Light on the Lotus Hill

"Light on the Lotus Hill" is a research project by Chan CW to document an almost forgotten history of Singapore and World War Two.

2025 screening
22 Feb 2025 (sat)

The Projector at Golden Mile Tower, Blue Room
Address: 6001 Beach Road, #05-00, Singapore 199589

Tedx Singapore 2015

Background of Light on the Lotus Hill

After 5 years of research in Singapore, China, Malaysia, and UK, the book was published on 28 May 2009.

It documents the life of a Buddhist monk, Venerable Pu Liang, who supported China Relief Fund's fund raising activities in Nanyang, today's South East Asia.

The Venerable also offered temple grounds for the training of Nanyang Volunteers who later drove on the Burma Road.

After the fall of Singapore, the Venerable was executed by the Japanese during the Chinese massacre. During the research, a British POW's daughter helped provided vital evidence as her father, a British POW at Changi, witnessed the execution.

This research offers an alternative understand of World War Two and how Nanyang Chinese occupied multiple spaces of wars in China and Colonial Singapore.

These parallel worlds collapse into one dark reality as the Japanese invaded Singapore converging Sino Japanese War with World War Two.

Library collection

Since its publication, "Light on the Lotus Hill" has entered the collection of prominent University and public libraries around the world.

Light on the Lotus documentary awards

	Official Selection Lift-Off Filmmaker Sessions Hosted by @LiftOffGlobalNetwork Lift-Off Global Network UK 2023
	Official Selection Anti-War International Independent Film Festival Estonia 2023
	Gold Award, Short Documentary Category International Movie Awards, Indonesia 2014
	Award of Merit, Best New Comer World Film Awards, Indonesia 2014
	Third prize, Annie Dodds Award for the Best Documentary, Imperial War Museum (IWM) Film Festival UK, 2011

Previous screenings:

Feb 2025: Singapore
Dec 2024: New York Tea Society, USA
Apr 2023: Singapore
Oct 2016: Buddhist Fellowship Singapore
Nov 2015: Tedx Singapore, Walk the talk
Mar 2015: National Museum of Singapore
Feb 2015: Buddhism in Australia conference, Australia
Oct 2014: International Movie Awards, Indonesia
May 2014: The American Online Film Awards
July 2013: All Things Bukit Brown, Singapore
Mar 2013: Friends of the Museum, Singapore
Nov 2012: Royal Anthropological Institute, London, UK
Dec 2011: Imperial War Museum, London, UK
Dec 2011: Singapore premier to audience of 1000

The author, Chan Chow Wah, can be contacted at:
ccw@alumni.lse.ac.uk

Venerable Pu Liang


Burma Road, 滇缅公路

Nanyang Volunteers in service

Imperial War Museum, London

Ee Hoe Hean Club 怡和轩俱乐部
HQ of China Relief Fund

Shuang Lin Monastery circa 1905

Changi beach one of the Sook Ching execution site
Penang Monument to war dead and Nanyang Volunteers