Retracing ‘Singapore Songlines’ through Orchard Road

2011. Online Article

co-written with Andrew Wade

The Polis Blog

Taking Singapore's Orchard Road as a linear slice of urban fabric, it may be read as representative of both the city-state's remarkable capacity for economic development and complete disregard for historical strata. In an awkward attempt to impose a blanket of elite market-driven exchange without the frayed edges and individual liberties of Western urban models, Singapore has stirred heated debate over its cultural authenticity. What is the genuine essence of a city that functions in a constant cultural grey zone, importing multinational corporations and citizens from abroad?

In the opening passage of “Singapore Songlines” — Rem Koolhaas’ seminal essay on the Westernization and runaway modernization of Singapore — he critically discusses the Singapore Model as the “Portrait of a Potemkin Metropolis ... or 30 Years of Tabula Rasa.” He points out that there is a “sense that no one in Singapore speaks any language perfectly”: The planning regime has kept pace with the rapidly growing population by perpetually uprooting, leading to a state of permanent cultural disorientation. “From one single, teeming Chinatown, Singapore has become a city with a Chinatown,” Koolhaas writes.