Written by Pola del Monte
First published in CNN Philippines Life on Jan 4, 2024 as "Singapore's remaking itself as a cultural force — here's what to fly for in 2024"
Singapore’s glass-and-steel skyline resembles any other ultra-modern city in the world. Its futuristic towers lord over its 5.92 million residents, exuding the power and wealth that has made it the world’s freest economy — the city-state where crazy-rich Asians who party in clubs spray not just ordinary champagne but Moët & Chandon.
But the trouble with looking like every other city is the loss of its sense of place.
University of Manchester lecturer MaoHui Deng has called Singapore a “non-place” in one of his research studies, tracing this phenomenon to the city-state’s “uncomfortable relationship with the past.” He borrows this term from anthropologist Marc Augé who defines non-places as “spaces of transience where human beings remain anonymous, and that do not hold enough significance,” as opposed to anthropological places which connect to a cultural identity.
If this is the case, how can Singapore beckon travelers in a post-pandemic world, where people crave meaningful experiences?
The Singapore Tourism Board addresses this dilemma through its new campaign titled “Made in Singapore” to frame the city-state as a destination that is “not only vibrant and cosmopolitan, but also rooted in strong multicultural heritage.”
The tagline has the appeal of a meme, and is reminiscent of our own “It's More Fun in The Philippines” campaign from 2012, which allowed tourists to define “fun” through user-generated content. “Made in Singapore,” on the other hand, extrapolates on the word “made.”
For example, despite its limited natural water resources, Singapore makes rain showers happen even in the middle of an airport. The 40-meter HSBC Rain Vortex, the world’s tallest indoor waterfall, pours water from the roof of Jewel Changi across seven floors (thus gaining the moniker “7-storey wonder”). Hence, “Rain Showers: Made in Singapore.”
Photo from CHANGI AIRPORT
“As global travel recovers, there is intense competition from destinations seeking to attract more international tourists. Consumers are also looking for new and diverse experiences in a post-pandemic world,” said STB in an interview with CNN Philippines Life. “This thread carries through into the campaign to show how in Singapore, we turn everyday, ordinary moments into extraordinary experiences.”
This logic is actually similar to the manner Singapore was established in 1819, when Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles turned the swamp-covered island into a trading station. Later on, Singapore attracted immigrants from China, India, and the Malay archipelago. That is where it all began. A New Nation: Made in Singapore.
Today, the people of Singapore are even more diverse, including about 1.5 million foreign workers. The Embassy of the Philippines says there are an estimated 200,000 Filipinos in the city-state, and 60% of them are professionals, skilled workers, and business owners. They expand the image of Filipinos beyond caricatures like actress Michelle Cheong’s Leticia Bongnino, the fictional TV character who works as — no pun intended — a maid in Singapore.
The tourism industry, in particular, is propped up by Filipinos. Enter any restaurant and you will likely find at least one Filipino — a chef, a manager, or a staff — lending their labor and innate hospitality, and in the long run helping Singapore restore its sense of place.
“[Our] sector welcomes people with different skill sets and experiences,” the tourism board added. “Every individual who has become part of Singapore's hospitality industry provides an invaluable contribution that helps shape not just one but all our campaigns.”
CNN Philippines Life flew to the vibrant city-state to discover how the new “Made in Singapore” campaign distills facets of this melting pot’s colorful culture and national identity.
Photo from SINGAPORE SIDECARS
Road trips: made in Singapore
In Singapore, people don’t just journey in motorcycles — they travel in style in vintage Vespa sidecars. Singapore Sidecars is a social enterprise that boasts the world’s first tours of this kind. It is award-winning: the enterprise has bagged two Singapore Book of Records entries. It is also a proud presenter of exclusive UNESCO World Heritage content.
While Vespas are technically Italian, the tours offer an immersive way to explore Singapore. For example, during the Singapore in a nutshellSingapore in a nutshell tour, one can enjoy a front-seat view of the architectural wonders in Singapore: the Marina Bay Sands building, the classical colonial Victorian buildings of the Civic District and Bras Basah areas, as well as the heritage areas of the Muslim quarter Kampung Glam, Little India, and Chinatown.
The scooter riders double as guides and are well-versed about these spots. Apart from using helmets and requiring their passenger to wear one, they also follow strict speed limits: a maximum of 50 kilometers per hour. That means one practically cruises along, enjoying the sights zooming in gently across the horizon.
Photo from SINGAPORE SIDECARS
Singapore Sidecars also mentions on its website that it missed the opportunity to tour a Hollywood A-lister during the world premiere of “Avengers: Infinity War” in Singapore: “The entourage asked last minute at 7 a.m. for a 10th sidecar, when they’d booked nine. We thought our hard-working reserve rider deserved a good sleep that Saturday morning so the entourage got nine sidecars. Later that day, the press showed Benedict Cumberbatch wandering about nearby on his own. We inadvertently made Doctor Strange walk, and sweat a lot. Not many tour companies can say that.”
Singapore Sidecars offers a variety of tours with different itineraries. A one-hour tour is priced at SG$198 per hour. Book a tour here.
