH reflects NUS' commitment to ensuring that innovation translates to tangible improvements in how we live, work and build stronger communities. By integrating computational methods with social science and humanities, the Centre will help translate research insights into policies and practices that deliver real-world impact.\"<\/p>\r\nShe added that the Centre complements Singapore's broader push for innovative, responsible harnessing of technology and AI which emphasises that progress should be not only technically advanced, but trusted, inclusive and grounded in real social needs.<\/p>\r\nDriving real-world impact through interdisciplinary innovation<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\r\nCSSH is led by Co-Directors Professor Atreyi Kankanhalli from the\u00a0NUS School of Computing<\/a>\u00a0and Professor Peter Millican from the\u00a0NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences<\/a>. The Centre supports both seed funding for emerging ideas and larger projects, all designed to generate real-world impact.<\/p>\r\nProf Kankanhalli said, \"What distinguishes CSSH is our ability to study human behaviour, institutions and societies at a scale and depth that was not previously possible. By combining computational methods with rich domain expertise in the social sciences and humanities, we can uncover patterns, test ideas, and generate evidence that directly informs policy and practice. Our goal is not just to analyse social problems, but to help shape systems that work better for people.\"<\/p>\r\nSince beginning operations in the second half of 2024, CSSH has embarked on more than 50 interdisciplinary projects involving 105 researchers from across NUS and their external collaborators. The projects demonstrate the breadth of its work - from AI-enabled analysis of social media impacts to digital preservation of historical archives.<\/p>\r\nAmongst the major research projects currently being undertaken by CSSH is one titled \"Computational Social Simulations for Aiding Policy Design\", led by Prof Kankanhalli. In this five-year project, researchers from NUS and three other local universities are collaborating to develop an AI-driven social simulation platform for policymakers to help test and refine policy interventions before they are rolled out.<\/p>\r\nUsing large language models (LLMs), the platform will model diverse public personas to enable policymakers to conduct swift preliminary testing of policy ideas. The simulations will complement traditional research methods by reducing the frequency of costly, time-consuming large-scale surveys and field studies during early policy development, while retaining real-world validation and community engagement at critical decision points. CSSH Deputy Director Associate Professor Dandan Qiao from the NUS School of Computing is also contributing her expertise to the project.<\/p>\r\nAnother project titled \"The Jawi AI Project\", led by NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Associate Professor Miguel Escobar Varela, harnesses AI to enable large-scale transliteration and analysis of Jawi texts. Early Malay-language newspapers in Singapore, published between 1870 and 1970 were written in Jawi, a script few can read today.<\/p>\r\nIn collaboration with the National Library Board (NLB), the team comprising local and foreign experts is transforming thousands of archived pages into searchable Malay text, significantly expanding the range of materials available at NLB's digitised archives. Assoc Prof Escobar Varela, who is also Deputy Director at CSSH, noted that the project could significantly expand research into Malay-language journalism and public debate in the region, broadening how Singapore's history is understood and taught.<\/p>\r\nProf Millican highlighted that a core mission of CSSH is to break down the walls between disciplines. By connecting humanities and social science researchers with computing and data science experts, the Centre fosters collaborations that neither field could achieve alone. \"Many of today's biggest challenges demand both deep specialist insight and serious technical firepower\", he explained, \"whether they involve untangling complex social issues, tackling health crises, anticipating future problems, or building the tools to address these. CSSH provides a natural home for such interdisciplinary conversations.\"<\/p>\r\nHe added that the Centre looks forward to developing more projects addressing societal challenges to which computational insights can make the greatest difference. Focus areas include AI and emerging technologies, sustainability and environmental policy, population trends and demographic change, public health and social care, and the preservation and understanding of history and cultural heritage.<\/p>\r\n<\/article>\r\n\r\nThis story\u00a0first appeared in <\/em>NUSnews<\/a> on 4 March 2026.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/div>Teaching with heart: The human side of higher education<\/a><\/h3>30 December 2025 <\/div>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11500\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1920\"] Participants for the Play Installation \"Playful Minds: Learning Through Play\", where educators explored the role of play in teaching.<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nForget the confines of a lecture theatre, abstract theories and math equations. For their core Economics introductory course at NUS, students found themselves not in a classroom, but outside Sri Mariamman Temple where their phones buzzed with a Telegram chatbot's cryptic challenge: \"All are welcome past the door. So when footwear outside are a-plenty, the temple is a ______, and when footwear outside are a-wanting, the temple is a ______.\"<\/p>\r\nExchanging puzzled looks, the students typed \"\/hint\" into the chat. \"If there are many pairs of footwear outside, it must be crowded (and uncomfortable) inside,\" the chatbot prompted. After recognising the relevant concepts, they typed the answers into the Telegram chat before receiving a clue to their next location.<\/p>\r\nIt is not every day that students participate in a chatbot-guided scavenger hunt as part of their core Economics introductory course. But Associate Professor Ong Ee Cheng, Mr Chan Kok Hoe and Dr Timothy Wong from the Department of Economics at the\u00a0Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences<\/a>\u00a0believe that experiential learning can help students better understand key economics concepts in everyday contexts.<\/p>\r\nThis was one of many innovative teaching strategies presented at the Higher Education Conference in Singapore (HECS) 2025. Organised by the NUS Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT), the event held on 10 December 2025 gathered educators from universities across Singapore to explore how to enrich learning experiences.<\/p>\r\nThis year's theme, \"Building Relationships in Teaching and Learning\", echoes Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's call for education to move beyond narrow definitions of success, and empower learners to discover and develop their unique strengths,\u00a0in his speech at the Debate on the President's Address 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\"It is most fitting that HECS 2025 is championing the human dimension of education. This focus on relational teaching aligns with PM Wong's call to broaden meritocracy, creating environments where learning is joyful, fulfilling, collaborative, inclusive and future-ready,\" said NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye in his opening speech.<\/p>\r\nThe power of play<\/strong><\/p>\r\nA recurring theme throughout the conference was the role of play in teaching - widely used in early childhood education but often undervalued in higher education despite being found to increase student engagement.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11499\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1920\"] HECS 2025 participants discussing the role of play in teaching at the \"Playful Minds: Learning Through Play\" installation.<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nAt NUS, faculty members have been experimenting with such approaches, several of which were showcased in the \"Playful Minds: Learning Through Play\" installation.<\/p>\r\nOne example is the use of tableau, where students create a frozen, dramatic image with their bodies to interpret an abstract prompt. While tableau is most commonly associated with theatre studies, it is also used across humanities disciplines such as anthropology and philosophy, combining embodied, experiential and collaborative learning.<\/p>\r\nIn\u00a0HS2902: Do Play Play: The Importance of Play,<\/i>\u00a0an interdisciplinary course offered as part of the common curriculum of the College of Humanities and Sciences, students design card games about a social issue of their choice. In \"We Just Bought a Zoo\", for instance, players juggle the welfare of animals against profit-making, exploring ethical dilemmas surrounding captive animal welfare.