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Lai Chun Yuen Opera House

AC with 0 elementsBuildings and structures in SingaporeCantonese operaChinese opera theatresOpera houses in Singapore
Theatres completed in 1887
Junction of Smith Street and Trengganu Street 2, Dec 05
Junction of Smith Street and Trengganu Street 2, Dec 05

Lai Chun Yuen Opera House was a Cantonese opera house was built in 1887 and located on Smith Street, Chinatown, Singapore. It was owned by Lin Dingxing and subsequently, Loh Ghim. Chinese opera performances have religious significance for the Chinese as they believe it entertains the gods and spirits.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Lai Chun Yuen Opera House (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Lai Chun Yuen Opera House
Trengganu Street, Singapore Outram

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Wikipedia: Lai Chun Yuen Opera HouseContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 1.2826 ° E 103.8442 °
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Address

Trengganu Street 25
058476 Singapore, Outram
Singapore
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Junction of Smith Street and Trengganu Street 2, Dec 05
Junction of Smith Street and Trengganu Street 2, Dec 05
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Nearby Places

Smith Street, Singapore
Smith Street, Singapore

Smith Street (Chinese: 史密斯街 shǐ mì sī jiē) is a small street running through the heart of the Chinatown district in Singapore. The only road in the area to be named after a European, it commemorates the hugely popular Sir Cecil Clementi Smith, then Governor of the Straits Settlements and High Commissioner in 1887 to 1893, who was a Chinese scholar and responsible for most of the work to combat the problems of secret societies. As is common for roads with English names, it has an informal Chinese name, hei yuen kai, meaning Theatre Street in reference to the Lai Chun Yuen Theatre then located at unit 36 and the centre of entertainment in the Kreta Ayer area. The theatre existed sometime in the 1880s and staged Cantonese operas until 1927. With the advent of cinemas, the theatre was converted into a cinema theatre, Sun Seng Cinema, just before World War II, when it was damaged in a bomb attack in 1942. Its red-light reputation contributed character to the street, which was also known for hawker stalls crowding into the street during its heyday reputation as the main "Food Street". There are attempts to recreate the ambiance today by closing parts of the road and turning it into an outdoor eating area. A local joke has it that the road got its English name when the British asked Chinese locals the name of the road, they given clueless answers "Si mi?" (Hokkien for What?) as they could not understand English. Thus they duly recorded the name as "Smith" instead.

Chinatown MRT station
Chinatown MRT station

Chinatown MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) interchange station on the North East (NEL) and Downtown (DTL) lines in Outram, Singapore. It serves the ethnic enclave of Chinatown. Situated at the junction of Eu Tong Sen Street, New Bridge Road and Upper Cross Street, the station is near several landmarks, including the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, Masjid Jamae (Chulia), Chinatown Point and People's Park Complex. First announced as People's Park MRT station in March 1996, the NEL station was one of the most challenging projects undertaken during that line's construction. It involved multiple diversions of the main roads and the Eu Tong Sen Canal, in addition to the preservation of the Garden Bridge. The NEL station was completed on 20 June 2003. In March 2007, it was announced that the NEL will interchange with the DTL at this station. The DTL platforms of the station opened on 22 December 2013 as part of Stage 1 of the line. Each of the six entrances has glass structures, with the Pagoda Street entrance having a pavilion-style transparent roof structure and the DTL entrance having an elliptical shape. The station features two artworks as part of the MRT network's Art-in-Transit programme. The NEL concourse and platforms feature calligraphy as part of The Phoenix's-Eye Domain by Tan Swie Hian, while the DTL concourse walls feature artworks of clothes lines as part of Flying Colours by Cheo Chai Hiang.