Naoko Shimazu, Regina Hong, Xi Min Ling Postcard Impressions of Early-20th Century Singapore

Annotation

This evocative collection of more than 200 picture postcards offers a fascinating insight into Singaporean society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. A means of conveying information, advertisements, personal correspondence, historical records and even propaganda, postcards have taken on many roles throughout Singapore's history, making them valuable and unique historical sources. This rare series of postcards is especially unique given that most are of Japanese origin. The authors' study of these cards illuminates for the first time new historical perspectives on tourism, war, empire and the Japanese community in pre-war Singapore. This book illustrates that a postcard is not merely a collector's item. The pictures and messages grant us access to bygone days and enliven a period of Singapore's social history that may otherwise have faded from public consciousness.