<\/p>\r\nOn the sidelines of the \"Playful Minds: Learning Through Play\" installation, Assoc Prof Ong added, \"In the context of higher education, play is about moving away from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation - the feeling of 'I'm doing it because it's interesting and I'm curious, not just because I want an A'.\"<\/p>\r\nDifferent strokes for different folks<\/strong><\/p>\r\nWhile much of the conference focused on undergraduate learners, speakers also highlighted the need to tailor teaching to different learner profiles.<\/p>\r\nIn a paper presentation, Dr Ng Boon Yuen and Dr Ganthi Viswanathan from the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) examined how adult learners' sense of belonging affects their learning in online classes.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11498\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1920\"] Dr Ng Boon Yuen from the Singapore University of Social Sciences sharing about adult learners' sense of belonging in online learning.<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nUnlike undergraduates who place greater emphasis on social connection, adult learners prioritise practical factors like convenience and flexibility. While the majority of surveyed students reported that they did not feel a sense of community with their peers, most were satisfied with online courses and planned to continue taking them.<\/p>\r\nHowever, this absence of a sense of belonging still manifests in challenges such as a lack of trust among members during group work, noted Dr Ng. To foster stronger rapport,\u00a0one suggestion was for instructors to facilitate early relationship building through icebreakers and breakout rooms.<\/p>\r\nCreating a culture of care<\/strong><\/p>\r\nSpeakers also emphasised that meaningful relationships form the foundation of fulfilling learning experience, whether between educators and learners, or learners and communities. Within classrooms, small, intentional gestures can reshape dynamics. Dr Daryl Ooi, a lecturer at the\u00a0NUS Department of Philosophy<\/a>, called these \"pedagogies of care\".<\/p>\r\n\"There are a lot of acts that happen to us and in our hearts, we are sorting out what is caring and uncaring,\" said Dr Ooi, who was representing an NUS learning community on pedagogies of relationality and care, at the workshop. Pedagogies of care respect students' autonomy and the plurality of their experiences, opinions and emotions. One participant shared how simply sitting on the floor with her students helped to reduce hierarchical barriers.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11497\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1920\"] The HECS 2025 Organising Committee and CTLT team brought the educators together for stimulating discussions.<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nReinforcing the importance of relationships in her closing keynote, Associate Professor Chng Huang Hoon, Director of the\u00a0Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Centre at NUS<\/a>, said, \"High-impact experiences have to be founded on relationships, community bonds and mutual trust. If we can enact an educational experience that is relationship-rich in- and outside our classrooms, we would have gone some ways in restoring the human in the work we do.\"<\/p>\r\n\t\r\nThis story\u00a0first appeared in <\/em>NUSnews<\/a> on 26 December 2025.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div><\/div>Photos from the Singapore Heritage Roundtable<\/a><\/h3>17 December 2025 <\/div>Check out the photos from our Singapore Heritage Roundtable!<\/p>\r\nThe roundtable was chaired by FASS Assistant Dean of Research and Foo Hai Associate Professor in Buddhist Studies Jack Meng-Tat Chia and opened by Ms Melissa May Tan, Director of Heritage Policy & Research at the National Heritage Board.<\/p>\r\nThe programme featured four National Heritage Board Heritage Research Grant recipients from FASS:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Yang Yan (NUS Chinese Studies) \u2013 In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine<\/li>\r\n \tDr Clay Eaton (NUS Japanese Studies) \u2013 Mapping Middle Road: Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore<\/li>\r\n \tDr Jinna Tay (NUS Communications and New Media) \u2013 Re-Interpreting Fashion Narratives in Singapore: De-colonising the Modern<\/li>\r\n \tAssistant Professor Guo-Quan Seng (NUS History) \u2013 Small Businesses and Shops of Chinatown, 1819\u20131980s<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nYou can also watch the full video recording here<\/a>, and download the programme booklet here<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11470\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1246\"] Assoc Prof Jack Meng-Tat welcomes attendees to the Singapore Heritage Roundtable.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11465\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Ms Melissa May Tan delivers the opening remarks at the Singapore Heritage Roundtable.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11469\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1185\"] Dr Yang Yan introduces her project, \"In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore's Chinese Medicine\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11468\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan\u2019s slide outlining theoretical concepts, specifically differentiating between Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the localisation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine (SCM).[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11467\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan\u2019s presentation slide displaying historical texts and book covers illustrating regional schools of thought in Chinese Medicine and the Ming Dynasty.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11466\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan shares specific examples of local medicinal adaptations, such as \"Cooling Water\" and \"Cat Whisker Tea\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11464\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton presents the \"Mapping Middle Road\" project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11462\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton discusses the \"Curiocity Map\", developed in collaboration with the National Library Board, as part of the \"Mapping Middle Road\" project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11460\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton highlights a digital article in MUSE SG titled \"Mapping the Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11451\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2560\"] Dr Jinna Tay introduces the Singapore Fashion Histories Website using a slide featuring archival photography of women's fashion in Singapore.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11458\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Jinna Tay examines cultural history through vintage covers of Her World<\/em> magazine.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11457\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng presents the opening slide for the project titled \"Small Businesses & Shops of Chinatown, 1819\u20131980s\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11456\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng acknowledges the collaborators involved in the project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11455\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng discusses the history of remittance shopkeepers in Chinatown, referencing Wong Chin Soon.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11454\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng explains the historical density of tailor shops on Pagoda Street.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11453\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng reflects on a past panel discussion about small businesses and shops in Chinatown.[\/caption]<\/div><\/div>Photos from the Singapore Heritage Roundtable<\/a><\/h3>15 December 2025 <\/div>Check out the photos from our Singapore Heritage Roundtable!<\/p>\r\nThe roundtable was chaired by FASS Assistant Dean of Research and Foo Hai Associate Professor in Buddhist Studies Jack Meng-Tat Chia and opened by Ms Melissa May Tan, Director of Heritage Policy & Research at the National Heritage Board.