46-452: Haw Par Villa ( Chinese : 虎豹別墅 ; pinyin : Hǔ Bào Biéshù ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī : hó͘ pà pia̍t-sú ) is a theme park located along Pasir Panjang Road in Singapore . The park contains over 1,000 statues and 150 giant dioramas depicting scenes from Chinese Literature, folklore, legends, history, and statuary of key Chinese religions, Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism . During
92-414: A mortar and pestle ; being ground in a mill ; being crushed by boulders; being made to shed blood by climbing trees or mountains of knives; having sharp objects driven into their bodies; having hooks pierced into their bodies and being hung upside down; drowning in a pool of filthy blood; being left naked in the freezing cold; being set aflame or cast into infernos; being tied naked to a bronze cylinder with
138-588: A retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia. As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their simplified Chinese counterparts . Korean hanja , still used to
184-807: A 3,800 sqm Hell's Museum complex. While the park reopened in July 2021, the attraction reopened on 28 October. Other major attractions include dioramas of scenes from Journey to the West , Fengshen Bang , The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars , Legend of the White Snake , Romance of the Three Kingdoms ; statues of mythological figures such as the Laughing Buddha and Guanyin , and historical personages such as Jiang Ziya , Su Wu and Lin Zexu ;
230-509: A certain extent in South Korea , remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic. There has historically been a debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters . Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being ambiguities in simplified representations resulting from
276-497: A now-closed gelato cafe. There is also a chinese restaurant located on the west side of the complex, as well as the Asian Civilisation Museum which will open in 2025. The east section of the park has been closed for some time. These include a larger amphitheatre, a building, a small park, and an elevated prayer pavilion. In a 2014 study which reviewed 25 tourist guidebooks on Singapore, it was found that only
322-869: Is 産 (also the accepted form in Japan and Korea), while in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan the accepted form is 產 (also the accepted form in Vietnamese chữ Nôm ). The PRC tends to print material intended for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, versions of the People's Daily are printed in traditional characters, and both People's Daily and Xinhua have traditional character versions of their website available, using Big5 encoding. Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use traditional characters in order to communicate with consumers;
368-449: Is a purgatory that serves to punish and renew spirits in preparation for reincarnation . Many deities, whose names and purposes are the subject of conflicting accounts, are associated with Diyu. Some early Chinese societies speak of people going to Mount Tai , Jiuyuan, Jiuquan or Fengdu after death. At present, Fengdu and the temples on Mount Tai have been rebuilt into tourist attractions, incorporating artistic depictions of hell and
414-460: Is divided into ten courts, each overseen by a Yanwang. Souls pass from stage to stage at the decision of a different judge. The "Ten Courts of Yanluo" is also known as the Ten Courts of Yanwang ( 十殿阎王 ), Ten Lords of Minggong ( 冥宫十王 ), Ten Courts of Yan-jun ( 十殿阎君 ), Ten-Lords of Difu ( 地府十王 ), and Ten-Lords of Mingfu ( 冥府十王 ). The concept of the eighteen hells started in
460-557: Is free. The Hell's Museum requires an admission fee of SGD20 for adults and SGD10 for children. Between March 2006 and March 2012, the S$ 7.8 million Hua Song Museum, which focused on the Chinese diaspora, operated within the park. In 2014, artists Chun Kai Qun, Chun Kaifeng and Elizabeth Gan, under the curatorial platform Latent Spaces, staged four exhibitions in the theme park's unused spaces. Their first exhibition, Nameless Forms , featured
506-457: Is the Ten Courts of Hell, which features gruesome depictions of Hell in Chinese mythology and in Buddhism . This attraction used to be set inside a 60-metre-long trail of a Chinese dragon but the dragon has been demolished, so the attraction is now covered by grey stone walls. After closure for renovations in 2020, the attraction was upgraded to be fully air-conditioned and the centerpiece of
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#1732780544464552-473: Is typically depicted as a subterranean maze with various levels and chambers, to which souls are taken after death to atone for the sins they committed when they were alive. The exact number of levels in Diyu and their associated deities differ between Buddhist and Taoist interpretations. Some speak of three to four "courts"; others mention "Ten Courts of Hell", each of which is ruled by a judge (collectively known as
598-493: The Chinese Commercial News , World News , and United Daily News all use traditional characters, as do some Hong Kong–based magazines such as Yazhou Zhoukan . The Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified characters. DVDs are usually subtitled using traditional characters, influenced by media from Taiwan as well as by the two countries sharing the same DVD region , 3. With most having immigrated to
