Singapore Culture

Singapore Culture

To me Singapore culture encompasses a couple of areas, linguistics, food, gesture, rituals and behaviors. I will like to introduce what I call the hybrid cultures. Hybrid cultures are norms or saying that are derived from the nature of multiracial Singapore and not originated from any race or religion per say. The hybrid cultures include norms, gestures and language that evolve through periods and different people.

Hybrid Culture

Food like Roti John and Rojak are not really originated from Malay or Indian food. Even Rojak itself, has a different between Indian and Chinese Rojak. Roti John was supposedly influence by the French baguette.

Next, Kiasu( afraid to lose) and Kiasi ( afraid of death) is not really a from China, as long as you are a Singaporean, people label you as that. What bothers me is that these behaviors seem to be overstated in Singapore context. When I was traveling, I have seen the same behavior among the Japanese, Koreans, Australians and Americans (especially Kiasu, when people will queue to enter a big sale in a departmental store). What makes ‘Kiasi and Kiasi’ is because we give it a ‘name’ while foreigners simply call it ‘wanting to be the first’. On a second thought, what make it a Singapore statement is really the publication of the magazine “ Mr Kiasu” some donkey years when I was still in elementary school.

The Singaporean Gesture

Gesture meaning, an action, a sign or signal, it could mean offensive to foreigners who may not comprehend the meanings attached to them. For example when someone says “Nah”, it means “here take it”. However, “na4” in Mandarin refers to “there” not “here”. What you can derived from here is we use ‘sound and tone’ to refer to something or say something instead of really spelling it out in full sentences.

In Singapore there is also this thing about minding your own business. You don’t really see people in each greeting each other “good morning” or “good afternoon”, except for what we practice in elementary, it seems like we have escape from the horror in elementary school and have decided to ditch the whole concept or politeness. Nowadays, in campus you just hear people go “hey…” or “hallow….”. I remember in one occasion, the SMART was pushing for the good service campaign and encourage the drivers to greet their passengers. When I board this bus, the driver started greeting every single passenger and bidding farewell to those who alighted the bus. Some commuters star at him weirdly, while only about 10% smile, greet or just nod the head. I am the 1% I greet and wave a ‘big goodbye’.

Linguistic – the post Singlish

I am sure everyone is going to talk about Singlish, but what I discovered is a whole new language, which I call ‘post Singlish’ or the new Singlish. They are not the normal ‘lor, lah, leh, hor, walau…’ These are the lingoes, which only people from the same generation will understand. Usually the pioneers are the secondary/ high school kids who invented these terms. I remember back in my school days we like to use ‘duh’ and ‘dieded’ a lot. ‘Duh’ means something like ‘of course... Then what do you think’ it is really that complex to explain this word. ‘Dieded’ same from the word ‘die’ and it just means ‘died really badly’, it usually don’t refer to someone really pass away, it is usually used in the context of one is in deep shit.

Cultural Cringe

Interestingly, when people ask, “What is Singapore culture?” more often than not, people said ‘Singlish’ and it is labeled as inferior because Singlish is not the correct English. However, there are those who are proud of this ‘language’, it is unique not everyone can understand it; it is like a secret when we speak that overseas. For those who think their culture as being inferior sometimes only realize the superiority when they travel overseas and experience a culture shock, then they will treasure the culture that is so closely attached to themselves, their attitudes and behaviors. I felt that this sense of cultural cringe evolves from the how people always feel that the grass is always greener at the other side. People are always not satisfied about what they have. Especially in this small young country, many are still in the process of breaking out from conventions and venturing out to achieve dreams, they feel restrained and limited in Singapore. They want more freedom of speech and more humanity rights. The recent section 377A explains it all, public voices are not silent anymore. They are active.