Chinese Heritage Center

I spent a lot of time at Nanyang Technological University when I was in Singapore. When I was employed by NTU, it was our base of operations for monkey research. So I spent hours slaving away in the lab in the Humanities and Social Sciences building. And every time I went there, I admired the adjacent Chinese Heritage Center and thought, "I really ought to go in there sometime." And I never did. So when I went back recently, I dedicated an hour to checking it out.

The outside of the place is decidedly impressive. There's nothing discreet about it. It really stands out from the rest of the more homogenous campus buildings.

Why didn't I visit sooner?!

The CHC was founded in 1995, and serves as a library, research center, and museum. The best part is that admission to the museum is free. You just have to be willing to haul yourself all the way over to the extreme west side of the island to get there!

As soon as I walked into the lobby, after noting the impressive interior architecture, I noticed something that really amused me. China is kind of known for copyright infringement (think of all those Chinese knockoffs, like Gocci or Addidas), so I found it funny when the first thing I saw upon crossing the threshold of the museum was the illegal usage of a copyrighted photo. Someone had made a cute little zongzi, or rice dumpling, with a face. But if you look closely at the eyes, you can see the watermark that indicates that the image of the face is copyrighted and should have been purchased for use. Pretty silly.

Check out the words on the left eye

Anyway, the interior of the building was impressive enough to tear me away from the copyright-infringing dumpling in only a few seconds. From the lobby, you can see straight up to the third floor.

Not a bad view!

When I was there, there were two main exhibitions. The Nantah Pictorial Exhibition opened in 2000, and covers the history of Nantah University, which existed from 1956 to 1980. During its short lifespan, it was the only Chinese-language university outside of mainland China. In 1980 Nantah University merged with the University of Singapore to become the National University of Singapore, which went on to become one of the top universities in Asia. In 1981, NTU opened on the former grounds of Nantah University. The exhibition covers a lot of this history, and includes 130 photographs from the time period. Although it wasn't all that long ago, the photographs kind of seemed like ancient history to me. They're a strong reminder of how far Singapore has come in such as short time. The artifacts were pretty neat too.

The most interesting set of artifacts included original roof tiles from Nantah University and a replica of Nantah Arch, which once marked the entrance to Nantah University. Apparently the original arch still stands at Jurong West Ave 93, and there is a replica in Yunnan Garden (opposite the CHC) at NTU. I've seen the replica before, but didn't understand its significance until visiting the exhibition.

Artifacts are a rare commodity in rapidly-evolving S'pore!

Before moving on to the next exhibition, I poked out onto the second floor balcony, which had a great view of the HSS building where I'd worked.

It's way prettier from the outside than from inside a stuffy office!

From the other side, there was a lovely view of Yunnan Garden.

Luckily the haze wasn't so bad that day!

The other exhibition was called "Chinese More or Less," and focused on the various, heterogeneous identities of mainland Chinese people, and how those identities were maintained abroad. I found this exhibit really fascinating. I've heard a lot of talk in Singapore about what it really means to be "Singaporean." National identity seems tricky when there's such a hodgepodge of cultures existing together in a small place that's always changing. But I haven't given much thought about Chinese Singaporeans and how they identify as Chinese, and how they're "Chinese-ness" differs from that of mainland Chinese, Chinese Americans, or Chinese people living in the UK, or Thailand, or Vietnam. This exhibit covered those issues around the world and across time.

There are seven galleries, and each one has a different focus. Throughout was a discussion of what it meant to be Chinese while away from China, and how cultural identities were maintained and transformed in new locations. The galleries focused on questions like "How Chinese am I?" and "What does it mean to be Chinese?"

One gallery focused on outsider perceptions of Chinese people. It was interesting to see racist interpretations of Chinese just around the corner from displays of cultural pride. The most intriguing image was an American caricature from the 1800's, depicting a greedy Chinese merchant. It was a commentary on the Chinese monopolization of trade goods production. I have thought of Chinese production as something that has only recently started to bother Americans, and was surprised to see that it was a point of contention 200 years ago.

Racism at its weirdest

The history of Chinese abroad created some strange juxtapositions - the workers at labor camps were just around the corner from the fancy colonial family.

Sidenote: Wax colonial family made me think that
CHC might make a good setting for a horror movie
about wax figures coming to life.

I poked around the CHC until about 10 minutes past closing time, when there were still no signs of the place shutting down. I went up to the third floor, which I don't recommend, since I don't think I was supposed to be there. But I was happy to see that there were lots of people around, taking in the exhibits, shopping in the gift shop, and taking pictures. It's good to see that a place like CHC generates some interest.

