Heck. Singapore wasnt even a nation 50 years ago. Before then it was a british colony, and before then it was a sleepy malay fishing village. Dont you have a statue of Raffles sitting somewhere around the cbd. I dont find that very cultural.

Andrew is right. There are no louvre or tate museums, or las vegas strips, or tokyos ginza shibuya and aikhabara, nys apollo theathres, hollywood, or australias surfer paradise, vaticans cities, amsterdams red light districts and coffeehouses. There are no imperial palaces or ancient temples or monuments. All there is , as Andrewhas seen is, a bird park, a zoo, maybe sentosa and what comes after those generic zoos and parks that you get everywhere else in the world are endless swatches of mcdonalds, giordanos, starbucks, starhubs and endless shopping bags and shopping malls. There is no sense of richness of life , of heritage, of tradition or a way of life. Those catalogues you get at Changi airport sure make it seem very lively and rich, with what ? orangutans and elephants imported from malaysia and india, reclaimed beaches that if you dig deep enough are plastic barriers ?

As for the food you’ve pointed out, they are just a collection of cuisines you get from around the region. It is mainly either chinese, malay or indian or a hybrid of it. Calling it ’singaporean’ food is a misnomer, as i can call it ‘malaysian’ food as well, you cant do the same for japanese, or korean or chinese food.. You cant lump those cuisines together and call them singaporean and make it your own. Given there is a rich variety of food you are able to get in singapore and singaporeans are food loving, that doesnt make chinese, malay or indian food magically turn singaporean. Are you going to start calling french fries, singapore fries ?

As for saying that singapore is small. First of if you think that singapore doesnt have much compared to america in terms of culture and heritage, then maybe you shouldnt even be comparing in the first place. second. places like bali exist where they have a rich local tradition and culture that continues and exist today. HK which is similar to singapore in size, population and heritage both being a british colony also have a thriving HK film industry to call their own and a massive buddha thats been around for a while

If theres anything you can call culture, it would be phua chu kang, or singlish. There is also a strong internet blogging culture in singapore. But other than that, its pretty much all just work and spend. All there is, is a rampant excess of globalization and commercialization in the form of consumerism expressed in the endless shopping malls and shopping bags.

Andrew was right in everyway to criticize the lack of culture in singapore and is justified as to why as a traveller and tourist, he wouldnt go back. And i understand why he wanted to go thailand in the first place and why he was disappointed with Singapore.

All i see here on your part is blatant nationalism and snobbishness when you actually have nothing much to be proud of.

Incidentally, when you mention food, then that is a totally different ball-game. For example, I was in Italy for one whole month 2 years ago, and I think I only scratched the surface in eating and understanding of real Italian food. Coming back to Singapore, there is definitely unique Singapore food which you unfortunately did not have the chance to try when you were here. Unknown to you, there are actually restaurants serving Singapore food in many other parts of the world, including California in USA.

Remember that comparing the global impact of USA and Singapore, culturally and food-wise, it is like comparing an elephant to a mouse. Singapore is a country that is only 250 sq miles in size and with a population of about 6 million. Anyway, I do not blame you for not being aware of Singapore food, as I am aware that many people (fortunately I’m not one of them, as I have been around) think that American food consists of only hamburgers, french fries and hotdogs.

Finally, you have really stirred up an hornet’s nest with your blog comments, as they were highlighted in a local blogger’s newsletter ;-
http://tomorrow.sg
therefore please check out the comments if you dare, or are interested in doing so.

Sure the US is an immigrant country too. But take food for example. You have many US only kinds of food. Cajun food, Soul food, Texas BBQ, etc, etc, etc. You have Thai Food, Chinese food, Japanese food… I have never seen a Singapore food or restaurant. You can look at a certain dress style and say… Oh, that’s so Hawaiian, or Japanese, or Texan, or any other places that have culture. I wouldn’t have any idea what someone dressed as a Singaporean would look like. Maybe someone carrying a lot of shopping bags?

There is definitely history of Singapore which goes back thousands of years; since the times that the island was, and still is, a major sea port and trade route for ships sailing between India and Europe to China. This explains all the ships that you saw, parked in the sea, as it is the world’s busiest sea port.

Anyway, as far as culture goes, Singapore, being an immigrant society is just a mix of many societies and races, and is not much different from USA where you come from, believe it or not! I should know what I am talking about because I have lived and studied in Texas for 4 years in my younger days, and traveled widely to all parts of USA from the East to the West coasts and also to Hawaii many times.