Esplanade Presents | The Studios Walking Tour: Memory Palace – The Worlds & Words of Bukit Larangan By Ng Yi-Sheng

This walk—conducted by two-time Singapore Literature Prize winner Ng Yi-Sheng—will explore the lasting cultural legacy of precolonial Singapore. Visiting multiple sites in the vicinity of Fort Canning Hill, Yi-Sheng will reveal how the 14th-century kingdom lives on in the form of folk memories, rituals, monuments, theatre, and fictions. Inspired by the research behind his mythic historical novel, Utama, which re-imagines the rise of Sang Nila Utama, Yi-Sheng ponders the contradictory stories around the lineage of the legendary founder of the island of Temasek, and the clash of empires in that era which shaped the Malay Archipelago we know today. Historical fact is layered with myth and re-invention, and spiced up with imagination. Amongst other locations, the walk will take you to the National Archives, the Sang Nila Utama Garden, the Keramat Iskandar Shah, and the Archaeological Dig Exhibition. At each stop, Yi-Sheng will share personal memories and titbits of Singaporean cultural history, while also inviting you to share your own recollections. This is a companion programme to Fragments of Tuah (24 – 26 Jul 2026) at Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay. The Studios companion programmes are an invitation to deepen engagement with the artistic works and conversations raised in the season.