644-746: The Kensiu language . Diyu Diyu ( traditional Chinese : 地獄 ; simplified Chinese : 地狱 ; pinyin : dìyù ; lit. 'earth prison') is the realm of the dead or " hell " in Chinese mythology . It is loosely based on a combination of the Buddhist concept of Naraka , traditional Chinese beliefs about the afterlife , and a variety of popular expansions and reinterpretations of these two traditions. The concept parallels purgatory in certain Christian denomininations. Diyu
690-640: The Shanghainese -language character U+20C8E 𠲎 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-20C8E —a composition of 伐 with the ⼝ 'MOUTH' radical—used instead of the Standard Chinese 嗎 ; 吗 . Typefaces often use the initialism TC to signify the use of traditional Chinese characters, as well as SC for simplified Chinese characters . In addition, the Noto, Italy family of typefaces, for example, also provides separate fonts for
736-668: The Tang dynasty . The Buddhist text Sutra on Questions about Hell ( 問地獄經 ) mentioned 134 worlds of hell, but was simplified to the Eighteen Levels of Hell in the Sutra on the Eighteen Hells ( 十八泥犁經 ) for convenience. Some literature refers to eighteen types of hells or to eighteen hells for each type of punishment. Some religious or literature books say that wrongdoers who were not punished when they were alive are punished in
782-485: The 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac , and others. There are also monuments dedicated to the Aw brothers and their parents. In October 2021, the management of Haw Par Villa, Journeys Pte Ltd, launched Hell's Museum - a museum focused on death and the afterlife. Hell's Museum combines education and entertainment. It covers perspectives and insights on death and the afterlife across various religions, cultures, and civilisations –
828-456: The 1970s and 1980s, the park was a major local attraction; it is estimated that the park then welcomed at least 1 million annual visitors, and is considered as part of Singapore's cultural heritage. As of 2018, under the park's management firm, Journeys Pte Ltd, efforts to revitalise the park are ongoing with the holding of themed events and the planning and construction of ancillary museums. Burmese-Chinese brothers Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par ,
874-533: The International Theme Parks Pte Ltd, announced an investment of $ 30 million to modernise the themed park. This company was a joint venture formed by Fraser & Neave and Times Publishing, and had invested in the latest animatronics and technology to enhance the attractions in the hope to create an 'oriental Disneyland', a theme park meeting Western technology with Eastern mythology. In 1988, Singapore Tourism Board took charge of
920-555: The People's Republic of China, traditional Chinese characters are standardised according to the Table of Comparison between Standard, Traditional and Variant Chinese Characters . Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. There are differences between the accepted traditional forms in mainland China and elsewhere, for example the accepted traditional form of 产 in mainland China
966-501: The Ten Yama Kings); other Chinese legends speak of the "Eighteen Levels of Hell". Each court deals with a different aspect of atonement and different punishments; most legends claim that sinners are subjected to gruesome tortures until their "deaths", after which they are restored to their original state for the torture to be repeated. According to ideas from Taoism , Buddhism and traditional Chinese folk religion , Diyu
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#17327805444641012-478: The Tiger Balm Gardens and renamed it "Haw Par Villa Dragon World". The Haw Par in the park's name is based on the Aw brothers' personal names— Haw and Par , which mean "tiger" and "leopard" respectively. The dioramas and statues were restored, while plays, acrobatic displays, and puppet shows were organised and held there. The management imposed entrance fees but the high fees discouraged visitors, so
1058-532: The United States during the second half of the 19th century, Chinese Americans have long used traditional characters. When not providing both, US public notices and signs in Chinese are generally written in traditional characters, more often than in simplified characters. In the past, traditional Chinese was most often encoded on computers using the Big5 standard, which favored traditional characters. However,
1104-593: The afterlife. Some Chinese folk religion planchette writings , such as the Taiwanese novel Journeys to the Under-World , say that new hells with new punishments are created as the world changes and that there is a City of Innocent Deaths ( 枉死城 ) designed to house those who died with grievances that have yet to be redressed. Other terminology related to Diyu includes: The concept of the "Ten Courts of Yanluo " ( 十 殿 閻 羅 ) began after Chinese folk religion
1150-677: The authors of one book chose to cover the park in detail. The study noted low tourist interest on the Internet, and low tourist foot traffic at the park. The study's authors also corroborated online travel reviews that some of the statues were in disrepair, and the park is ill-posed to compete with Singapore's newer tourist attractions. Haw Par Villa is, the authors note, "a treasured past, although one in danger of fading away with newer generations of tourists". The Circle line station, Haw Par Villa MRT station , located next to it, opened on 8 October 2011 along with
