9th Emperor God Festival 2020

During the 9th day of the 9th Lunar calendar month, devotees around the region celebrate the Nine Emperor Gods Festival in popular folk culture or simply know as the Jiu Huang  Xing Jun or Jun Huang Da Di they are actually the nine high ranking stars lords which preside the movement of the planets accordingly to Taoist teaching. At the eve of the nine lunar month temple of the deities hold a ceremony to welcome the Nine Emperors, it is the belief that the gods' arrival through the waterways procession is held from the temple to the seashore to symbolise this belief, devotees are dressed in white and must be on a vegetarian diet and carry incense and candles and await the arrival of the excellencies. Today marks the end of the nine-day and this time again the carnival-like procession to return the 9th Emperor Gods back to the waterway to send them back home. 

QR Code

The QR Code had been part of our life since the COVID 19 pandemic in Singapore is part of the worldwide of the coronavirus which our state detected the first case in late January by then the transmission began to developed, then the cluster began to emerge in the dormitories for our foreign workers by then the ministerial task force was set into motion where we experience our circuit breakers lockdown than by 19th June we are into Phase 2  until such time when the pandemic ease there is a chance of having Phase 3 by year-end and we are ready for the new normal.  We have been reminded to have a safe entry check-in and check out by visiting any establishment even our MRT, Bus Interchanges, shopping malls and all government agencies and also putting on a mask is compulsory when going out next the government is rolling out the trace together dongle to support the singpass and trace together apps.

Shophouses of yesteryear

With the new advancement of technology, the design of modern shopping malls had taken over the old shophouses that we had known, from colonial design to intricate one with Peranakan flavour to some but mostly in public housing. Different sector referring to the different community such as Geylang Serai which accustomed to the Malay communities, Little India to the Indian community, Chinatown to the Chinese community so on and so forth. Over the last 50 years, a lot of old shophouses had to make way for redevelopment into the modern high rise malls so it is important for us to look into our heritage buildings. I found some interesting one in around Chinatown. to be continued

Millionaires Club

Club Street got its name because of many Chinese Club and Clans Association are there and also around  Ang Siang Hill. One of the most famous ones is the Millionaires Club or the Chinese Weekly Entertainment Club at 76, Club Street featuring the most prominent businessmen in the history of Singapore from colonial times through the Japanese Occupation and to today modern Singapore. They are mostly from the Hokkien community and also wealthy Strait Borns Chinese Businessman. Next door at 72 Club Street is the Goh Loo Club in their early day's many members took part in the revolution to overthrow the Qing dynasty by generously donating monies to Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Revolutionary League. After the Japanese Occupation, it is home to the Basketball Association of Singapore from 1946 t0 1970.

National Stadium

In 1973, then our Prime Minister, the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew declared open the new National Stadium situated at Kallang where once the Wonderland Amusement Park was in conjunction with the 1973 South East Asia Peninsular Games (SEAP Games) where we play host to our South East Asia neighbours after that the Kallang Roar was created with the participation of Malaysia Cup. Those glory days were soon over because the stadium was to demolished in order to make way for a new top-class stadium eventually called the Singapore Sports Hub, sadly but surely the project materialised and today we have a dome shape stadium but lack of top-class events where we are no more participate in the Malaysia Cup but only have our very own Singapore Premier League (SPL) 

Our National Stadium

The first stadium we had was the Jalan Besar Stadium which was built in 1929 that is where the football fever started with the Malaya Cup and renamed to Malaysia Cup from 1967 to 1973. During the Japanese Occupation, it was used as a Sook Ching screening site, in 1964 a mass rally was held for the mourning of the death of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The stadium was closed in 1999 to begin the rebuilding of the new FIFA Goal plan project. The Jalan Besar Stadium played host to several events during it heydays where the Singapore Youth Festival in 1955, Singapore Armed Forces Day in 1969, and the 1984 National Day Parade, our very own S League Games, 2010 Summer Youth Olympic and also playing host to International Football Club.

Puppet on a string

This is the last performance show that one can catch it is really a dying trade and will vanish in the near future. Chinese Puppetry has come a long way during the migration of immigrant with the various Chinese dialects group setting foot in this region, they bring along their arts into Singapore they are traditionally performed for the temple to offer entertainment to the deity in return for their blessing and protection.