The Historyogi Podcast

In 1959, the University of Malaya Art Museum in Singapore received a donation of fifty-five objects and one hundred photographs from the Government of India. Archival sources hint at the donation’s expression of a growing India-Malaya partnership in a new third world order. But amid the overlapping political, institutional, and personal contexts of the mid-twentieth century, what else might have motivated the donation? Today we speak to Dr Priya Jaradi, Senior Lecturer and Convenor of the Art History Programme at the National University of Singapore about her book Transcultural Imaginations. We discuss why India gave those objects, the local political context in Singapore and Malaya, and how we can understand the discipline of art history as it was taught here.

Between 1981 and 1990, the Communist Party of Malaya’s clandestine radio station Voice of Malayan Democracy broadcast from southern Thailand, seeking to reach audiences in Malaysia and Singapore with revolutionary messages. Long after the armed insurgency had waned, the battle for hearts and minds continued through radio. We speak to Dr Ong Weichong, Senior Associate Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies about his new book Voice of Malayan Democracy: The Communist Party of Malaya’s Revived Radio War. We discuss the station’s programming, why it failed, and what it tells us about Cold War insurgencies and revolutionary politics.

In 1923, the Fisheries Department of the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States was formed. During the period between the two world wars, the department conducted experiments on catching fish, preserving fish and growing more fish in Singapore and Malaya. Today, we speak to Choo Ruizhi, a PhD Candidate in History at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, about his research into the fisheries department’s attempts to change local fishing and consumption practices by introducing European methods. We also discuss why it’s useful to understand this forgotten era of experimentation and its relation to colonial power and science.

Singaporeans are generally familiar with the Covid 19 pandemic and the Sars epidemic from 2003. But did you know Singapore faced a flu epidemic in 1957? Today, we speak to Liam Hoo, author of a new journal article on the 1957 Asian Flu’s impact on Singapore. We discuss the poor response of the colonial authorities as well as how media coverage shaped social responses to the flu outbreak. The curious case of Pulau Sudong provides an interesting example of how these factors came together.

Singapore’s Old Guard leaders are well known as politicians and cabinet ministers. But the ten of them also had lesser-known passions and careers beyond politics. Today, we speak to Peh, Derek and Jaime, co-writers of the book The First Fools: B-Sides Of Lee Kuan Yew’s A-Team. In this episode, we focus on three specific Old Guard leaders: E.W. Barker, Othman Wok and Yong Nyuk Lin, and learn about what kept them going amidst the huge challenges of Singapore’s early years.

Singapore has a long standing reputation as a clean and green city. It is also known as the Garden City. But did you know things were completely different in the 1960s? People were crammed in overcrowded and unsanitary living spaces and public areas, allowing diseases and pollution to spread easily. A pioneer civil servant, Lee Ek Tieng, stepped up to implement major reforms to improve Singapore’s environment. Today, we speak to Samantha Boh and Matthew Gan, co-writers of the new book “Lee Ek Tieng: The Green General of Lee Kuan Yew”. We discuss how this Green General marshalled resources to clean up Singapore and set new standards for the city we now live in.

Across Malaysia and Singapore, thousands of historic buildings are richly ornamented with motifs drawn from Ancient Greece and Rome.These classical details mix with ideas drawn from other architectural traditions from across Asia in a style that is unique to the region. Today, we speak to Dr Soon-Tzu Speechley, Lecturer in Urban and Cultural Heritage at the University of Melbourne, about his book Malayan Classicism, which explores how the British Empire’s classical architecture was transmitted, translated, and transformed in the hands of local builders and architects.

The paperback version of Malayan Classicism is nowavailable.

Singapore’s hawker centres are a cultural institution, serving a huge variety of affordable dishes to the masses. In 2020, Singapore's hawker culture was even added to the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage. But how did hawker centres and hawker culture evolve through our history? Today, we speak to Ryan Kueh, author of the book “From Streets to Stalls: The History and Evolution of Hawking and Hawker Centres in Singapore”. We discuss how the colonial government managed hawking and the extensive reforms enacted by the PAP government in the late 1960s.

In 1965, Singapore separated from Malaysia, shattering the hope of a shared postcolonial future. The new country needed as many friends as it could get. The man who led the effort to secure Singapore’s place on the global stage was S. Rajaratnam, our first Foreign Minister. Today, we speak to Irene Ng, author of The Lion’s Roar, which is the second of a two-part biography on Rajaratnam. While he is best known for drafting the National Pledge, Rajaratnam also helped establish Singapore’s foreign policy principles and tackled some of the country’s major challenges during the early years.

In this episode, we discuss the execution of Indonesian marines for the MacDonald House bombings, the settling of Japan’s blood debt for wartime atrocities, the crisis after the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia, Rajaratnam’s views on multiracialism and national identity, and the PAP Old Guard’s collective efforts to build Singapore.

Singapore’s short film industry is a small but vibrant one. With limited budgets, filmmakers aim to spotlight events and issues that rarely surface in more mainstream platforms. One such filmmaker is Leon Cheo, who has directed short films that focus on Singapore’s history. Today, we speak to Leon about his films Two is Enough (about the Stop at Two population control campaign in the 1970s) and 302 (about gay servicemen in the army in the mid-2000s). We also discuss the challenges in finding props and locations that accurately depict the past in a highly modernised city like Singapore.