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Singapore And The Experience Of Place In Old Age, Lily Kong, Brenda S. A. Yeoh, Peggy Teo Oct 1996

Singapore And The Experience Of Place In Old Age, Lily Kong, Brenda S. A. Yeoh, Peggy Teo

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Through case studies of two neighborhoods in Singapore with large concentrations of elderly residents-Tiong Bahru and Chinatown-we explore the relationship between the aged's emotional attachments to place and the sustenance of their personal identities, their continued participation in life, and their adaptation to changing circumstances. In particular, we examine their feelings of physical, social, and autobiographical insideness. We emphasize the rapidly changing physical conditions in Chinatown wrought by the government's conservation strategy and their implications for the elderly. In Tiong Bahru young people are moving to newer housing developments, leaving the aged behind in an essentially little-changed physical environment; we …


Ideology, Social Commentary And Resistance In Popular Music: A Case Study Of Singapore, Phua Siew Chye, Lily Kong Jun 1996

Ideology, Social Commentary And Resistance In Popular Music: A Case Study Of Singapore, Phua Siew Chye, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Popular music as a site of struggles over meaning is focused upon, where the social and political relations between different groups in Singapore society are mirrored. How ruling elites and everyday people make use of the same cultural form--popular music--for different purposes is examined.


Trading Networks Of Chinese Entrepreneurs In Singapore, Thomas Menkhoff, Chalmers E. Labig Apr 1996

Trading Networks Of Chinese Entrepreneurs In Singapore, Thomas Menkhoff, Chalmers E. Labig

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The entrenchment of entrepreneurs in local, regional, or global business networks based on kinship, clanship, territorial, or ethnic ties has often been cited as characteristic of Chinese business communities in Southeast Asia. Qualitative interviews with Singaporean Chinese merchant-exporters were conducted in order to examine this thesis. The findings reveal that there is a strong tendency among Chinese entrepreneurs in Singapore to rely on external commercial relationships with ‘outsiders’ and ‘friends’ rather with those related by blood or marriage. It is suggested that kinship reciprocity may under some circumstances curb the autonomy and freedom of the transacting actors, thus limiting their …


Popular Music And A Sense Of Place In Singapore, Lily Kong Jan 1996

Popular Music And A Sense Of Place In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper illustrates how popular music written, produced, and performed by Singaporeans provides a means through which the culture and society of Singapore may be understood. Music with English language text conveys a sense of place and reflects a distinctively Singaporean spirit and identity. The paper examines four themes: the portrayal of Singapore's multiracial population which reflects a unique cultural synthesis; the Singaporeans' concept of urbanity, manifested as the simultaneous attraction and repulsion towards the city and the desire for nature and the rustic; the distinctive social engineering in Singapore; and the way in which global issues are imported into …


Making "Music At The Margins"? A Social And Cultural Analysis Of Xinyao In Singapore, Lily Kong Jan 1996

Making "Music At The Margins"? A Social And Cultural Analysis Of Xinyao In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Formalist critics and aestheticians have argued that music does not possess any kind of "extra-musical" significance, that there is no meaning beyond the form and structural relations of the notes. For them, music exemplifies the laws of mathematical harmony and proportion rather than the social and political contexts within which it is produced, reproduced and consumed. This view has been challenged by a number of social theorists: Max Weber, Theodor Adorno and Edward Said have all argued for an understanding of music within its social, cultural, economic and political contexts. Such analysis of popular music is now unquestioned. Indeed, it …