what we remember
there was a really good article in the forum today – ‘without architecture, we cannot remember.’ i’m glad someone pointed that out. now, all that remains is for the relevant authorities to sit up and take notice.
our little island cannot seem to strike a balance between the new and the old; modernity and history; progress and heritage. what i cannot quite understand, is preservation of the old by tearing down the original, and then building something else in its place – something that tries to look authentic (what irony) or worse, asian.
case in point: chinatown. it was never really a ‘chinatown’ to begin with, but we have destroyed and created repeatedly over the years, attempting to recreate something that was never there. how does that work?
then there are the schools, which seem to have a migratory issue. some years back, returning from japan for holidays, i decided to have a good, old sentimental moment… but there was nothing but rubble where my primary school stood. turns out the place had been torn down and rebuilt. never mind about that – i suppose that is progress. but my secondary school, which boasted a location in ‘katong’ (it’s in the school anthem, i kid you not!) is now in some strange part of singapore that i cannot even place. i feel as if i have been displaced along with the school.
they are cutting away the ties that bind the ‘runaways’ to home. coming back from a seven-year long sojourn in japan, there was so little left of the land that i remembered, it was scary. yes, it was a little awe-inspiring, but when the awe faded off, i wanted to run away again.
we do not give memories enough credit – they are more powerful than we realize. i should know, but that is another story altogether.
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