1) Bury or 2) Cremate & store at columbarium (takes up less space)

• Mandai, Yishun, Choa Chu Kang• Columbarium: A structure with recesses in the walls to store urns

2 videos: Exhumation of Graves- Government’s 15-year burial policy

What is your impression of Singapore’s cemeteries?The Coffin is Too Big for the Hole- Kuo Pao Kun

•Who has been to a cemetery in Singapore?

•Singapore founded on 1965• Some cemeteries in Singapore existed as early as 1800s:

1) Forbidden Hill (christian) Cemetery: 1820 (Fort Canning) - 1822

2) St Joseph’s Church Cemetery 1846. closed after 138 yrs (Bukit Timah)

3) Jewish Cemetery (Thomson Rd) before 1914- 1985 • Make way for Newton/ Novena mrt

4) Bidadari Cemetery (multi-religious: Catholics, Muslims, Hindus) 1908-2006• Make way for Woodleigh mrt

5) Ulu Pandan (military) Cemetery 1955-1975 (Clementi development program)

S’pore Cemeteries: Heritage & Disappearance

Remaining Cemeteries

1) Choa Chu Kang Cemetery (the only 1 open for burial in S’pore)• 1998: the burial period for all graves at the Cemetery was limited to a period

of 15 years, after which exhumed. Some 17,000 - 18,000 graves cleared

“Rows upon rows upon rows of graves. As far as your eye can reach. Do you see any one of them sitting on two plots?” –The Coffin is Too Big for the Hole

Choa Chu Kang con’t:

Pusara Aman Cemetery and Pusara Abadi Cemetery Muslim cemeteries

Pusara Abadi. In the background are foreign workers dormitories- Stomp

Video: Muslims exhumed

remaining cemeteries con’t: Citizen & Military

2) Bukit Brown Cemetery

3) Japanese Cemetery Park (Hougang)

4) Kranji War Cemetery (Allied soldiers who died Jap Occupation)

Do our cemeteries remind you of HDB flats?

1) Bury or 2) Cremate & store at columbarium (takes up less space)

• Mandai, Yishun, Choa Chu Kang• Columbarium: A structure with recesses in the walls to store urns

2 videos: Exhumation of Graves- Government’s 15-year burial policy

Background of Kuo Pao Kun & Drama then• Born in Hubei, taken to Beijing, then Hong Kong, then Singapore

• attended Chinese High School in 1956, his father moved him to Hong Kong due to the student unrest generated by politically activist Chinese high & middle school students

• translator/announcer in Melbourne for 3.5 years, took up a 2 yr drama programme in Sydney, while working in technical theatre, gave him a “strong, solid grounding” in many aspects of contemporary and classical Western theatre

•Best known for his playwright in both Chinese and English• His works serve as a bridge for

Chinese and English educated

•Founded Substation

KPK Achievement• “most important dramatist in Singapore theatre… since 1965”-Sasitharan theatre critic

• 1965: He and wife founded the Singapore Performing Arts School– As public perception of Chinese drama during that era as a tool for social change &

political movements, many were unreceptive towards the charging of fees to teach drama, subsidised drama classes China’s cultural revolution 1966

• 1976: both detained by the Singapore government without trial, Internal Security Act, – Wife released that year to resume duties as principal at the arts school– KPK detained 4.5 yrs. Citizenship reinstated in 1992

• 1986: founded The Theatre Practice company. Bilingual, semi-professional Practice Theatre Ensemble

• 1990: awarded cultural medallion

The Coffin is Too Large for the Hole• Written & staged in 1985

• monologue– speech delivered to another (unseen) character or (very rarely such as in absurdist

plays) to the audience– Different from soliloquy (character thinks aloud; a character can't stand on stage

thinking quietly to himself. The audience would be completely BORED.– Aside: only audience can hear what is said

• First written in English, also translated to Chinese

• Situation then: rapid urbanization, economic commercialization, educational reforms and the culture clash between East and West