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Digital Gems
Digital Gems
Medicine and Health
- The Medical and Health Collection contains historical medical information for researchers, students, faculty, and healthcare professionals.
Chinese in Southeast Asia
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Southeast Asia (known to the Chinese as Nanyang – the South Seas) is the region of Chinese emigration with the longest diasporic history and the largest diaspora population.
During the Song Dynasty (AD 960 – 1279), China’s commerce started to enter foreign lands through artisans (including miners and technicians), bringing the practice of China’s domestic commerce, handicrafts and mining to places such as the Philippines, Java and West Borneo, among others. This was the first wave of Chinese emigration to Southeast Asia. Thereafter, Chinese emigration to Southeast Asia included businessmen, labourers, the descendants of earlier emigrants, and re-emigrants. Originally composed largely of short-term fortune-seekers, the Southeast Asian Chinese diaspora gradually came to call Southeast Asia home, forming the largest group of native Chinese overseas.
For centuries, Chinese emigrants to Southeast Asia have founded various clan organisations, schools, newspapers and journals, leaving thousands of documents of historical interest. These valuable documents are primary sources for research on the economic and social history of these immigrants, their political activities, and the transmission of their religious beliefs.
They comprise collections of important documents such as weekly magazines, internal newsletters of schools and social organisations, history books, familial genealogies and pictures.
Yeap Chor Ee Private Papers
- The Collection consists of the Yeap family genealogical records, biography, passports, and correspondence as well as documents related to the Ban Hin Lee Bank such as directors’ minute book, cash books and share certificates, mostly dated between the 1930s and 1950s.
History, Culture & Heritage
- This collection comprises mostly published books and periodicals, but also includes materials in other formats such as manuscripts, photographs and maps relating to the history, heritage and cultures of people in Southeast Asia. It holds fascinating and important items and invites researchers and scholars to mine them to create fresh connections between the present and the past.
Chinese Newspapers
- NUS Libraries has a comprehensive collection of more than 150 Chinese newspapers published in Southeast Asia in print and microform. There are a total of 96 titles from Singapore, 34 from Malaysia, 7 from Vietnam, 5 from Thailand, 4 from Indonesia, 3 from the Philippines, 2 from Brunei and 1 from Cambodia. Some notable titles are Lat Pau (1887-1932), the earliest Chinese newspaper in Singapore; Penang Sin Poe (1895-1941), the first Chinese newspaper in Penang; and Sin Sian Jih Pao (1959- ), Thailand’s longest running Chinese newspaper.
Bai Yan Private Papers
- Bai Yan is a man with a hundred talents. The Collection comprises playscripts, correspondences, press
Koh Kim Yam Private Papers
- Koh Kim Yam was born in Muar, Johor, in 24 Jan 1915, fourth son of the merchant, Koh Peng Chiang (who had property holdings in Singapore and Johor). He was grew up on Balmoral Road and was schooled at St Joseph's Institution, where he obtained his Senior Cambridge (equivalent to GCE O-levels) at the age of 15. and obtained his Licenciate in Medicine from King Edward VII College just before the outbreak of war. While still a medical student, he met his future wife, Miss Choo Ngai Mun, a midwifery student from Kuala Lumpur. He was in Singapore during the Japanese invasion, but refused to serve under the Japanese in Singapore. Dr Koh was therefore posted to the psychiatric hospital in Tanjong Rambutan, Perak, taking Miss Choo with him. They married in 1942 in Kuala Lumpur. His first two sons, Richard and Patrick were born in 1943 and 1944 respectively in Tanjong Rambutan. In December 1944 he was take by the Japanese to care for Malayan coolies working on the Siam-Burmese railroad, where he remained until the Japanese surrender. Not knowing whether her husband was dead or alive, Mdm Choo returned with her two small children to her family in Kuala Lumpur. Dr Koh continued to work in Siam under the Royal Army Medical Corps for some months after the Japanese surrender, but returned to Singapore in 1946, when he was appointed to run the re-opened Tanjong Pagar Clinic on Nelson Road, Tanjong Pagar, where his third son, Francis was born. The Nelson Road clinic cared primarily for port workers and sailors, and "social health" (a euphemism for sexually transmitted diseases) was therefore a large part of his practice there. The environment was very sooty because of smoke from the nearby port, and so in 1954, Dr Koh purchased a house in the newly build Sennett Estate, at 21 Butterfly Avenue for $46,000, which remained the family home the rest of his life. In 1960, Dr Koh was appointed medical officer-in-charge of the Middle Road Hospital, in which post he remained until his retirement in 1970. After retirement, he continued to work as a temporary medical officer at Middle Road Hospital. We was an active golfing member of Island Country Club. He died in his sleep in April 1976.
Edwin Thumboo Private Papers
- Edwin Thumboo is a poet and academic who is regarded as one of the pioneers of English literature in Singapore. He has donated a collection of his private papers to the National University of Singapore Libraries. The Edwin Thumboo Private Papers collection consists of manuscripts of poems, book chapters, journal articles, works of literary criticism and personal correspondences.
Malay Studies
- The Malay Studies Collection comprise materials in Arabic, English, and Malay. Published within the Malay Archipelago and beyond, these materials are either Romanised or in Jawi. The Collection hosts academic papers, chronicles, cultural and literary works, and social commentaries.