SINGAPORE HAWKER CULTURE: A WEBINAR SERIES
HAWKER CULTURE AND SOCIAL SPACES IN SINGAPORE
Hawker Culture in Singapore reflects a living heritage that resonates with people from all walks of life.
In celebration of the successful inscription of Hawker Culture onto the UNESCO Representative list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in December 2020, the National Heritage Board has organised a webinar series on Hawker Culture.
This second and final session (“Hawker Culture and Social Spaces in Singapore”) in the series explores the relationships between Hawker Culture and social spaces in Singapore, and how this can play a role in promoting community identity and fostering inter-cultural understanding and appreciation in Singapore’s context.
Four speakers gave presentations on their research followed by a panel discussion and Q&A session with webinar participants. The topics discussed included:
The Hawker Centre and the Kopitiam
by Dr Lai Ah Eng
Making Space for Hawker Heritage
by Dr Kevin Low
Hawker Culture in Tangible and Intangible Forms
by Prof Ho Puay-peng
From Regulating Hygiene to Feeding Communities
by Mr Justin Zhuang
Dr Lai Ah Eng
Adjunct Senior Fellow Associate,
University Scholars Programme,
National University of Singapore The presentation tells a story of social life in Singapore through two particular and related features of Singapore – the hawker centre and the kopitiam (coffeeshop). It will examine their evolution in the following aspects of the hawker centre’s and kopitiam’s socio-cultural distinctiveness and diversity: 1) foods, 2) peoples (owners, stallholders and workers, and customers, 3) social-cultural activities and politics, and 4) economic competition and connections. In doing so, the presentation explicates the historical, social and cultural evolution of both as sites of Singaporean multiculturalism that is derived from the continuous inputs and interactions of generations of immigrants, entrepreneurs and customers over time.
Panel Presentation 2
Dr Kelvin Low
Associate Professor and Deputy Head of Department,
Department of Sociology,
National University of Singapore
Drawing upon earlier and current research, this presentation explores the intimate connections between food and foodways, sensory experiences, and the manufacturing and sustenance of food heritage in Singapore. It deliberates on how heritage-making is contingent upon a conjugation of gastronomic and sensory socialities that transpire across different scales of experience. Given that intangible cultural heritage is about a wide-ranging scope of practices, experiences, and history, culture and traditions of everyday hawker food practices are examined in order to trace how different categories of memory and heritage-making ranging from the personal, familial, ethnic, to the historical, communal, and national unfold.
Professor Ho Puay Peng
UNESCO Chair, Architectural Heritage Conservation and Management in Asia
Head, Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore The presentation looks at the role played by Hawker Culture and hawker centres in the transmission of heritage value, in social cohesion and in the forging of our national identity. Several projects highlighted in the 2021 Venice Biennale will be shared to demonstrate that our society has embraced fully this essential aspect of our life as we live ‘To-gather’.
Mr Justin Zhuang
Writer and Researcher,
Co-founder of the writing studio In Plain Words, Singapore The presentation retraces the origins of hawker centres in the early 20th century, and how their once functional designs for tackling public hygiene evolved over time to reflect place histories and house communities, transforming them into social institutions.
Panel Discussion: Q&A Session
Moderated by John Teo
Deputy Director
Heritage Research & Assessment Division
National Heritage Board
For more information on this webinar series please go to nhbhawkerculture2021.sg
