Framed against a backdrop of skyscrapers, a Singaporean in shirtsleeves and tie steps out of his Mercedes, phone plugged to his ear. Likely as not, he’s on the line with his stockbroker, checking the latest share market gyrations as he heads for his favourite lunch spot, a tiny noodle stall in Chinatown.
In another vignette of tradition amid modernity, a feng shui (geomancy) expert is called in when things do not go well at a luxury hotel on Orchard Road. He recommends that the main doors be re-angled, and profits magically soar. Why? Because the cashier’s desk was previously placed opposite the main door, so money and luck had “flown out into the streets”.
These two faces of Singapore are no contradiction. A Singaporean may be sophisticated and completely at home with Western ways, but he is not above hedging his bets with the gods of fortune. A Hindu penitent may walk on glowing coals in supplication to his god, and a Chinese may light paper effigies of household items, intended for a deceased relative in the expectation of reciprocity.
A bright shophouse is home to a local pharmacy in Little India.
Getty Images
Singaporeans seem to have no difficulty reconciling Western pragmatism with Asian tradition – they may work for a multinational corporation yet practise feng shui.
Singapore’s Asian aspect manifests itself in other ways as well. Agreeing with elders and superiors is important to help preserve “face”, and the government’s paternalistic rule is not as resented as might be expected. There is a sense of practicality behind this: as long as their material welfare remains secure, few question the role of the government in their private lives.
Culturally diverse Singaporeans on Sentosa Island.
Singapore Tourism Board
Singaporean imperatives
A multi-ethnic melting pot of Chinese, Malays, Indians, Eurasians and Caucasians, Singaporeans have been socialised over the years by official policies of multiracialism and meritocracy to think of themselves as Singaporeans first. There are four official languages: English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil. The language of administration is English, which is also the lingua franca.
An upmarket store in an Orchard Road mall.
Vincent Ng/Apa Publications
It would certainly be myopic to take the view that the different races live together as one big happy family. There are underlying tensions which may not be noticeable to the first-time visitor (for more information, click here). Some Malays and Indians feel that they are disadvantaged, especially when they seek employment in Chinese-dominated companies. Racial differences do remain under a veneer of modernism, but tolerance is always the watchword. Most people, if cornered and asked, would place their nationality first and their ethnic identity second.
At the Singtel Singapore Grand Prix concert.
STB/Christopher Vu
Locals tend to be reserved in conversation, but they will immediately ask “How much you pay, ah?” when you’ve bought anything from a new BMW to a bowl of noodles. Part of this stems from the money-driven society they live in, and visitors should not see this as an intrusion of privacy. It’s just the way Singaporeans are.
The Peranakan people
Singapore’s Chinese population has an interesting subgroup known as the Peranakans. They are the descendants of intermarriages between Chinese men and Malay women that took place from the 17th century onwards in the Malayan Straits Settlement colonies of Melaka, Penang and Singapore.
Male Peranakans are called baba and the women nonya. Their lingua franca is a Chinese-Malay patois. “Inside Chinese, outside Malay” was one description applied to the Peranakans’ although increasingly they are becoming less distinct as a racial group, having intermarried with other races. The Peranakans were the first locals to speak English and to adopt Western customs. In fact, their loyalty to the British led some to describe them cynically as the “King’s Chinese”.
The often wealthy Peranakan families in Singapore, at Emerald Hill (for more information, click here) and also in Katong (for more information, click here) on the east coast, left behind a rich culinary heritage blending Malay and Chinese cooking styles and ingredients, clothing and also quaint houses with a distinctive architectural style. To learn more about the Peranakan culture, visit these two areas as well as the Peranakan Museum (for more information, click here) and Baba House (for more information, click here). See also the website of the Peranakan Association at www.peranakan.org.sg.
The one thing which unites Singaporeans, Chinese and Malay, old and young, is food. Talk to a Singaporean about culinary matters and you’re on the right track. Singaporeans put in long hours at the office, but unless exceptionally hard-pressed, they’d prefer a decent cooked meal (even if served on styrofoam) to grabbing a sandwich at the desk.
Many Singaporeans are tech-savvy and as adept with computers and the internet as any Silicon Valley whizz-kid.
An outdoor party after Chingay Parade.