I think the CHC is a great way to preserve some of the history of Chinese people in Singapore and abroad, but I think more efforts should be made to protect actual local historical sites. The CHC has a short history - it's only 18 years old. Places like Bukit Brown have a long, rich cultural history but are not being afforded the proper respect, as historical preservation takes a backseat to constant "progress."

A Last Farewell to Singapore

Ah, you thought you'd heard the last of me, huh? Well, it turns out I have a couple more posts left in me after a four-month hiatus from blogging! I want to tell you about my bittersweet last week in Singapore. And I also wanted to let everyone know that I'm going to keep blogging, but at a new URL that I'll share soon...so stay tuned!

So I left Singapore at the very end of July, 10 days after Bryan had already departed for the US. It was a strange time for me - I was running all over the place, trying to wrap up work and get all of our affairs in order before leaving. I was so busy that I hardly had time to process the fact that I was really going back to the US. But I did take the time to take myself on one last Singapore outing.

The Blog Awards occurred my last Saturday in Singapore (nope, we didn't win, but props to Spin or Bin Music and all the other winners!) I went solo to the Blog Awards, which took place on the Singapore Food Trail. Honestly, it wasn't the time of my life - it was hot and crowded and I couldn't hear very well. But it was cool  to see some of the other bloggers, especially the super adorable little boys who won the Best V-Log category. But for me, the big highlight was the free ride on the Singapore Flyer that came after the awards ceremony was over!

Flyer from afar

The Singapore Flyer is the tallest Ferris wheel in the world (well, technically it's an observation wheel, but whatever). It's one of the most noticeable landmarks on Singapore's skyline. I'd been avoiding it for the past three years because Bryan's not a big fan of heights and the cost for a ride is a bit high (SG$33 per person). But of course, I'm always game for a free ride!

The wheel's rotation brings it right down into the building where you board the Flyer.

A visit to the Flyer starts with a walk through the melodramatically named "Journey of Dreams," a little museum. There was a hodgepodge of interesting stuff in there, including a funky art installation by artist David Chan Kien Wai.

Oneiroi's Orb, made of 1500 everyday objects

Also featured was a miniature Flyer.
Singapore loves miniatures. I support this obsession.

I didn't spend much time in the Journey of Dreams since I was eager to move on to the main event. I passed through a turnstile and onto the "flight deck," which had a cool view of the giant space-age capsules that you ride in.

Each capsule holds up to 28 people!

The wheel turns really slowly and doesn't stop for people to get on and off. You just have to hop on and watch your step! The loading platform is really long and curved, so there's enough time for the people in the capsule to get out, and for new people to board on the other side. So I piled on in with about 15 other strangers.

The capsule ahead of us, just as we start the ride

Doesn't look very secure, does it?!

It was a gorgeous, clear day, so the visibility was great. One of the first things I noticed was that the aerial view of the new Gardens by the Bay was really awesome.

The famous supertrees

Supertrees and greenhouses

Me up in the air!

Looking back down on the building that I was just in was a bit dizzying!

You can see how someone with a fear of heights might not love it...

Looks a bit fragile from this angle!

Looking inside and outside at the same time was trippy too!!

It's amazing how much you can see from the flyer on such a crystal clear day! It really made me realize just how small Singapore really is.

Downtown

Downtown - MBS off to the left

The Esplanade with the spaceship-esque Supreme Court building in the background

ArtScience Museum

Remember how I said that there are tons of HDB buildings in Singapore?

I wasn't kidding.

After I had my feet back on solid ground, I decided to walk over to the newly opened Gardens by the Bay, since it would be my last chance to check it out. It had looked so close from the Flyer, but it turned out to be a bit of a walk, especially because you can't cut across Marina Bay Sands areas to take the most direct route. It was a hot day, so I ended up stopping in at MBS for a cold drink, and eventually I made my way to the Gardens by going down to the MRT and following the signs from there. It's so frustrating to be able to see a place but not to be able to get to it! But in the end, it was worth all the hassle.

Dragonfly sculpture at Dragonfly Lake

The supertrees were much more impressive up close. They're massive in scale -  there are 18 of them, and the tallest is 16 stories tall. There are over 150,000 plants comprising more than 200 species planted all over them, and if that's not impressive enough, they light up at night!

Supertree Grove

There were a LOT of people there

The supertrees were amazing to behold, but the areas around them were crammed with curious onlookers, so I wandered into a less crowded part of the garden before long. The conservatories are also pretty beautiful close-up, but since the gardens had just opened they were really popular so I decided not to go in.

So futuristic...I expected lasers to start shooting out at any second

There were lots of neat sculptures scattered around the gardens, which made aimless wandering interesting and rewarding!

