| Bust of a Chinese Gentleman | |
|---|---|
 The bust at the Porty City exhibit of the National Museum of Singapore | |
| Artist | William George Stirling |
| Year | 1939 |
| Medium | Bronze |
| Subject | None (Stirling's idea of a prosperous Chinese merchant) |
| Location | National Museum of Singapore |
Bust of a Chinese Gentleman is a bronze bust of a Chinese man sculpted and donated to the National Museum of Singapore by William George Stirling in 1939.
The first mention of the bust was in May 1937 in an interview by The Sunday Times with former-assistant protectorate of the Chinese in Singapore William George Stirling on his recent hobby of sculpting. It was reported that upon arriving to Stirling's flat, the interviewer found him "hard at work on a model of a Chinese merchant", with Stirling proclaiming that he will name the sculpture "A Chinese towkay" as a tribute to those who "[brought] development and prosperity to Malaya" with their "zeal, energy, endurance, and patience". [1]
It was donated to the Raffles Museum (now known as the National Museum of Singapore) along with two other sculptures in January 1939 by Stirling through the Friends of Singapore. [2] The bust was initially placed in the lawn in front of the museum on 2 August of the same year. [3] It was reported that visitors to the museum would be "baffled" by the sculpture due to its ambiguous nature, thinking that the subject is British colonial official Stamford Raffles despite Raffles' Bust being "about 60 yards (55 m) behind [it]". [4] [a] In June 1985, the bust was removed from its spot and put into storage as a circle to demarcate the position of a time capsule [b] would not be aesthetically pleasing if it was next to the sculpture. [5] Despite the sculpture not being noticed by most visitors, its removal caused some minor uproar from museum-goers. One month later, the museum decided to relocate the bust to a driveway 30 metres (33 yd) away from the original site via a crane attached to a lorry. [c] [6] In 2003, the bust was put into storage whilst the museum underwent renovations. Upon finding out, clan leader Kua Bak Lim proposed that that the Singapore Federation of Chinese Clans Associations borrow the bust and display it at their Toa Payoh headquarters, which did not materialise. Ten years later, it was decided to put the bust later in the Port City section of the Singapore History Gallery exhibit as it was deemed to be a "historical artefact". [7]
Bust of a Chinese Gentleman is a bronze bust of a bearded Chinese man on a pedestal. The pedestal has an inscription in gold-painted Chinese characters, with an English translation at the back reading:
Given to Singapore in 1939 by the artist, W. G. Stirling, as a tribute to the people who have done so much by their great patience, endurance, and fortitude to bring the Straits Settlements and Malaya to their present state of prosperity [8]
The bust itself also has an inscription that reads:
William Stirling, Singapore, 1901-1932 [8]
According to records from the Raffles Museum, it appeared that the sculpture is a copy. The bust did not depict any particular person, as it was Stirling's idea of a typical prosperous Chinese merchant. [9]
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