Ang Chin Moh Funeral Directors and Ang Chin Moh Foundation Joins My Community for the 2024 My Community Festival

Together with Ang Chin Moh Funeral Directors, Ang Chin Moh Foundation join in the My Community Festival 2024, themed “My Last Journey”. It starts on November 1 till November 17 at various locations.

With a rich history spanning 112 years, Ang Chin Moh Funeral Directors is devoted to delivering caring, compassionate and dignified funeral services that respect Singapore’s diverse cultural traditions. Complementing this commitment, Ang Chin Moh Foundation strives to enhance public understanding of end-of-life issues and advocate for the cultural heritage of funeral practices through education and outreach initiatives.

My Community is a non-profit organisation focused on fostering connections and cultural appreciation in Singapore. This year, the My Community Festival invites participants to explore vital themes surrounding life and death. The festival’s theme, “My Last Journey,” encourages attendees to engage with various cultural practices related to end-of-life rituals.

Our collaboration with My Community is particularly complementary, as both organizations share a commitment to enhancing public understanding of the importance of cultural practices in funeral services. Through our participation, we aim to create a bridge between the community and the cultural significance of these practices.

In support of the festival’s mission, Ang Chin Moh Funeral Directors and Ang Chin Moh Foundation will present two special programs aimed at educating the public on the evolving landscape of funeral services: “How Have Our Funerals Changed Over the Years?” on 9 November, at Kreta Ayer Square, and “Wind Beneath My Wings – My Funeral Director Ang Ziqian from Ang Chin Moh Funeral Directors” on 10 November, at our Toa Payoh funeral home.

Additionally, attendees can immerse themselves in the rich history of Chinatown and Sago Lane at My Chinatown Festival Village, featuring exhibits, performances, and storytelling that highlight its unique traditions. To honour Chinatown’s cultural heritage, we will also host a special exhibition titled “Navigating Piety: Customs and Practices for the Afterlife” from 2 to 10 November, at Kreta Ayer Square.

Ang Ziqian, Managing Director of Ang Chin Moh Funeral Directors and Founder of Ang Chin Moh Foundation, emphasizes, “Death is an end to the physical form of life. But it is not an end to the relationship with our dearly departed.” He adds, “Recognising death can encourage us to plan ahead of time, helping our loved ones to live well, and grieve well.”

Through our involvement in the My Community Festival, we aim to inspire meaningful conversations about life, death, and the cultural practices that shape our understanding of these experiences. Our goal for this year’s festival is to enhance public awareness of the significance of cultural practices in funeral services and to foster open dialogue about the journey we all share.

We invite the public to engage with us in this enriching festival, as we believe that together, we can deepen our collective appreciation for life and legacy.

In 2019, Ang Chin Moh Foundation and the Lien Foundation jointly commissioned the Design Innovation team from Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) to carry out the HappyUrns project.

This meaningful project aims to encourage conversations about end-of-life matters by using urns as the main theme of the project. As part of the HappyUrns project, customised urns were designed for seven elderly residents from St Joseph’s Home. Each urn was designed to encapsulate the personalities and life stories of each resident, thereby celebrating each of their lives. The urns were slated for completion within six months, but the project was delayed five times because of the pandemic. The urns were finally completed in 2021 and were given to the residents on Dec 6 last year.

The HappyUrns team also created the Celebration Kit and Life in a Year Book, which are print resources that help users begin conversations about end-of-life matters with the loved ones.

This month, HappyUrns is launching an international competition titled “Reinterpreting The Urn: A Symbol of Celebration”. HappyUrns welcomes participants from all walks of life to join this competition and design urns which reflect the celebration of life and introduce a novel and creative way of discussing the topic of death with loved ones.

Read more about the HappyUrns project and view the stories of the seven residents and their urns here:
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Ang Chin Moh Foundation also focuses on more direct and impactful outreaches to increase the death literacy rates of tertiary students. At the invitation of the University Scholars Programme (USP), National University of Singapore (NUS), Ang Chin Moh Foundation was invited to speak about death management and the funeral profession in Singapore under their flagship programme on 7 March 2017. Titled The Sessions, it is a platform for USP students to host discussions with distinguished speakers, exchange ideas and opinions on contemporary issues. Some of the speakers that had previously graced this programme include former Foreign Minister of Singapore, Mr George Yeo, Minister for Environment and Water Resources, Mr Masagoes Zulkifli, Nominated Member of Parliament, Mr Azmoon Ahmad, Constitutional law specialist, Dr Kevin Tan, and Dr. Gilian Koh, Deputy Director, Institute of Policy Studies. Indeed, it was certainly a recognition of the expertise and ideas that Ang Chin Moh Foundation offers in death and funerary studies that it was able to bring its public educational message to the next generation of Singaporeans.

