When we were first given the project brief, I thought of quite a few options for my zine. I live in the east, so the places that came to mind were those that I frequented, such as Mountbatten, Marine Parade and Aljunied, but eventually I settled on Joo Chiat. I have always been intrigued by the confluence of tradition and modernity which is actually quite common in Singapore, and especially so in Joo Chiat.

I started by doing some research online, and the first website I came across was one by the National Library Board, which provided a very objective and formal perspective on Joo Chiat and its history.

I also visited Joo Chiat to observe the place and take some photographs. Although I didn’t really have much of a direction for the project yet, I was already noticing the combination of old and new that could pretty much be seen everywhere in Joo Chiat. I was starting to get a sense of the layers of narrative surrounding the place, with the intriguing mix of age-old architecture and contemporary businesses and design.

  

Then, I moved on to the famous Peranakan houses along Koon Seng Rd. I noticed quite a number of people taking photos there, and they all seemed to be tourists. At this point I also knew that I wanted to incorporate the Peranakan tiles into my presentation and zine since they were really iconic Peranakan motifs that most people would be able to identify.

I also noticed these information boards and plaques scattered around the area while I was walking around. They are put up by various governmental organisations, like People’s Association and the Urban Redevelopment Authority. Even the street sign has a little Peranakan tile motif next to it, and these point to efforts on the part of government bodies to promote Joo Chiat’s Peranakan heritage.

 

Lastly, I observed that the businesses in Joo Chiat had also created their own unique narrative that incorporated the area’s Peranakan heritage in one way or another. There were businesses that were entirely branded based on Peranakan culture, such as the Peranakan Inn & Lounge, Kim Choo Kueh Chang and Rumah Bebe. Others, like Cat Socrates, appropriated Peranakan motifs, repackaging them into consumerist products. Some businesses included the Peranakan narrative quite subtly, using motifs as part of the decor, or simply providing information about the area’s heritage (Santa Grand Hotel, see below) without directly capitalising on it as part of their branding.

     

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After uncovering these narratives surrounding Joo Chiat, namely its historical, national and business narratives, I wanted to find out what people actually thought of Joo Chiat. I carried out two surveys: one on-site, and one online.

For the on-site survey, I largely hung around the shophouses and targeted tourists to find out what their impressions of the place were, since they were not Singaporean. I created a survey on my iPad, and asked tourists to take the survey. Here are the questions in the survey:

 

In addition, I also created an online survey, which was more targeted towards Singaporeans to find out their perception of the Joo Chiat and also their knowledge about prominent Peranakan landmarks in the area.

From both surveys, I had a total of 50 responses, with a wide age range. This helped me to gain more insights about what locals and foreigners knew about the place, and helped me to decide on the information I included in my zine later on.

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Since I was exploring on the many narratives in Joo Chiat, I thought it would be fun to make my presentation feel more story-like, so I categorised each narrative into ‘chapters’, and they all had their own colour scheme to differentiate each narrative from the others. I created small illustrations to accompany the presentation to enhance that storytelling tone I was going for.

For each narrative, I created a Peranakan tile that visually embodied each idea (click to see the animation).

1. Historical Narrative

• Colours true to original tile
• Animation of tile slowly weathering, becoming old

     

2. National Narrative

• Red and white to represent Singapore’s flag
• “SG” logo in the middle – alluding to the National Tourism Board’s Passion Made Possible logo

  

3. Businesses’ Narrative

• Neon light represents modernity
• Flashing animation reflects the flashiness of marketing and commercial businesses

  

4. Personal Narrative

• Patchwork represents the different kinds of personal narrative individuals have when they encounter the place for themselves

  

Please click here for the pdf version of the final presentation.