Between life, death, and modernity at Bukit Brown Cemetery, Singapore

Since the Singapore government’s announcement of the partial clearance of Bukit Brown Chinese Municipal Cemetery in late 2011 for the construction of Lornie Highway, ground synergies have emerged, advocating for the preservation of this century-old cemetery based on the broad reasons of heritage, history, and habitat. Our chapter presents an interdisciplinary lens to understand how Bukit Brown emerged as a contested space. Using non-representational theory, we show how the politics of nature, heritage, and kinship are being produced in Bukit Brown. We also show that such politics are micropolitical, and it is through these micropolitics that the government’s narrative on space in Singapore is contested. Consequently, we suggest that despite land being scarce in the city-state of Singapore, Bukit Brown Cemetery might ironically be a space that is worth conserving due to its multiplicity of experiences - experiences which simultaneously move between life, death, and modernity.