Singapore Impressions

Singapore is like Shanghai without spitting.

Or pollution that clouds the sky. Or slums that crowd within two blocks of the most prominent commercial districts. Or overt censorship of news and expression, which people joke about but which is no laughing matter.

While Shanghai is a metaphorical island — one of four municipalities which report directly to China’s central government and not through a provincial capital — Singapore is literally an island; and it’s also, in fact, a self-governing city and country. And at one-sixth the population of Shanghai, Singapore seems more intimate…..yet Singaporeans are much less likely to violate each other’s personal space.

So actually, Singapore is not at all like Shanghai.  It was a first impression that didn’t survive two visits over three weeks.

When a small island contains an entire world-class city and nation, every inch of land is accounted for…..and in Singapore, much of that space is consumed with symbols not just of economic success but of ostentatious commercial excess.

Almost everything found elsewhere in the world is enlarged in Singapore. The Ferris wheel — called the Singapore Flyer — is two football fields tall and takes 45 minutes for a single revolution. Shopping zones are missing no prestige brand found anywhere on earth, and one — a complex of shops, theaters, casino, restaurants, gardens, hotel, museums, spa, event venue and convention/expedition center at Marina Bay, with dueling music, light and water shows — is four times larger than the four largest shopping malls in the USA combined.

Mexican and Italian restaurants, so common in every other major city we’ve visited, are rarer here…..in fact the Open Table app has no listings for Mexican restaurants; but otherwise, the sky is the limit —  literally  — for where restaurants can be found in Singapore, and for the fare they offer. Dining costs in Singapore are also sky-high…..a glass of a good New Zealand sauvignon blanc is a dollar a sip.

We enjoyed escaping high-rise buildings and traffic-filled avenues to walk Little India, the Arab district and Chinatown, all with narrower passages and lower structures — many  buildings echoing Singapore’s colonial past. We noted that the Indian and Arab sections seem to have further subdivided into separate areas for their different ethnic groups as well as for different trades…..jewelry in one block, carpets in another, hardware and home supplies in another and in yet another, silks (interspersed with imitations, my wife observed).

There is no apparent homelessness or panhandling in Singapore, and no obvious attempts to scam tourists. There is little litter, no graffiti, and both spitting and gum chewing are against the law. In most sections of Singapore, smokers are restricted to small posted areas. Singapore’s public transportation — which is both extensive and efficient — prohibits food and drink, and cell phone conversations are rare.

However, younger Singaporeans of wide ethnic diversity seem so consumed with their smart phones that they are prone to risk their safety or that of other pedestrians by failing to lift their eyes from their screens while moving through crowded sidewalks, shopping centers and subway passages. It appears as if they expect the rest of the world to move aside for them.

I wonder if that is an appropriate metaphor for modern Singapore, or just another inaccurate first impression.

JER