World City Guide

Culture

Culture and religion remain entwined in Singapore, far more than in the West. Throughout the year, a constant stream of festivals and celebrations in the streets and temples reflect the diverse beliefs and backgrounds of this multicultural society, comprising of Buddhists, Taoists, Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Sikhs. The Chinese calendar dominates and the Chinese New Year is the biggest festival of all, where everything shuts for several days.

The city’s art scene reflects the flavours of the region, with Malay, Chinese and Indian performances, art and music. Mainstream performing arts are also well represented, culminating in the Singapore Arts Festival, held every June, which attracts international dance, theatre and music groups. Performers from overseas tend to be heavily oversubscribed and tickets should be booked well in advance; local performers are easier to see. Popular events also include local productions of Broadway hits. Free musical and theatrical performances are held regularly in local parks.

Singapore is a good place to view and purchase local and Asian art and its cultural diversity means that local artists cover a broad palette of themes and styles. Notable galleries include the Singapore Art Museum, Bras Basah Road (tel: 6332 3222; website: www.nhb.gov.sg); Artfolio, Raffles Hotel (tel: 6334 4677; fax: 6333 5215; e-mail: info@artfolio.com.sg; website: www.artfolio.com.sg); Art2 at The Substation, Armenian Street (tel: 6337 7535 or 7800; fax: 6337 2729; e-mail: admin@substation.org; website: www.substation.org) specialises in contemporary works; and the galleries on the ground floor of the Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts, MITA Building, 140 Hill Street (tel: 6270 7988; e-mail: mica@mica.gov.sg; website: www.mica.gov.sg).

Local newspapers (the biggest English-language paper is the Straits Times) carry lists of daily events, and both IS and BC magazines are free publications with good listings and reviews for exhibitions, dance, art and music. Additional information can be obtained from the National Arts Council (tel: 6746 4622; fax: 6837 3017; website: www.nac.gov.sg) or through the Singapore Tourism Board. Tickets can be booked through Sistic (tel: 6348 5555; website: www.sistic.com.sg) or Ticketcharge (tel: 6296 2929; fax: 6296 9897; e-mail: purchase@ticketcharge.com.sg; website: www.ticketcharge.com.sg).

Music: The Singapore Symphony Orchestra (tel: 6338 1230; fax: 6336 6382; e-mail: ssonet@singnet.com.sg; website: www.sso.org.sg) gives performances every Friday, Saturday and some Sundays at the Victoria Concert Hall, Empress Place (tel: 6338 6125; fax: 6333 0041; website: www.vch.org.sg), and the Esplanade Concert Hall (tel: 6828 8222; fax: 6337 3633; e-mail:corporate@esplanade.com; website: www.esplanade.com) as well as open-air concerts. Founded in 1979, the SSO bridges Asian and Western music and has a growing, if still fragile, reputation. The Singapore Chinese Opera (tel: 6440 3839; website: www.sco.com.sg) performs Chinese opera at its headquarters, the Singapore Conference Hall, 7 Shenton Way (tel: 6440 3839; fax: 6557 2915; website: www.sch.org.sg). Singapore Lyric Opera, Waterloo Street (tel: 6336 1929; fax: 6337 1706; e-mail: e-mail@singaporeopera.com.sg; website: www.singaporeopera.com.sg), usually performs Western classical pieces, occasionally fusion, at assorted venues.

Theatre: Local groups are extremely energetic in producing contemporary theatre with an Asian flavour, reflecting Singapore’s ethnic diversity. The newest and largest venue for performing arts, The Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, 1 Esplanade Drive (tel: 6828 8222; fax: 6337 3633; e-mail:corporate@esplanade.com; website: www.esplanade.com), is a waterfront complex containing a concert hall, recital studio, two theatres and an art gallery. Some of the more prolific theatre companies include: Singapore Repertory Theatre, Cecil Street (tel: 6221 5585; fax: 6221 1936; e-mail: office@srt.com.sg; website: www.srt.com.sg), showcasing at the DBS Arts Centre, 6 Shenton Way; TheatreWorks (tel: 6338 4077; fax: 6338 8299; e-mail: tworks@singnet.com.sg; website: www.theatreworks.org.sg), based at the Black Box in Fort Canning Centre, Cox Terrace Fort, Canning Park; and Wild Rice (tel: 6292 2695; fax: 6292 2249; e-mail: info@wildrice.com.sg; website: www.wildrice.com.sg). The Substation, 45 Armenian Street (tel: 6337 7535 website: tel: 6337 7535 or 7800; fax: 6337 2729; e-mail: admin@substation.org; website: www.substation.org), shows modern, experimental drama.

Dance: Ecnad Project (tel: 6226 6404; e-mail: info@ecnad.org; website: www.ecnad.org), is a young professional performing arts group, renowned for its cutting-edge, dynamic performances, and based at the Telok Ayer Performing Arts Centre in Cecil Street. The Singapore Dance Theatre (tel: 6338 0611; fax: 6338 9748; e-mail: ticketing@singaporedancetheatre.com; website: www.singaporedancetheatre.com) performs classical dance and ballet and based at Fort Canning Centre, Cox Terrace Fort, Canning Park. One of the city’s most popular events is their Ballet Under the Stars, held twice a year at Fort Canning Hill.