In the India-themed part of the garden

Off in a quiet corner that I had all to myself!

Away from the main supertree grove is a smaller area with just a few of the impressive structures. I was able to stand and quietly admire them for a few minutes without being jostled by hundreds of other onlookers.

So geometric!

There's a nice view of Marina Bay Sands from the gardens too. It was weird to see it from the other side. The Garden area had been closed for a long time since it was under construction, so I'd never seen MBS from this angle.

Fancy pants

I hadn't been at the Gardens very long, but it had been a long, hot day, so I headed home. As I sat on the MRT it occurred to me that this was my last big hoorah. I had lots of work to do over the next few days, with wrapping up my job and with getting my stuff packed and trying to tie up all the loose ends associated with vacating a country. I wouldn't have time for any more big adventures. It was strange to think about, but I was glad that I'd spent the day taking myself out on a date in the city. It was a nice farewell to the country that had become a second home.

So that was it! I headed back to Ohio a few days later, and started making preparations for our impending move to St. Louis. Compared to our previous international moves, a move to St. Louis seemed like a cakewalk! Now that we're back in the US, I plan to start another blog. Once it's up and running, I'll post one last update here. Thanks to everyone who followed our Southeast Asian adventures over the past few years - we loved sharing them with you!

Australia Day Five: One More Day in Darwin

We had pretty vague plans for our last day in Darwin. We slept in and checked out of our hotel pretty late. Our flight out of Australia left in the early evening, so we had almost a whole day to spend hanging around. Our first order of business was food, and I was eager to try a place I'd been eyeballing on our map since we arrived in Australia. It was called Simply's, and specialized in healthy vegetarian food. Bryan was less enthusiastic, but good-naturedly allowed himself to be dragged along. Man, I was SO glad we found that little place. It was THE best meal I had in Australia, and I didn't even have to feel guilty about eating it! Bryan seemed to enjoy his falafel, although he was perhaps a little less enthusiastic than me.

Mexican pie and SIX kinds of salad. Curried pasta salad was my fave.

While hanging out at the restaurant, we dug through our wallets and admired all our Australian cash. It's so pretty! I think every country has more colorful currency than the US!

Like Monopoly money, but with kangaroos on it

After lunch, we walked over to a little Irish pub and had some cider while we watched bowls on TV. Have you ever seen bowls?! Apparently it's some huge thing in Australia. It's kind of like bocce ball, except that instead of doing it casually at a cookout with your family like Americans do in their backyards, Australians do it professionally at bowls clubs and they are DEAD SERIOUS about it. It was pretty fun to watch, so I see how people get so into it.

Eventually we peeled ourselves away from a riveting bowls match and walked over to the Esplanade. There's a path along the Esplanade that meanders along through a park area and along the water, but there isn't really any beach to lounge around on. We did see some neat stuff, including some more birds.

Rainbow bee-eater

Two zebra doves

In our aimless wanderings, we meandered into a historical district with cool old buildings and neat sculptures. One of the most impressive buildings was the Christchurch Anglican Cathedral, built in 1902 and still in use as a church today. The church even survived being hit by a bomb during World War II!

Christchurch Anglican Cathedral

The sculptures scattered around the historical district were pretty cool. These were two of my favorites.

Reminded me of demons!

Tawny frogmouth owl sculpture named "Chinute Chinute"
by amazingly named artist Koolpinyah Barnes

We wandered town a while longer, but the historical district was really the last interesting thing we saw before heading back to the airport, where we had a very strange dinner at Fannie Bay Ale House. We got nachos that had....marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese?! Probably the strangest interpretation of nachos I've ever seen. It's like something I'd come up with when we're running low on groceries.

After dinner and a very thorough security screening (Australia does not mess around about airport security), we boarded our Jetstar flight back to Singapore. It was very strange - that flight was the last time that we would be flying back into Singapore! But more on that later...

Oh yeah! Did I mention that we're finalists in the Singapore Blog Awards?! It would be super if you'd vote for us!

Australia Day Three: Exploring!

On our first full day in Kakadu, we spent some time lounging around our room. We made coffee and took it out on our little back porch. It was loud out there, but for a pretty cool reason: there was a flock of about 60 squawking cockatoos on the lawn and in the trees just outside our room!!! Most of them were little corellas.

Probably the cheekiest birds I've ever seen

Bryan captured this photo at just the right moment!

Apparently these birds are very playful. According to our Australian wildlife bookthey have been observed swinging from telephone wires and riding windmill blades around until they fall off, then flying back to the top to ride the blades back down again. Pretty cute. Watching them on the lawn, diving in and out of the sprinklers and rolling around with each other reminded me of watching the monkeys!!

