scholarly journals Singapore Cinema in Search of Identity

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonne Ng
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Developing Country ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Film Production ◽  
Economic Prosperity ◽  
British Colony ◽  
The Government ◽  
City State ◽  
Film Making ◽  
The City

IT HAS BEEN TEN YEARS SINCE FILM PRODUCTION IN SINGAPORE WAS REVIVED IN 1991 after being dormant for almost two decades. At the time, in the 70s and 80s, the city-state was probably the only country in Southeast Asia without a film-making industry of its own. Then again, it hadn't been an independent republic for very long. A former British colony, it became self-governing in 1959. Following a short-lived association with the Federation of Malaysia, the city found itself a fully independent and sovereign nation in 1965. For the next twenty years, the government devoted itself to the task of nation-building and the challenge of changing the island's status from a developing country to that of a newly industrialised one. By the start of the 90s, it was clear that the goal of economic prosperity had been achieved. At the same time, it was equally obvious that in...

Economic and Strategic Trends in Southeast Asia

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heng Yee-Kuang
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
International System ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Economic Prosperity ◽  
City State

The tiny Southeast Asian city-state of Singapore has a reputation for adroit and nimble diplomacy, built upon an ingrained desire to overcome its vulnerability by maintaining its strategic relevance and economic prosperity in an international system that is seen as essentially anarchic. As its neighborhood experiences major shifts in the strategic and economic domains, Singapore finds itself once again having to strike a balance between getting out of harm’s way and capitalizing on opportunities.

The production of a new Eurasian capital on the Kazakh steppe: Architecture, urban design, and identity in Astana

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 590-605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard Köppen
Keyword(s):  
Urban Design ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Economic Prosperity ◽  
The South ◽  
Regional Center ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Contemporary Architecture ◽  
The City

In December 1997, the Republic of Kazakhstan officially proclaimed that the city of Astana would be its new capital. The decision to transfer the seat of government from the city of Almaty in the south to the more centrally located Astana was connected to the process of nation building in a multi-ethnic society where the titular nation represents little more than half of the population. Efforts to transform the rather remote regional center, Akmola (later renamed Astana) into a modern capital city have been underway since the late 1990s. One important component of this transformation is the idea of building a “metabolic” and sustainable “Eurasian” city. As the symbolic center of the whole country, this new capital would function as a showpiece of Kazakh culture and identity. The city would also become a symbol of economic prosperity and the regime's geopolitical vision. While the government's intensions are expressed rather openly, it remains unclear to what extent these politically verbalized leitmotivs are actually being realized through contemporary architecture and structure. This article offers a critical assessment of what has been achieved to date and argues that the production of the new Kazakhstani capital has often failed to translate rhetoric into reality.

Rice Exports: A New Dimension in China's Economic Relations with Southeast Asia

1979 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 451-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Wong
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Rice Production ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Annual Output ◽  
City State ◽  
The City ◽  
Southeast Asian Countries

China has long been the world's largest producer of rice, with an annual output regularly accounting for a third of the world's total rice production. In recent years, China has also risen to become the world's largest rice exporter, with a volume coming close to a third of the world's total exported rice. The bulk of the Chinese rice exports are destined for the rice-consuming Southeast Asia, including Vietnam. Among the five Southeast Asian countries, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, which today constitute the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), only Thailand produces a food surplus while the others have to import rice in amounts which, with the exception of the city-state Singapore, vary each year according to their domestic rice harvests.

Merlion Park Sebagai Objek Wisata Utama Di Singapura

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahmi Shintia
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Number Of Visits ◽  
The Government ◽  
The City ◽  
Main Attraction

Singapore as one of the smallest countries in Southeast Asia. Nevertheless, Singapore has tourism major that has an impact on the economy of the country because of the government and its people who are willing to cooperate in maintaining the environment and comfort, there is no wonder that Singapore has become a friendly country for foreign tourists. A landmark interpreted as something of a bookmark or something that is easily seen and known has a connection with Merlion or often we hear by calling Merlion Park in Singapore. Merlion Park is well known among the world's tourists. The lion-headed fish statue as a symbol of the city of singapore become the main attraction. Merlion Park is one of the definite tourist spots introduced in every visit to Singapore and has a large number of visits.

scholarly journals Singapore: The Politics of Inventing National Identity

2009 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 23-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Ortmann
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Asian Values ◽  
Time Average ◽  
The Government ◽  
The City

This study wants to shed new light on the politics of Singapore's national identity invention. Since independence in 1965, the Singaporean government has tried to generate a sense of national identity in Singapore. While at first, the priority was on pragmatic values to promote the economic development, this changed in the late 1980s when the government became concerned with the widespread materialism within the society. As an alternative, so-called Asian values sought to provide an ideological alternative and a new basis for a stronger national identity. At the same time, average Singaporeans have developed their own unique conceptions of the city-state's national identity, which sometimes contradict the official nation-building efforts and thus constitute a subtle form of opposition. Many Singaporeans demand greater participation in the negotiation of their Singaporean identity, which demonstrates the difficulty of constructing a sustainable authoritarian civic national identity.

