Tuesday Reports - The Towkays 星洲头家

A century ago, when Singapore was still a British colony thriving with trade, many towkays of Chinese origin made their mark on society. Their names later became familiar to future generations as landmarks like Eu Tong Sen Street, Boon Keng Road and Nee Soon Village. This series will bring you through time, and reacquaint you with the characters behind these names. Eu Tong Sen, Lim Boon Keng and Lim Nee Soon represent the towkays of Cantonese, Hokkien and Teochew dialect groups. Their stories and journey are uniquely Nanyang and Singaporean. Apart from being brilliant entrepreneurs, their care for the community, passion for change and philanthropy displayed a vision beyond their time. As part of MediaCorp’s TV50 celebrations and Channel 8’s release of drama trilogy “The Journey” about the nation-building years, the Chinese Current Affairs division has produced this 6-episode documentary about the trade luminaries of pre-war Singapore. Through dramatic re-enactments, recounts from family members and analyses from historians, these 3 stories of the past will be made more relevant to the TV viewers of today.

Host: Zhao Wen Bei

Episodes: 6 x 30 mins

Languages: Chinese

Production year: 2013