Consuming Culture: Perception of Singapore Little India by Asian Youths

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Culture becomes an inevitable attraction in tourism that conjures up more meaning in touristic experiences. This paper will study the perception of the Singapore cultural heritage among the international students studying in the private educational institutions in Singapore. According to Douglas, Douglas and Derrett (2001, p. 114), cultural tourism concerns forms of tourism that relate to aspects of culture whether profiling culture, involving cultural experiences, learning about culture or participating in culture.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

Culture has become one of the main reason for travel.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Cultural tourism experiences differ from familiarity with cultural objects to immersion into the societal culture (Bourdieu, 1986). However, usually cultural tourism does not have any putative definition because of the complex nature of ‘culture’ (Alzua, O’Leary, & Morrison, 1998). The notion of cultural tourism may define in various forms depending on the perspective of the writer or researcher. For instance, according to Adams (1995), cultural tourism is a type of travel for personal enrichment. Whereas some researchers defined culture as the consumption of cultural services by the tourist, disregarding the motivation of travel (Foo, 1998; Hughes, 2002; McKercher, 2002).[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Nevertheless, cultural tourism involves the tourist to learn about the place history, the host community heritage and the way of their lives. It is also an involvement of any activity, or something that can offer an infinite experience (Zakaria, Salleh & Rashid 2014). Singapore exhibit signs of cultural homogeneity due to internationalisation, but they have had a history of exposure to outside influences and a fluid culture has emerged that is neither wholly Asian nor Western (Ang and Stratton, 1995).[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

The diversity of cultures in Singapore making it one of the most popular destination for tourist.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Tourism provides communal harmony with the host community through high intensity of cultural interactions. Due to cultural clashes, suppression, assimilation, domination and resistance, homogenization, heterogenization and hybridization (Netphokaew, 2004), tourists, especially youths, can build sustained relationship with the host communities by actively participating and experiencing other cultures. Singapore Little India is one of the cultural hubs in Singapore where youth tourist can easily mingle with the host community unlike in India due to language barrier.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Singapore little India is a vibrant historic area that exhibits the best of Singapore’s Indian community from lively culture to incredible shopping experiences (YourSingapore, 2016). During the colonial era, Indian migrant workers settled in this place which eventually became an ethnic neighbourhood. Today, Little India comprises with many shops selling from Indian artefacts and jewellery to diverse cuisines. A must see cultural attraction in modern Singapore, which defines the multicultural characteristics of the city with a contemporary twist. Festivals, food, places for worship, shopping, contemporary arts, traditional market and many other activities make this place as a cultural hub.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

Singapore little India is a vibrant historic area that exhibits the best of Singapore’s Indian community

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In this research, researcher focused on the TMC students studying hospitality and tourism courses in Singapore. TMC Academy has diverse Asian youth population from South Korea, China, Malaysia, Mongolia, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Laos and Cambodia. They are 18-25 years old, both male and female with length of stay in Singapore from one month to two years. Most of them never visited India and/or has very limited knowledge about Indian culture.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The data was collected by means of questionnaire and through observation. A mixed method approach was applied to conduct this research which eventually will be analysed. A significant portion of the analysis was dedicated towards the life of Asian youth studying in private education sector in Singapore. How they define culture and their perception of contemporary culture offered in Singapore Little India ethnic neighbourhood.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Written by: Mr Pinaki Dutta Dean, School of Tourism, Hospitality and Culinary Arts (TMC Academy) Pinaki@tmc.edu.sg

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References:

1. Adam, G. D. (1995), “Cultural tourism: The arrival of the intelligent traveller, Museum News, 74(6), 32–37.

2. Alzua, A., O’Leary, J., & Morrison, A. (1998), “Cultural and heritage tourism: Identifying niches for international travellers”, Journal of Tourism Studies, 9(2), 2–13.

3. Ang, I. and J. Stratton (1995), ‘Speaking (as) Black British: Race, nation and cultural studies in Britain’, In P. van Toorn and D. English (eds), Speaking positions: Aboriginality, gender and ethnicity in Australian cultural studies, Melbourne: Victoria University of Technology, pp 14-30.

4. Bourdieu, P. (1986), “The forms of capital” In: J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241–258), New York, NY: Greenwood.

5. Foo, L. (1998), “Cultural tourism in Australia: Characteristics and motivations”, Australian Tourism and Hospitality Research Conference, Australia: Gold Coast, Queensland.

6. Hughes, H. L. (2002), “Culture and tourism: a framework for further analysis”, Managing Leisure, 7(3), 164–175.

7. YourSingapore (2016) “Little India Singapore: History & Culture”, available at http://www.yoursingapore.com/see-do-singapore/places-to-see/little-india.html accessed on 4 Nov 2016.

8. McKercher, B. (2002), “Towards a classification of cultural tourists”, International Journal of Tourism Research, 4(1), 29–38.

9. Netphokaew, A. (July 6, 2004), “Cultural globalization. Matichon Daily” [in Thai] cited in Srisawad, P. and Ounvichit, T. (2016), “Innovating a constructivist learning model to instill cultural diversity respect into youths in a Thai tourism community”, Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences, Vol. 37 pp. 88-92.

10. Zakaria, A. Z., Salleh, I. H., & Rashid, M. S. A. (2014), “Identity of Malay Garden Design to be Promoted as the Cultural Tourism Product in Malaysia”, Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 153, 298-307.

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