1196-472: The developers of Tiger Balm , moved their business from Burma to Singapore in 1926. The site, which is in front of a small hill and faces the Singapore Strait , was deemed suitable based on considerations of feng shui , and was purchased in 1935. On the site, a Har Par Villa was being built for the next two years. The villa was designed by Ho Kwong Yew and was of Art Deco architecture . The villa
1242-502: The hells after death. Sinners feel pain and agony just like living humans when they are subjected to the tortures listed below. They cannot "die" from the torture because when the ordeal is over, their bodies will be restored to their original states for the torture to be repeated. The eighteen hells vary from narrative to narrative but some commonly mentioned tortures include: being steamed; being fried in oil cauldrons; being sawed into half; being run over by vehicles; being pounded in
1288-493: The inverse is equally true as well. In digital media, many cultural phenomena imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, such as music videos, karaoke videos, subtitled movies, and subtitled dramas, use traditional Chinese characters. In Hong Kong and Macau , traditional characters were retained during the colonial period, while the mainland adopted simplified characters. Simplified characters are contemporaneously used to accommodate immigrants and tourists, often from
1334-725: The mainland. The increasing use of simplified characters has led to concern among residents regarding protecting what they see as their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters. The use of simplified characters in government documents and educational settings is discouraged by the government of Taiwan. Nevertheless, with sufficient context simplified characters are likely to be successfully read by those used to traditional characters, especially given some previous exposure. Many simplified characters were previously variants that had long been in some use, with systematic stroke simplifications used in folk handwriting since antiquity. Traditional characters were recognized as
1380-682: The majority of Chinese text in mainland China are simplified characters , there is no legislation prohibiting the use of traditional Chinese characters, and often traditional Chinese characters remain in use for stylistic and commercial purposes, such as in shopfront displays and advertising. Traditional Chinese characters remain ubiquitous on buildings that predate the promulgation of the current simplification scheme, such as former government buildings, religious buildings, educational institutions, and historical monuments. Traditional Chinese characters continue to be used for ceremonial, cultural, scholarly/academic research, and artistic/decorative purposes. In
1426-548: The management incurred a loss of S$ 31.5 million over 10 years. The park management made a profit during its first year of operations after renovations in 1994, broke even in 1995, but started incurring losses over the next three years and was forced to provide free entries in 1998. In March 2001, the Singapore Tourism Board renamed it "Tiger Balm Gardens". The park is now open every day from 9 am to 10 pm (with last entry at 9:30 pm) and admission
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1472-983: The merging of previously distinct character forms. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets. Traditional characters are known by different names throughout the Chinese-speaking world. The government of Taiwan officially refers to traditional Chinese characters as 正體字 ; 正体字 ; zhèngtǐzì ; 'orthodox characters'. This term is also used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard characters, including both simplified, and traditional, from other variants and idiomatic characters . Users of traditional characters elsewhere, as well as those using simplified characters, call traditional characters 繁體字 ; 繁体字 ; fántǐzì ; 'complex characters', 老字 ; lǎozì ; 'old characters', or 全體字 ; 全体字 ; quántǐzì ; 'full characters' to distinguish them from simplified characters. Some argue that since traditional characters are often
1518-452: The middle of the 20th century, when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of the predominant forms. Simplified characters as codified by the People's Republic of China are predominantly used in mainland China , Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such is
1564-677: The official script in Singapore until 1969, when the government officially adopted Simplified characters. Traditional characters still are widely used in contexts such as in baby and corporation names, advertisements, decorations, official documents and in newspapers. The Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative in Southeast Asia regarding simplification. Although major public universities teach in simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications such as
1610-700: The original standard forms, they should not be called 'complex'. Conversely, there is a common objection to the description of traditional characters as 'standard', due to them not being used by a large population of Chinese speakers. Additionally, as the process of Chinese character creation often made many characters more elaborate over time, there is sometimes a hesitation to characterize them as 'traditional'. Some people refer to traditional characters as 'proper characters' ( 正字 ; zhèngzì or 正寫 ; zhèngxiě ) and to simplified characters as 簡筆字 ; 简笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'simplified-stroke characters' or 減筆字 ; 减笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'reduced-stroke characters', as
