This Singapore primary school Chinese textbook features Singapore’s iconic Merlion statue on the cover. The Merlion statue was installed at the mouth of the Singapore River in 1972. The Merlion was first used as the logo for the Singapore Tourism Tourist Promotion Board in 1964 and has since been widely used to represent Singapore.World Book Company produced two sets of Primary Chinese in 1975 and 1976, in accordance with the syllabus set forth by the Ministry of Education. This particular series published in 1976 was also compatible with the new hanyu pinyin curriculum. World Book Company (the fore-runner of Popular Holdings) was also pivotal in the textbook publishing industry in Singapore. Founded in 1934, World Book Company started as a book distributor and publisher and their first retail bookstore on North Bridge Road. After World War II and the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the company incorporated the World Publishing Company in Hong Kong to publish Chinese language books for the Asian market as the supply from China was cut off. In 1952, publishing houses were set up in Singapore and Malaysia to publish Chinese language textbooks.
