Author: Soon-Tzu Speechley
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City for Sale
Sometimes, a piece of writing has trouble finding a home. I wrote this piece a few years ago for a publication which subsequently pulled it. I pitched the piece elsewhere, but am now archiving this on my website. ‘For sale. Suitable for café/gallery/boutique hotel’. The sign goes up on a house I pass on my…
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WWWarisan #8 is out
Just a quick post to let you know that the 8th edition of my heritage newsletter, WWWarisan, is now out. You can read the newsletter online here. If you enjoyed reading the letter and want monthly heritage headlines delivered straight to you inbox, do consider subscribing – which you can do here.
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Shared heritage, shared resources
Our lab’s research on stained glass in Singapore has been featured in KU Leuven’s Documentation and Research Centre for Religion, Culture and Society (KADOC) newsletter. As the article notes, these windows are an ‘example of shared heritage’. Design drawings and cartoons in the KADOC archive allowed us to confirm the authorship of a number of…
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Windows in to History
The latest edition of the National Library Board’s quarterly, BiblioAsia, is out now. The title feature by my boss Dr Yeo Kang Shua and Swati Chandgadkar looks at the fascinating history of Singapore’s stained glass windows – and features some archival research done by yours truly. Check it out. I spent the last week participating…
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A new piece in New Mandala
Just a quick update. I wrote a short op-ed on some of the threats facing Melaka and George Town – Malaysia’s UNESCO-listed historic cities – for New Mandala. For me, the two cities highlight issues of urban governance that are relevant to Malaysia as a whole. The mounting urban crisis in these historic cities highlights a couple…
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The worlds we cannot see
Last night I met some friends for dinner and drinks at Changi Village. It’s a great little spot, and it feels a world away from the city. (By public transport, it sort of is). The buildings are a little lower here, the trees a whole lot bigger. I heard more Hokkien than Mandarin or English.…
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A new project: WWWarisan
A quick update to announce the launch of WWWarisan, an email newsletter covering regional heritage matters.
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Komtar on Failed Architecture
Eyesore or icon, Komtar has come to represent George Town. Its transformation will be a barometer of the direction the city takes in the early twenty-first century. Across the historic centre, homes have made way for spaces of consumption, and old traders have given way to new businesses. The reinvention of Komtar’s main tower, with…
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Getting around in Penang; hearth and home in Singapore
I’ve been meaning to write something about Penang’s Transport Master Plan, which is an ambitious but (I think) highly-flawed document. That piece is still in the works as I read up more about the plan, but in the meantime, the new Penang Monthly has hit the shelves. My byline appears twice in this issue. The…
Dr Soon-Tzu Speechley 