RESERVOIR_28-30AUG_2008

"Deep in the heart of MacRitchie Reservoir lie the ruins of the 

Syonan Jinja, a Shinto shrine built during the Japanese 

Occupation of Singapore. Envisioned first as a spiritual and 

recreational centre for the future empire, then built by 

Australian POWs and Japanese craftsmen, today it exists 

only as stone relics and fragments, swallowed up by the 

thick tropical rainforest.

As young artists, we have embarked on a journey of 

discovery to reclaim this forgotten monument. Its very 

existence is intriguing– a beautiful artefact of civilisation 

from an age of blood and destruction. Its architects made 

outlandish promises: that the site would be the greatest in 

the world after the Meiji Shrine, that the area might be a 

future host for the Olympic Games.

Perhaps most provoking is the love-hate relationship 

between Singapore and the shrine. Historians and tourism 

promoters want it preserved, even rebuilt to commemorate

our national heritage. Ordinary citizens, however, have 

violently objected to any celebration of former Japanese 

rule– even as they happily consume Japanese commercial

and cultural products.

Led by director Choy Ka Fai, we are an ensemble of creative

people from Singapore and Japan with roots in poetry, 

dance, drama, architecture, sports and multimedia. We have

made pilgrimages to the jungle, probed the site scientifically, 

studied archival documents, drawings and oral histories, 

and processed our own collective memories to recreate and 

re-imagine the shrine as a sacred site.

Our performance, a tapestry of images, sound and 

movement, will be a drama of recollection, an attempt to 

capture the Syonan Jinja's sleeping spirit.

“Egypt has its pyramids, China its tomb of Shi Huang Ti, 

England its Stonehenge and Indonesia its Borobudur. 

Why not Syonan Jinja for Singapore?

It has its fair share of history, mystery and romance.” 

Report on Syonan Jinja Surveys September 1988. 

Records of Singapore Tourism Promotion Board.National Archive of Singapore.

Life! article today

... in which the Syonan Jinja is called the "Syonan Jinga" (this is actually not unprecedented, given the problems of transliteration), and the broken pillars of the dam we use for the river crossing are misidentified as the ruins of the original bridge.

Sigh.

Vivian's got photos.

And they're nicer than mine:

Now which of them will make it to the final publicity image? Wait and see.

Pilgrimage no. 3: the Photoshoot

For me, the excursion started at midnight, when I camped out at TheatreWorks with Ka Fai.

That's his office. He likes to play with his many electronic toys inside, some of which are $1 contraptions from Akihabara.

Can you believe that while I crashed out on the beanbag, dreaming of cats, our beloved director DID NOT SLEEP? He was busy testing out sound equipment, and then in the morning he got a buzz from our Sound Designer Chong Li-Chuan saying his baby had a fever. Can't argue much with that. Babies are important.


Ach weel. So Ka Fai and I got up at 6 am and waited for Vivian to pick us up in the taxi.

And we got to MacRitchie at 6:30am, as bright and early as we should. Ooh look! Full crew! Except Pat. Let's eat our breakfast beehoon before she comes.

And here we are:


Roll call, L-R: Paviter Singh (Multimedia Assistant), Rizman Putra (Performer), Patricia Toh (Performer), Vivian Lee (Stills Photographer) and Choy Ka Fai (Fearless Leader).

So it's across the zigzag bridge:

And into the dawn.

Vivian fell behind because she was actually doing her job. But there were cool things to see that weren't there before.


Looky! Chempedak!

Spiderweb! (Later on I walked into a gigantic one with a similarly proportioned spider.)

Tortoises! (Turtles? Terapins?)

It actually took us only about an hour to get to the water crossing - cool morning weather and a comfortable familiarity with the route served as the wind in our sails. So into the jungle.

This might be a good time to get a good look at our shrine virgins. Here's Vivian:

And Paviter:


Ka Fai has made me promise not to talk about how hot the people involved in our productions are, so I'll refrain.

JESUSCHRISTWHATIZZAT???

Haha, fooled you. It's not the Eye of Sauron; it's Patricia Toh's butt tattoo paired with the surprisingly cheap pastel sports clothes we bought for her to wear as a costume.

Time for the shoot!

It's really hard to beat Rizman in a game of silly buggers.

Although Pat sure gets points for trying!


Did you notice we have a reflector?


And a handsome reflector-handler? (Pav actually comes to MacRitchie regularly to train students in long-distance running.)


I ended up dozing off on the steps. When I woke up everyone had gone.


Okay, actually they'd just shifted over to another location in the shrine. But it was still frickin' uncanny.


This is the performers drying their clothes and snacking on Gardenia bread. We also took the time to reflect that we saw no sense of taboo eating there (unlike the Japanese), and that everything seemed so much more comfortable this time round... no tension, no politics, just a comfortable haven in the woods.

We did, however, also see a blue, red-headed snake. No photos of that.

Wrapped up at about 11:15 am. Vivian and Ka Fai stayed behind to gather a little more multimedia data.


We, on the other hand, went trudging back to the water hazard.




And scooted off pronto. We even found a shortcut to Lornie Road from the jungle.


Till next time! And we're sure to have some cool shots from Vivian's camera too. :)