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Ferraris, private jets, and Swarovski diamonds: just a few images that have come to represent the lifestyle of the ultra-rich in one of the newest internet crazes. The movie Crazy Rich Asians (2018) showcases these luxurious pastimes of established wealth in Singapore, only slightly elaborating on its portrayals of casual ruby shopping and island hopping. What the movie fails to mention are issues like income inequality leading to 73 percent of the nation’s wealth staying within the top 20 percent of income-earning households. Enter Yuan Jun Chee (or YJ, as he prefers to be called), a senior at Tufts studying international relations. A native Singaporean himself, YJ uses the model of Crazy Rich Asians as a jumping off point for deeper discussions into international representations of Singapore in the media throughout his course, Crazy Rich Asians? An Introductory Spotlight on Singapore.
Despite its flashy appearance in the movie, Singapore hosts a diverse range of peoples and customs apart from the billionaire lifestyle. “Coming from Singapore, I feel like a lot of people know of Singapore and have definitely seen it in the media but they may not necessarily have a complete picture of Singapore the city-state,” YJ said. “One of the main criticisms coming out of Singapore about Crazy Rich Asians was that it wasn’t reflective of how people understood Singapore. My personal take is that it shouldn't be seen as a true representation of Singapore, but the fact that the movie is largely set there will naturally lead to people drawing conclusions about Singaporean life.”
Still, the film is a fitting entrée into larger investigations on Singaporean culture that cannot be portrayed within a fictional screen narrative. Beginning with an overview of Singapore’s history, the course addresses a range of issues including past tensions with British colonial rule and current questions of racial and economic equality. As YJ explains: “The first part of the course looked at Singapore and its history, because I think that sets the stage for some of the things that establish how their society is today.” One such issue includes overrepresentation of Chinese (the so-called “chinese privilege”) present within upper Singaporean society, as highlighted in the choice of actors for Crazy Rich Asians. YJ notes that although individuals of Chinese descent do form a substantial portion of the Singaporean population, there is little treatment of other races, such as south Asians or Malays, within media surrounding Singaporean culture. Thus, YJ draws on a plethora of multimedia sources for his course, including another famous Singaporean film, Ilo Ilo (2013), which seeks to portray the popular practice of employing foreign domestic workers in Singaporean society.
Apart from social and historical problems, YJ dedicates the last portion of his course towards embracing the unique elements of Singaporean culture. When I visited their class last week, students were discussing classic Singaporean cuisine over a sampling of popular dishes like Hainanese chicken rice and water spinach. Other aspects YJ highlights about Singapore: the distinctive national service system, and the puzzling dialect of “Singlish.”
For some students, this class is the first look at Singapore as a culturally distinct social entity; for others who call Singapore home, this course offers a broader international perspective on Singaporean life. Regardless, YJ hopes his students will learn to approach international relations as a symbiotic system of exchange. “I think it’s interesting to always look at other countries as case studies, to ask what solutions other countries have to our problems and what are some lessons that we can take away from that,” YJ said. “This works the other way around too for Singaporeans in the class, who can learn from looking at Singapore in a different environment with peers who don’t know the country as well as they do. I hope that everyone will eventually have such an opportunity to think and reflect on Singapore at some point, as we do in this class.”
About the Author
Emma Hodgdon is a senior studying English literature. Apart from reading Gothic fiction, she can be found practicing cello for the Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, or dancing with the university’s ballroom dance team. She spends her free time experimenting with calligraphy, learning to speak Chinese, and caring for her succulents, Verotchka and Geraldine.