Oct 14, 2026 · 16 min · 9 segments
The episode examines how Joo Chiat’s conservation and gentrification affect its buildings, communities, and living Peranakan culture. I sit down with Alvin Yapp, the "gatekeeper" of The Intan, a…
Alvin YappGuest
Kenn DelbridgeHost
There's a house on a quiet stretch of Joo Chiat where the front door leads not into a hallway, but into another century.
Beadwork the color of jewels, intricately patterned porcelain, and a man who calls himself, without irony, the gatekeeper.
For 40 years, Alvin Yip has been building something that doesn't quite have a name.
Not a museum, not a home, but a place where a vanishing culture still breathes because he refuses to let it stop.
I run a private museum called The Intan where I've been collecting Peranakan antiques for the last 40 years.
I'm the owner, I'm the founder, I am the gatekeeper, I am the cleaner of The Intan.
This is the first episode of my series on the story of Joo Chiat, but told through the people who keep it going.
On 23rd July 1993, the Urban Redevelopment Authority made Joo Chiat a conservation area.
Then, in February 2011, the National Heritage Board named Joo Chiat Singapore's first heritage town.
In 2023, the Heritage Board went further and made the neighborhood a heritage activation node, funding festivals, tours, and talks to start in 2024.
So, one agency decides which buildings stand, another backs the stories about why they matter.
Neither decides who lives inside or what they do there, which brings me to the question I put to Alvin directly.
There's a house on a quiet stretch of Joo Chiat where the front door leads not into a hallway, but into another century.
Beadwork the color of jewels, intricately patterned porcelain, and a man who calls himself, without irony, the gatekeeper.
For 40 years, Alvin Yip has been building something that doesn't quite have a name.
Not a museum, not a home, but a place where a vanishing culture still breathes because he refuses to let it stop.
I run a private museum called The Intan where I've been collecting Peranakan antiques for the last 40 years.
I'm the owner, I'm the founder, I am the gatekeeper, I am the cleaner of The Intan.
This is the first episode of my series on the story of Joo Chiat, but told through the people who keep it going.
On 23rd July 1993, the Urban Redevelopment Authority made Joo Chiat a conservation area.
Then, in February 2011, the National Heritage Board named Joo Chiat Singapore's first heritage town.
In 2023, the Heritage Board went further and made the neighborhood a heritage activation node, funding festivals, tours, and talks to start in 2024.
So, one agency decides which buildings stand, another backs the stories about why they matter.
Neither decides who lives inside or what they do there, which brings me to the question I put to Alvin directly.
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