<\/p>\r\nThe programme featured four National Heritage Board Heritage Research Grant recipients from FASS:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Yang Yan (NUS Chinese Studies) \u2013 In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine<\/li>\r\n \tDr Clay Eaton (NUS Japanese Studies) \u2013 Mapping Middle Road: Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore<\/li>\r\n \tDr Jinna Tay (NUS Communications and New Media) \u2013 Re-Interpreting Fashion Narratives in Singapore: De-colonising the Modern<\/li>\r\n \tAssistant Professor Guo-Quan Seng (NUS History) \u2013 Small Businesses and Shops of Chinatown, 1819\u20131980s<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nYou can also watch the full video recording here<\/a>, and download the programme booklet here<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11470\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1246\"] Assoc Prof Jack Meng-Tat addresses the audience, standing before the opening slide for the Singapore Heritage Roundtable.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11465\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Ms Melissa May Tan delivers the opening remarks at the Singapore Heritage Roundtable.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11469\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1185\"] Dr Yang Yan introduces her project, \"In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore's Chinese Medicine\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11468\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan\u2019s slide outlining theoretical concepts, specifically differentiating between Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the localisation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine (SCM).[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11467\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan\u2019s presentation slide displaying historical texts and book covers illustrating regional schools of thought in Chinese Medicine and the Ming Dynasty.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11466\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan demonstrates specific examples of local medicinal adaptations, such as \"Cooling Water\" and \"Cat Whisker Tea\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11464\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton presents the \"Mapping Middle Road\" project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11463\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton discusses the \"Curiocity Map\", developed in collaboration with the National Library Board, as part of the \"Mapping Middle Road\" project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11460\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton highlights a digital article in MUSE SG titled \"Mapping the Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11451\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2560\"] Dr Jinna Tay introduces the Singapore Fashion Histories Website using a slide featuring archival photography of women's fashion in Singapore.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11458\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Jinna Tay examines cultural history through vintage covers of Her World<\/em> magazine.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11457\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng presents the opening slide for the project titled \"Small Businesses & Shops of Chinatown, 1819\u20131980s\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11456\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng acknowledges the collaborators involved in the project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11455\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng discusses the history of remittance shopkeepers in Chinatown, referencing Wong Chin Soon.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11454\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng explains the historical density of tailor shops on Pagoda Street.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11453\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng reflects on a past public talk regarding small businesses in Chinatown.[\/caption]<\/div><\/div>Recording now available: Singapore Heritage Roundtable (11 November 2025)<\/a><\/h3>05 December 2025 <\/div>As part of the \u201cCelebrating Singapore Studies: Sixty Years of Nationhood\u201d campaign, the Singapore Research Nexus hosted a richly informative Heritage Research Roundtable<\/a> that featured four National Heritage Board Heritage Research Grant recipients from FASS and brought fresh scholarly light to lesser-known chapters of Singapore\u2019s past. The full video recording is now available here.<\/a><\/p>\r\nProgramme<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tWelcome Remarks and Chair: Assoc Prof Jack Meng-Tat Chia (NUS History & Assistant Dean of Research, FASS)<\/li>\r\n \tOpening Remarks: Ms Melissa May Tan (Director, Heritage Policy & Research, National Heritage Board)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nPresentations<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Yang Yan (Research Fellow, NUS Chinese Studies)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nIn Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine<\/em><\/p>\r\nExplores how Singapore\u2019s Chinese medical tradition diverged from mainland TCM, developing distinctive doctrines, diagnostics, and formulae shaped by local climates, migration patterns, and everyday clinical practice.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Clay Eaton (Lecturer, NUS Japanese Studies)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nMapping Middle Road: Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore<\/em><\/p>\r\nReconstructs the vibrant yet largely forgotten \u201cLittle Japan\u201d centred on Middle Road \u2013 home to merchants, photographers, dentists, schoolchildren, and karayuki-san<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 \u2013 and its place within colonial Singapore\u2019s cosmopolitan society.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Jinna Tay (Senior Lecturer, NUS Communications and New Media)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nRe-Interpreting Fashion Narratives in Singapore: De-colonising the Modern<\/em><\/p>\r\nDraws on decades of newspaper archives (1950s-1990s) to reveal how fashion became a site where colonial ideas of modernity persisted, and how contemporary research can help deconstruct those inherited frameworks.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tAsst Prof Guo-Quan Seng (Assistant Professor, NUS History)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nSmall Businesses and Shops of Chinatown, 1819-1980s<\/em><\/p>\r\nA social history of the modest shophouses and enterprises that formed the backbone of Chinatown\u2019s economy, tracing flows of textiles, rubber, remittances, and credit across regional Chinese networks.<\/p>\r\nWe invite researchers alumni, heritage enthusiasts, and the wider public to watch the recording and discover how NUS FASS scholars are uncovering the diverse, lived textures of Singapore\u2019s past.<\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\ud835\uddd8\ud835\udde9\ud835\uddd8\ud835\udde1\ud835\udde7 | \ud835\udde6\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf4\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddfd\ud835\uddfc\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddf2 \ud835\udddb\ud835\uddf2\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddf6\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddf4\ud835\uddf2 \ud835\udde5\ud835\uddfc\ud835\ude02\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf1\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddef\ud835\uddf9\ud835\uddf2 | \ud835\udfed\ud835\udfed \ud835\udde1\ud835\uddfc\ud835\ude03, \ud835\udfef:\ud835\udff1\ud835\udfec-\ud835\udff2:\ud835\udfec\ud835\udfec \ud835\uddfd\ud835\uddfa<\/a><\/h3>06 November 2025 <\/div>\r\nThe Singapore Research Nexus at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) is holding \u2018Singapore Heritage Roundtable\u2019, an event featuring four research projects on Singapore Heritage:<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n1. \u2018In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine\u2019 by Dr YANG Yan (Research Fellow, NUS Chinese Studies)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n2. \u2018Mapping Middle Road: Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore\u2019 by Dr Clay EATON (Lecturer, NUS Japanese Studies)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n3. \u2018Re-interpreting Fashion Narratives in Singapore: De-colonising the Modern\u2019 by Dr Jinna TAY (Senior Lecturer, NUS Communications and New Media)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n4. \u2018Small Businesses and Shops of Chinatown, 1819-1980s' by Dr Guo-Quan SENG (Assistant Professor, NUS History)<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nDate and Time:<\/strong> Tuesday, 11 November 2025, 3:50-6:00 pm<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nVenue<\/strong>: