Searching for the Spirit of Singapore

Tiger Airways

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Tiger Airways is a Singapore-based budget airline. As with most budget airlines, all extras are premiums that you need to pay for; the most basic fare does not include meals nor checked in baggage. Tiger Airways also departs and lands from Changi's budget terminal, which is more uncomfortable than Changi's famed regular terminals: no tubes to the airplanes (you climb stairs from the tarmac), no seats directly in front of the gates (rather, there's a large waiting area for everyone with seats, but half an hour before you flight you have to queue up, standing, at the gate).This flight was also my first time to see flight attendants sleep on the plane. I'd always wondered if flight attendan...Read More

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Savoring Singapore

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Lan Zhao La Mian Photo - Singapore, Asia

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If there's one thing that definitely isn't "Asia light" about Singapore, it's Singaporean cuisine. Singaporean cuisine is among the most interesting in the world; it's definitely my favorite cuisine. Whatever you say about how "contrived" Singapore is, you definitely cannot say that about Singaporean cuisine.This is all thanks to the of Singapore's population. Different regional cuisines from China, India, and the Malayan peninsula have combined over a century to produce some of the most amazing flavors. If you want truly authentic Singaporean cuisine, the best places to eat are hawker centres (sometimes called "food centres") and "coffee shops." Hawker centres we...Read More

If there's one thing that definitely isn't "Asia light" about Singapore, it's Singaporean cuisine. Singaporean cuisine is among the most interesting in the world; it's definitely my favorite cuisine. Whatever you say about how "contrived" Singapore is, you definitely cannot say that about Singaporean cuisine.

This is all thanks to the of Singapore's population. Different regional cuisines from China, India, and the Malayan peninsula have combined over a century to produce some of the most amazing flavors.

If you want truly authentic Singaporean cuisine, the best places to eat are hawker centres (sometimes called "food centres") and "coffee shops."

Hawker centres were built because the government, at some point, decided to ban street hawkers from selling food in carts on the street. Instead, they insisted that these street hawkers band together and sell their food in proper structures, with plumbing, tables and stools. Unlike many other cities, then, you will not, therefore, find "street food" being sold on sidewalks in Singapore; rather, "street food" is found in the dozens of hawker centres around the metropolis.

These hawker centres know no class boundaries: almost ALL Singapore residents, rich or poor, eat at hawker centres. The same hawker centres where old retirees eat, one leg propped up on the bench, are also the places where business executives in neckties and powersuits come for lunch. And the food, of course, is cheap: SGD 2 to SGD 5 buys you a satisfying meal.

The other place to find authentic Singaporean cuisine is the "coffee shop." No, these are not European cafes; rather, a "coffee shop" is a restaurant on the ground floor of a building--usually an old shophouse building--with no walls or doors separating establishment from the sidewalk. The chairs and tables, then, are in the open air, and they spill out onto the sidewalk.

Hawker centres and coffee shops are not for the prissy traveler. Strict government standards ensure that the food is clean, but some tourists might be turned off by the cheap plastic plates and cups, the sometimes-muddy floors, the lack of air-conditioning, and the noise and chaos of it all.

The faint-stomached traveler, then, might prefer to go to the hundreds of restaurants in the city that boast of selling Singaporean fare. These are the restaurants with porcelain plates, printed menus, and waiters to bring you your food. Food prices are correspondingly more expensive, of course.

And *what* is there to eat? The gastronomical spectrum of Singaporean food is too large to enumerate. My own personal favorites include Hainanese chicken rice ($2.50, and available at any hawker centre in the city), Nyonyang-style fishhead curry (more difficult to come by, this is available at "barbeque seafood" stalls and restaurants, which are often only open for dinner), chili crab (also available at searood restaurants and at some hawker centre stalls), fried baby sotong (squid), and roti prata (Indian flatbread that also has a Malaysian counterpart, roti canai). Other classics include nasi lemak (Malaysia's "national dish": rice steamed in coconut water), char kway teow (a Chinese-Malay noodles dish), mi goreng (another Chinese-Malay noodles dish).