Love the Tree, Love the Branch: Beijing's Friendship with Lee Kuan Yew, 1954–1965

2019 ◽  
Vol 242 ◽  
pp. 550-572
Author(s):  
Philip Hsiaopong Liu
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Overseas Chinese ◽  
Chinese Policy ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
City State ◽  
The City

AbstractChinese national identity has long been considered to have been an obstacle to Singapore's nation-building efforts. This is mainly because China was suspected of using its ethnic links to encourage Singapore's communist rebellions during the 1950s and 1960s as Lee Kuan Yew was working towards establishing the city state. This study reviews Lee's exchanges with Beijing and argues that he gave China the impression that he was building an anticolonial, pro-China nation. Beijing therefore responded positively to Lee's requests for support. Reiterating its overseas Chinese policy to Lee, Beijing sided with him against his political rivals and even acquiesced in his suppression of Chinese-speaking “communists.” In addition, China boosted Lee's position against Tunku Abdul Rahman, supported Singapore's independence and lobbied Indonesia to recognize the territory as a separate state. China thus actually played a helpful role in Singapore's nation building.

scholarly journals Interview with Singapore Film Director Ken Kwek

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Uhde
Keyword(s):  
Kindergarten Teacher ◽  
Film Production ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Pornographic Film ◽  
City State ◽  
The City

INTERVIEW WITH SINGAPORE FILM DIRECTOR KEN KWEKKen Kwek is a Singapore filmmaker whose fresh satirical comedy Sex.Violence.FamilyValues (2012) stirred the relatively calm waters of the city-state’ s film production. It consists of three stories: “Cartoons,” “Porn Masala” and “The Bouncer”. In “Cartoons”, a mother is called by the kindergarten teacher concerning the drawings of her son; the “Porn Masala” is about the shooting of a pornographic film about a middle-aged Indian man having sex with a young virgin; in “The Bouncer”, a nightclub bouncer becomes anxious when he realizes his daughter is about to perform as a pole dancer there. The three stories challenge, through irony and unexpected twists of the plot, some conventional per- ceptions of contemporary Singapore society. Apparently misunderstood by some, the movie was banned in Singapore after its scheduled premiere in October 2012, but was eventually re-released in March 2013. ...

scholarly journals The Colony of Aden in Post-Colonial Yemeni Novel

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-50
Author(s):  
Mikhail N. Suvorov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Economic Prosperity ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
British Colony ◽  
External Forces ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The City

In many Arab countries, where colonial rule was replaced by local authoritarian, often corrupt, regimes, popular discontent with the living conditions under the new government has produced a kind of nostalgia for the colonial past. This nostalgia is well observed in today’s Aden (Republic of Yemen), which was a British colony from 1839 until 1967. In the middle of the 20th century, Aden was the most prosperous city on the Arabian Peninsula and one of the busiest seaports in the world. This article examines how this nostalgia is manifested in modern Yemeni literature, namely in three novels: Three Midnighters (1993) by Sa‘id Awlaqi, Adeni Incense (2014) by Ali al-Muqri, and Steamer Point (2015) by Ahmad Zayn (Zein). In the novel Three Midnighters, which takes place in the late 1980s, the allegory of Aden Colony is a cultural club, whose activities are remembered by the characters. The main characteristics of that club were its openness to all people, its atmosphere of freedom of thought, freedom of expression, mutual respect of its members, prosperity, love, and fun. In Adeni Incense, Aden Colony also resembles a wonderful club. The members of this club, that is, the characters of the novel, live in harmony, love, and prosperity — until evil external forces begin to destroy this club. The lack of realistic details in the depiction of the city and its inhabitants allows the reader to perceive the novel as allegorical rather than realistic. In Steamer Point, Aden Colony does not appear as a wonderful club, since the novel is written in a completely realistic manner. Nevertheless, Aden in the novel has two important features: the economic prosperity and peaceful coexistence of representatives of different cultures and different identities. It is these features of the city that one of the main characters, a sincere admirer of the British, is afraid to lose as a result of the British withdrawal.

London within England: A City State?

2018 ◽  
pp. 207-226
Author(s):  
Tony Travers
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Large Population ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
Economic Success ◽  
Begging The Question ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Government ◽  
City State ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The City

London, by virtue of its large population, has long been the dominant city within the UK. It has had a number of forms of government since the mid-19th century including, most recently, the creation of a mayor and assembly (the Greater London Authority (GLA)). This post-2000 system created a form of devolution within England, albeit a more limited one than in Scotland and Wales. The office of Mayor of London is now well established and has delivered a number of significant policy changes since inception. On occasion, the mayor has proved sufficiently powerful to prevail over the Government. London’s difference and economic success has led people in other parts of the country to feel that perhaps the capital is over-dominant and problematic. Londoners themselves feel a sense of difference, begging the question of how far the city could move towards further devolution or even to become a separate ‘city state’.

Political Change and Civil Society Coalitions in Singapore

2013 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Ortmann
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Change ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Past ◽  
Significant Step ◽  
The Government ◽  
City State ◽  
The City

In the past few years, a number of civil society coalitions have emerged in the illiberal city-state of Singapore. They are the unintended result of a controlled process of liberalization which was initiated by the government in the 1990s in response to growing demands for participation. In particular, the internet has contributed to a more assertive, independent and better organized civil society, which can be seen as a significant step in the process of political change in the city-state.

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