{"id":2791,"date":"2019-10-01T12:13:47","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T12:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-alumn-nus.pantheonsite.io\/alumnus\/?p=2791"},"modified":"2025-07-15T16:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T08:08:11","slug":"hyped-about-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/2019\/10\/01\/hyped-about-heritage\/","title":{"rendered":"Hyped About Heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Tucked away in a row of shops at the void deck of Block 463 Commonwealth Drive is a modestly-sized museum filled with treasures from old Queenstown. Bowling pins from an alley that no longer exists, a vintage television set, old store signs and other well-preserved bric-a-brac are meticulously curated within Museum @ My Queenstown, capturing the heritage of the area. The man responsible for this novel set-up is NUS alumnus and Economics graduate Mr Kwek Li Yong.\u00a0<\/p>

Opened in January 2019, the museum is a product of more than 10 years of legwork in the area. Over this time, Mr Kwek and his team \u2014 comprising some 500 volunteers \u2014 have been going door-to-door collecting stories from residents, conducting tours, as well as hosting carnivals and block parties in Queenstown. \u201cThe interest sparked when I was 17, and was volunteering as a befriender to elderly residents in the area,\u201d he explains. \u201cMany were eager to share stories about the neighbourhood and how it was like in the past.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cHeritage is multifarious; it is also intangible. Every physical space, building, structure, object or even artifact is meaningless unless there is a story wrapped around it. The collective memories attached to these tangible items make them significant.\u201d <\/span><\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Mr Kwek Li Yong<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
President and co-founder of My Community<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Mr Kwek was intrigued by their sense of belonging to the community, and his own affinity for the past began to take shape. The now 29-year-old went on to pursue a Masters in Heritage Studies in Sydney, and the rest, as they say, is history. When he returned to Singapore, Mr Kwek founded My Community, a registered charity and an Institution of Public Character, which \u201cdocuments social memory, celebrates civic life and champions community heritage.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Some vintage bric-a-brac on display at Museum @ My Queenstown.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Studying economics to appease his parents turned out not to be a waste of time. \u201cHeritage companies are typically underfunded by the state. So we have to be self-sufficient and look for our own sources of funding and support,\u201d Mr Kwek lets on. \u201cKnowledge in finances and budgets, data management and analysis, became a useful tool.\u201d The company\u2019s end-goal is for every community in Singapore to have a heritage tour and museum driven by residents. Says Mr Kwek: \u201cEvery community has a story to tell, and it is our privilege to bring people together so they can share their fondness for and memories of a particular area. That\u2019s when heritage comes alive.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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To find out more about the tours and programmes organised by My Community, or to come forward as a volunteer, visit mycommunity.org.sg<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Text by Fairoza Mansor. Main photo by Alvin Teo.<\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every community has a story to tell, and Mr Kwek Li Yong (Arts and Social Sciences \u201913), who has made preserving heritage his day job, plans to collect them all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2792,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2791"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3613,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2791\/revisions\/3613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}