Singapore Guide: A slice of street art in Singapore

Penny ThomasThe West Australian
Camera IconYip Yew Chong painting Paper Mask and Puppet Seller in Chinatown. Credit: Singapore Tourism Board

Known for its squeaky-clean streets and law-abiding citizens, I never would have thought straight-laced Singapore would be home to a thriving street art scene. But here I am, wandering around Chinatown alongside one of Singapore’s most prolific and celebrated street artists, Yip Yew Chong.

Well-known for his evocative public murals that are splashed across the country’s most popular enclaves, the 54-year-old is part of a growing group of visual artists in Singapore who are brightening up its streets and alleyways one mural at a time.

Today, Yew Chong is showing us around Chinatown, where he grew up during the 1970s and 80s. It’s also where he’s been spending lots of time over the past few years painting large colourful murals for the public to enjoy.

As we stroll down Smith Street, we come across one of his earliest murals titled Letter Writer. It depicts a Chinese man seated at table writing a letter, with traditional red couplets hanging off the wall behind him. According to Yew Chong, this was a common scene in Chinatown up until the 1980s, before the street markets, hawkers and traditional traders were resettled inside the mammoth Chinatown Complex.

Camera IconLetter Writer mural by Yip Yew Chong. Credit: Singapore Tourism Board
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“In the olden days, letter writers played an important role helping our migrant forefathers write letters to their loved ones back in China,” Yew Chong says. “They also doubled as calligraphers for Chinese New Year couplets and ancestral altars.”

Letter Writer is one of six murals Yew Chong first conceptualised for Chinatown back in 2016, when he was working full-time in the finance sector. While it took a few years for Yew Chong to gain approval to paint murals in Chinatown, he has since completed the first five murals he initially envisaged for the area, with the sixth expected to be done by later this year.

As we continue walking, you can tell Yew Chong has fond memories of this place as he tells us stories about the traders, labourers and immigrants who called Singapore — and the bustling Chinatown district — their home.

Yew Chong takes us to 30 Smith Street, the location of one of his most personal projects.

Titled My Chinatown Home, the mural depicts Yew Chong’s late grandmother at one end, busily sewing a patchwork blanket. Across from his grandmother, Yew Chong’s painted himself as a child playing a board game with his siblings. And at the opposite end of the mural is his mother making New Year sticky cake in the kitchen.

“This mural has got to be my most intimate mural ever painted, because it depicts my very first home in Sago Lane in Chinatown,” Yew Chong says. “Every detail and object in the entire composition was painted based on my memories of the home.”

Camera IconMy Chinatown Home by Yip Yew Chong. Credit: Singapore Tourism Board

As is the case with many of Yew Chong’s artworks, he’s tried to paint the scene as realistically as possible and life-sized, so that people can interact with it. As such, it’s not uncommon to see people getting their picture taken in front of his murals, pretending to be seated on a chair or acting out what is happening in the artwork.

Next up, we check out another one of his murals at 30 Temple Street in Chinatown. The epic three-storey piece is titled Chinatown Market and was completed in November 2021. It depicts a range of stalls including a traditional coffee shop, a dried seafood shop and soy sauce shop. There’s also a hairdresser, plus your typical wet market selling vegetables, fish, snakes and even monitor lizards — yum!

Throughout the remainder of the morning, other murals we view include, Cantonese Opera, which is inspired by the live street shows Yew Chong used to watch as a child; The Window, which is inspired by the different families and cultures that used to live together under the same roof in Chinatown; and Mamak Store, inspired by Yew Chong’s fond memories of the Abdul Kadir’s store from Sago Lane.

What I like most about each of Yew Chong’s murals is the intricate details he’s included that tell stories from a bygone era in a modern and playful manner. For Yew Chong, he hopes his murals bring back fond memories for the older generation, whilst giving younger people a glimpse into Singapore’s Chinese culture and history.

  • Yip Yew Chong’s artworks can be found all over Singapore, not just in Chinatown. For example, across the ever-evolving city he’s produced colourful murals along sidewalks in Kampong Glam and Telok Ayer. He’s also done several installations within Terminal 4 at Singapore’s Changi Airport.
  • Earlier this year, Yip Yew Chong completed a 60m-long painting of scenes from Singapore that took him 18 months to complete. The mural — which is yet to be named — will be exhibited later this year at a venue that Yip Yew Chong will disclose when it is confirmed.
  • For more information about Yip Yew Chong, visit yipyc.com or follow his Instagram page @yipyewchong.

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