Am back. Only because I forgot the password to my moblog blog.
In any case, this is just to pen down immediate thoughts so I don’t lose it.
I heard from expats on Newsradio 938 that the first thing they think about as an icon in Singapore is the durian. Next is the Merlion. The expats find Singapore as a nation of the future, unlike UK which is deeply rooted in the past. ALL THESE ARE SO TELLING.
We have too young a history to be able to have a substantial culture. What history is there in Durian? Has durians made a great impact on Singaporean history, except for the ultra-modern Esplandade? Or Catherine Lin’s “Durian” short story?
Indeed, we are not culturally mature to generate interests in cultural artifacts. Give as another maybe 60 years? One expat pointed out that the Merlion is not possibly as iconic as the Eiffel Tower simply because the latter has existed for hundreds of years in history. I think the Merlion is not new but certainly not as old as the Eiffel Tower. It is probably that the Merlion has been overshadowed by our very current colonial past. When the Merlion “showed up”, Raffles quickly established his place in Singapore with the EIC. What significance of history in there in the Merlion? Raffles and colonialism held more significance. We are after all still part of the Commonwealth.
Culturally, we are VERY GREEN. We don’t even have a Singaporean culture. Don’t tell me the festivals, multi-cultural food, English as an unifying force (cos it isn’t: just listen to the number of students speaking in their MT). Ok, maybe they are part of Singapore culture but definitely not something that is so singly unifying. Not something so OBVIOUS as America’s freedom of speech, rights and equal opportunities as everyone. These are almost “iconic” American values, as expressed in the VERY OLD Statue of Liberty. What do we have? A Merlion quickly overshadowed by Raffles? We have various borrowed cultures. Our rootlessness is so obvious. So while we soak up cultures all over the world like a sponge, it will take us still many many years to come up with something that we are defining ourselves with right here, right now. We are still building a culture, hard work, taking stabs in the dark, discovering, failing, learning, maturing and hopefully, we will become a true state.