Ang Chin Moh Foundation was also invited as a “human library” speaker for a two-day photo exhibition, Bidadari and Beyond: A Photo Exhibition, hosted by photojournalism students from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) held on the first weekend of April 2017 at the National Library. This photo exhibition explores the Bidadari neighbourhood’s journey as it transits from a quiet neighbourhood into a bustling residential hub and as Bidadari was once the site of the largest Jewish cemetery in Singapore, Ang Chin Moh Foundation was invited to share our perspectives on the evolving relationship between the living and the dead in Singapore with attendees of the exhibition and members of the public.

The Last Cradle was the outcome of an experiential collaboration between Low Joo Tat, a graduate from the Division of Industrial Design, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore and Ang Chin Moh Foundation. Joo Tat came up with an idea to improve the manner in which the dead will be transported from one point to another and after a short working internship with Ang Chin Moh Group and with the facilitation of Ang Chin Moh Foundation, devised a set of tools that helps the funeral profession humanize the procedure of transporting the recently departed. The Last Cradle consists of a carrier that facilitates easier and gentler carrying, and a mortuary stretcher cover that gracefully secures and envelops the departed into a cocoon-like vessel. Through affording gentler and more caring gestures, the Last Cradle transforms the now clinical procedure into a warm and aesthetic ritual that is more meaningful for both the bereaved and the funeral staff.

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Pantang: Perspectives and Realities of Mortality was an interactive and experiential exhibition that attempts to discuss the significance of death and remembrance of identity to different individuals through a multidimensional “living funeral” during the 2017 School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Graduation Show, held over a three weeks period in May 2017. It all started when Ngian Xuan Rong, a year 4 student approached Ang Chin Moh Foundation with her idea proposal. Finding it meaningful and innovative and after a series of ideation and consultation, Ang Chin Moh Foundation proceeded to support her proposal.

Through the play of perspectives and stimulation of different realities of mortality, this exhibition opens a discourse around cultural practices, remembrance and respect of our individuality; for who we are is intrinsically tied to our own life and death. Through the exhibition, the taboo of death is being deconstructed and viewers will be led to confront their identity as they explore the different dimensions of life and death. This exhibition hopes to promote death literacy through stimulating experiential spaces and images revolving around the idea of death in Singapore. Over the course of three weeks, this exhibition was opened to not only students from the School of Art, Design and Media, their families and friends but also members of the public.

A group of women in the United States are advocating for the adoption and acceptance of home funerals, to encourage greater participation by families to partake in the funeral process. For the many in our midst who have grown accustomed to thinking about the dead in a detached and clinical way, home funerals pave the way for our care for our loved ones to continue after their death.

The New Republic, “Who owns the dead”, 25 June 2015.

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Dozens of coffin clubs are emerging in New Zealand, where elderly can get together and build their own coffins for their eventual passing. Through this little pastime, elderly make new friends and such an activity is cost-savings and helps to combat loneliness. This ever-growing community now totals about 160 members in New Zealand, celebrating their lives as they are fully cognizant of their death.

National Geographic, “Kiwi Coffin Club Throws Glitter on the Idea of Dying”, 19 October 2017.

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Taking photographs of your loved ones after their death is a common practice in Victorian Britain, as a memento mori. Most of these postmortem pictures show parents cradling their children, or wives alongside their deceased husbands. Postmortem photographs thus form a funerary ritual. To facilitate the coming to terms of a death and externalize the process of loss and grief.

Al Jazeera, “What death means to me”, August to October 2017.

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From body collectors, to death at the dinner table. From the lonely death cleaner to the man who befriends terminally ill Muslims in London. From the coffin makers of Kabul to the art of the obituary, meet the people from all over the world with personal stories to share about dying, death and bereavement. These are stories that will start you thinking about our mortality and the intimate relationship death shares with life and the living.

Al Jazeera, “What death means to me”, August to October 2017.

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Mexico’s initiative to expand greater awareness of Mexico’s most prominent death festival, The Day of the Dead exemplified through Pixar’s latest animation film, Coco. This is an attempt to celebrate and remember Mexico’s death traditions, while reconnecting this most meaningful of festivals with the younger generation. The film tackles a controversial subject for children without making it morbid. In the midst of celebrating death, we celebrate and appreciate life, for all that it has and will throw at us.

Forbes, “Pixar’s ‘Coco’ Celebrates Mexico’s Day of the Dead Culture”, 27 November 2017.

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