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At National Museum, PM Lee's bicycle and artefacts of modern Singapore

SINGAPORE — What was Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s personal mobility device of choice at the age of 11? A Raleigh Sports three-speed bicycle that was a birthday present from his paternal grandmother Chua Jim Neo.

SINGAPORE — What was Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s personal mobility device of choice at the age of 11? A Raleigh Sports three-speed bicycle that was a birthday present from his paternal grandmother Chua Jim Neo.

The two-wheeler — which was donated by PM Lee to the National Museum of Singapore — is one of numerous exhibits at the museum’s Life in Singapore: The Past 100 Years galleries. It encompasses four eras of our history, each represented in a dedicated space: Modern Colony, Surviving Syonan, Growing Up and Voices of Singapore.

Modern Colony takes visitors back to the 1920s and 30s in Singapore, which already had a burgeoning reputation as a progressive, cosmopolitan city. The gallery is set in a black-and-white bungalow and looks at colonial Singapore through the eyes of wealthy Straits-born and migrant Chinese.

Surviving Syonan sheds light on how people adapted to life in wartime Singapore and how they found the hope to carry on amid the uncertainty of the Japanese Occupation.

The foundations of modern Singapore were laid in the 1950s and 1960s, an era of rapid change brought about by self-government in 1959, merger in 1963 and independence in 1965. The Growing Up gallery captures this tumultuous period through the eyes of a child growing up in a new nation. The displays highlight social spaces like schools, entertainment venues and the kampung and their importance to those growing up in post-war Singapore.

How did families in Singapore get their movie fix before the advent of YouTube and Netflix? They probably went to the Jurong drive-in cinema, which had space for almost 900 vehicles. The drive-in is represented in the Voices of Singapore gallery, which looks at life in Singapore in the 1970s and 1980s.

Free guided tours of the Life in Singapore galleries are available on Wednesdays at 1pm. The tour features the Goh Seng Choo gallery and one other Life in Singapore gallery each week. The schedule is available on the National Museum’s website. Entry to the National Museum permanent galleries is free for citizens and permanent residents.

 

This is the final story in a six-part collaboration between TODAY and the National Museum of Singapore.

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