Assignment 7: Thoughts on the Singaporean Culture
Post your thoughts on visual images and its impact on the Singaporean culture. Thinking beyond media influence, what is the Singapore culture.
Wow, the most mind blowing task thus far. So many have tried to define the Singaporean culture. Most of them died valiantly.
We mourn their loss.
Discuss visual images and it’s impact on Singapore… I feel that it is important to look at the characteristic of our culture before we can see how visual images affects it.
Mention Singaporean culture and it is tempting to shoot off the three K’s,- Kiasu (afraid to loose), Kiasi (afraid to die) and Kia Cheng Hu (afraid of the government). Keeping in mind Mr Reddy’s comment that Singaporeans seems ironically eager and merciless when criticizing their own culture. I will try my best to be nice. (:
Being a young nation that started off as a migrant seaport. The kiasu-ism seen can be viewed as an attitude branching from the industrious character of our forefathers. A brutally competitive attitude was essential for survival in dog-eat-dog Singapore many moons ago. I would think that kiasi-ism is a somewhat recent spinoff resulting from kiasu-ism.
Singaporeans have realised that in order to succed, it is often easier to conform to expectations and orders (thereby the Kia Cheng Hu). By pandering to the decisions of our leaders/authoritative figures and obeying their decisions that were deemed good for us. We have, over the years evolved into a bunch of people that are excellent in following instructions and are afraid to provoke mistakes.
Be safe…. and so very boring.
So how does all these ties up with our visual media landscape?
I have no idea….
Just joking!
Taking into consideration how our country built our success (on the models of other successful countries), it is not hard to see how external factors influence our own media landscape. We seem to have a culture of siphoning the best of other people’s work, reworking it and changing it to call our own.
Before you guys stone me to death, let me clarify that I know that’s how improvement work. We see how other people do their stuff well and we learn from them. But my argument is that there’s a limit and a damn narrow liminal zone between positive emulation and barefaced plagiarism. There are so many instances in Singapore where we do something just because it was successful for another country, often without regards and thoughts given to the local context.
One such example, will be the widespread embracing of the hip-hop culture. It took Singapore by storm.
Briefly and unjustifiably summarized, the hip-hop culture was somewhat a liberation movement/counter-culture that gave voice to the Afro-American community. Granted it got cool over the years. And many has embraced that culture just for the cool factor and no longer for what the culture stood for intitally.
Little chinese boys in oversized hockey jerseys, trucker caps, baggy pants and ridiculous amount of “bling” *wince* that threatens to work with Mr Gravity and pull them down escalators if they hadn’t tripped over their own pants already.
They don’t cool, they look…. RIDICULOUS.
We tend to follow, often blindly.
And embarrassing situations happen because of that. To emphasize my point, check this video out… ###Warning! cringe factor 10/10 content ahead###
Then again culture is a flux. I just hope we find our culture real soon though.
*cringe*
Totally have to agree with Mr Reddy about how we are quick to jump up and start pointing fingers at our fellow citizens and go “Singaporean! What a Singaporean.”. Totally. *laughs* And by doing that, ain’t that just another display of the typical Singaporean culture yet again. o well.
Anyway, back to the topic of the Singaporean culture. The things about how we just follow and do so blindly? I think there actually is nothing wrong about following what others are successful in? I think the govt must have done their fair share of research before they embark in a project. There must have been a reason for the govt takin certain moves and it probably will be for the benefit of society in the long run. I think Singaporeans probably have to be a little more discerning and appreciative when it comes to the govt. They are really doing good for the society no?
Think about it. We here are complaining (YET another Singaporean trait) about censorship. How we poor young creative minds are being oppressed and all, due to the not-so-liberal media. But then again, if we were exposed to all those unhealthy media materials, would we have still turned out right, the way we are now? Even with such strict censor rules, we are alr saying things like how the youngsters today are picking up the American dress sense and how ridiculous and out of place they look. What would they have become without the control of media?
Hey Momo, Thanks for the insightful post. I guess it’s human nature to fall under the “Third person effect”. You know, we always think that other people are more prone/susceptible to negative behaviour and that ourselves has some miraculous immunity.
Was talking to Sharon this morning. It was kinda interesting cause she proved Mr Reddy right again. As a Mauritian, she actually found the video interesting and has no negative thoughts about it. In fact, she was curious why I mentioned it was very cringey. When I pointed out Mr Reddy’s comment that Singaporeans are highly, mercilessly critical of their own culture, she agreed. Though she did mentioned that it is also human nature, to complain without resolution of the problem.
Anyway, she suspects that the MDA employees were blackmailed into doing the video. Me, I’m just curious about how their grandkids will feel a few years down the road…