September 20, 2016

In ‘Singapore’s Cinema-Age of the 1930s: Hollywood and the Shaping of Singapore Modernity’ (2012), Former faculty member Chua Ai Lin (Dept of History) brings to light the underplayed role of Hollywood cinema in shaping the identity and the cultural landscape of Singapore we see today. The allure of Western popular culture can be accounted for by its perceived modernity as well as the prevalence of the English language among the local populace at that time. These films were also often driven by the profit motives of both local and American entrepreneurs. Such trends, however, were opposed by the colonial state and local religious institutions such as the Christian Church who viewed them as moral decadence. This was distinct from the more conservative values of modernity as propagated by the state.