FASS AS7 Research Division Seminar Room (6-42) and Zoom<\/div>\r\nVenue Address<\/strong>: NUS AS7 Shaw Foundation Building, 5 Arts Link, 117570<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nRegister<\/strong>:<\/div>\r\nIn-person<\/strong>: https:\/\/SG_Heritage_Roundtable.eventbrite.sg<\/a><\/span><\/div>\r\nZoom<\/strong>: https:\/\/shorturl.at\/WINeX<\/a><\/span><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nGet the programme here<\/strong>: https:\/\/shorturl.at\/Q7NLe<\/a><\/span><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n[video width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" mp4=\"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/jps\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2025\/10\/Singapore-Heritage-Roundtable-Video-3-2.mp4\"][\/video]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>2025 Valedictorian's Speech by Wang Lei<\/a><\/h3>17 July 2025 <\/div>https:\/\/youtu.be\/4pex9bBXEY4\r\n\r\nWang Lei graduated with a BA with Honours (Highest Distinction), having majored in Japanese Studies with a minor in Art History. She received university-level awards for Best Student in Japanese Studies and the prestigious Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) Scholarship. Lei also served as Publicity Director of the Japanese Studies Society (JSS). Congratulations, Lei!<\/div><\/div>Uncovering hidden stories of the pre-war Japanese community in Singapore<\/a><\/h3>23 May 2025 <\/div>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11145\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] \"Hylam Street, Singapore\" was situated between Middle Road and Bugis Street. Many Japanese residents lived along this street prior to World War II. (Photo taken from the Collection of the National Museum of Singapore. Courtesy of Roots.gov.sg.)<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nSingapore is home to cultural neighbourhoods such as Little India, Chinatown, Kampong Glam and the area around Tanjong Pagar that has become affectionately known as 'Koreatown'. But did you know that there was once a 'Little Japan' too?<\/p>\r\n'Little Japan' was an area around Middle Road - part of what we know as Bugis today - that comprised businesses, schools and places of worship for a Japanese community that settled in Singapore in the 1800s and 1900s. A community of thousands, they were far from little. Their presence in pre-war Singapore was significant in shaping Singapore's identity as a cosmopolitan port city in the colonial period.<\/p>\r\nDr Clay Eaton, historian and lecturer in the\u00a0NUS Department of Japanese Studies<\/a>\u00a0and Associate at the\u00a0NUS Asia Research Institute's (ARI's)<\/a>\u00a0Inter-Asia Engagement cluster, said, \"The Japanese wartime occupation of Singapore is well-known to many of us, but Japan and Singapore's relationship predates World War II. The unique role that the Japanese played here, as representatives of a major imperial power as well as a part of the broader Asian community, can help us better appreciate Singapore's rich cultural past. Very little work has been done on this community, especially in English, but they can tell us quite a bit about the social complexity of this period.\"<\/p>\r\nIn an attempt to reconstruct the pre-war Japanese community in Singapore's \"Little Japan\" around Middle Road, Dr Eaton; Professor Naoko Shimazu, also an Associate at ARI's Inter-Asia Engagements Cluster and former Research Cluster Leader; and Dr Chee Keng Lee from\u00a0NUS College<\/a>\u00a0teamed up for a project known as 'Mapping Middle Road', the first public history project of its kind about the Japanese community in Singapore.<\/p>\r\nThe project was carried out under the National Heritage Board's (NHB) Heritage Research Grant and was hosted by ARI. It took two years to complete and was published as a\u00a0story map<\/a>\u00a0for the National Library Board's Curiocity[1]<\/a>. Mapping these historical findings allows users to better visualise how past movements of the Japanese communities around Middle Road unfolded and changed with significant events, thus turning abstract historical change into something we can see and trace across a real-world landscape.<\/p>\r\nThe findings in 'Mapping Middle Road' were widely discussed at conferences and talks in Asia and Europe.<\/p>\r\nThe researchers' findings were also further expanded and later developed into an online resource named 'Middle Road: Pre-War Japanese Community in Singapore' that is accessible to the public at\u00a0MUSE<\/a>, NHB's digital heritage publication hosted on Roots.<\/p>\r\nBringing the Japanese community's shifting past to life through maps and movement<\/strong><\/p>\r\nDeveloping this digital map to help users see not only where events and communities existed, but also how they shifted over time, was no easy task.<\/p>\r\nA team of faculty and student researchers combed through resources such as photos, advertisements, newspaper articles, travelogues and guides in various English- and Japanese-language materials residing in the National Library's NewspaperSG online archive, the Japanese Association of Singapore's collections, and the National Diet Library (the national library of Japan); to locate specific references to the Japanese community associated with particular places in the country.<\/p>\r\nThey identified over 20 locations and institutions to feature in the story map, with their efforts culminating in the visual reconstruction of the presence and movement of various Japanese institutions over time. These included schools, clinics, places of worship and businesses - all of which together help us imagine what life was like for the Japanese community here in Singapore at that time.<\/p>\r\nDr Eaton shared, \"Perhaps our biggest surprise, since this was a mapping project, was how mobile some of the institutions we were tracking ended up being. Just about every prominent business moved at least once (like the clothier Ebisuya) or had multiple branch locations (like the Tamagawa restaurant).\"<\/p>\r\nImportant locations such as the Japanese Consulate, Japanese Association and Toyo Hotel moved multiple times, making it challenging to pinpoint their locations onto a map, Dr Eaton shared. Ultimately, the team embraced the shifts in locations as a key factor in explaining the changes within the community over time.<\/p>\r\nThe Consulate's move from its original location on Sophia Road - located near the Japanese resident community along Middle Road - to the 'Gudan' district (the Japanese term for the Central Business District) came as Japan rose in political power globally. Its eventual return to quieter offices on Mt Emily before World War II presumably symbolised the growing isolation of the Japanese Empire on the world stage.<\/p>\r\nProf Shimazu shared how researchers had also identified a significant class division within Singapore's pre-war Japanese community, noting tensions between the first Japanese settlers in Singapore in the late 1800s and a more affluent and educated wave of Japanese immigrants who arrived after 1910 and worked in the Gudan district.<\/p>\r\nThe establishment of elite institutions like the Japanese Association and Japanese Club did not help to bridge the gap. The Gudan expatriates played a crucial role in ending licensed Japanese prostitution in 1920, which affected the original Japanese community along Middle Road.<\/p>\r\nThe stories the research team uncovered confirmed what they had initially thought - that the Japanese community was diverse just like any other and was made up of interesting and dynamic individuals who were at times at odds with each other, but at other times, brought together by a shared sense of national belonging.<\/p>\r\n[1]\u00a0National Library Board's Curiocity houses digitised maps, photographs and multimedia content that are combined for users to explore the past and see how it has shaped the present.<\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\nThis story first appeared on <\/em>NUSNews<\/a>\u00a0on 16 May 2025.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div><\/div>Make the library a modern kampung<\/a><\/h3>14 April 2025 <\/div>\r\n\r\n\tIN BRIEF | 10 min read<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\nBy Associate Professor Thang Leng Leng, Deputy Head of NUS Japanese Studies<\/a>.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\nClick through image below to read this piece.<\/a><\/p>\r\n
