Tatler Weekend: The architectural legacy of Malayan shophouses
Editor’s note
“Brainy kids study science, the rest study humanities”—one of my biggest regrets is holding this misplaced notion for so long. All that changed when I read City of Djinns.
The book revealed how little I knew about Delhi, the city I grew up in. I started seeing the wonderful city in a new light. The monuments that had merely served as backdrops for picnics and furtive dates transformed into sandstone time machines. The congested bylanes that were once just paths to a friend’s house began whispering tales of intrigue. It was humbling that City of Djinns was written by a Scottish historian. This newfound appreciation for history, coupled with a touch of guilt, sparked an insatiable quest to make up for lost time.
Now history books dominate my bookshelf—far outnumbering those about my other passions: technology and business. Of course, I’ve since read all the works by that Scottish historian, the brilliant William Dalrymple. He has released a new book, which I can’t wait to read, and we’re featuring him in this Tatler Weekend.
Continuing our historical journey, we spotlight a prominent Bhutanese thought leader who is preserving his beautiful country’s rich heritage. We also explore the fascinating world of Malayan shophouses—living testaments to Singapore and Malaysia’s vibrant past. And here’s a delightful twist—I’m now completely cured of that misplaced notion because, as fate would have it, my rather brainy son is majoring in history!
Enjoy Tatler Weekend!
Parminder Singh
Parminder Singh
Chief Operating Officer
The empire links back: William Dalrymple on India’s global legacy
Celebrated historian William Dalrymple is here to revive forgotten stories and neglected narratives of India’s intellectual power in his latest book, ‘The Golden Road’
“I believe history can be as pleasurable as travel,” William Dalrymple says. “When you read about a well-drawn historical figure, it’s like meeting someone fascinating from another time. They’re human like us, with the same flaws and desires, but shaped by a different world.”
Read more: The archaeologist responsible for unconvering a 1,200-year-old life-sized Buddha statue
A bestselling author and co-founder of the Jaipur Literature Festival, Dalrymple is a Scottish historian whose works illuminate the history and art of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Middle East, Hinduism, Buddhism, the Jains, and early Eastern Christianity. He has written masterpieces like The Anarchy and The Last Mughal, which have won accolades such as the Wolfson History Prize and the Duff Cooper Prize.
Sylvia Yu Friedman on her lifelong battle to end human trafficking and modern slavery, and the lessons she’s learned along the way
Former journalist, filmmaker and philanthropist Sylvia Yu Friedman has dedicated her life to fighting for the rights of women and girls as an anti-slavery campaigner. With the release of a new book—and a new role to boot—she hopes to share what she has learned with other Asian women
Sylvia Yu Friedman was 16 years old when she found her calling in life. “I didn’t realise that it was something that I would immerse myself in for decades to come,” she recalls. But when she learnt the story of a Japanese comfort woman whose life was destroyed by sexual enslavement in a military war zone, she says it “sparked the fire in my belly”.
On August 14, 1991, 68-year-old Kim Hak-soon chose to break her silence at a press conference in Seoul, sharing how, 50 years previously, she had been forced into sex slavery during the Japanese war against China. She recounted being raped up to 30 times a day by Japanese soldiers. Kim was one of what has been estimated to be as many as 400,000 “comfort women” forced to work in Japanese military brothels during the Second World War.
Yu Friedman had been shown a newspaper clipping of the story by her mother and, having been born in South Korea, she found herself particularly curious to find out more. However, she says that back then Japanese military sex slavery was a topic that people had often only heard about through their families, with few books in English telling survivor stories.
In 2001, when Yu Friedman was working as a television reporter in Canada, where she grew up, she had the opportunity to meet her first survivor, 80-year-old Kim Soon-duk, who had also been a comfort woman for the Japanese.
“It was seeing someone who’s a walking history book, and also being stunned that her story was not documented, that the experiences of these young girls, who were my age at that time, were erased,” says Yu Friedman, who would go on to meet and interview more survivors, telling their stories in her book Silenced No More: Voices of Comfort Women, which was published in 2015.
Malayan shophouses: The architectural heritage of Singapore and Malaysia
Featuring insights from Prof Robert Powell’s new book ‘Origin and Evolution of the Malayan Shophouse,’ discover how these iconic centuries-old buildings evolved to become distinctive cultural landmarks
Long before Malaysia and Singapore’s skylines were punctuated by glass-clad towers, their urban landscapes were defined by rows of distinctive shophouses that tell the story of a nation’s cultural evolution.
These narrow, two-storey structures, with their characteristic five-foot ways and ornate façades, are integral to the vernacular architecture of Malaysia and Singapore–living chronicles of the countries’ rich heritage where British and Dutch colonialism merged with Chinese aesthetics.
Read more: Revel in this lavish Peranakan townhouse on Melaka’s erstwhile Millionaires’ Row
Protecting the Land of the Thunder Dragon: Karma Phuntsho prepares Bhutan for the future
Through the Loden Foundation, Bhutanese thought leader Karma Phuntsho addresses the ephemerality of the past and the challenges of the present—all to help his country prepare for the future
Despite its modest geographical size and a population of just over 770,000, the Kingdom of Bhutan is a nation that commands intrigue. Enveloped in mystique and blessed with extraordinary natural beauty, its millennia-old heritage stands as a testament to cultural continuity.
Yet Bhutan is not impervious to the currents of globalisation, and within this tension lies the life’s work of former Buddhist monk, scholar and cultural steward Dr Karma Phuntsho.
Phuntsho, who is among the recipients of this year’s prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, is characteristically self-effacing. “What we do here is diminutive compared to what is being achieved by other awardees in the bigger countries,” he said during a recent online discussion with international press. Yet his achievements—rooted in education, entrepreneurship, and cultural preservation—tell a different story.
Read more: Ramon Magsaysay Awardees 2024: Studio Ghibli Miyazaki Hayao, Rural Doctors Movement, and more
