Mediacorp Raintree Pictures is the pioneering local film production company in Singapore. Formed in August 1998, the company produces and distributes local films as well as features made in the region. The company started out by producing Chinese films but later ...

Wayang kulit is a form of traditional theatre in Southeast Asia. It involves a puppet shadow play performance with origins that are possibly linked to the Indian shadow play. There are many forms and types of wayang kulit in Asia. Those performed in Peninsular ...

Cathay Building, located at the foot of Mount Sophia in the Dhoby Ghaut area, was once the tallest building in Singapore. It used to house the Cathay cinema, Cathay Hotel and Cathay Restaurant. The cinema was opened in 1939 in the front building, while the main ...

The Odeon Cinema was built in 1953 at the junction of North Bridge Road and Cashin Street, where Odeon Tower and K. H. Kea Building are now situated. It was Cathay Organisation’s flagship cinema and its most successful box-office earner in Singapore. The Odeon ...

Opened by Shaw Organisation in 1960, Hoover Theatre was located at 360 Balestier Road, at the junction of Jalan Ampas and Balestier Road. It was renamed Hoover Live Theatre and, subsequently, New Hoover Cinema. In 1996, it closed down to make way for the construction ...

Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals) is one of the most important Malay historical works, and one of the finest literary works written in Malay, that has been handed down in various versions. There were at least seven versions of this text. Sejarah Melayu is also one ...

Michael Chiang (b. 1955, Malaysia–) is a prolific playwright who has received accolades for his contributions to the arts in Singapore. Mostly loved for his comedies and musicals, such as Army Daze and Beauty World, his works have been runaway successes at home ...

Formed in 1953, Cathay-Keris Studio was one of two key film producers (the other being Shaw Brothers) during the peak of filmmaking in Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s. The studio produced many black-and-white Malay films, and later also had co-productions with ...

The Capitol Theatre, located at the junction of Stamford Road and North Bridge Road, opened in 1930 and was considered one of the finest cinemas of that era. Originally owned by the Namazie family, Capitol Theatre, along with the four-storey adjoining building ...

The now demolished Roxy cinema, also known as Roxy theatre, used to be sited at the junction of East Coast Road and Brooke Road (where Roxy Square now stands). Initially owned by Mr Low Peng Soy, before being taken over by the legendary Shaw brothers, it was a ...

One of Singapore’s most successful local puppet troupes, The Finger Players (TFP) is a non-profit company founded in February 1996 by Tan Beng Tian and Ong Kian Sin as a unit of Kuo Pao Kun’s The Theatre Practice (formerly known as Practice Theatre Ensemble). Other ...

Tropicana was Singapore’s — and Southeast Asia’s first entertainment complex to feature a cabaret theatre, restaurants and nightclubs. Opened in 1968, it was best known for introducing topless revues to Singapore. Extremely popular in its early years, Tropicana ...

The Thau Yong Amateur Musical Association (陶融儒乐社) is a musical group formed in 1931 and registered as a society in 1962. It remains active today, performing Waijiang (外江) and Teochew music and opera concerts regularly.

Singapore’s only open-air drive-in cinema, the Jurong Drive-in, was opened by the then Minister of Culture, Jek Yuen Thong, on 14 July 1971. The brainchild and pride of Cathay Organisation, it was located at Yuan Ching Road, next to the Japanese Gardens. Built ...

Medium Rare, Singapore’s first full-length English-language film to be released locally, was released in local cinemas in November 1991. Loosely based on the Adrian Lim ritual murders in the early 1980s, the film was shot and produced in Singapore. Medium Rare ...

It was the practice in British Commonwealth countries to conduct a census of population at the beginning of each decade. However, the onset of World War II in 1939 had meant the cancellation of the 1941 census in Malaya and Singapore. As part of the post-war reconstruction, ...

Eric Khoo Kim Hai (b. 27 March 1965, Singapore–), better known simply as Eric Khoo, is a local filmmaker who has been credited with jumpstarting the Singapore film industry in the mid-1990s. Khoo, who helms local movie companies Zhao Wei Films and Gorylah Pictures, ...

Cheo Chai-Hiang (b. 1946, Singapore–) is an artist who pioneered Singapore's modern art scene. In 1975, he famously wrote that local art during that period was dominated by the production of “beautiful pictures” that were lacking in conceptual content. He perceived ...

Shaw Organisation is best known as a major player in the Asian film industry since the 1920s, being involved in the production, distribution and exhibition of films. With studios in Shanghai, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, Shaw was a pioneer and revolutionary ...

Runme Shaw (Tan Sri) (Dr) (b. 1901, China–d. 2 March 1985, Singapore) was a pioneer in the film and entertainment industry in Singapore and Malaysia. He founded Shaw Brothers with his brother, Run Run Shaw. Besides being a film magnate, Runme was also a well-known ...