The last umbilical enclave between Singapore and Malaysia: Tanjong Pagar Station and Railway

When I was preparing for this weekend's small gathering, I accidentally found a video on YouTube. The content is that the last train of the Malaysian National Railway in June 2011 departed from Singapore's Tanjong Pagar Railway Station (Tanjong Pagar Railway Station).

Few people today know that there used to be a train station in downtown Singapore.

What is less known is that Tanjong Pagar Station and the railways in Singapore were not only the property of Malaysia National Railways, but even sovereignly belonged to the territory of Malaysia, so it was an uncompromising strip enclave.

However, this strange enclave state finally ended in 2011: after the train in the film left, the Malaysian government officially returned the railway and the land under the station to the Singapore government.

As a result, this station is actually one of the many regrets in my life: I was still in the army when the last train left, so I had to be in the military camp in Matsu (another ROC enclave, ha!) , watching the Malaysian enclave in Singapore disappear across the sea.

Immediately after I was discharged from the army in September 2011, I made a trip to Singapore to pay tribute to this station.

Although the station has been closed, I can still clearly feel that the outdated equipment and atmosphere inside the station and the orderly and modern Singapore city street outside are like two worlds - no, it should be said, like Two countries: Malaysia and Singapore.

In the film, there are many people crowding the station to say goodbye to the train, and some people may be reluctant to give up, but from what I hear, those who say goodbye seem more like cheering-because in a sense, after the train leaves, , Singapore is truly independent from the Federation of Malaysia.

Later, after watching the film "Seven Letters" commemorating the 50th anniversary of the founding of Singapore, I learned about the history of the railway linking the Malay Peninsula and Singapore, as well as Tanjung Pagar, a station that "belongs to Malaysia", in Singapore. is indeed a very important metaphor.

"Seven Letters" is made up of seven short films - one of which is "Separation", which uses Tanjong Pagar Station as an important scene: an elderly Malay man who runs to Singapore to find his first love of Chinese descent , but found that his first love was no longer in Singapore, so he went to the Tanjong Pagar station, only to find that the station had been closed, and it became a scene for the crew to film.

This kind of plot that sets a Malay man and a Chinese woman as their first love, and then breaks up, but cannot forget it, it is easy to reminisce the history of Malaysia and Singapore once united for a short time, and then separated after a long time; Tanjong Pagar As Malaysia's "last piece of territory" in Singapore, the station is probably the most appropriate footnote to this history.

In fact, at least four of the seven short films in "Seven Letters" deal with the historical legacy of Singapore and Malaysia - such as adopting a daughter living in Singapore, returning to Malaysia to find her biological parents, such as Singaporean families returning to Malaysia to visit graves, and For example, and the Singaporean child who often goes to the neighbor's Malay mother-in-law.

The connotations of these plots and characters are actually quite straightforward: Malaysia is a topic that Singaporeans cannot avoid when they celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the country and look back on the past.

What's even more amazing is that there are actually three short films in "Seven Letters", all of which have appeared on the railway that has been demolished (aka the enclave that has disappeared). , "Coincidentally", or should we say that this railway is really of great significance to Singaporeans?

PS Finally, I still have to advertise. Tomorrow (7/30) at 8:00 pm, He Xinjie, the editor-in-chief of the Taiwan group of Duan Media, will hold an online party . I want to take everyone to visit the "enclave" around the world. This Tanjung Pagar station in Singapore, welcome everyone to come and watch!