Little corella play time looks suspiciously like little corella death battle time

♥Birdbrain love♥

It was a good morning for bird-watching. We sat on our porch and watched the little corellas for quite a while, but when we finally walked around a little bit, there were even more birds within about a 20 meter radius of our room.

Crimson finch

One of the prettiest birds we saw was a pink and grey cockatoo called a galah. They're common all over Australia, but they're still an exciting sight to see.

Flocks of cockatoos can be as large as a couple thousand!

 We asked for some hiking suggestions at the front desk, but they looked at us disdainfully and said that most people get started a little earlier in the day. Well la-de-da! There were several trailheads right around the Aurora Kakadu, but unfortunately they were all closed for the season. So Bryan and I got in the car and set off down the Arnhem Highway on our own. We pulled off at South Alligator River to admire the view.

South Alligator River, which is confusingly full of crocodiles, not alligators...

Bryan and I don't usually think of ourselves as big bird people - we don't go out looking for specific birds, we just look for any wildlife we can find. But in Australia, it seemed like there was a new bird around every corner! We couldn't help but be birdwatchers!

Eastern yellow robin

There were always raptors overhead. Watch out, little lizards!!

We followed a little trail down closer to the river, and felt right at home when we saw some fiddler crabs, chubby mudskippers, and colorful dragonflies.

Sometimes bugs are pretty!

Once we'd exhausted the area around South Alligator without spotting any of the massive crocodiles that we'd heard so much about, we hopped back in the car and drove back down to Mamukala, where we'd stopped briefly the night before. It was nicer in broad daylight! And, guess what was there?! If you said MORE BIRDS, you win the prize!

Green pygmy geese - they look so geometrical!

Another intimidating raptor

After hanging out at the wetlands a while, we drove on to the Bowali Visitor Centre. They were more helpful than the people at the Aurora Kakadu had been, and they gave us some advice on places to go where the trails were open. We headed for the Mirrai Lookout, a short hike where we were told that we might see some wildlife. Luckily, we saw some before we even got there! A couple of storks wading in the water were impressive enough to get us to stop the car along the road.

Black-necked stork eatin' some delicious fishes

Heeeeere, fishy, fishy, fishy

It wasn't long after our stork pitstop that we reached the Mirrai Lookout trailhead. We got started right away on the 3.6 km hike. It was pretty steep going, but as an older guy who passed us on his way down observed, "no problem for youngsters like you!" There was a bit of wildlife along the trail, including the ubiquitous droptail skinks and a couple other lizards, one of which I haven't been able to identify.

These skinks flick their tails slowly back and forth,
like they're trying to hypnotize you!

Kind of looks like a changeable lizard, but I don't think it is!

After an hour or so, we got to the lookout point, which was a tall metal tower. The view from the top was pretty nice!

View from the Mirrai Lookout tower

In addition to the great view, the tower also had some wildlife of its own - it  was FULL of spiders!

St. Andrew's cross spider

This one was about the size of a man's hand! AH!

On our way back down the trail, we spotted some wallabies! We'd seen some the day before from the car, but it was neat to see some without panes of glass between us.

They were still pretty skittish!

Sweaty wallaby-watchers

My outback explorer

Before long we were back in the carpark. We hopped in, planning to head for Nourlangie, a nearby destination that had been recommended by the people at the Visitor Centre. But just as we were pulling out, something crazy popped out of the brush next to us. It was a HUGE raptor, flying away with a HUGE animal in its mouth! The animal was about the same size as the bird! Unfortunately, we couldn't snap a photo fast enough, and the bird got away with its dinner. It was pretty cool though!

He looked like this!

On the way to Nourlangie, we saw more wallabies on the roadside.

Eatin' some grass with an ADORABLE BABY

The Nourlangie hike (about 1.5 km) was neat because it had great views, and it was also a rock art site, with ancient aboriginal drawings.

Pretty view from the Nourlangie trail

We came upon the rock art pretty quickly. Some of it, like the kangaroo below, was referred to as "modern art," since it was completed within the last 1000 years. Modern indeed!

A kangaroo and a...kangaroo wrangler?!

Bryan, petting a rock kangaroo

I liked the art that depicted dancing. From the drawings, it looks like the ancient aborigines probably thew some killer parties.

Gettin' down, aborigine style

This next one was my favorite. A quote directly from the sign accompanying this drawing. I'm totally serious.

This is Nabulwinjbulwinj. He is a dangerous spirit who eats females after striking them with a yam.

