The Chinatown Heritage Centre is a fairly new entry in the Singapore museum scene. Housed in three shophouses in Chinatown, the centre tries to replicate the experience of the early Chinese immigrants who had lived in such shophouses in the late 19th and early 20th century.
As I had visited the centre in a group, we managed to get a guide who was ironically an Indian. He was very good, adding his own personal anecdotes into the tour. The guides here are mainly professional guides and among the best trained in town.
Some highlights of the centre are:
- The animatronics display that portrays the various festivals celebrated in Chinatown. There are almost real firecrackers (now illegal in Singapore) and a robotic lion.
- The conserved "coolie kengs" or small rooms which used to house the Chinese immigrants working in early Singapore. These rooms were painstakingly recreated through oral interviews with some of the people that lived in these shophouses. The designers managed to capture the charm and dirt of these old houses...down to dripping taps and poop in the squat toilets.
-The tailor's shop on the ground floor, which was the original shop there.
-The audiovisual, which portrays the brothels and secret societies that were rampant in Chinatown way back then.
This is a place not to be missed to get an idea of old, charming Singapore, which is rapidly disappearing.
For more details visit www.chinatownheritage.com.sg