Who are we?

We are a group of cultural, history, religious and heritage enthusiasts who love to research about Chinatown and Chinese heritage. Chinatownology is where we share our findings.

Chinatown means different things to different people so having a team with different expertise brings out the many facets and dimensions of Chinatown. Meet our experts and article contributors.

We are interested in macro and micro history.

Macro events are often recorded in history text and they tell us about events like establishment of Singapore as a trading settlement, WW2, independence of Singapore. 

Equally important is micro history. How the macro events unfolded in the lives of ordinary people and their interpretation of history.

We also take the position that culture is not a static and unchanged entity. On the contrary, cultures are fluid, ever changing and dynamic entities. It responds to and is shaped by social, cultural, political and environmental changes and it also shapes our responses to those stimuli. 

Therefore, heritage, history and cultural exploration is not about what it should be or what it should have been but to observe a phenomena and understand what it tells us about the people, their aspirations and the values that they embody.

However, this does not mean adopting a passive attitude but to be conscious of a collective cultural legacy and to identify the boundaries and possibilities of interaction between yesterday and tomorrow, tradition and modernity.

By putting resources and perspectives together, visitors can discover something about Chinatown they didn't know about and never thought about before. 

Chinatownology is mentioned in "The Living in Singapore Reference Guide" published by the American Association of Singapore, 10th edition.

Meet our experts and article contributors