Winged wonders: made in Singapore
Mandai Bird Paradise is Asia’s largest bird park, and the way it is run is truly impressive. In this park, you see no cages. The park has an open-air concept for its 3,500 birds, which allows them to swoop in and out across visitors’ faces. Instead of cages, the aviaries are protected by super-large nets that hang several feet above the trees. Mandai maintains that it is guided by animal welfare ethics and thus provides all animals with environments that “meet or exceed international standards for the species under human care.”
A highlight of Bird Paradise is the Ocean Network Express Penguin Cove, which features one of the world’s largest sub-Antarctic, cold salt-water habitats for penguins. Here, flightless birds dive, swim, and waddle, or sometimes rest on the rocky beach.
Photo from MANDAI WILDLIFE GROUP
Visitors should not leave without seeing the Wings of the World presentation. This show is perfectly orchestrated and features mind-blowing bird theatrics. Its stars include Amigo, a yellow-naped Amazon Parrot who can sing — yes, sing — in three languages. According to Mandai, animals like Amigo are trained using positive reinforcement methods that promote respect for wildlife. And mind you, he is not only perfect-pitch — his diction is also impeccable.
For the show’s finale, flocks of birds from all over the world fly onto the center stage, giving a live-action extravaganza of colors, sounds, and energy that transcend the thrill of watching the intro of the Broadway version of “Lion King.”
Bird Paradise admission costs SG$48 for adults and SG$33 for children. Tickets are available here.
Photo from GINLEE STUDIO
Crafts: made in Singapore
In an ultra-modern city, what would make a fun workshop? For Ginlee Studio, it’s practicing the art of the fashionable pleat. Pleating, a tradition that has unfolded across cultures and generations, remains a delicate, meticulous process that births exquisite folds that exude luxury.
At Ginlee Studio, clients are involved in the processes of pleating, steaming, cutting the leather aglets, up to securing the fasteners in place.
Photo from GINLEE STUDIO
The studio calls this one-and-a-half-hour process “an antithesis against the mass, ready-made model of fast fashion,” which in turn minimizes waste. It’s a lesson in sustainability — which one can learn best from one of the world’s most liveable and sustainable cities.
The 1.5-hour workshop can be booked for about SG$80 through their website.
Photo from CHINATOWN SINGAPORE
Literature: made in Singapore
Singapore has a flourishing literary scene. It is the home of Penguin House in Southeast Asia, which brings local writing from the region to a wider audience, “breaking barriers of language and geographies,” in the process.
Bookstores here are teeming with Asian authors. Singapore has a mega-sized flagship store of Books Kinokuniya — that popular bookstore from Japan — which spans 38,000 square feet of retail space on one floor, and houses an extensive collection of more than 500,000 titles from all over the world.
For those seeking a reading space that's more quaint, there is Littered with Books, an indie bookstore housed in a conservation shophouse in Duxton Hill, Chinatown. While it is much smaller than the behemoth that is Kinokuniya, it has a well-curated selection of books, the likes of Muslim writer Rafia Zakaria’s “Against White Feminism” as well as “Missed Connections: Microfiction from Asia,” a hot-off-the-press anthology which features pieces from all over the continent, including books by Filipinos such as Jose Dalisay, Sarge Lacuesta, and Myrza Sison.
Books Kinokuniya Singapore’s flagship store is located at 391 Orchard Road, Takashimaya S.C., Ngee Ann City. Littered with Books is located at 20 Duxton Rd.
Photo from COOKERY MAGIC
Home-cooked meals: made in Singapore
Home cooks are not common in Singapore. A survey quoted by CNA showed that only 22% of Singaporeans cook at home daily. In the same article, cookbook author Pamelia Chia cites the affordability, convenience, and accessibility of hawker food as possible reasons for this, as well as the “evolving place of women.” She added: “As Singaporeans became more affluent, cooking started to be perceived as low-value work, something that you only did if you had no choice, otherwise relegated to domestic help.”
Ruqxana Vasanwala, the self-styled “food sorceress” of Cookery Magic, is on a mission to overturn this mentality. She invites guests into her own kitchen, where she teaches them how to whip up Asian dishes, before inviting them to a meal served on a tempeh leaf.
Photo from COOKERY MAGIC
Ms. Vasanwala hails from an Indian family who immigrated to Singapore in the ‘60s. “At five, I was peeling off recipes from Nestlé Ideal milk tins and pasting them into a scrapbook, and at seven, my parents finally let me into the kitchen to experiment,” she wrote on her website. “By the time I was a teenager, I was hosting dinner parties for friends at my house, dishing out aromatic chicken rice and piping hot laksa.”
The menu of her three-hour cooking classes varies, and the range of dishes is broad. For example, a menu last November featured Sri Lankan dishes such as spicy ladies fingers (okra), cashew nut curry, and fish curry. Another menu skewed Malay: nasi ulam (blue coloured rice infused with herbs), sambal kalapa ikan udang (coconut, fish and prawn sambal), sambal chili udang (dried prawns, and chili sambal), and ulam (assorted fresh salad). Pro-tip: Ms. Vasanwala’s sambal is out of this world.
