Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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Singapore in Depth
A little red dot in the center of Southeast Asia, Singapore is a cosmo-
politan city built on the backs of immigrants from across Asia and the four corners of the
world. The nation's cultural mix continues to expand, thanks to continuing migrations
of foreign talent—one in three people in Singapore today has come from elsewhere. This
cultural diversity is refreshing, but not nearly as r efreshing as the sense of openness and
harmony that exists between races and religions.
Singapore Inc. runs like clockwork. Over 40 decades of political stability have seen the
seeds of dev elopment take hold and gr ow at an impr essive rate. The government is a
well-oiled machine that operates like the executive board of a massive company, carefully
plotting deliberate steps for economic gr owth and building a safe and or derly country.
Even its detractors concede: Singapore works.
I'll confess, many trav elers complain to me about ho w Westernized Singapore is. For
some, a v acation in Asia should be filled with cultur e shock and bizarr e sights. Today's
travel philosophy seems to be that the mor e underdeveloped and obscur e a countr y is,
the mor e “ authentic” the trav el experience will be. B ut with all its shopping malls,
imported fashion and steel skyscrapers, Singapore looks like any other contemporary city
in any other par t of the world. B ut to peel thr ough the layers is to understand that life
here is more complex. While the outer layers are startlingly Western, just underneath lies
a curious area where East blends with West in language, cuisine, attitude, and style. A t
the core, you'll find a sensibility rooted in the cultural heritage of values, religion, super-
stition, and memory.
For me, this is where the fascination begins. Like the rows of historic shophouses that
line the city 's oldest str eets, if y ou look closely y ou'll see a jumble of influences fr om
colonial architectural mandates to Chinese superstitions and Malay finery. Even the local
language is a blend: “S inglish,” the unofficial local tongue, combines E nglish language
with Chinese grammar , common M alay phrases, and H okkien slang to form a P atois
unique to this part of the world. It's a cultural convergence that's been ongoing for almost
200 years. So, in a sense, Singapore is no different today than it was a centur y ago. And
in this I find my “authentic” experience.
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SINGAPORE TODAY
Who would hav e believed that S ingapore
would rise to such international fame and
become the vaunted “Asian Tiger” it has in
recent decades? This small country's politi-
cal stability and effective government have
inspired many other nations to study its
methods, and former prime minister (and
current minister mentor) Lee Kuan Yew is
counted among the most r espected politi-
cal figur es in the world. When asked to
explain ho w S ingapore's astounding eco-
nomic, political, and social success was
made possible, Lee always takes the
credit—and deservedly so—but in the face
of international criticism for dictatorial
policies, absolutist law enfor cement, and
human rights violations, he also stands
first in line to take the heat.
