What is the Whampoa Archives?

Whampoa Archive is one of four projects in a two-year initiative supported by a National Heritage Board research grant. Titled Social Curating and Archiving: From Personal Collection to Public Legacy, the projects aim to examine curating and archiving as social practices to support the formation of a public legacy through the sharing, learning, exchange and renewal of an elder’s personal collection on a digital platform. Multi-agential in its reach and multidisciplinary in its approaches, the research team collaborates with Whampoa residents, organisations, and institutions to extend the private collection of elders into a public legacy. 

 

What are the objectives of the Whampoa Archives?

The research project examines the topic of aging from the nexus of archiving, curating, intangible cultural heritage and digital media. The four objectives of the project are:

  1. To reframe institutional-based curating and archiving as a socially-oriented practice
  2. To forefront the importance of objects and ephemera in the self-representation of older persons and their corresponding cultural histories
  3. It creates a public awareness of community cultural heritage through the open-access digital archive it proposes
  4. It provides an intimate platform for intergenerational learning and remembering. 
 

How do I upload a picture of my object and memory?

 

We have designed a simple platform that guides the contributors through the process of uploading the object’s image and story.

 

What object should I contribute?

We welcome any object that holds a strong memory for you personally or your family. It can be an object for daily use or a gift from a loved one. For example, a Whampoa elder shared an old sewing machine that her mother used for sewing Chinese New Year clothes and for mending her school uniform. Another elder spoke of a watch that was given to her by her daughter when she received her first paycheck. 

 

Do I retain the copyrights of my object’s image and story?

The copyrights will remain with you. By participating in this project, you are also granting the Whampoa Archives team to use the contribution for non-commercial purposes.

 

How will my contribution be used?

As this is a research project with no commercial purpose, the contribution will

  1. Provide the resource to study how the existing collections of Whampoa residents can become a public legacy when shared collectively and examined beyond the context of Whampoa.
  2. Be shared through conference presentations, lectures and academic papers.
  3. As a resource for the teaching intangible cultural heritage.

 

How will I be acknowledged if the contribution is used?

Every contributor will be acknowledged by the last name, initial, age range and the general neighbourhood indicated in the contribution platform.

 

How will my privacy and confidentiality be protected?

All data collected will be kept in accordance with the National University of Singapore’s Research Data Management Policy. Research data used in any publication will be kept for a minimum of 10 years before being discarded. The website will only include an image of the object, the story, last name, initial, age range and location. Example, Mrs. Lim HL, 61-70 years old, Bedok. 

 

Whom should I call if I have any questions?

Please contact the Principal Investigator, Thomas Kong at akitkkh@nus.edu.sg.