ALL
Traditional Food
ICH Materials 4
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SINGAPO人—Discovering Chinese Singaporean Culture through Food, Festivals, and LanguageSingapore is a tiny Southeast Asian nation-state located in a region with many ethnic groups, of which the Chinese comprise only a small percentage of the overall population. Yet, the Chinese form the majority in Singapore, living alongside a significant proportion of non-Chinese. Over many years, this has led to a Chinese Singaporean identity that is complex and ever-changing.\n\nIn 2020, the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre launched a permanent exhibition to encourage greater appreciation of the distinctiveness of Chinese culture in Singapore through examples of food, festivals, and languages. For the exhibition title to reflect Singapore’s linguistic diversity, the curators invented a word by combining English and Mandarin—the two most widely spoken languages in Singapore. The first element of the title “Singapo” is drawn from the country’s English name while the “人” element is the Chinese character for “person” (pronounced as “ren” in Mandarin). Hence, by reading the two elements together, the exhibition title “ SINGAPO人” sounds like “Singaporean!”\n\nTo provide the context, the exhibition begins with an examination of five key historical socio-geographical aspects about Singapore that led the local Chinese community to develop differently. They comprised the legacy of 150 years of British colonial rule, its location in tropical Southeast Asia, heritage of early Chinese migrants who were mostly from the southern coastal provinces of Fujian and Guangdong, the co-existence of a relatively large proportion of non-Chinese minorities, and Singapore’s reliance on global trade and connectivity for its economic survival.\n\nThese five aspects may be summarized into three basic driving forces that have shaped and continue to shape the Chinese culture in Singapore today. Firstly, there is Chinese heritage, which the early migrants brought to Singapore. These include their values (as reflected in festivals and practices), belief systems, language, customs, and food dishes that originated from China. Secondly, there are the cultural interactions among the different southern Chinese sub-groups (dialect groups) and between the Chinese community and the other ethnic groups in Singapore. These interactions ranged from the casual, such as attending to daily chores, to deeper levels of engagement, such as inter-marriage. These led to changes and adaptations to the way of life of the local Chinese. Thirdly, the Chinese community was also affected by how Singapore was governed. Whether during the colonial period or post-independence, all governments seek to shape society to achieve certain objectives. Hence, the impact of public policies and laws on cultural development is significant.\n\nIn other words, these are the three underlying key ingredients that give the Chinese Singaporean ‘recipe’ its distinct flavor. For instance, this is reflected in the way Chinese New Year is celebrated in Singapore. Firstly, the festival is a tradition that originated in China, and as such, is part of Chinese heritage (first ingredient). Although Chinese New Year does not coincide with the new year of the Gregorian calendar used in Singapore, it is nevertheless a public holiday and held in high regard by the local Chinese because it is a festival that emphasizes family togetherness and filial piety. Secondly, Singaporeans love to eat pineapple tarts and love letters during Chinese New Year. However, these snacks did not originate from China. Rather, they were made popular by the Peranakan (local-born) Chinese who often adopted Western techniques like the baking oven, and Western ingredients such as butter in their cuisine. This type of hybrid food is an example of cultural interaction (second ingredient) at work. Thirdly, during Chinese New Year, Singaporeans enjoy attending local festive events like Chingay and River Hongbao. These are large-scale public events organized by the state or state-sponsored organizations. This is an example of public policies (third ingredient) shaping the way in which Chinese New Year is celebrated in Singapore.\n\nHence, these three ingredients, found in many overseas Chinese communities, were present in the past and continue to exist in Singapore today. The influence of each ingredient varies with time, creating complex outcomes that shape Chinese Singaporean culture.\n\nFor more information about the exhibition SINGAPO 人, please refer to the SCCC website at: https://singaporeccc.org.sg/permanent-exhibition/\n\nPhotos 1~4 : The exhibition uses both physical and digital media content to engage visitors. © Low Sze WeeYear2021NationSingapore
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Mapping Out Singapore’s Hawker Centers with GoogleIn March 2019 Singapore submitted its nomination to inscribe its hawker culture onto the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Hawker culture in Singapore comprises hawker centers (community dining rooms), hawkers, and hawker food. It is a living heritage shared by those who prepare hawker food and those who dine and mingle over hawker food in hawker centers.\n\nAs part of the Singapore government’s ongoing efforts to safeguard Singapore’s hawker culture for future generations, the National Heritage Board (NHB), the National Environment Agency (NEA), and the Federation of Merchants’ Associations, Singapore (FMAS) have partnered with Google to document Singapore’s beloved hawker centers on Google Maps to make them discoverable to anyone looking for quality and affordable hawker food.\n\nThrough this public–private partnership, the parties involved hope to bring Singapore’s hawker culture into the digital age and help hawkers in Singapore establish their presence online through Google Maps and Search. The joint project also hopes to attract more customers and drive footfall to Singapore’s hawker centers, enabling the rest of the world to learn more about Singapore’s hawker culture.