Tongue Twister Road Names of Simei, the Four Beauties Revisited

Artist's impression of the four classical beauties

After I blogged about the toponymy of Simei here and here, a journalist from U Weekly emailed me about his work on the same topic. It is no coincidence that Jin and I are both males and interested in the four renowned beauties of ancient China who gave the estate its name. His work never came to fruition unfortunately and I lost the chance to read a more professional presentation on the topic. Thankfully Jin shared with me his research and tipped me on two most important piece of information.

The first is graphical evidence that the roads in Simei were indeed named after the four beauties in the beginning. I used to wonder whether this idea, smack of a little Chinese chauvinism, was quashed during the early stage when the estate was first mooted. It seems that the government did go ahead with the naming, with luckless result.

Title reads, "Simei Estate has four beauties; the four mistresses want roads named after them". My translation is crude though the original title is supposed to rhyme a bit. The four beauties are Xishi (西施), Guifei (贵妃), Zhaojun (昭君) and Diaochan (貂蝉).

Edit: I was wrong, the second stanza in the title should read, "4 main roads assume their names". Thanks to Victor who pointed it out. Dead women make no demands. I tripped over the amphiboly in the sentence.

Road named after the four beauties, can you spot them? Only Streets 1 to 4 are visible in the estate. 5 and 6 probably came later. Did they build exactly four roads to fit into the theme as well?

Present day Simei. If the 1986 pictorial strained your eyes, here are the answers to the previous question: St 1 - Xishi; St 2 - Diaochan; St 3 - Guifei; St 4 - Zhaojun. (Image credit: streetdirectory.com)

It is interesting to note how much of the land use today is in the original plan seen in the 1986 pictorial. The healthcare facilities are located on land set aside for industry (工业区). Tropical Spring and upcoming Double Bay Residences (TOP: 2015) lie on school plots. Melville Park and HDB blocks 155 - 165 are on land set aside for HUDC (HUDC 保留地).

The road names explain why the portraits were found in their respective places. The block under which a beauty portrait is found is located along the road originally named after the beauty. We are, however, not privy to why a particular road was named after a beauty. The longest road and the only one to connect Simei Ave. and Simei Road was "Guifei Road" (or just Guifei?). Imperial concubine Yang Yuhuan might be his favourite; Xishi, the epitome of Chinese beauty, a close second. The last has to be Diaochan who claimed the shortest road. In the Chinese classic "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", she was a seductress toy who caused the downfall of ministers and generals.

My pictorial guide on finding the four beauties in Simei. Not sure if the Town Council shifts the portraits around for good feng shui. Blogger Cindy Chua left a comment about yet another portrait, either Zhaojun or Guifei, at block 101. From the road heritage, she probably saw Guifei. Zhaojun's "turf" was at Street 4.

The scholar and/or his boss who approved the naming must be fluent speakers of mandarin. Unfortunately they did not represent the demographics of Simei residents. Perhaps they did but a sizeable minority had voiced their displeasure. Jin shared with me the 27 June 1987 article in The Straits Times:

Can you twist your tongue round these names without a slip? Xishi, Diaochan, Guifei and Zhaojun. Residents in Simei Estate have tripped so often over these road names, which are of four Chinese legendary beauties, that the Housing Board have renamed them.

Maybe one English-speaking minister twisted and tripped when he took a taxi to Simei, hah.

The problem is one of pronouncing Chinese pinyinised names. The beauties are not known by dialect names which most of our Chinese road names are based on but I'm sure a hokkien or cantonese reading of their names exist. Since the affair smacks of chauvinism and the girls are not part of our heritage (Peck San to Bishan comes to mind), they have to go. From the same Straits Times article:

The roads in this estate near Tampines new town are now simply known as Simei Streets 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. The change was made because people have difficulty in pronouncing the pinyinised names, said an official of the Housing Board. For the same reason, another road, Zhenghua Ring Road in Bukit Panjang Estate, is now called Bukit Panjang Ring Road.

The portraits are now heritage markers of Simei. Hung forlornly at void decks, they gaze at residents of all races, young and old alike, who are probably unaware that the street outside was once named after the lady in the portrait. If any of you have in your possession photos with the Simei road signs showing the old pinyinised name, do drop me a note!

One last thing. Jin drew my attention to a point highlighted in the 1 Feb 1986 article that Simei flats cannot exceed 11 floors due to its proximity to the airport. I checked with Google street view, indeed the flats are no higher than that. Even the condominiums seem to obey this rule. However the DBSS Parc Lumiere (TOP: 2011) are eight 12-storey blocks. Later I found out the first residential unit actually starts from 3rd storey, a great workaround.