::Zong Lun's Reflection::

On embarking this trail, I had a sense pessimism about I would be able to learn from this trip. After all, I have been educated within the context of the Singaporean education system on a narrow perspective of the historical happenings of colonial Singapore since secondary 1. What deconstructed my beliefs was when we started walking from one point to another and I could pick out the various historical significances from my point to another did I realize that what valuable and rich history do we have.

Yes, we might not have a history as far stretching as those of Europe, China or even America. But from this heritage trail, I got to touch, see and understand (short of taste and smell) the social, economic and political aspect of Singapore short but yet vibrant history for a city. From the viewing of the Dalhousie Obelisk which reminded me how early Singapore derived its economic prosperity, to the Tan Kim Seng fountain which Victorian iron- caste design made it so ironic that for a moment I thought the fountain was more to commemorate the building of James Mac Ritchie’s reservoir from which changed my perspective that it was a immigrant who had the visions for a water system for the early town, to the steps of city hall where the signing of the surrender instrument took place for WW2 and then of course we had the humorous discussion of Prof. Blackburn’s previous module on biography on the famous ‘Goh Chok Tong’ scene where school girls were cheering the ‘Chok Tong’ cheer along the steps of city hall on his swearing in.

The trail on the whole allows one to feel that you just reviewed through Singapore’s history from it conception at the landing site of Raffles, through the World Wars, independence, government; and it takes you back to the very beginning at Fort Canning where it all started within 3 hours (we walked really fast and have pictures to prove it that we were sweating, panting and literally ludicrous due to the lack of water: Look at Leonard’s self posing pictures).

On the whole the heritage trail has revived my interest in Singapore history and has offered me a wider perspective to things which I used to believe was merely ‘propaganda’. I also have grew closer and understand my team mates better as we were all very excited and enthusiastic history students who are on their first time field trip on ground. We hope that we will get more chances to do more ground work; which will help us understand and develop whatever we learn in the classrooms and text books.

ZongLun

=)