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Street Names of Pioneers at the Singapore Writers Festival 2025

I am delighted to be invited to the Singapore Writers Festival 2025!

As an author and public speaker, I am always excited to talk about my writing, including my children’s non-fiction series, Our Amazing Pioneers, where my books bring Singapore’s pioneers to life for young readers.

On Saturday, 15 November 2025, from 3.30pm to 4.30pm, at The Arts House at The Old Parliament, Screening Room, I will be speaking as part of a panel on the topic: “Name Dropping: The Legacy of Singapore’s Street Names”, moderated by Wesley Leon Aroozoo.

This topic is close to my heart.

I am delighted to have distinguished professors Victor Savage and Brenda Yeoh as my fellow panellists.

In fact, back when I was researching and writing my first book, Seah Eu Chin: His Life and Times, I actually cited Savage and Yeoh’s books: Toponymics: A Study of Singapore Street Names and Singapore Street Names: A Study of Toponymics.

Seah Street sign and the Mint Museum of Toys sign, in Singapore.
Seah Street in Singapore. For a blog post on the Mint Museum of Toys, please visit “History and Heritage: My Visit to the MINT Museum of Toys“. Photograph by author Shawn Seah.
Singapore's Liang Seah Street at night, photographed by author Shawn Seah in 2019.
Liang Seah Street at night and on weekends is typically full of life. Photograph by author Shawn Seah.

They are experts in toponymics (the study of place names). Their books provided a starting point for me to explore Singapore’s history through street names. This is one reason why I’m looking forward to the panel discussion.

Also, the Singapore Writers Festival is one of Asia’s premier literary festivals, bringing together both international and Singapore authors to celebrate the art of storytelling and spark meaningful engagement with literature and the arts.

(In fact, I was a small part of the Singapore Writers Festival back in 2023. At the National Library’s Imagination Room, I narrated stories from Our Amazing Pioneers, covering Teochew leader Seah Eu Chin; Hakka heritage jeweller Ngeow Cher Seong; and charitable Arab Syed Omar Aljunied. Looking back, while the crowd was small, we had fun together!)

Author and speaker Shawn Seah as part of the 2023 Singapore Writers Festival, standing with fans and supporters.
Author Shawn Seah was part of the Singapore Writers Festival 2023. Photograph by Shawn’s team.

This year’s festival theme, “Shape of Things to Come”, is bold and forward-looking, inviting us to reflect on the past and present, and envision the future with hope, courage, and imagination.

As Singapore marks 60 years of independence, the 2025 edition of the Singapore Writers Festival features a special SG60 Homage track.

After all, 2025 is a timely opportunity to explore how Singapore’s identity and heritage continue to evolve in a changing world shaped by new trends and technological advancements, like developments in generative Artificial Intelligence and Agentic AI.

During my panel, I will share from my own writing journey, including the children’s non-fiction series Our Amazing Heroes and Our Amazing Pioneers, and my explorations into the stories of pioneers remembered through our street names.

These include our amazing pioneers remembered through streets such as Eu Chin Street, Seng Poh Road, Seng Poh Lane, Liang Seah Street, and Seah Street.

Many other pioneers I wrote about, like Syed Omar Aljunied, Edwin Tessensohn, and Naraina Pillai, also had streets named after them.

It is a privilege to be part of this conversation at Singapore Writers Festival 2025, as we look ahead with optimism while honouring the stories and histories that have shaped us.

I believe that community support for local writers is vital, and festivals like this remind us of the importance of coming together to celebrate our shared stories.

I warmly invite you to join us at the Singapore Writers Festival 2025 to listen, reflect, and be part of this conversation.

Thank you for reading.

Cheers,
Shawn

About the Author

Shawn Seah is a published author and public speaker who makes Singapore’s history come alive through engaging storytelling. He is the author of the children’s non-fiction series Our Amazing Pioneers and Our Amazing Heroes, and speaks regularly about family history, Singapore Stories, and the art of storytelling at schools, literary festivals, and museums.

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History and Heritage: My Visit to the MINT Museum of Toys

Sometimes, an unexpected adventure begins with a simple online contest.

Some time in August, I participated in an Instagram giveaway; it was about guessing the theme of the upcoming Pop-Up in the Museum at the MINT Museum of Toys.

I guessed sportingly: “Toy sports cars in line with the F1 theme!”

To my surprise, I received a message saying, “Congratulations!”

I had actually won a ticket to the invite-only preview of Pop-Up in the Museum at the MINT Museum of Toys!

And so it came to pass that, on 22 August 2025, I found myself walking along Seah Street, along my “Ah Gong’s road” (“grandfather’s road”), heading towards the museum.

Visiting the MINT Museum of Toys

Entrance to the MINT Museum of Toys, Singapore.
The entrance to the MINT Museum of Toys, Singapore. Photograph taken by author.

The MINT Museum of Toys is a familiar landmark. It is home to a private collection of vintage toys and childhood memorabilia.

I first visited several years ago, but had not returned until this preview.

I scanned a QR code on my phone to enter (and later scanned again to exit).

Later, I found out that the museum store is unmanned, relying on visitors to pick up what they want and check out digitally. It is an unusual but refreshing concept.

Toys on sale at the MINT Museum of Toys, Singapore.
Toys on sale at the MINT Museum of Toys, Singapore. Photograph by author.