STB/Steven Tor Peng Hock
Constantly urged to strive for excellence, Singaporeans are only happy with straight “A”s. They have become afraid to lose out to the next fellow. This trait is now humorously termed the “kiasu syndrome” (for more information, click here) and is often the subject of social comment. For example, parents, anxious not to lose out in their children’s education, queue up overnight to get them into a school of choice. It’s common for children to have extra tuition after school hours to keep their grades up and help them do better than their fellow classmates. Getting a bargain is more than mere monetary satisfaction for the Singaporean, it is almost a moral victory.
That they can laugh about all this is a refreshing thing. Satirical and even critical books written by locals are nudging for space where once they were proscribed, and censorship has been eased. Things are changing slowly, paving the way for more original thought and a more open society.
Increasingly, racial differences are submerged beneath shared experiences and Western influence. Young singles want their own apartments, and married couples (an increasing number of which are inter-racial) prefer not to live with their in-laws. Marriage and starting a family have taken a back seat as getting ahead in one’s career takes priority. Yet family ties remain strong, and it is not unusual for married offspring to visit their parents every weekend.
Singaporeans have left their immigrant and post-colonial struggles behind and are finding their place in the international community. Sandwiched between East and West, they attempt to combine the best of both worlds.
Playing draughts in Chinatown.
Vincent Ng/APA Publications
The Chinese
The Chinese comprise 74.2 percent of Singapore’s 5.5 million population (Population projections 2015). This is no recent phenomenon. When Stamford Raffles founded modern Singapore in 1819, Chinese planters, pirates, fishermen and traders were already present. Five years after its establishment, Singapore had 3,000 Chinese and more were arriving weekly. Most were traders from southern and eastern China fleeing the turmoil and corruption of 19th-century Chinese politics. By 1836 Chinese were the numerical majority, a pattern of racial demographics that exists to this day.
Kiasu-ism
Kiasu is a common Singlish word made popular through the army and taken from two Chinese Hokkien dialect words, kia (afraid) and su (to lose). Its early usage in the army was innocent enough: a recruit over-zealously putting in an extra minute or doing a centimetre more was guilty of being kiasu. But in the last decade, kiasu has become a Singaporean preoccupation.
Fuelled by global recognition in just about every quarter, Best Airport, Best Airline, Best Economy, Best Students, Best Hotel – you name it, Singapore bests it. Once a term used of a person, “Why are you so kiasu?”, it is now tagged to the nation: “Singapore is so kiasu.”
Singapore’s Chinese population can be broken down into several linguistic groups. Hokkiens from the southern Fujian province form the largest subgroup (42 percent), followed by Teochews (23 percent) from the Shantou region in Guangdong, Cantonese (17 percent), who hailed from Hong Kong and the lowlands of central Guangdong, Hakkas (7 percent) from central China and Hainanese (6 percent) from Hainan Island.
The Chinese speak a variety of dialects, but their common link is Mandarin, or huayu, the language of the Beijing area, which is taught in Singapore schools as the official mother tongue of the Chinese. The long-standing Speak Mandarin Campaign, held annually, is an attempt to promote the use of Mandarin in place of native Chinese dialects.
A further unifying bond between many Chinese is superstition. Fortune tellers and geomancers figure largely in the Chinese world, their advice meticulously followed to bring luck and prosperity. The older generation also place their trust in the old ways, eschewing modern medicine for herbal cures. Acupuncture is popular too.
Food occupies a pre-eminent place in Chinese culture. A minister once quipped: “If a Chinese sees a snake in the grass, he’ll think of a way to eat it.” Not surprisingly, restaurants offering every conceivable Chinese dish are found in Singapore.
Inside Sultan Mosque.
Singapore Tourism Board
Fishing in Labrador Park.
Vincent Ng/Apa Publications
The Malays
Like the Chinese and Indians, Singapore’s Malays are largely descendants of immigrants, although their arrival most certainly pre-dates that of the other ethnic groups. For this reason the Malays are considered the indigenous people of Singapore. Today, they make up 13.2 percent of Singaporeans, and comprise several sub-ethnic groups who trace their origins to the Javanese, Sumatrans, Bugis, Boyanese, Arabs and local Malays, among others.
Singapore’s Malay origins are enshrined in the symbolic trappings of statehood – the national anthem is sung in Malay, one of the national languages is Malay and the island’s first president after independence was a Malay. Today, despite Singapore’s dominant Chinese population, it retains in many ways its Malay core: graceful baju-kurung-clad girls, or the more traditional tudung-attired females, are as much a part of the cityscape as their Western-attired compatriots; the surau, or community mosque, lies at the heart of every Malay neighbourhood; and satay – skewered pieces of grilled meat dipped in spicy peanut sauce – is as much a symbol of Singapore as Hokkien noodles.
