A special opportunity to contribute to the recording of history is available for anyone who has family ties to or information about Singapore’s Chinese community. An out-of-print book written in English about the historical community is a seminal source of information for people looking for tidbits about their own families’ genealogies. However, after some people noticed that bits and pieces of the book were incomplete — such as one woman’s grandfather being omitted on his contributions to the development of a key road — the publishers of the book have issued a call for people to submit annotations.
The book, which is now in an e-book form, has so far garnered more than a dozen annotations from five different people with connections to the Chinese community. The woman whose grandfather did valuable work on the road was able to supply an alternate name her grandfather was known by, as well as photographs of him and her grandmother. This insider information was something that might have been otherwise impossible for researchers to come up with themselves, showing just how valuable these annotations from the community have been.
Essentially crowdsourcing additions to the book has the added benefit of offering a broader picture of the Chinese community. Though the book itself is prized as an essential volume detailing the cultural history of Singapore, historians who did the research and writing themselves admitted that they could’ve missed some things. The time period of the book covers an entire century, and there’s only so much one group of people can do. That’s why it’s so important that the public participates in the annotation project. They have essential information the historians could’ve overlooked — or never known to look for in the first place — that will help to enrich the facts already present in the book. The public can contribute with either additions to the notes or photos of some of the events already presented.
After the call for submissions ends in August, one of the publishers suggested that a new edition of the book could be printed again — this time, with the annotations included. It would certainly make for a memorable piece of history for those who contributed and those who will later find ties to their own families present in the tome.
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To read more about the book project, go to http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/contribute-to-singapore-history.