\r\nOfficially launched today, CSSH is the first in Singapore to systematically bring together computational social science and the humanities within a single centre to bridge research, policy and real-world applications.<\/p>\r\nThe Centre draws on expertise across disciplines including computing, new media, linguistics, geography, public policy and healthcare, amongst others. This interdisciplinary foundation enables CSSH to examine how digital technologies intersect with social systems, such as assessing the societal implications of AI-enabled platforms, using digital tools to help preserve Singapore's cultural heritage, and strengthening digital literacy in vulnerable communities.<\/p>\r\nNUS Deputy President (Research and Technology) Professor Liu Bin said, \"Rapid advances in digital technologies and AI are transforming our world. But technological breakthroughs are only as valuable as the difference they make to peoples' lives. CSSH reflects NUS' commitment to ensuring that innovation translates to tangible improvements in how we live, work and build stronger communities. By integrating computational methods with social science and humanities, the Centre will help translate research insights into policies and practices that deliver real-world impact.\"<\/p>\r\nShe added that the Centre complements Singapore's broader push for innovative, responsible harnessing of technology and AI which emphasises that progress should be not only technically advanced, but trusted, inclusive and grounded in real social needs.<\/p>\r\nDriving real-world impact through interdisciplinary innovation<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\r\nCSSH is led by Co-Directors Professor Atreyi Kankanhalli from the\u00a0NUS School of Computing<\/a>\u00a0and Professor Peter Millican from the\u00a0NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences<\/a>. The Centre supports both seed funding for emerging ideas and larger projects, all designed to generate real-world impact.<\/p>\r\nProf Kankanhalli said, \"What distinguishes CSSH is our ability to study human behaviour, institutions and societies at a scale and depth that was not previously possible. By combining computational methods with rich domain expertise in the social sciences and humanities, we can uncover patterns, test ideas, and generate evidence that directly informs policy and practice. Our goal is not just to analyse social problems, but to help shape systems that work better for people.\"<\/p>\r\nSince beginning operations in the second half of 2024, CSSH has embarked on more than 50 interdisciplinary projects involving 105 researchers from across NUS and their external collaborators. The projects demonstrate the breadth of its work - from AI-enabled analysis of social media impacts to digital preservation of historical archives.<\/p>\r\nAmongst the major research projects currently being undertaken by CSSH is one titled \"Computational Social Simulations for Aiding Policy Design\", led by Prof Kankanhalli. In this five-year project, researchers from NUS and three other local universities are collaborating to develop an AI-driven social simulation platform for policymakers to help test and refine policy interventions before they are rolled out.<\/p>\r\nUsing large language models (LLMs), the platform will model diverse public personas to enable policymakers to conduct swift preliminary testing of policy ideas. The simulations will complement traditional research methods by reducing the frequency of costly, time-consuming large-scale surveys and field studies during early policy development, while retaining real-world validation and community engagement at critical decision points. CSSH Deputy Director Associate Professor Dandan Qiao from the NUS School of Computing is also contributing her expertise to the project.<\/p>\r\nAnother project titled \"The Jawi AI Project\", led by NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Associate Professor Miguel Escobar Varela, harnesses AI to enable large-scale transliteration and analysis of Jawi texts. Early Malay-language newspapers in Singapore, published between 1870 and 1970 were written in Jawi, a script few can read today.<\/p>\r\nIn collaboration with the National Library Board (NLB), the team comprising local and foreign experts is transforming thousands of archived pages into searchable Malay text, significantly expanding the range of materials available at NLB's digitised archives. Assoc Prof Escobar Varela, who is also Deputy Director at CSSH, noted that the project could significantly expand research into Malay-language journalism and public debate in the region, broadening how Singapore's history is understood and taught.<\/p>\r\nProf Millican highlighted that a core mission of CSSH is to break down the walls between disciplines. By connecting humanities and social science researchers with computing and data science experts, the Centre fosters collaborations that neither field could achieve alone. \"Many of today's biggest challenges demand both deep specialist insight and serious technical firepower\", he explained, \"whether they involve untangling complex social issues, tackling health crises, anticipating future problems, or building the tools to address these. CSSH provides a natural home for such interdisciplinary conversations.\"<\/p>\r\nHe added that the Centre looks forward to developing more projects addressing societal challenges to which computational insights can make the greatest difference. Focus areas include AI and emerging technologies, sustainability and environmental policy, population trends and demographic change, public health and social care, and the preservation and understanding of history and cultural heritage.<\/p>\r\n<\/article>\r\n\r\nThis story\u00a0first appeared in <\/em>NUSnews<\/a> on 4 March 2026.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/div>Teaching with heart: The human side of higher education<\/a><\/h3>30 December 2025 <\/div>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11500\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1920\"] Participants for the Play Installation \"Playful Minds: Learning Through Play\", where educators explored the role of play in teaching.<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nForget the confines of a lecture theatre, abstract theories and math equations. For their core Economics introductory course at NUS, students found themselves not in a classroom, but outside Sri Mariamman Temple where their phones buzzed with a Telegram chatbot's cryptic challenge: \"All are welcome past the door. So when footwear outside are a-plenty, the temple is a ______, and when footwear outside are a-wanting, the temple is a ______.\"<\/p>\r\nExchanging puzzled looks, the students typed \"\/hint\" into the chat. \"If there are many pairs of footwear outside, it must be crowded (and uncomfortable) inside,\" the chatbot prompted. After recognising the relevant concepts, they typed the answers into the Telegram chat before receiving a clue to their next location.<\/p>\r\nIt is not every day that students participate in a chatbot-guided scavenger hunt as part of their core Economics introductory course. But Associate Professor Ong Ee Cheng, Mr Chan Kok Hoe and Dr Timothy Wong from the Department of Economics at the\u00a0Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences<\/a>\u00a0believe that experiential learning can help students better understand key economics concepts in everyday contexts.<\/p>\r\nThis was one of many innovative teaching strategies presented at the Higher Education Conference in Singapore (HECS) 2025. Organised by the NUS Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT), the event held on 10 December 2025 gathered educators from universities across Singapore to explore how to enrich learning experiences.<\/p>\r\nThis year's theme, \"Building Relationships in Teaching and Learning\", echoes Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's call for education to move beyond narrow definitions of success, and empower learners to discover and develop their unique strengths,\u00a0in his speech at the Debate on the President's Address 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\"It is most fitting that HECS 2025 is championing the human dimension of education. This focus on relational teaching aligns with PM Wong's call to broaden meritocracy, creating environments where learning is joyful, fulfilling, collaborative, inclusive and future-ready,\" said NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye in his opening speech.<\/p>\r\nThe power of play<\/strong><\/p>\r\nA recurring theme throughout the conference was the role of play in teaching - widely used in early childhood education but often undervalued in higher education despite being found to increase student engagement.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11499\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1920\"] HECS 2025 participants discussing the role of play in teaching at the \"Playful Minds: Learning Through Play\" installation.<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nAt NUS, faculty members have been experimenting with such approaches, several of which were showcased in the \"Playful Minds: Learning Through Play\" installation.