Restored Shophouses on Mohamad Ali Lane, Singapore

George P. Landow, Professor of English and Art History, Brown University; Distinguished Visiting Professor, NUS, 1998-99

View of Chinatown's restored shophouses: Mohamad Ali Lane from the South Bridge Road end. [Photographs © George P. Landow and may be used without written permission for any educational purpose. Any commercial or other use requires prior written permisison from .]

Such squeaky clean, glistening appearances embody the improbable perfection characteristic of almost all such restorations throughout the world. How then does one preserve or restore older buildings in a modern urban setting characterized by new technologies of sanitation, transportation, and so on?