Classes are priced at SG$120 and will only run if there are at least two bookings. To book a class, visit cookerymagic.com/book-a-class/.
Photo from THE DRAGON CHAMBER
Holes-in-the-wall: made in Singapore
Singapore is obsessed with eating out. Across its 734.3 square-kilometer land area, there are 286 restaurants within Michelin’s radar, and 55 are starred as of this year. But other than swanky fine dining restaurants, as well as the world-famous hawker centers, Singapore also boasts underrated holes-in-the-wall.
The Dragon Chamber is a speakeasy hidden behind a refrigerator at a kopitiam, and it’s not that easy to get in. One needs a prior booking, and has to wait for the hostess to confirm the passcode before she can let new guests in. Past the fridge is a narrow hallway that leads to another door, which then opens into the real Dragon Chamber. Here, reimagined Chinese dishes are served in modern blue and white china, against the backdrop of neon lights and murals bursting with color.
The menu offers not your typical Chinese takeout. There are Cheeseburger rolls (SG$16) — an American classic married with Chinese egg rolls. There’s also D*** Soup (SG$30), a chicken- and pork-based herbal soup double-boiled for six hours with a crocodile penis. Who needs Soup Number Five? The menu happily announces “You know you’re hungry for that D.”
Photo from THE DRAGON CHAMBER
A popular dish at The Dragon Chamber involves floating sheng mian noodles. The Soft Shell Crab with Hokkaido Scallop Crispy Noodles (SG$70) is served exactly as it has been described: propped up through the strength of its crisp noodles, with chopsticks floating mid-air. Upon service, the waiter ceremoniously pours the soup, softening the crispy noodles to ready it for devouring.
Photo from XIAO YA TOU
Another option for delicious modern Chinese food is Xiao Ya Tou. It is located in Duxton Hill, a charming neighborhood in Chinatown, and is only a few steps from Littered with Books. Xiao Ya Tou is super casual, but don’t be fooled by its simplicity: the food deserves five stars.
Photo from XIAO YA TOU
Try the Wok-Fried Wagyu Hor Fun (SG$34), which features MB4-5 wagyu striploin, onsen egg, truffle oil, pork lard, bean sprouts, sambal, shallots, shishito peppers, eggs, garlic chives, and spring onions. The Angus Beef Satay (SG$36) with kecap manis, cashew nut dip, achar, and crispy shallots is also worth ordering, as well as the Truffle Roast Duck (SG$32), which features dang gui herbs, orange peel, and coriander cress.
But really, all the dishes are flavorful, and something as simple as the Vegetarian Egg Fried Rice (SG$26) will leave diners picking up the very last grain with their chopsticks.
The Dragon Chamber is located at 2 Circular Rd. For reservations, visit sevenrooms.com. Xiao Ya Tou is located at 6 Duxton Hill. To reserve, go to chope.co.
Photo from TANGLIN GIN
Gin: made in Singapore
The Singapore Sling, the city-state’s national drink, traces its roots to colonial Singapore when it was concocted by Raffles bartender Ngiam Tong Boon sometime around 1910. The rosy gin-based cocktail reflects the enduring influence of Britain, and for the longest time, the gin was always imported. It wasn’t until 2018 that Singaporeans forayed into gin distillation.
Photo by TANGLIN GIN
Visits to Singapore’s first gin distillery at Tanglin Gin in Dempsey Hill begin with a walking tour and end with a gin tasting flight. The tour, priced at SG$49 per person, is an immersive experience of Singapore’s first locally distilled gin which combines facets of traditional Asia. It’s “not merely a bottle of Gin,” the brand insists, but “the Spirit of Singapore, distilled to perfection.” The citrus-forward drink (Singapore is a top orange exporter) contains mandarin orange, calamansi, and kaffir lime, as well as a plethora of ingredients from India, Malaysia and China, such as young ginger, dried chili seeds, cassia, and even angelica root which hails from traditional Chinese medicine.
Book a tour through their website.
Photo from NATIONAL GALLERY SINGAPORE
Modern art exhibitions: made in Singapore
Southeast Asia and Latin America have something in common: a history of colonialism. An ongoing exhibition titled “Tropical: Stories from Southeast Asia and Latin America” — the first of its kind — at National Gallery Singapore focuses on affinities between artists of these regions, featuring over 200 paintings, sculptures, drawings, performances and immersive installations by more than 70 artists. The exhibition’s sectional titles borrows from three legendary texts: “The Myth of the Lazy Native” by Syed Hussein Alatas, “This Earth of Mankind (Bumi Manusia)” by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, and “The Subversive (El Filibusterismo)” by José Rizal.
Photo from NATIONAL GALLERY SINGAPORE
“Tropical” embodies the gallery’s efforts to drive a greater understanding of Southeast Asian art, its histories, and connections to global art histories. It features the stories of artists and writers who “dared to threaten conventions, and fostered solidarities in the aftermath of colonialism.”
Tropical is on exhibit until the 24th of March 2024 at the City Hall Wing, Level 3, Singtel Special Exhibition Gallery and various locations around National Gallery Singapore. Book a ticket here.