<\/p>\r\nOne example is the use of tableau, where students create a frozen, dramatic image with their bodies to interpret an abstract prompt. While tableau is most commonly associated with theatre studies, it is also used across humanities disciplines such as anthropology and philosophy, combining embodied, experiential and collaborative learning.<\/p>\r\nIn\u00a0HS2902: Do Play Play: The Importance of Play,<\/i>\u00a0an interdisciplinary course offered as part of the common curriculum of the College of Humanities and Sciences, students design card games about a social issue of their choice. In \"We Just Bought a Zoo\", for instance, players juggle the welfare of animals against profit-making, exploring ethical dilemmas surrounding captive animal welfare.<\/p>\r\nOn the sidelines of the \"Playful Minds: Learning Through Play\" installation, Assoc Prof Ong added, \"In the context of higher education, play is about moving away from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation - the feeling of 'I'm doing it because it's interesting and I'm curious, not just because I want an A'.\"<\/p>\r\nDifferent strokes for different folks<\/strong><\/p>\r\nWhile much of the conference focused on undergraduate learners, speakers also highlighted the need to tailor teaching to different learner profiles.<\/p>\r\nIn a paper presentation, Dr Ng Boon Yuen and Dr Ganthi Viswanathan from the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) examined how adult learners' sense of belonging affects their learning in online classes.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11498\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1920\"] Dr Ng Boon Yuen from the Singapore University of Social Sciences sharing about adult learners' sense of belonging in online learning.<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nUnlike undergraduates who place greater emphasis on social connection, adult learners prioritise practical factors like convenience and flexibility. While the majority of surveyed students reported that they did not feel a sense of community with their peers, most were satisfied with online courses and planned to continue taking them.<\/p>\r\nHowever, this absence of a sense of belonging still manifests in challenges such as a lack of trust among members during group work, noted Dr Ng. To foster stronger rapport,\u00a0one suggestion was for instructors to facilitate early relationship building through icebreakers and breakout rooms.<\/p>\r\nCreating a culture of care<\/strong><\/p>\r\nSpeakers also emphasised that meaningful relationships form the foundation of fulfilling learning experience, whether between educators and learners, or learners and communities. Within classrooms, small, intentional gestures can reshape dynamics. Dr Daryl Ooi, a lecturer at the\u00a0NUS Department of Philosophy<\/a>, called these \"pedagogies of care\".<\/p>\r\n\"There are a lot of acts that happen to us and in our hearts, we are sorting out what is caring and uncaring,\" said Dr Ooi, who was representing an NUS learning community on pedagogies of relationality and care, at the workshop. Pedagogies of care respect students' autonomy and the plurality of their experiences, opinions and emotions. One participant shared how simply sitting on the floor with her students helped to reduce hierarchical barriers.<\/p>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11497\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1920\"] The HECS 2025 Organising Committee and CTLT team brought the educators together for stimulating discussions.<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nReinforcing the importance of relationships in her closing keynote, Associate Professor Chng Huang Hoon, Director of the\u00a0Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Centre at NUS<\/a>, said, \"High-impact experiences have to be founded on relationships, community bonds and mutual trust. If we can enact an educational experience that is relationship-rich in- and outside our classrooms, we would have gone some ways in restoring the human in the work we do.\"<\/p>\r\n\t\r\nThis story\u00a0first appeared in <\/em>NUSnews<\/a> on 26 December 2025.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div><\/div>Photos from the Singapore Heritage Roundtable<\/a><\/h3>17 December 2025 <\/div>Check out the photos from our Singapore Heritage Roundtable!<\/p>\r\nThe roundtable was chaired by FASS Assistant Dean of Research and Foo Hai Associate Professor in Buddhist Studies Jack Meng-Tat Chia and opened by Ms Melissa May Tan, Director of Heritage Policy & Research at the National Heritage Board.<\/p>\r\nThe programme featured four National Heritage Board Heritage Research Grant recipients from FASS:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Yang Yan (NUS Chinese Studies) \u2013 In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine<\/li>\r\n \tDr Clay Eaton (NUS Japanese Studies) \u2013 Mapping Middle Road: Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore<\/li>\r\n \tDr Jinna Tay (NUS Communications and New Media) \u2013 Re-Interpreting Fashion Narratives in Singapore: De-colonising the Modern<\/li>\r\n \tAssistant Professor Guo-Quan Seng (NUS History) \u2013 Small Businesses and Shops of Chinatown, 1819\u20131980s<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nYou can also watch the full video recording here<\/a>, and download the programme booklet here<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11470\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1246\"] Assoc Prof Jack Meng-Tat welcomes attendees to the Singapore Heritage Roundtable.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11465\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Ms Melissa May Tan delivers the opening remarks at the Singapore Heritage Roundtable.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11469\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1185\"] Dr Yang Yan introduces her project, \"In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore's Chinese Medicine\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11468\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan\u2019s slide outlining theoretical concepts, specifically differentiating between Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the localisation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine (SCM).[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11467\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan\u2019s presentation slide displaying historical texts and book covers illustrating regional schools of thought in Chinese Medicine and the Ming Dynasty.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11466\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan shares specific examples of local medicinal adaptations, such as \"Cooling Water\" and \"Cat Whisker Tea\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11464\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton presents the \"Mapping Middle Road\" project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11462\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton discusses the \"Curiocity Map\", developed in collaboration with the National Library Board, as part of the \"Mapping Middle Road\" project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11460\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton highlights a digital article in MUSE SG titled \"Mapping the Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11451\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2560\"] Dr Jinna Tay introduces the Singapore Fashion Histories Website using a slide featuring archival photography of women's fashion in Singapore.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11458\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Jinna Tay examines cultural history through vintage covers of Her World<\/em> magazine.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11457\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng presents the opening slide for the project titled \"Small Businesses & Shops of Chinatown, 1819\u20131980s\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11456\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng acknowledges the collaborators involved in the project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11455\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng discusses the history of remittance shopkeepers in Chinatown, referencing Wong Chin Soon.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11454\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng explains the historical density of tailor shops on Pagoda Street.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11453\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng reflects on a past panel discussion about small businesses and shops in Chinatown.[\/caption]<\/div><\/div>Photos from the Singapore Heritage Roundtable<\/a><\/h3>15 December 2025 <\/div>Check out the photos from our Singapore Heritage Roundtable!