Date: 25 Feb to 20 Mar 2014
Venue: Lee Wee Nam Library
Exhibitors: Malay Heritage Centre and National Library Board
About the exhibition:
“With the advent of modern printing technology, Singapore emerged as an important centre of Malay publishing in the 19th and 20th centuries where 1917 marked a watershed moment with a boom in the production of Malay texts. They Who Write examines the invisible role of the scribe (penyalin) and the process of copying by hand on the cusp of mass production via printing presses. The scribe or copyist occupied a central role in translating intangible cultural material such as the Malay syair (a musical form of poetry) into written form for further dissemination.
However, in contrast to the mechanical printing press, a copyist’s creative impulses, sidenotes and oversights will shape the final manuscript or lithograph where no two copies are identical reproductions. Subsequently, the variability of these manual copies bears an influence upon the audience’s reception and understanding of the texts, which enlarges as these cultural artefacts progress in time as historical records. This exhibition is a joint project by the Malay Heritage Centre and the National Library Board (NLB).”
Feel free to drop by Lee Wee Nam Library to have a look at the exhibits.