Lee Choon Yung, the owner of the plot of land that was occupied by a Chinese cemetery in the 1920s, transformed the site to an amusement park in the 1930s. Mainly patronised by British servicemen and the upper classes in those early days, the park offered free screenings of films, performances of the Peking Opera and wrestling and boxing matches. Soon after the park was sold to the Shaw Brothers in 1941, WWII came to Singapore and the park was used as a prison for Australian POWS and as a gambling den during the Japanese Occupation. With the end of the Occupation, cultural shows were revived and the park was very well attended. However, the boom period ended with the emergence of television in the 1960s. The site is now occupied by the Great World City Shopping Centre.
