The Big Picture - (Changi Prison) - Part 1/3
(Duration: 04’30.3)
Changi Prison.
http://www.petrowilliamus.co.uk/murals/museum/prison.htm
Is it an icon of wartime human inspiration, or is it merely a place of incarceration?
Hi, I’m Chong Ching Liang with the Big Picture.
This week, we take a look at the whole business of preserving our nation’s memories through buildings.
The old Changi Prison, which has stood since 1937, will be torn down and resurrected in 2008 in an entirely different form.
Local media had not specifically covered the demolition of Changi Prison building.
They used soft words like “redevelopment.”
Only a foreign newspaper used the phrase “will be torn down.” The South China Morning Post suggests:
“Few will be sad to see the old prison go.”
The lack of coverage in the demolition of Changi Prison suggests that Hong Kong paper may be correct in saying that Changi Prison does not figure very much in our national psyche.
It is not simply enough to say a building is old or unique and therefore it should be preserved.
Eminent local architect, William Lim, assessed Changi Prison as a potential historic building.
“I think the first thing to clear is there important architecture merit in this building. The answer is very neutral. I am sure most architects, art historians will agree this is not a great building however it is a big building. It has impact on the landscape. Not many prison of this scale has been done in this part of the world. So from that point of view when we look at it, when you say important buildings, sometimes the building itself need not have great architectural merit. For example is Fullerton Building or the Supreme Court have great architectural merit. I mean, I don’t think anybody even wants to debate that, but the fact that they are there and have important functions, therefore they should be preserved.”
However, setting the criteria to preserve or to demolish a building is a difficult task.
“It’s very difficult issue what you should preserve and the criteria of assessing that because at this moment we have the Monument Board. Monument Board lists building of architectural, historical merit for preservation. Maybe the authorities should consider expanding the terms of reference to also look into places and buildings where memories, collective memories are important.”
A prison may be a building where we locked away our prisoners but some will say that a prison with a so-called “bad memory” also has a place in our historical memory.
“I think the issue of memory is very complicated. You can have a memory of a particular group of people or community, or a larger historical perspective. One can talk about, for example, a massacre, an event which is quite unpleasant, a riot, etc. Those events are also a collective memory of the nation”
Thus, for a place like Changi Prison, where it has more meaning for the Allied POWs than for Singaporeans, the question of whether should it be considered an historic site becomes problematic.
This is because the fact that it is an old building with unique architecture in this region does not necessarily render is as an historic site.
We must attach meaning and national memory to it and make a social choice to accord it an historical site status.
Historian Kwa Chong Guan tells us more.
“The case of whether we preserve Changi Prison as a historical monument would very much depend on the kind of history we want to read into it. The architecture merit will follow whatever historical significance you want to read into it. So, for example, a number of other societies and countries have decided that their prisons are worth preserving because they see it as part of their history. Therefore we will have to make a similar decision on our part here.”
However, Changi Prison is just one building.
Everyday around us, our landscape is changing dramatically because of the rapid progress in our land-scarce country.
The questions that come to mind are…how is the loss of historical places affecting us as a nation?
More importantly, is it affecting our national memory and our ties to the country?
To be sure, assigning a building or place to be an historical monument is not an easy task.
In the next segment, I shall look into how government bodies have been working to preserve buildings and places of historic importance…
For Newsradio 938, this is Chong Ching Liang.
Ends/…
Related Websites:
Newsradio938
http://newsradio.mediacorpradio.com/
Changi Prison.
http://www.petrowilliamus.co.uk/murals/museum/prison.htm
Is it an icon of wartime human inspiration, or is it merely a place of incarceration?
Hi, I’m Chong Ching Liang with the Big Picture.
This week, we take a look at the whole business of preserving our nation’s memories through buildings.
The old Changi Prison, which has stood since 1937, will be torn down and resurrected in 2008 in an entirely different form.
Local media had not specifically covered the demolition of Changi Prison building.
They used soft words like “redevelopment.”
Only a foreign newspaper used the phrase “will be torn down.” The South China Morning Post suggests:
“Few will be sad to see the old prison go.”
The lack of coverage in the demolition of Changi Prison suggests that Hong Kong paper may be correct in saying that Changi Prison does not figure very much in our national psyche.
It is not simply enough to say a building is old or unique and therefore it should be preserved.
Eminent local architect, William Lim, assessed Changi Prison as a potential historic building.
“I think the first thing to clear is there important architecture merit in this building. The answer is very neutral. I am sure most architects, art historians will agree this is not a great building however it is a big building. It has impact on the landscape. Not many prison of this scale has been done in this part of the world. So from that point of view when we look at it, when you say important buildings, sometimes the building itself need not have great architectural merit. For example is Fullerton Building or the Supreme Court have great architectural merit. I mean, I don’t think anybody even wants to debate that, but the fact that they are there and have important functions, therefore they should be preserved.”
However, setting the criteria to preserve or to demolish a building is a difficult task.
“It’s very difficult issue what you should preserve and the criteria of assessing that because at this moment we have the Monument Board. Monument Board lists building of architectural, historical merit for preservation. Maybe the authorities should consider expanding the terms of reference to also look into places and buildings where memories, collective memories are important.”
A prison may be a building where we locked away our prisoners but some will say that a prison with a so-called “bad memory” also has a place in our historical memory.
“I think the issue of memory is very complicated. You can have a memory of a particular group of people or community, or a larger historical perspective. One can talk about, for example, a massacre, an event which is quite unpleasant, a riot, etc. Those events are also a collective memory of the nation”
Thus, for a place like Changi Prison, where it has more meaning for the Allied POWs than for Singaporeans, the question of whether should it be considered an historic site becomes problematic.
This is because the fact that it is an old building with unique architecture in this region does not necessarily render is as an historic site.
We must attach meaning and national memory to it and make a social choice to accord it an historical site status.
Historian Kwa Chong Guan tells us more.
“The case of whether we preserve Changi Prison as a historical monument would very much depend on the kind of history we want to read into it. The architecture merit will follow whatever historical significance you want to read into it. So, for example, a number of other societies and countries have decided that their prisons are worth preserving because they see it as part of their history. Therefore we will have to make a similar decision on our part here.”
However, Changi Prison is just one building.
Everyday around us, our landscape is changing dramatically because of the rapid progress in our land-scarce country.
The questions that come to mind are…how is the loss of historical places affecting us as a nation?
More importantly, is it affecting our national memory and our ties to the country?
To be sure, assigning a building or place to be an historical monument is not an easy task.
In the next segment, I shall look into how government bodies have been working to preserve buildings and places of historic importance…
For Newsradio 938, this is Chong Ching Liang.
Ends/…
Related Websites:
Newsradio938
http://newsradio.mediacorpradio.com/
posted by CHONG Ching-liang | 9:01 AM
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