Insights into an exhibition at the Singapore Hokkien Festival
Jessie, our content curator, recently curated Our Roots • Our Bonds, an exhibition organised by the Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan as part of this year’s Singapore Hokkien Festival.
How did you curate this exhibition?
The first thing we did was to follow our curiosity. I am half Hokkien, so naturally I was curious about my heritage. I didn’t know that there are 30 Fujian-related associations, or huay kuan, in Singapore, some with more than 100 years of history. What did they do in the past? What are they doing now? I let my own questions guide me in thinking about the content and experience. It’s great that what I was curious about was in sync with the client’s idea, which was to showcase the associations’ contributions to areas like education and culture.
You mentioned “experience”. What experience does Our Roots • Our Bonds offer?
At HOL, we are content curators. But it doesn’t mean that we curate just the content. The visitor’s experience is topmost in our mind. For this exhibition, with students and families as the main audience, we wanted the content to be accessible and the experience to appeal across age groups. Due to various reasons like time constraint, we couldn’t have multimedia exhibits. So we gamified the exhibition with tactile games and puzzles that provided informative content at the same time. There’s more learning through play, allowing for a hands-on, multisensory experience.
What’s the takeaway for exhibition visitors?
The learning wasn’t limited to historical facts. Importantly we wanted to highlight the values of the Hokkiens. We hoped that visitors would walk away with gratitude for our pioneers and be inspired by the Hokkiens’ spirit of giving.
Our Roots • Our Bonds runs until 26 May at the Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan at 5 Sennett Road, Singapore 466781.
Find out more about the exhibition: