Singapore's time zone has been changed at least seven times since 1905, including during the Japanese Occupation when it was synchronised to Tokyo time. Arts librarian Kenneth Tay explains the historical context for the time zone changes, the origins of the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) system, and ways to measure time, including a rare atomic clock in a local laboratory.

Kenneth Tay is a librarian with the Arts and General Reference team at the National Library Singapore. He is interested in the histories of global systems such as the internet, logistics and time zones, and where Singapore figures in them.

What Kenneth Talked About

1. 03:02 – How Kenneth became interested in time zones
2. 05:09 – Why Singapore changed its time zone in 1982
3. 06:43 – Why Singapore followed Malaysia’s time change
4. 08:13 – Singapore’s experiment with daylight saving time
5. 11:35 – Public reaction to Tokyo time during Japanese occupation
6. 14:05 – Re-colonising time after the war
7. 15:02 – What the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is
8. 23:42 – The time zone change in 1905
9. 26:29 – Difference between UTC and GMT
10. 31:39 – Atomic clocks in the world
11. 35:23 – Whether time is arbitrary or political
12. 38:51 – How research changed Kenneth’s notion of time
13. 46:22 – Time history is…

Transcript and Resources

1. Read the transcript: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/podcast/changing-times-time-zone-changes-in-singapore-since-1905/transcript/

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This episode of BiblioAsia Podcast was hosted by Jimmy Yap and produced by Soh Gek Han. Sound engineering was done by Nookcha Films. The background music “Di Tanjong Katong” was composed by Ahmad Patek and performed by Chords Haven. Special thanks to Kenneth for coming on the show.

The BiblioAsia Podcast by the National Library Singapore tells stories about Singapore history.