Yup. So ladies, if you ever see a yam flying at your face, don't take the time to think "What the HECK?! Who threw this YAM at me?!" RUN. Because you're about to be EATEN.

Nabulwinjbulwinj, yam-throwing lady-killer

Anyway, while we walked the rest of the trail, I kept a keen eye out for any errant yams. I didn't see any, but we did spot a lot of massive termite mounds.

Hangin' out at the termites' house

Toward the end of the trail was an open area, up out of the rocky area with all the art. There were great views up there, and the rocks surrounding us were bright orange in the fading daylight.

A rewarding view toward the end of the hike

Bryan on the rocks

We left the scenic overlook behind and quickly encountered a friendly bird along the path. It was a sulphur-crested cockatoo, and he was very busily dismantling a tree branch. Watching him effortlessly snapping twigs with his beak made me realize that you really wouldn't want to be bitten by one of those guys!

Watch your fingers or you might lose them!

The sun was setting by the time we got back to the car, and we'd only eaten oranges and granola bars for lunch, so we decided to head to Jabiru to see if there was anywhere there that we could eat dinner - we'd heard there was a small mall there. When we got to Jabiru, we realized that it was a really small place. We easily navigated to the mall, but it looked like it had been abandoned for about 5 years. It may have still been open, but we were kind of sketched out, so we just left and headed back to our place. The ride went quickly because we saw some neat stuff along the way!

A much healthier dingo than the one we saw the day before!

Bryan ate some dinner at the restaurant back at the Aurora Kakadu. When he was done we went back to our room and I ate my leftovers from my American-sized meal the night before. Then we got all  ready to go out and look for some more wildlife in the darkness!

Stylin' night-time wildlife explorers

The night before we'd been hearing this strange, repetitive woof-woof that we assumed was dingoes. But it wasn't! It was OWLS! The so-called barking owls, to be specific. Pretty weird, huh? On our night-time expedition, we saw three or four of them flying around, making their strange barking noises. They were very hard to photograph, but Bryan got one grainy photo.

Barking owl looking at us!

We went back to a field where we'd been looking for wildlife the night before. We watched huge black flying foxes swooping silently out of the trees. Flying foxes are massive bats - the biggest bats in the world - and it was stunning to see them hunting in the wild. They were so quiet!! I can't imagine being a little mouse, scampering along, and looking up and HOLY MOLY how did THAT THING get right in front of me without me hearing it?!?! The flying foxes were awesome to watch, but photographing black, flying bats in the dead of night was pretty much impossible.

The next thing we saw was easier to snap a photo of: a tree frog!! SO CUTE!!!!!!!!!! And then we ended up on a frog streak.

This is a dainty green tree frog. Don't you just LOVE him?!?!

Not sure what this one is...maybe a Copland's rock frog?

The cane toads are taking over the world!

Not sure who he is either! But isn't he sweet?!

We were on the lookout for more frogs and we were walking through the grass when Bryan said, "SNAKE!" I whirled around and saw it, right there about 2 feet in front of us. AH! Normally I'm pumped to see snakes in the wild, but this was too close for comfort. I also suddenly felt very insecure - I wanted to keep my flashlight on THIS snake, so we could watch where it was going, but at the same time, I wanted to shine it all over the place and make sure the snakes weren't closing in on us from all sides! I admit it, I freaked out a little. And Bryan made fun of me a little...but I had it coming!

Brown tree snake, the source of my mini freakout

In my mind, the snake was deathly venomous and bent on killing us. But of course, a little research showed that, although it can be very aggressive when confronted, it's not considered dangerous to adult humans. But I didn't know all that at he time, so we headed back to our room as I looked every which way with my flashlight, expecting snakes at every turn.

On the way back, we stopped to watch a praying mantis stalking a frog on a wall. It was really weird to see an insect scaring the daylights out of an amphibian instead of the other way around. The praying mantis would move closer by inching slowly forward while rocking slowly back and forth. It looked like he was mimicking a leaf in the wind.

Run, froggy, run!

I can see why the frog was scared! He's intimidating!

Back at our room, we thought we'd sit on our back porch for a while and listen to the barking owls and other night sounds. When we got to our porch, there was a little guy waiting for us, in between our back door and the screen.

Hey pal! Wanna hang out?

The frog seemed pretty scared with us lounging around in his territory, so we went inside pretty quickly. We drank a couple of yummy ciders (Strongbow - I really liked the pear one, but Bryan wasn't too keen!) and went to sleep to wild sounds outside our cozy little room.

Our blog is a finalist in the Singapore Blog Awards! We'd love it if you'd click this link and vote for us, like us on facebook, or tweet about us! Thanks!!