OI VIETNAM 75
DESPITE BEING A QUICK
two-hour flight from Ho Chi Minh City,
Singapore and Saigon could not be more
different. With gorgeous green spaces,
spotlessly clean streets, a multi-cultural
population harmoniously co-existing,
and a modern, breezy lifestyle—
Singapore is often held up as a model for
Southeast Asia and beyond.
Walking, eating, and Instagramming
our way through Singapore, our mission
was to uncover how this tiny, space-
starved, resource-poor state become
a regional powerhouse and modern
playground.
Separate but Equal
Blessed with a strategically-located,
natural harbor at the mouth of the Strait
of Malacca, Singapore was established
as a British free port in the early 1800s
as a means to “destroy the spell of Dutch
monopoly”. In addition to merchants
from Armenia, Arabia, Europe and
beyond, laborers from China and British
India arrived to help clear the land,
transport materials, and build the town,
quickly swelling Singapore’s population
to more than 10,000 within five years of
the port’s opening. Doing much of the
hard work, each of these communities
settled in ethnically segregated
residential zones.
“This dish reminds me of Singapore’s
melting pot of cultures,” says PS of
Everyday Tour Company as we tuck
into a tangy sweet “salad” known as
rojak. “The potatoes represent the
British, the tofu the Chinese, and the
fermented shrimp fritters from Malaysia.
All different ingredients that blend
together for a yummy dish.” Meaning
“eclectic mix” in colloquial Malay, this
Indian version of rojak seems to sum up
Singapore’s unique blend of cultures.
Outside, in the area known as Little
India, we walk by a brightly colored
mural by local visual artist Eunice Lim
depicting whimsical patterned cows.
“This area was near the water and was
used to raise cattle,” explains PS along
her street art and street food tour. While
Little India was originally a playground
for the Europeans, evidenced by an open
space that used to be a race course, its
ponds, mangrove swamps and proximity
to the Serangoon River made it good for
raising cattle which were not only used for
meat and milk but to pull bullock carts,
the island’s main means of transportation.
Indian settlers took to the cattle trade and
Little India was born.
After a quick metro ride to
Chinatown, we soon find ourselves
stuffing our faces with popiah, a fresh
spring roll stuffed with lettuce, egg,
turnips, and fried flour bits, all wrapped
in a handmade skin from the Michelin
Plate-awarded Ann Chin. Originating
in China’s Fujian province, it’s just one
of the many dishes Chinese immigrants
brought with them to Singapore. Mainly
farmers and fishermen, immigrants
took advantage of Singapore’s free
immigration policy which made it easier
for poorer immigrants to come, either
as free or indentured laborers. “That’s
why letter writers were so important
back then. You could say they were the
Instagrammers of their time,” says PS,
as we take in a mural depicting an older
man writing letters for uneducated and
illiterate immigrants. “They were the
social bridge, writing letters to family
back in China and then reading the
replies. They knew all your secrets, so it
was best not to piss them off,” laughs PS.Local Born
When Chinese and Indian men arrived
on the Malay Archipelago, they often
took wives among the local Malay or
Indonesian women. Their children
were known as Peranakan or “local
born”. To find out more about this
unique community, we head to the
tony district of Joo Chiat, known for
its pretty pre-war homes with their
intricate facades and gorgeous Black
and White houses, named for their
dark timber beams and whitewashed
walls with Tudorbethan flair.Letter writer