Singapore's original crazy rich bedazzled their tombs with tiles: A race to save them as exhumation looms

SINGAPORE - In a country that manufactures nature by building air-conditioned forest domes and towering vertical gardens, the decommissioned Bukit Brown Cemetery remains an unlikely stretch of wild jungle surrounded by modern high-rises and multimillion-dollar single-family homes.

Its estimated 90,000 tombs are a link to Singapore's early Chinese pioneers, and plans by the government to build over that legacy have sparked a rare burst of grassroots activism in a city that is as sweltering as it is passive.

The fight to save the cemetery is not driven by protests and placards. Preservationists have instead organized online to arrange walking tours. Others have performed dances and plays at the cemetery, thought to be among the largest Chinese burial grounds outside China.

But garnering wider support in Singapore has been challenging. Many of the city's predominantly ethnic Chinese residents, discouraged by taboos about disturbing the dead, are wary of venturing into the cemetery if not for a burial