2. Film Songs

Many would know that the 1950s and 1960s was a golden age for Singapore Malay cinema. But this period was also striving for Mandarin and dialect cinema in Singapore. There were several productions in Singapore and local talents were involved in the productions in Hong Kong including directing, songwriting, acting and others.

Dive into the conversation between our Chinese literary arts librarian, Goh Yu Mei,and our guest, Su Zhangkai. Zhangkai is an independent researcher on the history of entertainment in Singapore. He has published several publications such as 《雪霓芳踪：庄雪芳》 on the Queen of Amoy films, Zhuang Xue Fang in 2017 and 《弟喂, 做人阿甲阿甲就好：王沙和野峰的90个人生故事 = Agak-agak: 90 stories of Wang Sha and Ye Feng》on the well-known comedians Wang Sha and Ye Feng in 2019. He is also an avid collector of memorabilia from this era such as posters and song albums.

[09:10] Zhangkai discusses how the growing demand for entertainment contributed to a flourishing film industry in Malaysia and Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s.

[14:38] Zhangkai talks about how he learnt of Zhuang Xue Fang and how he met her for the first time.

[22:43] Zhangkai shares the importance of dialect in the performance and expression of the early artistes.

Listen to the podcast as we take you down memory lane and explore Singapore's musical history and the development of its music scene through the National Library's collections and digital archive, MusicSG.

Credits:

1. "Getaran jiwa” performed and composed by P. Ramlee, lyrics by S. Sudarmaji.

Listen on MusicSG: https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/music/music/track/42fb46e2-7e29-48fc-9516-716b74b8ef2f

2. Read more about Zhuang Xue Fang on MusicSG: https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/music/opencmscontent.aspx?id=1bce12a1-aa42-43b9-949e-dd67324181b1

What is Radio DDC?

Welcome to Radio DDC, the National Library's new podcast featuring stories from our collections. In this four-part series, we look into Singapore's musical history, with highlights from the library's digital music archive, MusicSG. Each episode features a conversation with special guests from the industry, and is helmed by our arts librarians who will share their personal experiences and anecdotes as we traverse through the topics on Musical Theatre, Film Songs, Indie Music and Campaign Jingles.

Why Radio DDC, you may ask? The DDC in our name refers to the Dewey Decimal Classification system that the library uses to classify books.

About National Library Board, Singapore:
The National Library Board (NLB) nurtures Readers for Life, Learning Communities and a Knowledgeable Nation by promoting reading, learning and history through its network of 27 public libraries, the National Library and the National Archives of Singapore. NLB also forges strategic partnerships that encourage awareness, appreciation and greater discovery of Singapore's history through its rich collections on Singapore and the region.

About MusicSG:
MusicSG is a non-profit digital archive run by the National Library, Singapore, set up to digitise, archive and provide access to all forms of published Singapore musical works. It assembles a collection of music composed or published by Singaporeans, music produced or published in Singapore, and music related to Singapore.

Subscribe to our podcast channel wherever you listen.

We would love to hear what you think about our podcast. Leave us a rating or review. You can also write to us with your feedback at [e-mail].