Xie Zhi Wei Wilson
087779B12
T7
A globalized culture
In 2007, Roystan Tan’s film, 881, became the highest grossing Asian film in Singapore history. Young and old alike, flocked to the nearest theatre to catch a glimpse of what the entire hullabaloo was about. The majority of movie goers were teenagers who have never in their life been an audience of a Getai show. Yet beneath the cacophonous roar of approval from film critics, there lies a subservient issue to be addressed. The cultural erosion of the ‘Gen-Y’ Singaporean.
It is heartening to know that many of my peers have since gone on to catch Getai shows with their parents and grandparents. Yet it is compelling to note that Getai was a popular form of entertainment just a generation ago. Where has all the Getai’s faded to, and in essence is the ‘Singapore culture’ fading fast into the background of globalization?
In the midst of invading culture from the West, Singapore has lost some of its Oriental allure and mysticism. Cinemas have taken over the place of Getais, fast food has replaced good old Chinese sumptuous meals and Christmas has also taken an eminent position one’s calendar. With the ease of media exchanges and cultural influx, young Singaporeans have taken to Western cultural. Hollywood not Bollywood, chicken burger not chicken rice, celebrate Christmas and avoid paying laborious visits to relatives during Chinese New Year.
What is the Singaporean identity? How much of a say do we have in it? Singapore’s short span of independence have compounded the thorny issues of identity. While China feels the effect of Macdonalisation, Singapore cannot but help be overwhelmed by it. Singapore has no ‘cultural inertia’ to resist the influx of Western elements, With too short a history and too little understanding of themselves, Singaporeans willingly embrace a foreign identity.
We cannot however blame it all on globalization. It is perhaps time to reconsider the definition of culture. By tradition, culture is the characteristics and beliefs of a certain group of people. This certain group of people used to be bounded by a tribe or a state. With the advancement of communication technologies, ideas and beliefs became easily communicable between tribes and states. Through a dialectical process, a common understanding is reached, and thus a new culture arises. We should now therefore expand the boundaries of the definition of ‘culture’. It does not only pertain to tribes or states, it must now be applied to trans-national cultures.
In retrospect, Singaporeans cannot accurately call Chinese New Year or Hari Raya authentically our own. Our famed metropolitan cuisines are not necessarily local too. Chicken rice, laksa and nasi lemak are all recipes brought from far and away lands. Such indigenous aspect of culture travel faraway to be seeded in the new Singaporean ‘Culture”. One of the truly unique Singaporean aspect in our lives is the language of Singlish. Although frowned upon by academics, it is heartily embraced by locals and tickled expatriates. Thankfully, it is such small aspects of live that make us Singaporeans.
What globalization brings about is not a disregard and degradation of culture.
The only result of globalisation is the need to redefine culture. Diehard puritans resist changes and ‘contamination’ of their indigenous culture. Yet if they choose to do so, they might as well stay live in villages, eat food specific to their own ethnicity and be entertained by obsoleted forms of entertainment. Young people should go for movies and Getais for entertainment. External influences will in time be assimilated into local contexts. Is it not pleasant to embrace both the past and the old, the alien and the local, to create a culture of our own, one that all Singaporeans have a say in, instead of having a culture imposed upon us.
