The (Mer)Lion Sleeps Tonight

Singapore

I debated long and hard whether to blog about Singapore. I was only there for a day and I spent that day at Universal Studios so I very well could have been in Florida instead of Asia. So even there I was only there for 10 hours, I figure it was worth giving Singapore its due. It is, after all, a very unique place. There are three major ethnic groups there: Chinese, Indian, and Malaysia and four official languages: Chinese, Tamil (an Indian language), Malay, and English. I found out that when determining the borders for Singapore and Malaysia, they divided things the way they did so that they would not have more Chinese people in Malaysia than Malay people.  Singapore itself is less than 50 years old and fought tooth and nail to rise from a third world country to a first world country in record time. So say what you will about this city state, but it really is something special.

The coolest thing about Singapore? The city’s mascot is a merlion. Yes, a mermaid lion. Its roots can be traced back to the city’s history as a fishing village. Hence the mermaid. The city’s most recent name, Singapura, means “the lion city.” Hence the lion. So there are giant merlions all over the city. And they’re awesome.

Universal was pretty great too. Just like Orlando except more diversity and worse food. (Turns out Chinese and Malay food is hard to translate into theme park food. Had we gone to a real restaurant outside the park, the food would have been fantastic. Go figure.)

At our post-port reflection, a time where folks on the ship gather to share about their experiences in each country, there was this sentiment that Singapore lacked culture. Yes it was modern, clean, more Western than we’d seen in awhile, and everyone spoke English, but does that mean they don’t have a culture? One student argued that all of these cultures melding together is, in and of itself, a culture. And I tend to agree. No place else that we’ve been has there been three distinct cultures that blend together to form one unique culture. This got me to thinking about the culture, or the lack there of, in the United States. I think there is this idea that we, as white middle class Americans, don’t have a defined culture. I think there are definitely arguments for and against that idea, but it is something interesting to think about.