Stamp Exhibition on Dr Sun Yat Sen @ SPM

We went to the Singapore Philatelic Museum for the Stamp Exhibition on Dr Sun Yat Sen. It was a rare treat to see some of the uncommon stamps linked with Dr Sun Yat Sen. The visit was highly educational. For example, I didn't know that Dr Sun Yat Sen 孙中山's "中山" came from his Japanese name 中山樵, which he used when he was hiding in Japan. His actual name is 孙文. Another piece of philately tidbit was that Dr Sun Yat Sen was personally involved in the design of one of the early China stamps because he felt that these stamps were important to the modern day China.

Of course, the philately material provided much information about Dr Sun Yat Sen's life. It was also interesting to know that Dr Sun's Three Principles of the People (三民主义) had been depicted on a US stamp, together with Dr Sun and US President Lincoln's portraits. It seemed that the political ideas of both great men had often been compared for their similarities. While I do have stamps with Dr Sun's portrait (many Taiwan stamps have his picture), I think I might want to keep an eye to look out for that particular US stamp with both Dr Sun and President Lincoln.

The exhibition also contained materials about Dr Sun Yat Sen's relationship with the early Singapore Chinese, and the establishment of 晚晴园. Looking at the pictures of Dr Sun Yat Sen with some of the early Singapore Chinese (including famous folks like Teo Eng Hock, Tan Chor Nam and Lim Nee Soon), I would say that Singapore's relationship with China started really early. 

For those who are interested to visit the Singapore Philatelic Museum, you can find out more accessibility details at their website.

Visit to the Singapore Philatelic Museum - Part 2

We spent quite some time on the ground floor before moving up to the Rat's Tale gallery located on the second floor. SPM has done a fair amount of work in decorating the place in a 'Rat's theme, and you can see these pictures of rats everywhere, including on the floor and walls. It should be fun to the kids (and adults) who visit the museum.

Before we moved to the Rat's Tale gallery, we visited the permanent gallery located on the second floor, where the stories about Singapore's early trades (e.g. wooden barrel making) were displayed.

We also visited the gallery with displays of early Straits Settlement stamps and envelopes. There is auite a fair bit of philatelic history being displayed in the gallery. There is even this mail chute, which is interesting to me from a philatelic perspective. Mail chutes were used by employees located at the upper floors of a building to drop their letters straight into the postbox below for collection by postmen. Wonder if people used to drop parcels straight into the post chute / box?

Ok, now let's see pictures of the Rat's Tale display. Earlier this year SingPost just released the holographic Rat stamps, and here at the gallery we see many other interesting versions of rat stamps as well. There is even a quiz about the different famous rats.

Rats are interesting as rat is the first animal in the eastern / Chinese zodiac. So there is some explanation of the zodiac myth involved, and how the rat irritated the cat because of their race to be among the animals included for zodiac.

The second floor also has another gallery of Vietnam stamps. Well I figured that there is great interest in collecting the Indo-Chine series of stamps for some collectors, although I actually didn't have that many Indon-Chine stamps. Overall the SPM visit is enjoyable, and well worth the money / time spent for a leisure weekend visit.

Related article:
- Visit to the Singapore Philatelic Museum - Part 1

Visit to the Singapore Philatelic Museum - Part 1

I decided to visit the Singapore Philatelic Museum (SPM) on Saturday with my girlfriend, just to show her the world of philately (and to explain why I spent so much time poring over little pieces of papers). I have not visited the SPM for quite some time actually. Currently there are three exhibits in display, Vietnam Specials, Rat's Tale, and Herbs & Spices: Flavours of Life, in addition to the usual permanent ones.

The SPM building really looks attractive, and the colonial feel of the building adds a certain flavour to the philately visit. Located in front of the SPM is an old red tubular postbox, which is one of the last old style postbox that is actually functioning.

As usual, I spent some time just leafing through the loose stamps and made purchases of some 1960 Malaya definitives. The tickets for the museum is $5 per pax for adults and $4 for children. Two floors of philatelic experience for just $5 is quite worth it. One could easily spend nearly 2 hours in the museum.

The ground floor hosted both the usual philately 101 materials, as well as a function area with the Vietnam exhibits. The exhibits have changed somewhat from my last visit, and there is now a talking 'Penny Black' display (see picture below) to charm the visitors! Wow! For the kids, there are 'stamp booklet' stamping activities where the kids could self-cancel a booklet using some of the stamping chops.

Here's the display on the ground floor about the Vietnam exhibits, and I'll write more about the Rat's Tale exhibits in the next post.

Related article:
- Visit to the Singapore Philatelic Museum - Part 2