A marketer once told me this: Oh, we put images of houses instead of HDB flats in the background as we want it to look like its from the US. And for the record, its an ad targeted to Singaporeans. Wherever you go, its almost common, and maybe a social norm, to hear this: Its a local product? Yucks. Lets look for one that is made in the US or Germany. Whenever my book is being recommended to others, some would say, Its a local book? Must be bad. Dont even try to read a word! Here we are, in the online community talking about Singapore Identity or Singapore belongs to Singaporeans, and there we are, relegating Singaporean products or services to an inferior circle. Of course, Im not referring to everyone. There are still a number of people supporting local products. In fact, I just met up with a few recently. Still, its not enough. Upon graduation from MOE schools (in which we should learn the correct English as we need to pass our examinations), some of us try to distance ourselves from Singlish. Some even put on a fake accent, not knowing that accent is something that is acquired and not learned. This dissociation is real—just look at the support given to Singaporean products. While you can argue that there is no supply of Singaporean product, leading to retailer not stocking them, think again—supply is determinate by demand. The reason why the shelf has got more overseas products isnt the retailers choice, but the end-consumers choice. In one of my university assignments, I have to do a basic research paper on literacy in Singapore. Well, since I have to do it, I might as well just do something related to my work. I opted to understand how many people (they must have read a novel in the last six months) have read a Singaporean work before, and why they support or dont support Singaporean works. Walking around my campus and asking the questions, I got the results that I have expected. Many (sorry, I cant remember the exact number!) have not read Singaporean works because they either cant find it, or think it is inferior. Of course, as I did my survey, I did not tell them I am a local novelist (Im heartened to know some of them read my books, though! ;)). And the best part of the paper? There IS supply of local works. Every book published in Singapore needs to be registered with NLB for a registration number known as ISBN, and the number is over 15,000 per year. I remember one of the people said this to me: Oh, yes, Ive read True Singapore Ghost Stories. Thats the only book published in Singapore, right? I never see any other in bookstores. Oh, man. Im not going move into movies, or even fast-moving consumer goods. While my research is not exhaustive and is merely an assignment, observation and hearsay would have proven, at least to a small degree, that point. What do you think? Please share and like this if youve enjoyed reading it! Can a female university grad marry an ITE grad? Read one of my novels, A Singapore Love Story (all my novels are in bookstores now), here: goodybooks/asingaporelovestory.htm
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 13:40:00 +0000
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