We don’t often think of Singapore as being stratigraphic. That is, layered with history. Different times, or horizons, or universes, worlds, regimes (the right word not yet sure) butting up against each other. But walking here shows it very evidently the case.

Photograph: Jack Greatrex, the Shell petrol station with the dome and spire of the Sakya Muni Buddha Gaya Temple poking upward from behind, April 2026.

Streetscene along North Bridge Road: shophouses, HDB blocks, and the glass tower of Hotel Boss behind, with the Teochew character for porridge 糜 (cf. 粥 in the foreground). Jack Greatrex, September 2026.
Recent reading: Haila on Singapore as a property-state; Helen Siu’s classic work on Cantonese lineage-formation.
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