Singapore

My family moved to Singapore this summer, and I had the opportunity to visit them for the first time this Christmas. It was really great seeing my family again, and despite the two days each way spent travelling, it was a fun, relaxing vacation.

In a nod toward my status as a self-proclaimed geek, I will say that one of the things I enjoyed most about this trip was visiting the history portion of the national museum of Singapore. Now for those who don't know much about Singapore, it is located in continental (as opposed to island) Southeast Asia, on the southern tip of Malaysia. It is both a country and a city, slightly smaller than New York, with a population of around 5 million people. Singapore is currently a major financial capital of Asia, and has its roots as a British trading port. Because of these origins, Singapore is an incredibly diverse country, with Malays, Chinese, Indians, Arabs and Europeans all calling it home during the heyday of its trading port days.

National Museum of Singapore

Despite this diversity, or because of it, the national museum does an amazing job of representing ALL of these ethnic groups, instead of focusing, as many national history museums do, on the ethnic group in power. Walking through the exhibits, I encountered a traditional Chinese funeral procession, next to a redone British parlor, next to a famous journal of a merchant's life in Singapore, written in Arabic. Other rooms featured the lives and stories of women, while others told the stories of the poorest of the poor and those who fought on their behalf. As I progressed through the exhibits, I stood entranced by one room after another as I listened to real voices from history tell their stories through the complimentary audio guide. I heard voices tell stories of great suffering, as I gazed on pictures of Chinese slums. I also heard stories of the great comfort and respite from the heat that the newly invented electric fans provided the European elite. I heard the stories of Japanese soldiers, and the opposing Malay volunteers who fought and were captured when Singapore fell in World War II.

Slowly, little by little, these stories began to form a much larger story; the story of a nation. A nation where it is perfectly normal to hear snippets of English, Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and Tagalog as you walk along the street. A nation where cultural differences abound and yet peace and mutual respect prevail. Though Singapore is by no means a perfect nation, there is a lot that we Americans can learn. I hope that the Nepali's, Sudanese, Burmese, Iraqi's and Somali's that we are welcoming to this country, may one day see their stories and cultures reflected in our American story. That despite our differences, mutual respect will prevail.

-J.P.

Click here to view more pictures of the museum.