The special Pop-Up in the Museum exhibition (23 August to 5 October 2025) focused on vintage, diecast toy cars.

Pop-Up in the Museum (23 August to 5 October 2025)

Opening address by Anna Koh at the Pop-Up in the Museum at the MINT Museum of Toys in August 2025.
Opening remarks by Anna Koh, Marketing Communications Manager, at the Pop-Up in the Museum (23 August to 5 October 2025). Photograph by author.

I thought this was a good pop-up theme given that Singapore would be hosting the Formula 1 night race from 3 to 5 October 2025, at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

At the heart of Pop-Up in the Museum was vintage toy sports cars, showcased alongside Mattel’s Hot Wheels and Matchbox collections.

(I must confess that I enjoyed watching Disney and Pixar’s Cars, too, even though I was grown up by the 2000s.)

But what pleasantly surprised me most was the display of “Mandarin” diecast cars, which were made in Singapore in the 1980s, according to the museum.

Diecast toy cars manufactured in Singapore, at the MINT Museum of Singapore.
“Mandarin” diecast cars that were produced in Singapore. Photograph by author.

I did not realise that our little island once produced such diecast toys, now considered collector’s items. To see them displayed was quite a nice touch.

The MINT Museum of Toys reminds us that history and heritage are not confined to grand monuments or dusty archives. They can be found in the everyday objects we once played with, cherished, and passed on.

Toys, after all, carry stories. These stories are especially meaningful because they remind us of our childhood (beyond reflecting more seriously the historical and cultural context of the times in which they were produced).

Nostalgia is Very Powerful

When I was young, I enjoyed reading Herge’s The Adventures of Tintin. One of the stories in the series was Explorers on the Moon. I enjoyed looking at the display as it reminded me of my childhood, when I enjoyed reading comics and graphic novels. I had numerous flights of fancy, imagining myself to be an intrepid explorer and adventurer.

Explorers on the Moon exhibit at the MINT Museum of Toys, Singapore.
Herge’s The Adventures of Tintin: Explorers on the Moon, on display at the MINT Museum of Toys, Singapore. Photograph by author Shawn Seah.

To take another example, my father (who was born in 1946) and I also loved watching Batman. Even before Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) kicked off a series of Batman sequels on the big screen, my father and I loved watching “vintage” Batman on the small screen.

(Well, to be fair to my father, Adam West’s character was probably not “vintage” to him, but the one and only “true Batman”, if there were even such a thing, whereas to me, and probably many others growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, Michael Keaton’s character probably springs to mind. But I digress.)

Batman and Robin toys are displayed in this museum, and it is easy to see the appeal: these toys bring back fond memories of the past. This is despite the fact that there are Japanese characters on the boxes; the toys are still immediately recognisable.

Vintage Batman and Robin toys on display at the MINT Museum of Toys, Singapore.
Batman and Robin on display at the MINT Museum of Toys, Singapore. Photograph by author.

I also watched Popeye on TV when I was a child. To see a display of a vintage Popeye was really quite nostalgic, and made me think of his pro-spinach propaganda on TV.

(Unfortunately, the pro-spinach propaganda did not convince me, and so I never ended up loving spinach, or any vegetables, for that matter.)

Display of Popeye, the Sailor Man, at the MINT Museum of Toys.
Popeye and his spinach cans, on display at the MINT Museum of Toys, Singapore. Photograph by author.

Some of the miniature displays were uniquely Singaporean, snapshots of the past, like the Cathay Building (actually, the Cathay Cinema) and the Old Hill Street Police Station.

In particular, the latter is prominent for its colourful windows, and tourists from around the world come to take pictures of this building, holding up traffic once in a blue moon.

The Cathay Building Miniature Display.
The Cathay Building miniature display at the MINT Museum of Toys, Singapore. This display more accurately depicts the Cathay Cinema, which was in front of the Cathay Building. During the Japanese Occupation, the Cathay Building housed the Japanese broadcasting department, military propaganda department, and military information bureau. Photograph by author.
The Old Hill Street Police Station Miniature Display.
The Old Hill Street Police Station miniature display at the MINT Museum of Toys, Singapore. Photograph by author.

Even the museum’s location is a good one.

Seah Street itself is steeped in history, if I may say so myself. To walk along a street named after my surname, with our prominent ancestor Seah Eu Chin (1805-1883), past shophouses and cafes, and see the historic Raffles Hotel, is to feel connected to a different rhythm of the city: a historical one.

My ancestor Seah Eu Chin was the “King of Gambier and Pepper” during Singapore’s colonial times.

To take another example, one of his prominent sons, Seah Liang Seah (1850-1925), also has a street named after him near Seah Street, eponymously called Liang Seah Street.

Seah Street road sign in Singapore.
Seah Street sign at the Bras Basah area. For more information on streets named after members of the Seah family, please visit Street Names. Photograph by author was taken before 2020.

Winning an Instagram contest may have been a stroke of luck, but visiting the MINT Museum of Toys reminded me of something deeper.

History and heritage can be playful and fun.

I enjoyed re-learning and re-discovering how to have fun, explore, and have a spirit of adventure.

Sometimes the most meaningful discoveries come from places where you least expect them.

Thank you for reading!

Cheers,
Shawn Seah

Note: This blog post was updated with more information on 30 August 2025.