What you *shouldn't* do, however, is to limit yourself to the Ministry of Tourism brochures that tells you where to eat. Sure, there are some good eateries in these brochures, but my best gastronomic experiences in Singapore have been in places not listed in any tourist brochure.

Some people say you can see everything there is to see in Singapore in a day or two. I'm not sure if that's true. I am sure, though, that an entire MONTH in Singapore is not enough to experience all the food wonders it has to offer. Read Less

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Chinatown Heritage Centre

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Attraction | "Discovering the old Chinatown within the new Chinatown"

Chinatown Heritage Centre Photo - Chinatown Heritage Centre, Singapore City, Singapore

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If, like me, you lament the un-Chineseness of Singapore's Chinatown, then the SGD 10 that you will spend to visit the Chinatown Heritage Centre will be well worth it.The Chinatown Heritage Centre is a history museum that occupies the structures of two old shophouses along Pagoda Street, smack in the middle of this touristy district. We got to the museum a few minutes before 3 PM, just in time for one of the complimentary guided tours (they're held everyday except Sundays and holiday, at 1 PM and 3 PM). The entire guided tour takes 45 minutes, after which the tour guide encourages you to explore the museum again on your own. The tour climbs the three levels of the first shophous...Read More

If, like me, you lament the un-Chineseness of Singapore's Chinatown, then the SGD 10 that you will spend to visit the Chinatown Heritage Centre will be well worth it.

The Chinatown Heritage Centre is a history museum that occupies the structures of two old shophouses along Pagoda Street, smack in the middle of this touristy district. We got to the museum a few minutes before 3 PM, just in time for one of the complimentary guided tours (they're held everyday except Sundays and holiday, at 1 PM and 3 PM). The entire guided tour takes 45 minutes, after which the tour guide encourages you to explore the museum again on your own.

The tour climbs the three levels of the first shophouse, crosses over to the second shophouse, then descends the three levels of the second shophouse. The first shophouse describes the history of Chinese immigrants to the arrival in the late 1800s and early 1900s of mainland Chinese looking for a better way of life in the newly opened trading port. The exhibits include authentic artifacts donated by Singapore residents, as well as video interviews of actual aging immigrants who recount their own experiences almost a century ago. The exhibits take you through the experiences of traveling by boat to Singapore, finding a support structure in Singapore through the Chinese clan associations, the difficulties of staying in touch with family back home, and the activities that these immigrants did to survive the loneliness of being in a foreign land, often with no family.

One of the more chilling exhibits was a description of the Chinatown "death houses" that used to line Sago Street, houses where old men who had no family in Singapore went to die.

The second shophouse was a recreation of the living conditions of shophouses before Singaporeans were all moved into government housing in the 1970s and 1980s. The shophouse was recreated based on the memories of actual residents of some of these shophouses, videos of which are shown on the top floor. The exhibits give you a sense of how some 40 residents managed to fit into a shophouse, sharing kitchen and primitive toilet facilities. The recreation is extremely detailed: all the way down to the wallpaper in one of living cubicles, the ant traps at the base of cabinets in the kitchen, and the thread spools in the tailor's shop on the ground floor.

The shophouse recreation was both fascinating and uncomfortable: fascinating, because it really felt like one was visiting somebody's living quarters, but uncomfortable for the same reasons. Unlike history museums which show how people lived centuries ago, these portrayed not only living conditions of people who were still alive, but also the living conditions that still exist in cities all over the world. It seemed almost a little intrusive, then, to be peeking into these living quarters, showcasing the squalor of poverty in a zoo-like way with ogling visitors, but maybe that's a testament to how well the recreation was done.

The Chinatown Heritage Centre was definitely well worth the trip, and the SGD 10.

