TY - GEN AU - Yeoh, Brenda S. A. TI - Contesting space in colonial Singapore : power relations and the urban built environment SN - 9789971692681 U1 - 711.1309 PY - 2016/// CY - Singapore PB - National University of Singapore Press KW - N1 - CONTENTS Acknowledgements zx Acknowledgements to the First Edition XI Tables XVll Figures xix Plates xxi Abbreviations XXlli Glossary XXIV Note on Currency XXVI Note on Chinese Names and Terms xxvi 1 Pow&- Relations and the Built Environment in Colonial Cities 1 The Distinctiveness of Colonial Cities 1 Approaches to the Shaping of the Urban Built Environment in Colonial Cities 4 The Colonial City as Contested Terrain 9 The Exercise of Power in Colonial Societies 10 Power Relations and the Colonial Urban Built Environment 16 Rhetorical Form and Recoverable Reality : The Plan of the Book and the Use of Sources 18 2 Establishing an Institution of Control over the Urban Built Environment: The Municipal Authority ofSingapore, 1819-1930 28 The Institution of Municipal Government 28 The Administration of Urban Affairs, 1819-1887 31 Urban Development and the Spatial Structure of the City in the Late Nineteenth Century 35 The Expansion of Municipal Government, 1887-1930 48 Tht Composition of the Municipal Commission 58 The Municipal Authority as an Institution of Power 64 3 Municipal Sanitary Surveillance, Asian Resistance, and the Control of the Urban Environment 85 The Campaign for a Sanitized Environment in Colonial Singapore 85 The Aetiology of 'Filth' Diseases and Colonial Perceptions of Asian Domestic Practices 90 The Scourge of Tuberculosis and Asian Housing Conditions 93 Municipal Strategies of Disease and Sanitary Control: Surveillance 101 The Asian Plebeian Response to Municipal Sanitary Control 111 Chinese Medical Resources and Chinese Attitudes towards Health and Disease 112 Asian Counter-strategies against Municipal Sanitary Control 119 The Dialectics of Power 123 4. Shaping the Built Form of the City: From the Regulation ofHouse Form to Urban Planning 136 An Alternative History of Housing in Singapore? 136 The Municipal Perspective : The Evidence for Overcrowding and Insanitary Housing Conditions 137 The People's Perspective: The Organization of House Space in an Overcrowded City 143 Municipal Strategies against Overcrowding : The Regulation of Spatial Form 146 'Salus Populi Suprema Lex': The Move towards Town Planning 16 0 Transforming the Built Form of the City: Intentions versus Effects 167 5 Municipal versus Asian Utilities Systems: Urban Water Supply and Sewage Disposal 175 Water Supply, Sewage Disposal, and 'Filth' Diseases in Nineteenth-century Cities 175 The Origins and Expansion of a Municipal Water Supply 177 Water Supply and Public Health: Well versus Municipal Water 183 The Cost and Conservation of Water: Taps versus Meters 18 7 The Chinese System of Night-soil Disposal 190 Establishing a Municipal System of Night-soil Removal: The 'Pail' versus 'Sewer' Debate and the MacRitchie Reports 193 Improving the 'Asiatic Pail System' 195 The 'Pail' versus 'Sewer' Debate Revisited: The Peirce and Simpson Reports 198 The Move towards Sewering the Town 201 The 'Two-pail System': Compulsory Municipal Night-soil Collection as an Interim Solution 203 Negotiating Control over Urban Utilities 204 PART II 213 ORDERING THE PUBLIC ENVIRONMENT 215 6 The Naming and Signification of Urban Space: Municipal versus Asian Street-names and Place-names 219 The Significance of Street-names and Place-names in Singapore 219 The Naming Process 221 Municipal Street-names and Place-names 222 Chinese Street-names and Place-names 229 The Contest for the Meaning of the Urban Built Environment 232 7. The Control of 'Public' Space: Conflicts over The Definition and Use of the Verandah 243 Municipal Perceptions of Order in 'Public' Spaces: The Verandah 243 Asian Perceptions and Use of the Verandah 245 Municipal Attempts at Verandah Reform in the Nineteenth Century 249 The 'Verandah Riots' 250 The Verandah as an Arena of Daily Conflict : Municipal Versus Asian Strategies 254 The Municipal Campaign against Street and Verandah 'Obstructionists' : Hawkers and Street Traders 262 Restructuring Pedestrian Circulation Space: Widening Verandahs and Adding Sidewalks 266 Negotiating Control over 'Public' Circulation Space 268 8 The Control of 'Sacred' Space: Conflicts over the Chinese Burial Grounds 281 The 'Sacred' in the Urban Built Environment 281 Death and Cemeteries : The Western European Tradition 282 Burial Grounds and Urban Development in Colonial Singapore 283 The Control of Chinese Burial Grounds: The Debate over the 1887 Burials Bill and Subsequent Legislation 289 Conflicting Discourses: Chinese versus Western Conceptions of the Significance of 'Sacred' Space 294 Less 'Visible' Aspects of the Conflict over Chinese Burial Grounds 296 The Establishment of a Municipal Cemetery for the Chinese 300 Negotiating Control over 'Sacred' Space 303 9 Conclusion: The Politics of Space in Colonial Singapore 312 Appendix 317 Bibliography 323 Index 346 ER -