To Bead or Not to Bead: an Interview with Robert Sng
With the skills he picked up while flying around the world as an air steward, he turned his hobby into a retirement job at The Little Shophouse.
His fingers plucked away at the canvas stretched over a wooden frame as colourful tiny beads are sewn firmly onto the contrasting piece of white fabric.
In the dim light, he leaned over a small desk in his newly opened shop, eyes fixed on the tiny beads before him, as The Sewing Room prepares the setup for filming. His fingers moved gracefully with every up and down motion while sewing the beads onto the piece of canvas. Without tearing his focus away from his intricate work, he called out, “You can finish within two hours, right?”
Time – a passing resource mostly lost and taken for granted by anyone. For Robert Sng, a powerful necessity for the hobby he practices daily. The art of beadwork is for those who are tedious, meticulous and especially the most patient; a virtue a young Nyonya girl was expected to showcase through her beaded craft in the past. A girl must be adept in her cooking and beading, as her proficient skills would promise the interested groom a good marriage.
As a 10-year-old boy, Robert did not have to be the one on the beading end. He only recalls seeing people in his neighbourhood making beaded slippers, also known as kasut manek. This footwear served as a statement accessory to embellish the Nyonya kebaya outfit which would otherwise have been incomplete.
Robert’s own beading experience only started 32 years later, as an air steward flying with Singapore Airlines. A decade before his retirement, Robert said it was “by coincidence” that he developed an interest in beading and was in search for beads all over the world while continuing to work in the airline company.
The racks of beaded shoes on display at The Little Shophouse.
“I (found) out a bit more, the technique, what to do, then I practiced for ten years and put it into business,” he recounts.
“I’ve turned my hobby into a retirement job.”
This decision led him to take over a shophouse that he was already tendering for on Bussorah Street and he opened The Little Shophouse in 2003. The location in a busy tourist spot helped Robert turn it into a retail shophouse, where he sells his beaded craft and porcelain souvenirs to the many tourists who visit.
The tourists walk away with valuable collectibles and a newfound knowledge about the Peranakan culture, as Robert shares his passion for beading during the visits and the one-on-one beading workshops that he conducts.
“Actually, foreign tourists love the shophouse because it’s very unique to have a vanishing trade to be run in the shophouse,” he mentions.
“It’s just like doing a show and there’s a stage; the shophouse is a stage for me.”
On the third level of The Golden Landmark, The Little Shophouse now stands.
Today, The Little Shophouse has relocated to the third level of The Golden Landmark on Victoria Street. Although Robert’s love for beading has driven him to start his own business, it is not a lucrative one.
“By doing vanishing trade, (it) does not really make enough to cover the reality of running a shophouse,” he admits.
Robert insists that more can be done to push the awareness of the vanishing trade to the tourists, in order to keep the dying craftsmanship alive.
“Make up some pamphlets for tourists to go around and visit. Giving (places) a little name tag in front of the shop saying, ‘A Vanishing Trade Shop; Must See’ or something like that,” he elaborates.
He emphasizes that “if the people with influence want to have these things alive, they need to come in quick, not when people like us pack and go.”
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Robert believes these rare trades help promote a part of Singapore’s unique culture. But as he struggles with the reality of running a shop, he has told himself that he “would continue to do this hobby, but (the shop) will totally stop here.”
His love for the craft has given him a retirement plan he enjoys doing. It may not be lucrative, but it definitely is a commendable effort that reflects the craft’s true quality of resilience.
Watch Robert Sng as he talks more about The Little Shophouse here.