So Singapore decides to stage its own Songkran Water Festival at the Padang. The Thais have nothing to worry about though, because the Singapore version will be devoid of the spirit, joy and community inherent in the original. Part of Singapores position as some weird money-flushed Southeast Asian hub is its appropriation of cultural products which it does not own (even within Singapore the Peranakans are famous for appropriating Malay kuih and claiming it as their own). The Singapore Songkran will be nothing more than commercialised kitsch--imitation minus tradition--but well-packaged and well-marketed kitsch. Singapores Songkran will be zoned, ticketed, yet another demonstration of licensed revelry, where fun is corralled by those ubiquitous metal barriers, which are the symbols of the real Singapore. This is no different from the Pink Dot Carnival, watched over by surveillance cameras at Hong Lim Park, or Chingay Parade floats accompanied by police motorcades. And on the Padang, people will squirt and splash water at one another, and squeal and laugh, and their faces will be contorted into those expressions found on a Yue Minjun canvas, the kind of mass happiness one sees in the spiritual vacuum of a capitalist-totalitarian state. If one wanted to experience the real, organic Songkran, with ritual cleansing of Buddha statues and spontaneous songs and dances, one would be better off avoiding the Padang and heading over to the Golden Mile Complex.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 09:37:00 +0000
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