Admission: $10 for adults, $6 for children 3 to 12 years old. Opening hours: daily 9 AM to 8 PM (last admission before 7 PM). Elevator facilities for those who have difficulty with stairs. Read Less

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on November 27, 2011

Chinatown Heritage Centre
48 Pagoda Street
Singapore, Singapore 059207
+65 6 325 2878

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Chinatown

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Attraction | "Not the most "Chinese" Chinatown. But there are some gems."

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Almost every major city in the world has a Chinatown. The irony is that Singapore, dominated by ethnic Chinese, is not one of the best places in the world to experience the Chineseness of a Chinatown.If you're looking for a Chinese pharmacy, Chinese food (of various Chinese regions, as well as Singapore's own Chinese cuisine), and the odd Chinese-themed trinket, you will definitely find all those in Singapore's Chinatown. What you won't feel, however, is, well, what I would call "strangeness." That feeling of strangeness is one of the most powerful parts of traveling--the uneasy feeling of being an outsider, subjected to the suspicious looks of locals. It is precisely this unease that remi...Read More

Almost every major city in the world has a Chinatown. The irony is that Singapore, dominated by ethnic Chinese, is not one of the best places in the world to experience the Chineseness of a Chinatown.

If you're looking for a Chinese pharmacy, Chinese food (of various Chinese regions, as well as Singapore's own Chinese cuisine), and the odd Chinese-themed trinket, you will definitely find all those in Singapore's Chinatown. What you won't feel, however, is, well, what I would call "strangeness." That feeling of strangeness is one of the most powerful parts of traveling--the uneasy feeling of being an outsider, subjected to the suspicious looks of locals. It is precisely this unease that reminds you that you are traveling, that you are not-from-here, that forces you to confront your own difference as you face a culture other than your own. It is precisely this feeling that makes traveling so transformative and educational.

In Singapore's Chinatown, there is little of that unease that a non-resident feels in a foreign community, because Singapore's Chinatown is not really a "Chinese community" in that sense of the word. In the 1980s, Chinatown was converted into a purely commercial district, its Cantonese residents relocated to HDB flats. The businesses remain Chinese-themed, of course, but this Chineseness is not maintained for the benefit of Singapore's Chinese (specifically Cantonese) community, as it was prior to the 80s. Rather, this Chineseness is maintained mostly for the benefit of the tourist.

That being said, Chinatown has a few gems. The Chinatown Heritage Center, privately-built and privately-run, is a moving tribute to the Chinatown of yesteryear, and is close as you can get to recreating the original spirit of Chinatown. Some of the restaurants are *not* tourist traps, and are favored by locals for various specialties.

And to be honest, if you don't mind being in a tourist trap, and you really do just want to pick up some Chinese trinkets for your refrigerator or shelf, then, hey, Chinatown fulfills that need.

Singapore's Chinatown is roughly the area bounded by Havelock Road, Upper Cross Street and Eu Tong Sen Street, Outram Road, and South Bridge Road. It has its own website, at www.chinatown.sg. There is an MRT stop right within Chinatown, in the middle of Pagoda Street.
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Member Rating 3 out of 5 on November 27, 2011

Chinatown
Outram District
Singapore, Malay Peninsula

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Why do they call it, "Asia Light"?

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Orchard Road with Christmas lights Photo - Singapore City, Singapore

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Singapore had the potential to be one of the most interesting cities in Asia to visit, because of its rich heritage. Since independence from Britain in 1964, government policy has always defined the ethnic composition of Singapore in terms of three main groups: Chinese, Malays and Indians, although the multiethnicity of Singapore is actually more complex than that. The ethnic Chinese are actually composed of many different ethnolinguistic groups: Hokkiens and Cantonese are probably the biggest ethnic Chinese groups. Although the first Indians to come to Singapore were mostly Tamils, Singapore has also, since independence, been home to Bengalis, Punjabis and other Indian ethnic groups. Peranakans, of ...Read More