<\/p>\r\nThe roundtable was chaired by FASS Assistant Dean of Research and Foo Hai Associate Professor in Buddhist Studies Jack Meng-Tat Chia and opened by Ms Melissa May Tan, Director of Heritage Policy & Research at the National Heritage Board.<\/p>\r\nThe programme featured four National Heritage Board Heritage Research Grant recipients from FASS:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Yang Yan (NUS Chinese Studies) \u2013 In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine<\/li>\r\n \tDr Clay Eaton (NUS Japanese Studies) \u2013 Mapping Middle Road: Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore<\/li>\r\n \tDr Jinna Tay (NUS Communications and New Media) \u2013 Re-Interpreting Fashion Narratives in Singapore: De-colonising the Modern<\/li>\r\n \tAssistant Professor Guo-Quan Seng (NUS History) \u2013 Small Businesses and Shops of Chinatown, 1819\u20131980s<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nYou can also watch the full video recording here<\/a>, and download the programme booklet here<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11470\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1246\"] Assoc Prof Jack Meng-Tat addresses the audience, standing before the opening slide for the Singapore Heritage Roundtable.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11465\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Ms Melissa May Tan delivers the opening remarks at the Singapore Heritage Roundtable.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11469\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1185\"] Dr Yang Yan introduces her project, \"In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore's Chinese Medicine\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11468\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan\u2019s slide outlining theoretical concepts, specifically differentiating between Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the localisation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine (SCM).[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11467\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan\u2019s presentation slide displaying historical texts and book covers illustrating regional schools of thought in Chinese Medicine and the Ming Dynasty.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11466\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Yang Yan demonstrates specific examples of local medicinal adaptations, such as \"Cooling Water\" and \"Cat Whisker Tea\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11464\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton presents the \"Mapping Middle Road\" project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11463\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton discusses the \"Curiocity Map\", developed in collaboration with the National Library Board, as part of the \"Mapping Middle Road\" project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11460\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Clay Eaton highlights a digital article in MUSE SG titled \"Mapping the Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11451\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2560\"] Dr Jinna Tay introduces the Singapore Fashion Histories Website using a slide featuring archival photography of women's fashion in Singapore.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11458\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Dr Jinna Tay examines cultural history through vintage covers of Her World<\/em> magazine.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11457\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng presents the opening slide for the project titled \"Small Businesses & Shops of Chinatown, 1819\u20131980s\".[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11456\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng acknowledges the collaborators involved in the project.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11455\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng discusses the history of remittance shopkeepers in Chinatown, referencing Wong Chin Soon.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11454\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng explains the historical density of tailor shops on Pagoda Street.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11453\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1384\"] Asst Prof Guo-Quan Seng reflects on a past public talk regarding small businesses in Chinatown.[\/caption]<\/div><\/div>Recording now available: Singapore Heritage Roundtable (11 November 2025)<\/a><\/h3>05 December 2025 <\/div>As part of the \u201cCelebrating Singapore Studies: Sixty Years of Nationhood\u201d campaign, the Singapore Research Nexus hosted a richly informative Heritage Research Roundtable<\/a> that featured four National Heritage Board Heritage Research Grant recipients from FASS and brought fresh scholarly light to lesser-known chapters of Singapore\u2019s past. The full video recording is now available here.<\/a><\/p>\r\nProgramme<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tWelcome Remarks and Chair: Assoc Prof Jack Meng-Tat Chia (NUS History & Assistant Dean of Research, FASS)<\/li>\r\n \tOpening Remarks: Ms Melissa May Tan (Director, Heritage Policy & Research, National Heritage Board)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nPresentations<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Yang Yan (Research Fellow, NUS Chinese Studies)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nIn Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine<\/em><\/p>\r\nExplores how Singapore\u2019s Chinese medical tradition diverged from mainland TCM, developing distinctive doctrines, diagnostics, and formulae shaped by local climates, migration patterns, and everyday clinical practice.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Clay Eaton (Lecturer, NUS Japanese Studies)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nMapping Middle Road: Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore<\/em><\/p>\r\nReconstructs the vibrant yet largely forgotten \u201cLittle Japan\u201d centred on Middle Road \u2013 home to merchants, photographers, dentists, schoolchildren, and karayuki-san<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 \u2013 and its place within colonial Singapore\u2019s cosmopolitan society.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tDr Jinna Tay (Senior Lecturer, NUS Communications and New Media)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nRe-Interpreting Fashion Narratives in Singapore: De-colonising the Modern<\/em><\/p>\r\nDraws on decades of newspaper archives (1950s-1990s) to reveal how fashion became a site where colonial ideas of modernity persisted, and how contemporary research can help deconstruct those inherited frameworks.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n \tAsst Prof Guo-Quan Seng (Assistant Professor, NUS History)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nSmall Businesses and Shops of Chinatown, 1819-1980s<\/em><\/p>\r\nA social history of the modest shophouses and enterprises that formed the backbone of Chinatown\u2019s economy, tracing flows of textiles, rubber, remittances, and credit across regional Chinese networks.<\/p>\r\nWe invite researchers alumni, heritage enthusiasts, and the wider public to watch the recording and discover how NUS FASS scholars are uncovering the diverse, lived textures of Singapore\u2019s past.<\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\ud835\uddd8\ud835\udde9\ud835\uddd8\ud835\udde1\ud835\udde7 | \ud835\udde6\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf4\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddfd\ud835\uddfc\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddf2 \ud835\udddb\ud835\uddf2\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddf6\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddf4\ud835\uddf2 \ud835\udde5\ud835\uddfc\ud835\ude02\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf1\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddef\ud835\uddf9\ud835\uddf2 | \ud835\udfed\ud835\udfed \ud835\udde1\ud835\uddfc\ud835\ude03, \ud835\udfef:\ud835\udff1\ud835\udfec-\ud835\udff2:\ud835\udfec\ud835\udfec \ud835\uddfd\ud835\uddfa<\/a><\/h3>06 November 2025 <\/div>\r\nThe Singapore Research Nexus at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) is holding \u2018Singapore Heritage Roundtable\u2019, an event featuring four research projects on Singapore Heritage:<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n1. \u2018In Their Own Ways: Identification and Documentation of Singapore\u2019s Chinese Medicine\u2019 by Dr YANG Yan (Research Fellow, NUS Chinese Studies)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n2. \u2018Mapping Middle Road: Prewar Japanese Community in Singapore\u2019 by Dr Clay EATON (Lecturer, NUS Japanese Studies)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n3. \u2018Re-interpreting