The Hunt for the Red Lion
Eric Ng Yuen (Class of 1979) is a lawyer, as well as a published author (under the pen name ‘Jonathan Lee’). As part of SG50, he has produced a short documentary film “Hunt for the Red Lion”, on the lion that Sang Nila Utama saw.
Eric shares with us his inspiration behind this film. His son, also an NJCian from 2009 to 2014, triggered his curiosity on the legend of Singapura when he returned home with a piece of homework containing two contrasting accounts.
Sang Nila Utama a Palembang prince sailing from Batam to go hunting in Singapore, spied a lion and named this island Singapura.
Parameswara a Palembang prince fled from Batam to Singapore, was welcome by a Prince Temagi (from Pattani), but within 7 days, Parameswara killed Temagi.
ERIC:
I had read about (1) from my secondary school days. But I had not read about (2). So my interest was piqued. I started looking up accounts of Parameswara and Temagi on the internet and even attended a talk on 14th century Singapura given by NUS Prof Kwa Chong Guan.
What I found was an amazing treasure trove of fantastical legends, conflicting facts and ideas, and the realisation that what most of us know about Singapore's early history was wrong. Most of our mistaken notions arose from the scarcity of historical records. But some of the errors seem to have arisen from embellishment of the truth. So, it was an exciting endeavour to try to piece together the real events from a many sources.
I visited Palembang, Ayutthaya, Trowulan, and even Malacca. These were the ancient capitals of the various kingdoms that flourished around the time of Temasek. After many years of research, I came up with my own version of history. You may think it is strange -- when I am not a historian, yet I came away with my own version of history. But in a sense, all of us have to decide for ourselves -- what was our history and what was the historical truth?
Part of it is presented in a novel written by me. The novel is a fiction about a Chinese Princess coming (no, more like fleeing) to Temasek and how she rose to power in Temasek. But the events that she encounters in Temasek are all there in the legends. So it's like an account of Singapore legends seen through this fictitious princess's eyes.
When it came to SG50, I wanted very much to tell Singaporeans what a glorious history Singapore had. And the most compelling part of that history is the lion that Sang Nila Utama allegedly saw. The result was the film called “Hunt for the Red Lion”.
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