What Singapore?
Buskers along orchard road are "bad for Singapore's image", so says the Chairman of the Orchard Road Business Association, as reported in today's (okay now yesterday's) Straits Times. And if she had her way, she'd do away with them.
Well, what is this "image" that is being referred to here - that which depicts the culture of Singapore? Hardly, if you ask me. Probably just the facade that we want to showcase - something along the lines of, marketing/branding Orchard Road as the 5th Avenue of Singapore. In almost every single session of UMS3205C thus far, we'd inevitably launch into a discussion about this "culture" that is being marketed versus the authentic, vernacular culture adopted by our locals. I guess we've all come to a consensus, unsurprisingly, that there exists a gulf between the two - and a rather wide one at that.
What makes you and me true blue Singaporeans? Topnotch civic mindedness and hospitality akin to that of a 'land of thousand smiles'? C'mon, not even in a thousand years. What makes the sights and sounds in Singapore burst with local flavour? Cosmopolitan streets like Orchard Road where every passer by evokes an air like that of your average New Yorker? Hurhur, who are you trying to kid. Why is it that the authorities shun those endearing practices and elements that truly spell Singapore, and instead try so desperately to highlight what's, to us locals, so evidently manufactured and a departure of true Singaporean culture? So you think by tucking the buskers into the suburban areas (if there even are any to speak of in the first place), they will poof and disappear? Why, think again.
Well, what is this "image" that is being referred to here - that which depicts the culture of Singapore? Hardly, if you ask me. Probably just the facade that we want to showcase - something along the lines of, marketing/branding Orchard Road as the 5th Avenue of Singapore. In almost every single session of UMS3205C thus far, we'd inevitably launch into a discussion about this "culture" that is being marketed versus the authentic, vernacular culture adopted by our locals. I guess we've all come to a consensus, unsurprisingly, that there exists a gulf between the two - and a rather wide one at that.
What makes you and me true blue Singaporeans? Topnotch civic mindedness and hospitality akin to that of a 'land of thousand smiles'? C'mon, not even in a thousand years. What makes the sights and sounds in Singapore burst with local flavour? Cosmopolitan streets like Orchard Road where every passer by evokes an air like that of your average New Yorker? Hurhur, who are you trying to kid. Why is it that the authorities shun those endearing practices and elements that truly spell Singapore, and instead try so desperately to highlight what's, to us locals, so evidently manufactured and a departure of true Singaporean culture? So you think by tucking the buskers into the suburban areas (if there even are any to speak of in the first place), they will poof and disappear? Why, think again.
posted by kelly at
11:49 PM
1 Comments:
that was a really cool post! yeah. i always wondered what the heck authority was trying to do with orchard road. yeah. buskers are nice. NY has them too! haha. guess they just wanna see certain things and ignore others. oh well...
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