Outcry over mural of samsui woman with cigarette - URA requests delay in changes as it reviews stance

Many say the URA's initial order to erase cigarette amounts to historical revisionism

- Shawn Hoo

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has asked the artist behind a controversial mural of a cigarette-holding samsui woman to delay any changes to his work while the authority reviews its stance on amending the mural.

On June 21, The Straits Times reported on an online outcry over the URA's order to erase a smoking cigarette from the mural, located at 297 South Bridge Road, opposite Maxwell MRT station. The URA also cited an anonymous complainant who compared the depicted woman to a "prostitute" and called the mural "offensive".

Singapore-based American artist Sean Dunston was scrambling to modify his work as the URA issued a July 3 deadline for a new proposal, and cited the potential loss of the temporary permit of the business operating there, Ya Kun Kaya Toast, which expires on July 27.

On Instagram, Dunston had then suggested drawing over the cigarette with a kitten, a taco or an opium pipe.

But the URA has temporarily asked for the mural of the smoking samsui woman - which was defended on a Reddit thread citing archival sources as being historically accurate to stay on the walls of the historic area where the pioneering migrant labourers once lived.