Project Overview

Natalie Pang and Cheng Shao Meng Merlin

The Bukit Brown Cemetery is an important historical site in Singapore, as the first and last surviving municipal cemetery. In 2011, the announcement of a highway construction that would cut across the cemetery led to the exhumation of around 4000 tombs and collection of above-ground and underground artifacts. The underground artifacts are most at risk of being disposed of and forgotten if they are not digitized. There are two main reasons for the vulnerability of the below-ground artifacts. First and foremost, given the nature of many of these artifacts, they cannot be kept under appropriate conditions given cultural taboos associated with them. Secondly, many of these artifacts are already deteriorating as a number of years has passed since they were recovered when the tombs were exhumed as part of the road project.

During the documentation of tombs affected by the road project, a rich variety of artifacts were found, from personal items such as dentures, jewellery, shoes, belts, hairpins, and clothing, to everyday or symbolic items such as miniature furniture, kitchenware, and ceramic cups. These items are reflective of not just instances of everyday lives in particular historical contexts, but also cultural beliefs at that time.

In this documentation project, selected underground artifacts are curated and then captured using a form of 3D scanning known as photogrammetry. There are two main types of photogrammetry — aerial photogrammetry and close-range photogrammetry. Close-range photogrammetry is used as the main approach, utilising handheld cameras or cameras mounted on a tripod to create 3D models of smaller objects. Photos of the objects from different angles were sent to the computer, where blurred or repeated photos were discarded. The remaining images were later put into the photogrammetry software for processing, polishing, and cleaning before being exported for further use.

The team comprised researchers from information science and media design and developed collaborations with other researchers with backgrounds in anthropology, archaeology, and religious studies. While the core team worked on the documentation and 3D photogrammetry, the other researchers contributed to deepening understandings and knowledge about the underground artifacts — their purposes and representations.

The project is highly significant given that there is a lack of visibility and research about such underground artifacts. Without the project, many of the underground artifacts would have been disposed of, and their stories forgotten as land burials have become less common in land-scarce Singapore. The project was also recognised for its significance and received a digital project grant from the National Heritage Board Singapore in 2021.

Project Review

Quan Gao

The Bukit Brown Cemetery Documentation Project (BBCDP) is a significant initiative employing digital archives to document not just the Chinese cemeteries in Singapore, but also the associated social history, death rituals, and collective memories linked to these burial grounds. This project is particularly timely given the substantial reconfiguration of Chinese burial spaces in Singapore over the past two decades, with traditional graveyards being exhumed to reclaim land for urban development. For instance, recent infrastructure projects, such as a new traffic construction across the Bukit Brown Cemetery, will impact approximately 5% of the 100,000 graves.

The Bukit Brown Cemetery’s history dates back to 1904, when early Chinese immigrants in Singapore established it as a public cemetery, adhering to cultural beliefs such as fengshui (geomatic principles) for burial needs. It stands as the largest Chinese cemetery outside of China and one of Singapore’s few remaining large pre-World War II cemeteries. The project contends that Bukit Brown Cemetery serves as an organic socio-cultural space where the history, memory, religion, and emotions of Chinese communities are deeply ingrained. Hence, a digital humanities project is essential to systematically documenting the material, social, and ritual dimensions associated with these heritages, especially given their uncertain future amidst the state’s rational land use policies.

In terms of methodology, the project is comprehensive and innovative, focusing on three key aspects: 1) documenting the graves; 2) capturing the history, memory, and rituals; and 3) documenting the exhumation processes. The visual database, featuring close-up photography of 3,901 graves, effectively captures the social meanings associated with these burial sites. Additionally, efforts have been made to record rituals linked to exhumation and reinterment, gather oral histories and family trees, and document archaeological artifacts like coffins and crypts.

This project provides valuable digital resources for scholarly research into Chinese diaspora history and the study of deathscape and death rituals in disciplines such as geography, anthropology, and urban studies. The project’s use of visual methods, particularly the cultural interpretation of photography and images, has been recognized as crucial for ethnographic narratives that illuminate deathscape and death rituals (Heng 2020). Photographs from the project often feature visible or partially legible inscriptions, names, and places of origin of the deceased, enriching their historical context. Beyond visual materials, the project includes biographies and family histories, highlighting the life experiences of the deceased and their roles in the nation-building processes of both China and Singapore in the 20th century. For instance, many graves document the time of death based on the chronology of the Republic of China, indicating a Sinocentric identity among the diasporic Chinese community in the early- to mid-20th century.

Looking ahead, it would be beneficial for project directors to deepen their exploration of the cultural and affective connections between the deceased and the living. Conducting oral history interviews with descendants of those buried in Bukit Brown Cemetery could further illuminate the cultural meanings of the cemetery and its integration into the affective life, religious practices, ancestor worship, and cultural memories of contemporary Chinese communities in Singapore. This approach would enhance the project’s ability to comprehensively capture the enduring significance of Bukit Brown Cemetery within Singapore’s cultural landscape.

References

Heng, Terence. 2020. “Interacting with the Dead: Understanding the Role and Agency of Spirits in Assembling Deathscapes.” Social & Cultural Geography 23 (3): 400–423. doi:10.1080/14649365.2020.1744183.

Review: The Bukit Brown Cemetery Documentation Project

Project Overview

Project Review