The 3 spaces or events which are ‘rhizomic’ in Singapore can be seen in hawker centres, wet market, and pasar malam (as known as ‘night market’). These three spaces are open with multiple point of entry for the users to explore the area freely as they like. They all share a common theme of having multiple stores located separately next to one another giving the users freedom of choice. The users can start from anywhere and exit from anywhere and the experience would still be the same as other users.
Some deterritorialized and reterritorialized areas that can be seen locally are our languages, the Chinese culture, and our religion.
Fig.01 – An example of how Singlish compresses the sentences, making communication clear and fast within our communities. (source:https://miro.medium.com/max/744/0*hdD6qKp7OZUKG4Y4)
Although Singapore’s main languages – Malay, Chinese, Tamil, and English – are all official and equal, Malay is our common language and our National Language. However, due to the fact that Singapore is made up of different races and our ancestors migrated here from different countries and cultures, we have been deterritorialized and reterritorialized in a sense that most Singaporeans understand a little bit of all four languages but we are unable to speak fluently in any of them. Therefore, coming up with a ‘new’ language named ‘Singlish’. We are often not understood by many other countries, however, ‘Singlish’ is a form of effective communication as we deterritorialized the words and reterritorialized them in a way that can get the message straight across fast and clear. (Fig. 01)
Fig. 02 – Traditional Chinese Wedding (source:https://vibrantdot.co/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Traditionally-when-the-groom-travels-to-the-brideu2019s-home-there-will-be-music-accompaniment-to-let-the-public-know-that-a-wedding-is-taking-place.-678x381.jpg)
Fig. 03 – Chinese Wedding during the present day (source:https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57695486ebbd1a6611e9722c/1573365947824-PUS33HTPBTCKJ1JKOQ9N/Singapore-Wedding-Photography-Botanic-Garden-01%2B3.jpg?format=1000w)
Similarly, the Chinese weddings locally are vastly different from Chinese weddings our ancestors used to have. A Chinese wedding used to be a sacred ritual that requires a trusted Taoist priest to choose a date for the wedding to be hosted on, a date for the tea ceremony, and having the couples to wear red outfits throughout the wedding (Fig. 02). We have been deterritorialized and reterritorialized by western cultures over the years, especially from movies and shows, although most Chinese weddings still have tea ceremony, Chinese who are getting married now do not believe in traditional superstitions in choosing a date and would wear a white western inspired wedding dress and a black suit instead (Fig. 03).
Fig. 04 – Merging of schools in Singapore (source: https://onecms-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/s--2OQ5LeCI--/f_auto%2Cq_auto/c_fill%2Cg_auto%2Ch_622%2Cw_830/v1/tdy-migration/20210407-infogfx-schmerger.jpg?itok=sXGLPYQi)
Deterritorialization and reterritorialization can also be seen in schools when schools are merged in Singapore due to low birthrates (Fig. 04), students are to adept to the new school, changing their uniforms, reading up on rules made by the other school, and having to learn the new motto and school song.
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References
National Archive of SIngapore. 1965. STATEMENT FROM THE PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE OF SINGAPORE'S OFFICIAL LANGUAGES, 1ST OCTOBER, 1965 [online] Available at: <https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/data/pdfdoc/lky19651001.pdf> [Accessed 01 August 2022].
Wikipedia. 2022. Singlish [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singlish> [Accessed 01 August 2022].
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