Singapore had the potential to be one of the most interesting cities in Asia to visit, because of its rich heritage. Since independence from Britain in 1964, government policy has always defined the ethnic composition of Singapore in terms of three main groups: Chinese, Malays and Indians, although the multiethnicity of Singapore is actually more complex than that. The ethnic Chinese are actually composed of many different ethnolinguistic groups: Hokkiens and Cantonese are probably the biggest ethnic Chinese groups. Although the first Indians to come to Singapore were mostly Tamils, Singapore has also, since independence, been home to Bengalis, Punjabis and other Indian ethnic groups. Peranakans, of mixed Chinese and Malay descent, were the first large group of mixed ethnicity, and mixed marriages have increased over the last decade. Immigration and the growth of the expat community has also led to the increased population of other ethnic groups, from all over

This rich, multicultural heritage makes Singapore a truly multicultural community. At any time on the bus or train, a visitor will here several different languages being spoken, though the lingua franca remains to be "Singlish," a pidgin English generously interspersed with words from Bahasa Melayu, Hokkien, Cantonese, Tamil and other languages.

Given this rich heritage, why, then, do most travelers to Singapore find the city-state to be "Asia Light," a "sanitized," "contrived" microcosm of Asia? During my last trip to Singapore, this question was at the back of my mind as I visited places both familiar to me (I had lived in Singapore in the 1980s and come back to visit once before this trip), and unfamiliar to me.

I found the answer to my question when I watched a video at the Chinatown Heritage Centre (see my review in this journal). One of the interviewees lamented how the "spirit" of Chinatown (see my review in this journal) had been destroyed when Chinatown was converted into a pure commercial area, and its residents transferred to the ubiquitous government-built HDB flats which house some 90% or so of Singaporean citizens.

What the interviewee said of Chinatown is true for much of the rest of Singapore as well. The Singapore government has been swift and efficient in its efforts at rapid urbanization, and its attempts to open Singapore to Western culture in order to "keep pace" with the Western world. The small land area of Singapore was a problem that the government prioritized from the very beginning, and the government's land management efforts have been at the heart of Singapore's blueprint for development.

The result has been tremendous success at achieving the goals of the land management programs: providing decent housing for all its citizens and completely eradicating the squalid living conditions still found in most other Asian countries, a good balance of urban modernity and greenery (no street in Singapore has a shortage of green spaces), and a logical distribution of scarce land among the various needs of the community.

There has, however, been one major casualty of this heavy-handed planning: and that has been Singapore's local color. Authentic local color does not emerge self-consciously, with the goal of trying to impress tourists. Rather, it emerges organically, when a community takes a locale, owns it, and transforms it at the grassroots according to its own needs, wants, and culture, with no intention of trying to "sell" itself to travelers. This, however, is not what has happened in most of the ethnic enclaves marked out on Singapore tourist maps.

To go back to Chinatown as an example. Although the government has insisted that Chinatown remain Chinese with all the shops and restaurants in the area remaining "Chinatown-themed," the whisking away of residents from this area has turned the area into nothing more than a China-themed mall, with businesses hoping for nothing more than to sell the Chinese theme to tourists looking for a quick, tacky souvenir to put on their refrigerator. You do not go to Chinatown to see experience the ethnic Chinese way of life, to witness the different tensions and triumphs of an ethnic Chinese subpopulation trying to keep alive the culture it has brought to Singapore from the Chinese mainland, amid the multiracial tensions that are part of Singapore's history.

The result? Even in the predominantly-Chinese Singapore, Chinatown is, for the most part, "Chinatown Light." Chinatowns in other parts of the world feel far more authentic than Singapore's Chinatown. The same is true for Singapore's "Arab Quarter" as well. Little India is probably the only true ethnic quarter remaining in Singapore.

This is not to say that you can't find local color in Singapore. Of course you can! But don't rely on the maps given for free by the Ministry of Tourism to tell you where to find it. This trip, I was on the hunt for just that--to find Singapore's true local color. In the rest of the journal, I describe some of the places where I found it. Read Less

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