This is the story of the Majulah Singapura and its composer Zubir Said (1907-87), an immigrant who landed on the shores of Singapore in 1928. The difficult circumstances surrounding its composition and selection as anthem are unveiled, and complemented by a rich ontology of artefacts, interviews, media, photographs, personal and official letters.
But even as Zubir struggled to compose the Majulah, he held firm to a consciousness that it should be newly composed and not derived from a Malay song or folksong. In particular, he resisted the popular styles of the west that were the craze at that time as he wanted a patriotic anthem to stay true to an aesthetic style suitable for a nation of new immigrants for generations to come. Yet decades later, Zubir would face disappointment on hearing that some Singaporeans were prepared to abandon the Majulah despite the anthem having ‘served its loyalty to Singapore’ over the years.
To appreciate Zubir is to recognize how his ideals and values influenced his choices in life. Here is a true entrepreneur whose success did not depend on a school or a manual, but on ingenuity, grit, and innate intelligence. We leave you now to explore this collection and to join the dots in your personal (or what Zubir might call ‘long-crooked’) journey to discover the man behind the Majulah Singapura.
The collection of letters, photos, speeches, music scores and personal documents are selected from the Zubir Said Collection at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore. These digital materials are linked to related resources at the National Archives of Singapore, National Library of Singapore, news sites (Channel News Asia, The Straits Times, etc.), YouTube videos, and commentary from musicians and scholars.
The web of related information is represented in a Knowledge Graph that you can explore using two kinds of visualization screens: a text-based browse screen and a graph (network) visualization interface.