\n\nThe project comprises a collection of 360-degree imagery of Singapore’s hawker centers using Google Maps’ Street View that allows visitors to explore each hawker center to capture more accurate information about individual hawker stalls, such as name, stall number, and photographs. In addition, each hawker stall will receive a separate pin on Google Maps, showing its exact location within the hawker center, thereby allowing both local and visiting fans of Singapore’s hawker food to find their favorite stalls more easily.\n\nAccording to Mr. Lim Gek Meng, Vice-President of FMAS and Chairman of the Chinatown Complex Hawkers’ Association: “Finding your way through a hawker center can be confusing, especially at bigger centers such as Chinatown Market. This project is beneficial to the hawker community as it will help customers locate hawker stalls with ease. Hawkers will also be able to personalize their online presence to reach out to more customers, at no cost and with little effort.”\n\nAs these hawker centers are located all over Singapore, from downtown to residential estates, a team of Google operators will travel to every hawker center and use the new Street View Trekker to capture the required imagery. Mounted on a wearable backpack, the new trekker comprises a state-of-the-art 360-degree camera system that captures and produces high-resolution panoramic images every two seconds.\n\nGoogle’s team of operators will collect indoor imagery of all 114 hawker centers in Singapore, including Chinatown Complex, Geylang Serai Market, Tekka Market, Maxwell Food Centre, and Golden Mile Food Centre. The collection of imagery will be carried out in phases, and it is expected to be completed and launched on Google Maps by early 2020.\n\nPhoto : An operator carrying a Google Street View Trekker ⓒ Google, SingaporeYear2019NationSingapore
Open Archive 2
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Welcome~ Is this your first time with Yamari?
The picture above is of my family and me making Yamari (traditional typical Newari Bread) in Nepal 2019. It was midwinter, freezing cold morning. The majestic view of snowclad mountains seems refreshed after wakening up. Many trees were denuded of leaves and the lawn was covered in frost. I was wearing gloves and a woolen cap to escape from the cold, sitting in my yard drinking chiya (a traditional nepali tea) and enjoying the splendid morning view with my father. In the meanwhile, I heard my mother calling us to the kitchen. We went to the kitchen and saw my mother ready for making “Yamari”. She wanted us to give her our hands in making the “Yamari”. "Ya" means "to like'' and "mari" means "bread" in Newari language, which literally means “tasty bread”. Yamari is a steamed sweet bread made of rice flour (from the new harvest) dough, shaped like fig with ends like a fishtail and filled with chaku (a sweet made up of sugarcane, ghee, and nut, etc.) and sesame seeds. I was so excited because Yamari was one of my favorite foods which are eaten once a year, in the winter season only. I always wondered why it is made in winter only but not in other seasons. My mother explains, “Eating Yamari avoids the effects of cold winter. Our body gets weak in winter, so, to energize our body we eat chaku which is only made in winter”. However, nowadays it is becoming a popular snack and can be seen in city markets. My mother taught me how to make nice shaped Yamari. The closing part of it must be like the shape of the tail longer if possible because it is believed that the longer the tail is the longer the day will be, and night get shorter which means soon the winter will end. I followed my mother but failed several times. Some shaped round, some shaped semi triangle. After failing several times, I was able to make a beautiful Yamari (third picture). According to the Newari tradition, children including elders go to nearby houses door to door singing a special song and asking for Yamari on a full moon day known as the yamari full moon day. This event used to be real fun and memorable especially for children. However, today this tradition is gradually disappearing. Children and youngsters have no craze for Yamari like before. They are more interested in mobiles or computer games than in preserving their culture and tradition.
Nepal -
Pwo Navigator Initiation Ceremony, Yap, Micronesia
On a limited number of small coral atolls in the Central Caroline Islands, in Yap and Chuuk States in the Federated States of Micronesia, traditional navigation has been still actively practiced. This tradition, however, which has been succeeded by their ancestors for hundreds if not thousands of years, is sadly disappearing due to a lack of interest among the current generations of islanders. This video depicts a pwo initiation rituals for traditional navigators in Yap, Micronesia. A navigation school sponsored by the Yap Traditional Navigation Society was taught by a master navigator Ali Haleyalur from Lamotrek Atoll, who conducted the pwo ceremony. This video shows that the master of ceremonies initiated a navigator while he tied a coconut-leaf bracelet and an amulet to an initiate’s right wrist over lavalava-covered ceremonial bowl and intoned “bracelet for the navigator” chants. Then the master removed all the lavalavas, which were given to him by the initiates’ relatives, from the top of the bowl, and performed “tapping of the pounded breadfruit” chant, getting down on his hands and knees. After he took the initiates’ food from the bowl and put it in baskets, additional baskets of food were filled for 12 schools of navigators. After the pwo ceremony, a new navigator needs to attempt a solo voyage on his own to be considered a full-fledged navigator.
Micronesia