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Trace the history of MRT station names too

It is encouraging that we are holding an exhibition to trace the history of our islands (“New exhibition harks back to S’pore’s island idyll”; June 11).

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Thomas Lee Chee Chee

It is encouraging that we are holding an exhibition to trace the history of our islands (“New exhibition harks back to S’pore’s island idyll”; June 11).

The same could also be done to detail the history of our MRT station names. As it is, several of the station names are quite interesting when translated into Mandarin.

For example, Bugis could be phonetically translated from English to Mandarin and its Chinese characters could be taken to mean “the samurai”.

Similarly, Dhoby Ghaut could be translated to mean “many nice songs” in Mandarin.

We should translate our MRT station names according to their historical roots.

For example, the vicinity of Bugis MRT Station used to be called Floating White Sand, or Peh Sua Pu in Hokkien.

Kallang MRT Station is situated near the former Kallang Gas Works, which used to be nicknamed Fo Seng (Fire City) in Cantonese. Buona Vista used to have a winding road that was called Jiu Qu Shi San Wan (Nine Curves Thirteen Bends).

In Hong Kong, the MTR Admiralty Station is known as Kam Zhong in Cantonese, which means “golden bell”. Perhaps that location had a naval history.

Such translations are much more meaningful.

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