GEK 1061 ASSG (Alvin Tan)

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Identity of

Public Spaces

Culture Space & Identity

As renowned geographer Yi-Fu Tuan puts it

“the meaning of places are never fixed in

priori but relies on human imagination

subjected to change” (1971, 442). In less

academic terms, our impression of spaces

can be likened to taking a still shot of a

place. The product is a reflection of our

values, and the meaning we make out of the

subject(s). Hence, public spaces like the

Nickelodeon Theater and the vernacular

food culture present in ‘Hawker Centers’ of

Singapore can be perceived to be theatres

reflecting complex culture and space

identities. This essay wishes to expound on

how culture-space dynamics in defining

identities are dialectical in nature, and the

agents involved in the performance of identity.



“consumption is an act of

performance where one’s

identity are closely tied to the

space he chooses to consume in”

Consumption Defining Space

The politics of membership in defining who

belongs within a space inevitably defines

people’s geographical imagination of the

physical landscape (Massey, 1995). Massey’s

enculturation of landscape theory runs deep in

Merritt’s work about the early NickelodeonTheater where he attributed the theatre’s

working class identity to the “lion share of

audience coming from the ghetto… and

[catering to] workers effectively

disenfranchised from older arts” (2004, 22).

The ‘popular’ as opposed to high art label upon

the nickelodeon theatre, reinforces the

dominance of working class supporters, further

suggesting how consumer profiling gives

meaning to spaces. In similar fashion, the

backdrop of hawker centers as spaces that

caters to Singaporeans of the lower socio-

economic status juxtaposed against elites who

prefers fine dining, complies with the

enculturation of landscapes through consumer

profiling. As noted by local cultural geographer

Hamzah Muzani, “the frequent used of

colloquial dialects and unrefined dining

etiquettes that has no place in thecosmopolitan vision of Singapore’s tomorrow”

impresses upon the public imagination that the

hawker center is “grubby and for Singaporeans

who have yet caught up with the nation’s

blueprints of tomorrow” (2009, 231). Parallels

indeed, the geographical imagination of both

spaces seemed inevitably tied to whom and for

whom the space is created for. Hence,

consumption becomes an act of performance

where one’s identity are closely tied to the

space he chooses to consume in.

Challenging Definitions

It is native to think that place identities

remain in stasis. Stakeholders often act as

gatekeepers in redefining spaces to their

preferred identities. As noted by Merritt,theatre owners exercised discrimination

through various mechanism, such as bans

and price control against the working class

and in attempt to attract the middle class, so

as to attained greater respectability for

theater art (2004, 24). The ‘malling’ of

hawker centers, transforming its appearance

to the modernized food courts in malls to

appeal to the middleclass Singaporeans, is

seen by local urban geographer, Pow, to bein the same vein of redefining space identity.

Although, the older forms co-exist with the

modernized food courts today, it is arguable

that the middle-class perception to hawker

food has changed. Multi-national enterprise

like “Food Republic” selling the local food

culture worldwide suggest that the upper-

middleclass may not have only embraced the

culture but also further transformed it into a

respectable culture, worthy of international

showcase.



Our World Is NOT

a Blank Canvas

The missing link in many cultural studies lies in

the perception of culture as finished product;

when it is also an important agent shaping

people’s world. Although not made explicit in

Merritt’s article, he reckons that early films in the

Nickelodeon theatre served as a social agent in

rehabilitating the poor (2004, 23). Public spaces

like the hawker centers in Singapore are also

similarly employed to socialize Singaporeans to a

set of desired conduct. For instance, the

demarcation of non-smoking zones re-enforces

the notion that smoking is a marginalized activity

harmful to public health. Through the afore-

mentioned, culture can also be seen to be

purposefully employed to shape people’s

conduct, thus shape the ethos of a society.

In all, culture as demonstrated by the

Nickelodeon theatre and Singapore’s hawker

center expounds complex social-power dynamics.

Public spaces are certainly not blank slates but

canvas painted with identities both impressed

upon and impress on.

GEK 1061 ASSG (Alvin Tan)

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