NUS Digital Libraries - Singapore, 1867-1914

NUS Digital Libraries nus.edu.sg lib.nus.edu.sg

Our Digital Gems is getting an upgrade! Stay tuned to the NUS Libraries website for this and other announcements as we implement improvements to enhance your experience. Please note that saved bookmarks and links made to specific materials within Digital Gems will be affected, so remember to update them once the new system is live.

Watching the astonishment of the native: early audio-visual technology and colonial discourse

Tofighian, Nadi

Collection	Singapore, 1867-1914
Author/Creator	Tofighian, Nadi
Title	Watching the astonishment of the native: early audio-visual technology and colonial discourse
Source Title	Early Popular Visual Culture
Publisher	2017
DOI	http://libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17460654.2016.1237882
Subject	Phonograph -- Singapore -- History Cinematography -- Singapore -- History Motion pictures -- Singapore -- History Kinetoscope Audio-visual equipment -- Singapore -- History
Page	26-43
Language	English
URI	http://libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17460654.2016.1237882
Content Type	Journal Article
Terms of Use	openAccess
Repository	NUS Libraries
Volume	15
Issue	1
Description	In this paper, I give an overview of early exhibitions of phonographs, kinetoscopes and cinematographic devices in colonial Singapore. Beyond giving an overview of the different exhibitions, the paper also sets them in the context of the colonial discourse prevalent in Singapore and many parts of the world. In the newspaper discourse these new technologies from Europe and United States were depicted as an illustration of 'Western' progress and civilisation. These technologies, be it railways, roads, steamships, telegraphs or cinematographs, were used to impress and astonish the colonised, and functioned as a way to signal Western power in colonial territories, something Brian Larkin calls the colonial sublime. Newspaper reports frequently commented on the amazement and perplexity of the local, 'native' population when encountering public exhibitions of phonographs, kinetoscopes and cinematographs. This was largely a constructed narrative as it helped create and emphasise differences between coloniser and colonised, and justify colonial structures. The paper demonstrates how new technological devices within a few years were exhibited by people from different Asian backgrounds, and thereby diminished perceived and constructed differences between European and Asian people.

Wong Ah Fook: immigrant, builder and entrepreneur

2002

Lim, Patricia Pui Huen

Collection	Singapore, 1867-1914
Author/Creator	Lim, Patricia Pui Huen
Title	Wong Ah Fook: immigrant, builder and entrepreneur
Publication Date	2002
Publisher	Singapore : Times Editions
Call Number	DS599.51 Waf.L 2002
Subject	Wong, Ah Fook, 1837-1918 Immigrants -- Singapore -- Biography Chinese -- Singapore -- Biography Chinese -- Malaysia -- Biography Singapore -- Social conditions -- 19th century Malaysia -- Social conditions -- 19th century
Page	185
Language	English
Content Type	Book
Object Type	Text
Terms of Use	openAccess
Repository	NUS Libraries
Description	Has a chapter on Kwong Yik Bank, the first Chinese bank in Malaya