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Port of Call |
LAST UPDATE July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| June 1, 2005 |
Singapore – Cultural Exchange with Singaporean Families |
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| Masjid Sultan Mosque in Arab Street, one of Singapore’s ethnic neighborhoods. |
After rounding the tip of the Malay Peninsula, Peace Boat arrived at the cosmopolitan and multiethnic city-state of Singapore. Since independence from the UK in 1965, the government of Singapore has implemented strict policies in its commitment to bring order and efficiency to the country. While some policies have drawn objections such as government campaigns to define appropriate public and private behavior of the local population, other policies have been employed to ensure the basic needs of the local population such as the conversion of slum areas into affordable high-rise public housing. |
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| Rows of high-rise government built housing are a fixture of most Singapore’s neighborhoods. |
As Singapore has one of the highest population densities in the world with 7,641 persons per sq km, 80% of the local population lives in high-rise public housing projects built and managed by the government-operated Housing Development Board (HDB). HDB housing projects are categorized by neighborhood, number of rooms per flat, income of the applicant as well as other factors. All ethnic communities are eligible to submit an application to a HDB housing project of their choice, and applicants are given notice about a successful request after a ballot process. These large residential areas are located throughout the main island, and provide homes for Singapore’s ethnically diverse communities—Chinese, Malay and Indians. The coexistence of the different ethnicities living together within each project provides a venue for facilitation and understanding. |
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| Participants were introduced to Chinese customs and festivals by the Soh family. |
After a stroll through Arab Street, Peace Boat participants were invited to meet with two families—one of Chinese descent and the other of Malay descent—living in HDB housing. The neighborhood of Ang Moi with its convenient transit routes and shopping area is where the participants visited the Soh family at their HDB home. After being welcomed with traditional Chinese sweets, the participants were free to converse with the Soh family and learn about the general history of HDB housing. Mr. Yagi, a Japanese participant, noted that “the flats are similar to the danchi housing (public housing high-rises) in Japan” and he was surprised at the many similarities between Singapore and Japan in general. |
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| The Shazani family welcomed participants with traditional Malay sweets and introduced some Malay traditions. |
The next exchange with the Shazani family’s HDB home provided a different cultural experience for the participants, who were welcome with homemade Malay sweets and Malaysian tea. In contrast to Chinese families in Singapore, the Shazanis pointed out that Malays often have more children and thus larger families. In this regard, Malays and Chinese tend to have different needs when choosing a HDB housing project. For the Japanese participants, however, the diversity within the HDB housing projects was apparent when they walked through the hallways and heard Chinese, Malay, Tamil and English voices echoing in the hallways, reflecting the diversity of Singapore. |
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