Until as late as the 1970s, everyday Malay life centred on the kampung, or village – with wooden slat houses built on stilts and where food was grown to feed the community. Such kampung are now almost non-existent, as most Malays have moved to government apartments and adapted to high-rise living. Having imbibed the government’s ambitious approach, a good number have merged into the landscape as professionals and entrepreneurs.
Historically, however, the Malay community has always been socio-economically weaker than the Chinese and Indians. This is partly because of its rural roots and partly due to Malay education, which closely follows a religious syllabus and has a reputation of lagging behind the English school system. The government, aware of the social and educational problems of the Malay community – including drug abuse and school dropouts – set up a self-help organisation called Mendaki to promote the progress of the Malay community. Today, Malay youths are successfully entering the mainstream, slowly improving the negative perceptions attached to their community.
The Malays are deeply religious and follow Islam. Orthodox Malays save hard for holy pilgrimages to Mecca, as their status increases with the title Haji and the use of the white skullcap earned from a pilgrimage.
Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple.
Singapore Tourism Board
Indians make up around 9.2 percent of Singapore’s population.
Vincent Ng/Apa Publications
Praying at Lian Shan Shuang Lin Monastery.
Vincent Ng/Apa Publications
The Indians
Although Indians constitute only 9.2 percent of the population, they are a vital component of Singapore. Their documented habitation of the island goes back to the days of the arrival of Singapore’s founder, Sir Stamford Raffles, in 1819, when he was accompanied by sepoys (soldiers) from the East India Company brought along to guard Britain’s imperial interests. This trickle soon enlarged to include Indian merchants, with a larger flow arriving in the 1820s in the form of convicts from Britain’s penal colony in Bencoolen.
These Indians were a polyglot mix, and came from all over India and Sri Lanka. Reflective of the original inflow, Singapore’s Indian population today consists of numerous sub-ethnic and ethnic divisions, ranging from Tamils, Malayalees and Bengalis to Punjabis, Telegus, Gujaratis and Sindhis. The majority (60 percent) are Tamils, with Malayalees the next largest group (8 percent). Religion-wise, they comprise a colourful mix of Hindus (55 percent), Muslims (26 percent), Christians (12 percent) and Buddhists (1 percent), as well as smaller groups of Sikhs, Jains and Parsis.
Singapore’s foreign workers often congregate in their particular communities on Sundays, for example Filipinos at Lucky Plaza, Indians in Little India, and Thais and Burmese at Golden Mile Tower.
The Indian population of early Singapore tended to group together according to region of origin, religion and occupation type. Today, certain traditional Indian trades still occupy specific locations in Singapore. Sindhi, Sikh and Gujarati textile and electronic goods merchants are still located along High Street, while the Tamil Muslims still predominate in the money-changing trade, in areas such as Arab, Chulia and Market streets.
Although the first-generation Indians who settled in Singapore in search of a better life still maintain sentimental ties to their homeland, their offspring lack such attachments and consider themselves Singaporeans first.
Nevertheless, in the late 1980s and early 90s, a significant number of well-educated Indians left Singapore for greener pastures in Australia, Canada and the US. This outflow from the professional class was partly due to an unease over state policies promoting the Chinese culture and language in Singapore, and uncertainty over equal opportunities in the job market.
Like the Malays, the Indians have a socially and educationally disadvantaged segment that has been left behind in the rush to progress. The Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA) was set up in 1990 to help these elements re-enter the mainstream.
Other races
Singapore’s census shows an enigmatic category called “Others”, which includes all those who are not Chinese, Malay and Indian. The most numerous “Others” are the Eurasians, who form less than 1 percent of Singaporeans. Most are the offspring of mixed marriages, dating back to the times when the region was occupied by the Portuguese and Dutch. Eurasians are often half English, half Dutch or half Portuguese. Some are immigrant Eurasians who came from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and other parts of Asia. The Eurasians often carry family names such as D’Souza or Pereira (Portuguese), Westerhout (Dutch), Scully (Irish) or Young (British). Many are also part Filipino, Chinese, Malay, Indian, Sri Lankan or Thai.
Although a sense of alienation in the 1970s caused sizeable numbers to migrate, Eurasians today fit well into the society. They are a close-knit group, and there is even a Eurasian Association to promote the interests of the community. Patois Portuguese (or Cristão) is still spoken among the older generation. Many Eurasians still profess a sentimental attachment to Katong in the eastern part of Singapore, as the community congregated in this area before urban development caused habitation patterns to shift.