Fashion Narratives in Singapore: De-colonising the Modern\u2019 by Dr Jinna TAY (Senior Lecturer, NUS Communications and New Media)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n4. \u2018Small Businesses and Shops of Chinatown, 1819-1980s' by Dr Guo-Quan SENG (Assistant Professor, NUS History)<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nDate and Time:<\/strong> Tuesday, 11 November 2025, 3:50-6:00 pm<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nVenue<\/strong>: FASS AS7 Research Division Seminar Room (6-42) and Zoom<\/div>\r\nVenue Address<\/strong>: NUS AS7 Shaw Foundation Building, 5 Arts Link, 117570<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nRegister<\/strong>:<\/div>\r\nIn-person<\/strong>: https:\/\/SG_Heritage_Roundtable.eventbrite.sg<\/a><\/span><\/div>\r\nZoom<\/strong>: https:\/\/shorturl.at\/WINeX<\/a><\/span><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nGet the programme here<\/strong>: https:\/\/shorturl.at\/Q7NLe<\/a><\/span><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n[video width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" mp4=\"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/jps\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2025\/10\/Singapore-Heritage-Roundtable-Video-3-2.mp4\"][\/video]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>2025 Valedictorian's Speech by Wang Lei<\/a><\/h3>17 July 2025 <\/div>https:\/\/youtu.be\/4pex9bBXEY4\r\n\r\nWang Lei graduated with a BA with Honours (Highest Distinction), having majored in Japanese Studies with a minor in Art History. She received university-level awards for Best Student in Japanese Studies and the prestigious Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) Scholarship. Lei also served as Publicity Director of the Japanese Studies Society (JSS). Congratulations, Lei!<\/div><\/div>Uncovering hidden stories of the pre-war Japanese community in Singapore<\/a><\/h3>23 May 2025 <\/div>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_11145\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"] \"Hylam Street, Singapore\" was situated between Middle Road and Bugis Street. Many Japanese residents lived along this street prior to World War II. (Photo taken from the Collection of the National Museum of Singapore. Courtesy of Roots.gov.sg.)<\/strong>[\/caption]<\/p>\r\nSingapore is home to cultural neighbourhoods such as Little India, Chinatown, Kampong Glam and the area around Tanjong Pagar that has become affectionately known as 'Koreatown'. But did you know that there was once a 'Little Japan' too?<\/p>\r\n'Little Japan' was an area around Middle Road - part of what we know as Bugis today - that comprised businesses, schools and places of worship for a Japanese community that settled in Singapore in the 1800s and 1900s. A community of thousands, they were far from little. Their presence in pre-war Singapore was significant in shaping Singapore's identity as a cosmopolitan port city in the colonial period.<\/p>\r\nDr Clay Eaton, historian and lecturer in the\u00a0NUS Department of Japanese Studies<\/a>\u00a0and Associate at the\u00a0NUS Asia Research Institute's (ARI's)<\/a>\u00a0Inter-Asia Engagement cluster, said, \"The Japanese wartime occupation of Singapore is well-known to many of us, but Japan and Singapore's relationship predates World War II. The unique role that the Japanese played here, as representatives of a major imperial power as well as a part of the broader Asian community, can help us better appreciate Singapore's rich cultural past. Very little work has been done on this community, especially in English, but they can tell us quite a bit about the social complexity of this period.\"<\/p>\r\nIn an attempt to reconstruct the pre-war Japanese community in Singapore's \"Little Japan\" around Middle Road, Dr Eaton; Professor Naoko Shimazu, also an Associate at ARI's Inter-Asia Engagements Cluster and former Research Cluster Leader; and Dr Chee Keng Lee from\u00a0NUS College<\/a>\u00a0teamed up for a project known as 'Mapping Middle Road', the first public history project of its kind about the Japanese community in Singapore.<\/p>\r\nThe project was carried out under the National Heritage Board's (NHB) Heritage Research Grant and was hosted by ARI. It took two years to complete and was published as a\u00a0story map<\/a>\u00a0for the National Library Board's Curiocity[1]<\/a>. Mapping these historical findings allows users to better visualise how past movements of the Japanese communities around Middle Road unfolded and changed with significant events, thus turning abstract historical change into something we can see and trace across a real-world landscape.<\/p>\r\nThe findings in 'Mapping Middle Road' were widely discussed at conferences and talks in Asia and Europe.<\/p>\r\nThe researchers' findings were also further expanded and later developed into an online resource named 'Middle Road: Pre-War Japanese Community in Singapore' that is accessible to the public at\u00a0MUSE<\/a>, NHB's digital heritage publication hosted on Roots.<\/p>\r\nBringing the Japanese community's shifting past to life through maps and movement<\/strong><\/p>\r\nDeveloping this digital map to help users see not only where events and communities existed, but also how they shifted over time, was no easy task.<\/p>\r\nA team of faculty and student researchers combed through resources such as photos, advertisements, newspaper articles, travelogues and guides in various English- and Japanese-language materials residing in the National Library's NewspaperSG online archive, the Japanese Association of Singapore's collections, and the National Diet Library (the national library of Japan); to locate specific references to the Japanese community associated with particular places in the country.<\/p>\r\nThey identified over 20 locations and institutions to feature in the story map, with their efforts culminating in the visual reconstruction of the presence and movement of various Japanese institutions over time. These included schools, clinics, places of worship and businesses - all of which together help us imagine what life was like for the Japanese community here in Singapore at that time.<\/p>\r\nDr Eaton shared, \"Perhaps our biggest surprise, since this was a mapping project, was how mobile some of the institutions we were tracking ended up being. Just about every prominent business moved at least once (like the clothier Ebisuya) or had multiple branch locations (like the Tamagawa restaurant).\"<\/p>\r\nImportant locations such as the Japanese Consulate, Japanese Association and Toyo Hotel moved multiple times, making it challenging to pinpoint their locations onto a map, Dr Eaton shared. Ultimately, the team embraced the shifts in locations as a key factor in explaining the changes within the community over time.<\/p>\r\nThe Consulate's move from its original location on Sophia Road - located near the Japanese resident community along Middle Road - to the 'Gudan' district (the Japanese term for the Central Business District) came as Japan rose in political power globally. Its eventual return to quieter offices on Mt Emily before World War II presumably symbolised the growing isolation of the Japanese Empire on the world stage.<\/p>\r\nProf Shimazu shared how researchers had also identified a significant class division within Singapore's pre-war Japanese community, noting tensions between the first Japanese settlers in Singapore in the late 1800s and a more affluent and educated wave of Japanese immigrants who arrived after 1910 and worked in the Gudan district.<\/p>\r\nThe establishment of elite institutions like the Japanese Association and Japanese Club did not help to bridge the gap. The Gudan expatriates played a crucial role in ending licensed Japanese prostitution in 1920, which affected the original Japanese community along Middle Road.<\/p>\r\nThe stories the research team uncovered confirmed what they had initially thought - that the Japanese community was diverse just like any other and was made up of interesting and dynamic individuals who were at times at odds with each other, but at other times, brought together by a shared sense of national belonging.<\/p>\r\n[1]\u00a0National Library Board's Curiocity houses digitised maps, photographs and multimedia content that are combined for users to explore the past and see how it has shaped the present.<\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\nThis story first appeared on <\/em>NUSNews<\/a>\u00a0on 16 May 2025.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div><\/div>Make the library a modern kampung<\/a><\/h3>14 April 2025 <\/div>\r\n\r\n\tIN BRIEF | 10 min read<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\nBy Associate Professor Thang Leng Leng, Deputy Head of NUS Japanese Studies<\/a>.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\nClick through image below to read this piece.<\/a><\/p>\r\n