Film: The annual Singapore International Film Festival in April (website: www.filmfest.org.sg) features documentaries and films from around the globe, in addition to other foreign film festivals throughout the year. The Starlight Cinema festival (website; www.starlightcinema.com) is a one-month season of outdoor screenings in Fort Canning Green, from mid-June. Mainstream films, predominantly Hollywood blockbusters, are highly popular and often sold out.

Singapore’s main cinemas for English language films include Cathay Orchard, 8 Grange Road, and Cathay Causeway Point, 1 Woodlands Square (tel: 6235 1155; fax: 6735 8389; website: www.cathay.com.sg); Lido, Shaw House, 350 Orchard Rd; Bugis, Parco Bugis Junction; Balastier, 360 Balastier Road, Prince/Jade, Shaw Tower, 100 Beach Road (all at tel: 6738 0555; website: www.shaw.com.sg); and Golden Village, 68 Orchard Rd (tel: 1900 912 1234; website: www.gv.com.sg). There are no art cinemas, but the Alliance Française, Sarkies Road (tel: 6737 8422; fax: 6733 3023; website: www.alliancefrancais.org.sg), screens mainstream and alternative French films every Tuesday.

Cultural Events: Singapore’s calendar of cultural events is a mix of traditional religious festivals and contemporary showcases for the arts. In January, Hindus celebrate Thaipusam, a time of devotion, penance and thanksgiving; although this is outshone by the celebrations at Lunar New Year, highlight of the Chinese calendar (Jan/Feb) where the streets of Chinatown are brimming with parades, lights, decorations and dragon dances. Vesak Day, in May, honours the birth, enlightenment and death of Sakyamuni Buddha. The annual Singapore Dragon Boat Festival in June sends fishermen in search of the Chinese poet and patriot, Qu Yuan. National Day Celebration on 9 August is the anniversary of Singapore’s independence, with a huge parade before thousands of spectators. The month-long Festival of the Hungry Ghost (Aug to Sept) is one of the biggest Chinese festivals, when sumptuous banquets and Chinese street operas are held. The Lantern Festival in September sees children pour into the Chinese Garden with colourful paper lanterns. The Hindu festival Deepavali (Oct/Nov) marks the victory of good over evil, with the temples in Little India, decorated with fairy lights and garlands. Muslims celebrate Hari Raya Puasa to mark the end of Ramadan (the month of fasting), in October/November.

Throughout the year there are many cultural events showcasing the arts. These include the Singapore Arts Festival in June, with music, dance and drama from local and international performers; WOMAD, which takes over Fort Canning Park for three days in August; ARTSingapore, which showcases contemporary art from South-East Asia, and the Singapore Music Festival. The Singapore Film Festival, usually in April, continues to try and make cultural headway in a heavily censored society, which would rather give its attention to the Great Singapore Sale, the annual shopping bonanza, in May/June. Both www.sg (the website of the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts) and www.visitsingapore.com (Singapore Tourism Board) are good, reliable sources for up-to-date information and events listings.

Literary Notes: ‘When in Singapore, feed at Raffles.’ It was a good piece of marketing for the hotel by Rudyard Kipling, who came to Singapore after leaving India in 1889. In fact, Kipling spoke of ‘a place called Raffles Hotel, where the food is as excellent as the rooms are bad’.

Raffles has, for over a century, been fertile writing ground for many authors, including Hermann Hesse, Joseph Conrad, Noel Coward, Somerset Maugham and James Michener – and in their honour the Writer’s Bar was named. More than any other, Somerset Maugham sought inspiration on several visits to the island. His short stories of Singaporean colonial life include The Outstation, Yellow Streak, The Casuarina Tree (1926), and the controversial The Letter (1927), the real-life murder of her lover by a rubber planter’s wife.

More recently, Singapore’s story is told through the man mainly responsible for its success; the former Prime Minister and now Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, grandson of a Hakka coolie from China. His memoirs From Third World to First – The Singapore Story (2000) recount the events leading up to Singapore’s Independence, from British colonial rule through Japanese occupation and Communist insurrection. Defending the Lion City (2000) by Tim Huxley is the first-ever major study of the Singapore Armed Forces and analyses its military strategy, outlook and policies.

Prominent contemporary Singaporean novelists include Hwee Hwee Tan, whose Foreign Bodies: A Novel (1999) tells of an authoritarian state in which three rootless friends become implicated in an international soccer gambling syndicate. Mammon Inc. (2001), her latest novel, is a cutting satire of our times. A very different Singapore is portrayed in Catherine Lim’s The Bondmaid (1997), set in the 1950s, which paints a picture of a Singapore entwined with its Chinese roots, traditions and beliefs. Two popular recent reads are Got Singapore (2002), a collection of articles and stories by journalist Richard Lim, with a personal and humorous testimony about his experiences from the 1960s to the 1980s. In Notes from an Even Smaller Island (2002), Neil Humphreys dissects the culture and lifestyle of Singapore from an ex-pat’s viewpoint.