There are very few Armenian families remaining in Singapore. The Jewish community, once a thriving populace that occupied the Sophia Road, Queen Street, Wilkie Road and Waterloo Street areas, are now scattered through urban renewal; only the old Hebrew lettering on some of the shophouses in these localities bears testimony to their once vibrant presence.
Families attending a concert at the Botanic Gardens.
Vincent Ng/Apa Publications
Foreigners
More than a million people living in Singapore are foreigners, many of whom have acquired Permanent Residency status. They come from all corners of the world. In the past, expatriates were mainly Westerners, often sent to Singapore by their home companies to oversee local or regional operations. They mostly came on expatriate packages that included a generous salary, a fairly luxurious residence, company car and maid. Today that picture has undergone a transformation. Expatriates are as likely to hail from India and China as from the West, and most are offered employment packages that are no different from those given to local workers.
Referred to in the local media as “foreign talent”, these professionals are mostly employed in the high-tech sectors and finance. Their presence is the result of an open-door policy by the Singapore government to recruit qualified workers from abroad to redress the dearth of local talent in high-growth sectors. In recent times, Singaporeans have expressed their unhappiness with the influx of too many “foreign talents”. Citizens question the foreigners’ ability to integrate with the community and into the culture. Besides everyday issues such as buses and trains being overly crowded and uncomfortable, these foreigners are also seen as a threat to Singapore’s workforce. Singaporeans who are struggling with the high cost of living find themselves losing out to wealthy foreigners especially when it comes to buying property. They also view the government as being overly protective of foreigners over native Singaporeans. To control such anti-foreign sentiments, the government has recently taken significant measures to tighten foreign worker inflows.
Apart from a large pool of expatriates in the white-collar professions, there is a noticeable blue-collar element, made up mostly of South Indians and Southeast Asians, who work in construction and environment maintenance as well as women who work as live-in domestic maids. They generally undertake jobs that hold little appeal for Singaporeans.
Foreign workers are especially visible on Sundays. The Indians and Bangladeshis congregate in Little India, the Filipinos at Lucky Plaza, and the Thais and Burmese at Golden Mile Tower at Beach Road. This is their weekly opportunity to catch up on home news and relax in the company of compatriots.
Singlish-speak
This unique Singaporean language is a short cut in many ways and, after you’ve been exposed to it for a while, it’s also an endearing one.
If ever a language can be described as relaxed and animated, malleable, frank and affectionate, it is Singlish. Singlish is English peculiar to Singapore, hence the term – the concatenation of the “head” of Singapore and the “tail” of English. And, at a wild guess, your Funk & Wagnalls or Oxford English Dictionary is unlikely to have it listed.
Quite simply put – and Singlish says it most simply – it is an oral language that was only given a spelling as recently as 1982.
Once shunned by the print and broadcast authorities as “broken English”, which it is not, 21st-century Singlish is no longer a major language issue. It has gained currency islandwide, as evidenced by the occasional spoken or written example in the media. Curiously, having at first won notoriety, it now wins respect as Singapore’s unofficial lingua franca.
However, Singlish is not championed in the corridors of academia. Students know not to offer Singlish in their exam papers, just as any white-collar worker knows not to employ it in correspondence. Yet both student and office worker would be likely to use it readily in the canteen and at home. It is at heart a “homey” language that departs from English in structure and syntax, grammar and punctuation, but it is still English, and not broken English at that. Well, maybe a slight fracture – which is not at all helped by the fact that it’s often spoken at such breakneck speed that visitors often mistake Singlish for a foreign language altogether.
Singlish is from the gut and to the point, often taking short cuts by losing the article. “Hurry lah!” is “Can you please hurry up?” Sentences often end with the words “lah” or “meh” – derived from the Hokkien dialect – the first to drive a point home, and the second an expression of incredulity.
Singlish is distinct from, say, the pidgin and Creole patois of New Guinea and New Orleans in that it is a patois which has no rank in the social stratum, having taken root among the masses and continued to change with its people.
You know you’re in Singapore as a visitor when you are confronted with the following telegraphic phrases:
toast bread – toast
wait first – hold on/later
check for you – I’ll try to find out
see how – undecided/not sure
can I hepchew? – can I help you?
got nets card? – I prefer cash
any udders? – will there be anything else?
They are often easier to decipher if you see them written down.
Quirky Singlish on a T-shirt.
Derrick Lim/Apa Publications