A road map of Singapore’s culture, history and society.
Children and adults will develop a new appreciation for living history – and what it means to live (literally) right inside this history – while scrolling down this Straits Times digital page, mulling over the nuggets of information, zooming in and exploring graphics.
In these times of recalibration and lockdowns of different kinds, SingaporeforKids is focused on engaging the mind, on bringing you ways to discover and learn from home while having fun as a family.
This extremely interesting exploration of Singapore’s past, preserved in the names of its streets, throws up fascinating details in its detailing of throwbacks to British colonial times, Malay words and surprising references.
For example, in 1966, Singapore had about 1,600 streets. Today they have more than doubled in number and have been either re-named, re-built from old ones or given completely new names.
Six streets are named after different kinds of bananas.
Several zodiac signs have roads named after them.
Many streets are named after operas and ballets, have royal themes, celebrate Malay films.
41 streets are named after women, mostly wives or royalty.
One man – merchant and ‘pineapple king’ Lim Nee Soon (‘Yishun’ is the hanyu pinyin version of Nee Soon) – has 26 streets named after him, the highest number of streets named after a single person.
Referencing the The Straits Times of 29 June 2019.
