A Great Emporium
A Great Emporium stands beside the Singapore River, directly in front of the Asian Civilisations Museum. Malcolm Koh created this bronze work for Singapore’s riverfront. It belongs to the People of the River series and presents an early nineteenth-century trading scene. Three figures fill the busy composition: a European trader, a Chinese towkay and an Indian coolie. Their presence brings together traders and labourers from communities that shaped Singapore’s commercial life.
The European trader sits on spice bags, negotiating with his fingers across the deal. Nearby, the Chinese towkay calculates with an abacus. An Indian coolie in a turban and a Chinese coolie weigh goods with a daching, a traditional balance. Lighter craft once crowded the river while merchants kept offices and godowns along its banks. Cotton, spices and silk formed part of the early trade, later joined by rubber, tin and copra. The figures leave one precise image: a sack suspended from the daching as several communities work around it.
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