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This page features articles, notes and papers which I have written. Some of these were presented at various seminars or conferences.
The benefits of writing are chiefly the development of concentration, the defining of thoughts and the formulation of arguments.
These, in an age of sound-bytes, podcasts and 3 minute video summaries, are invaluable skills.
(NEW!)
A SPLENDED LITTLE COLONY: British Singapore 1819 - 1963
This is a little book I wrote (2016) as part of my professional and personal reflections on the exciting history of Singapore, and the ways in which it is both remembered and taught today. I have subtitled it Some thoughts on the history of Singapore before SG50.
I was instigated into this project by my students who, in the throes of SG50 fanfare, insisted that Singapore was 'only' 50 years old. Pummelled all over by SG50 success in 2015, who could blame them for forgetting the 'long history' of Singapore.....
The book can now be found online here, courtesy of Stephen Luscombe's excellent website, The British Empire.
A Splendid Little Colony.pdf(NEW!)
AN EXHIBITION OF AGES
Around twenty years ago, I wrote a very brief 25-page manuscript on the history of my paternal forefathers, beginning with Wee Guan Ho, who arrived from China in the colony of Singapore in the 1820s, not long after its founding by the British. The written record was inspired by an oral interview I conducted with my grandfather Wee Sian Kee in 1993, and provided the basis of the manuscript.
In 2019, I was able to utilise the marvellous online repository of the National Library of Singapore to access numerous archived newspapers dating back to the 1800s. As a result, I was able to greatly expand on my first manuscript and produce a book on the first five generations of the Wee family in Singapore.
The front and back covers of the book
Front and Back covers.pdfScroll down to scan or read the book.
An Exhibition of Ages Final.pdf
Not Dusty, Not Dry and Certainly Not Dead: the role of museums
in teaching historical interpretations
We have a great number of good museums in Singapore, many of which can be used for teaching objective interpretations of the past.
In 2017 I presented my thoughts of the subject at a Cluster session for history teachers.
On the night of 23 April 1911, six sharp gunshots rang out over the silence of Kuala Lumpur, leaving one William Steward dead.
The subsequent murder trial was one of the most dramatic and widely followed in the history of Malaya, becoming the seed plot of one of Somerset Maugham's most famous short stories, "The Letter," and which itself was made into a Hollywood movie.
Robinson Crusoe, Superman and the 21st Century Citizen
My subtitle for this essay was - "How useful is History in the process of nation-building."
Written in 2014 and submitted for consideration at the annual Teachers' Conference that year, it was rejected by the selection committee.
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