Painting of Chinese junk by George Chinnery: This artist was perhaps the most prominent and best-known western-style illustrator and painter in Asia and the Far East during the first half of the 19th century. He lived mainly on portrait commissions in Macau, but it was his sketches and landscape paintings that left a legacy for future generations. In Hope Dares to Blossom he becomes the inspiration for Dick’s desire to paint in oils.
Chinese man using weighing scales: These wood and metal balance scales would have been a very familiar sight in both China and Singapore during the 19th-century. Having a known weight in one pan, allows the trader to weigh the produce he wants to sell in the other. Merchants in both A Strand of Gold and Hope Dares to Blossom would have used such scales.
Painting of an isolated bay in 19th-century Singapore: Away from the bustle of the busy town and harbour, much of the land was yet to be developed. Sandy bays, glistening in the sun and overhung with graceful palm trees became popular with many travellers anxious to develop their artistic skills. Scenes such as these feature significantly in many of the paintings produced by Dick in A Strand of Gold.
Bukit Larangan water feature: In the 14th century, this hill was the centre of the Kingdom of Temasek [old name for Singapore]. A forbidden spring on the west side was where the royal women bathed. It features in both A Strand of Gold and Hope Dares to Blossom as the place where the main characters like to meet; it is also the place where the Spice Garden was planted.
Parakeet: This plum-headed parakeet is typical of the exotic birds people have collected for hundreds of years. It is mainly green, about 33cm long with a tail up to 22cm. The male has a red head which darkens to purple-blue on the back of the crown, nape and cheeks. It is very similar to the bird the Frenchman coveted in Hope Dares to Blossom.
Christ Church, Malacca : built by the Dutch in 1753, dominates the Town Square. Adjacent to it is the Stadthuys [built to house the Dutch Governor in 1650]. After the Anglo Dutch Treaty in 1824, Malacca was administered by the English. It was here that Pieter Steffens hides before his rendezvous with Victor in Living the Legacy.
Boat Quay: During the 1820s this was the main port area. It was used to transfer various goods – silk, porcelain, rice, opium, spices – onto cargo ships and it was the place where visitors to the Settlement first landed. In both A Strand of Gold and Hope Dares to Blossom, it features as a place where significant dramas take place. In its heyday, around 1865, as many as 150 boats moored along the river.
A statue of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles : that stands beside the Singapore River. It marks the place where he landed in 1819 and subsequently negotiated the lease of a piece of land for a British trading settlement. The development of this story features in A Strand of Gold and is continued in Hope Dares to Blossom. In Living the Legacy, all the stands come together and form the foundation for the thriving Republic of Singapore today.
A traditional Malay prahu : a sailing boat widely used in Malayan waters and a particular favourite of pirates. In Living the Legacy, Pieter Steffens [alias Kasim] purchased a small prahu a few days after his arrival in Singapore. A larger version was used for the longer trips he and Victor undertook to Sumatra to acquire groups of young women for the brothels in Singapore.
Rochor River: One interpretation of Rochor means ‘to make marks in a line or row with a pointed stick’ on the ground [a common method to mark out boundaries] This is the area which features in A Strand of Gold as the place where Sidney Percy incarcerates Chin Ming and Wing Yee. He returns to it in Living the Legacy in a last atempt to escape justice.
Sir Stamford Raffles: Whilst he recognised Singapore as a strategic location, providing a meeting place for vessels between India and China, Raffles was also a great admirer of the peoples of the region. He was an enthusiastic researcher into all aspects of their civilisation, languages, natural and cultural history. His vision was to restore Singapore to its former glory.
White Orchids: Orchids are thought to have originated some 120 million years ago, when the continents we know today were breaking away from the original great land mass of Pangaea. They are thought to have occupied an area which is now Malaysia. Orchids – and the desire of people to collect them – play a significant role in Hope Dares to Blossom