Asia for Americans

Written by Smith Jones    Tuesday, 19 February 2008

Singapore Is the Ideal Gateway City by Daniel Burstein You’ve never been to Asia: You’d like a clean, safe, reasonably priced introduction. Where should you go first? If we add a touch of romance to your requirements, then the ideal gateway to the mysterious East is where Western writers from Conrad to Maugham began---Singapore. This is a tropical city-state densely packed on a small island at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. Open to the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, it’s a major trading center, famed for its multiethnic society. Although three-quarters of Singapore’s 2.7 million people are Chinese, the country is also home to Malays, Tamils, Indians, Arabs, and a sprinkling of American and European expatriates. Singapore’s superb harbor inspired Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles to found a British colony in 1819. by the latter part of the 19th century, Singapore had become a steamy Western enclave. British planters, soldiers, sailors, and assorted rogues shared dreams of empire while downing gin slings under the ceiling fans over the long bar at the fabled Raffles Hotel. That colonial Singapore is gone, like nearly all its other Asian counterparts from Saigon to Shanghai. In its place is a frenzy of modernization---even Raffles is now closed for renovations. An independent republic since 1963, the country has transformed itself in a single generation, rising from abject poverty to air-conditioned prosperity. Today, Singapore’s affluent Shenton Way is lined with hundreds of thriving foreign banks and financial service firms. The harbor vies with Rotterdam and Yokohama as the world’s busiest port. Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s vision of a Silicon Island is close to reality. Brain-intensive industries---fiber optics, robotics, software---are replacing brawn-intensive sweatshops. The skyline, it is often said, makes the place seem more like a big American city than the jungle outpost depicted in Somerset Maugham’s stories. Singapore has achieved living standards in Asia second only to Japan. But the country has also paid a price. Many have questioned Prime Minister Lee’s penchant for stifling political dissent and homogenizing the country’s diverse cultures. Even so, Singapore remains gloriously Asian and stubbornly complex. It has four official languages (Chinese, Malay, Tamil, English). Since most Singaporeans speak English, it’s easy for Americans to get around and explore. The only language barrier is the local addition to alphabet soup. No one, for example, refers to the “Central Business District” (controlled by computerized traffic signals and sweeping rules to encourage carpooling); just “CBD” will do. Prime Minister Lee is known as the PM. His son, once as army brigadier general, is the BG. While the upwardly mobile all over the world may want a Mercedes-Benz, well-to-do Singaporeans will take a “Merce.” Not long ago, I walked the length of Serangoon Road, stopping to rest in the cool shade of 60- and 70-story skyscrapers. With some of the biggest, most modern buildings in Asia looming before me, I was surrounded by Little India---one of Asia’s most traditional communities. I followed the perfume of burning increase through one doorway. Inside, a grocer weighed thick slabs of tamarind paste for a women in a scarlet sari who proceeded to make more selections from drums filled with hot red peppers, pistachios, and basmati rice.

Last Updated ( Saturday, 23 February 2008 )