Singapore’s ‘butterfly man’ on his passion for these gentle creatures

KHEW Sin Khoon sometimes buys several cakes of belacan, a pungent, fermented paste of dried shrimps and salt. It’s for an unlikely purpose: to attract butterflies of certain species that he wishes to observe.

“I actually go to my provision shop and (they ask), why are you buying six cakes of belacan? I’m not cooking,” he says with a smile.

“We dilute (the belacan) in water and then spray it on the ground… The butterflies love it. They go for the salts; it’s a combination of the salts and the smell,” he says.