January 29, 2014

Between 16-17 January 2014, the SRN was delighted to welcome delegates from many parts of the world to the International Conference on “State Policy and the Cultural Politics of Heritage-Making in East and Southeast Asia“. The two-day conference was co-hosted by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) and the International Institute of Asian Studies.

The conference focused on the role of the State in determining which places and practices are to be valued as ‘heritage’ over others, how this process varies across East and Southeast Asia and how heritage is contested by different groups for political, identity or other purposes.

The second day afternoon was devoted to two panels on the very local topic of ‘Heritage in Singapore: Challenges, Conversations and Consequences’. The first panel on Articulating Singapore’s Cultural Resources first addressed heritage assessment in Singapore, a paper by FASS’ own Dr. Chua Ai Lin (Department of History) and co-author Dr. Yeo Kang Shua from SUTD.

It was then up to Jack Lee from the School of Law at SMU to explore the limitations of Singapore’s present legal framework for preserving heritage sites, namely through either the Planning Act “conservation area” scheme or the Preservation of Monuments Act. The third panelist to present was Dr. Wong Chee Meng from NTU whose paper concerned the challenges for a plural and global society like Singapore to find an appealing common shared history.

After the first round of vibrant Q & A, the second panel on Singapore – Sites of Aspiration and Memory got underway with the hottest topic on the whole programme – Bukit Brown cemetery…

A/P Huang Jianli (from FASS’ own Department of History) presented a very thorough paper encompassing local epigraphy, cemetery studies, the diversity and connectivity of the Chinese cultural-linguistic world, as well as the unprecedented civil society response to the forthcoming redevelopment of the site. Q and A though would have to wait as two further papers on local Singapore sites were shared, one on the contested nature of developments in Geylang Serai by Humairah Zainal from UniSIM and the final paper of the conference on the cultural relevance of the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall by Dr. Tan Teng Phee (National Heritage Board).

There followed a very dynamic Q &A session with many queries and comments relating especially to Bukit Brown and with many activists sharing their passion for the site.

The session ran well over time but  many in the audience would linger on to speak with the presenters and fellow members of the audience. SRN’s A/P TC Chang wrapped up the afternoon with a summary of the SRN’s interests in local culture and society and how we can look forward to more from both our website and future SRN events that promise to remain interesting and relevant to Singapore.

For a full summary of the conference programme please see here: http://www.iseas.edu.sg/event_detail.cfm?event_id=00429588-9B68-C04E-1C6362CB14600C51