1656-405: The park was a popular recreational destination for Singaporean families. Many Singaporean adults, in a 1995 survey, reported memories of visiting the park as a child and learning about Chinese folk history and morality. In the 1980s, in a bid to restore Singapore's "oriental mystique", Singapore Tourism Board saw to the redevelopment of the park (along with Chinatown and Little India ). In 1986,
1702-408: The park, including one for turtle food at the turtle pond priced at S$ 1 per packet. Joss sticks are 10 cents each and can be found at many major statues. Buggies can be found near the turtle pond, but have not been in used for some time. An amphitheatre can be found further inside the park. Cafés at the Tiger Balm Gardens include The Sixth Milestone Cafe, located beside the turtle pond and Art Journey,
1748-651: The rest of Stage 5 of the Circle line. [REDACTED] Media related to Haw Par Villa at Wikimedia Commons Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are a standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages . In Taiwan , the set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the Standard Form of National Characters . These forms were predominant in written Chinese until
1794-437: The result of humanity's quest over 300,000 years to seek answers to the big questions in life, questions such as “Where did we come from?” “What happens to us when we die?” and “What is the purpose of our existence?” In August 2023, Hell's Museum and Haw Par Villa was awarded Tripadvisor's Travellers’ Choice Winner. The award is only awarded to the top 10% of Tripadvisor's attractions worldwide. There are multiple honesty boxes in
1840-636: The traditional character set used in Taiwan ( TC ) and the set used in Hong Kong ( HK ). Most Chinese-language webpages now use Unicode for their text. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends the use of the language tag zh-Hant to specify webpage content written with traditional characters. In the Japanese writing system , kyujitai are traditional forms, which were simplified to create shinjitai for standardized Japanese use following World War II. Kyūjitai are mostly congruent with
1886-985: The traditional characters in Chinese, save for minor stylistic variation. Characters that are not included in the jōyō kanji list are generally recommended to be printed in their traditional forms, with a few exceptions. Additionally, there are kokuji , which are kanji wholly created in Japan, rather than originally being borrowed from China. In the Korean writing system , hanja —replaced almost entirely by hangul in South Korea and totally replaced in North Korea —are mostly identical with their traditional counterparts, save minor stylistic variations. As with Japanese, there are autochthonous hanja, known as gukja . Traditional Chinese characters are also used by non-Chinese ethnic groups. The Maniq people living in Thailand and Malaysia use Chinese characters to write
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1932-518: The ubiquitous Unicode standard gives equal weight to simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and has become by far the most popular encoding for Chinese-language text. There are various input method editors (IMEs) available for the input of Chinese characters . Many characters, often dialectical variants, are encoded in Unicode but cannot be inputted using certain IMEs, with one example being
1978-587: The words for simplified and reduced are homophonous in Standard Chinese , both pronounced as jiǎn . The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty c. 200 BCE , with the sets of forms and norms more or less stable since the Southern and Northern dynasties period c. the 5th century . Although
2024-725: The works by the Chun twins, Darren Tesar, Sai Hua Kuan and collective Yunrubin, which respond to the place's defunct exhibition halls, idle pavilions and the materials that were left behind. In October 2020, Haw Par Villa was closed for renovations and reopened on 1 July 2021. It was originally to be reopened on 31 March 2021 but was delayed due to park operator, Journeys, needing more time to "further enhance its offerings". Haw Par Villa has been opened since 1 July 2023 after extension restoration works and has welcomed guests internationally ever since. The best-known attraction in Haw Par Villa
2070-547: Was bombed by the Japanese during the World War II , and was subsequently occupied by them. After the war ended, the villa was demolished. Between 1937 and his death in 1954 (when the garden was declared public property, and turned into a park), Boon Haw commissioned statues and dioramas in the garden that served to teach traditional Chinese values. In the 1950s and 1960s, before the advent of television and shopping malls,
2116-453: Was influenced by Buddhism. In this variation of Chinese mythology, there are 12,800 hells located under the earth – eight dark hells, eight cold hells and 84,000 miscellaneous hells located at the edge of the universe. All will go to Diyu after death but the period of time one spends in Diyu is not forever – it depends on the severity of the sins one committed. After receiving due punishment, one will eventually be sent for reincarnation . Diyu
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