We managed to book free tickets to The Bicentennial Experience at Fort Canning Centre on a weekend morning during the June holidays.
After hearing that parking spaces are scarce, we decided to take the free shuttle from Raffles City Shopping Centre. Take public transport, save the earth.
Time Traveller
From the get-go, the experience was impressively organised. Registration was swift and well-staffed, and from the introductory ‘scene’ (below) to each of the 5 Acts, all was pretty mesmerising.
I love the effect of wrap-around screens, and the era covered by Act 2 was particularly evocative and interesting to me.
It was indeed a multi-sensory and moving experience; I really appreciated all the work that had gone into this production.
Pathfinder
After walking through the Time Traveller experience in five Acts, we were introduced to the outdoor Pathfinder exhibits.
It was good to be out in the sun-dappled greenery – Fort Canning is really quite beautiful, with its majestic old trees and historically significant structures.
There was the House of Maps…
The Lookout of 3 telescopes with interesting dioramas…
And my favourite – the Seed Conservatory. I loved how they used William Farquhar’s collection of drawings to decorate this installation.
Reflections of our past was a beautiful space too.
The Pavilion of Words. Interesting books to browse through. I made mental notes to go to the library to borrow some of them.
It didn’t occur to me to enter this space, but I later found out that the Old Married Soldier’s Quarters was transformed into this Observatory, where visitors can see how historical events around the world coincided with our 700-year history.
Near the shuttle bus waiting area is The Sally Port.
I loved the free guide that is given out at the start of the Time Traveller. I read it cover to cover.
This page spread was especially interesting to me, as I had gotten my hands on…
… this book at a recent book sale!
This book is really fascinating because it consists of 477 watercolour drawings of plants and animals of Malacca and Singapore in the western scientific style, by unknown Chinese artists who were commissioned between 1819 and 1823 by William Farquhar.
The drawings are themselves a precious historical document, as they are testament to an early era of fusion between eastern and western artistic styles, borne more out of necessity than vanity.
And the drawings are beautiful and highly informative in and of themselves of course.
Going to The Bicentennial Experience also reminded me of these Asian Civilisation Museum posters that were put up earlier this year.
Unfortunately, that exhibition is over, but there are many books and online articles available for those who’d like to uncover more about the unhappy working dynamics between Raffles and Farquhar. I’d say Raffles was a regular scoundrel (and evil boss), and it’s truly ironic that the word has become somewhat of a brand name associated with some measure of quality.
On the other hand, Farquhar epitomised “Others dream, we do”. History has given him less credit than he is due, but it’s never too late to get properly educated from all the information currently available, and thus remember him rightly.
The Bicentennial Experience is on till 15 September 2019, so it’s not too late to try and book your free tickets and immerse yourself in Singapore’s 700 year history!
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