June 22, 2021

In June 2008, construction of Solaris, an eco-friendly building located at One-North as part of the Fusionopolis facility, commenced. Completed in a little over two years, Solaris was built for research and development in the infocommunications, media, science, and engineering industries.

Singapore’s Media 21 vision was to promote Singapore as Asia’s leading media marketplace to the world. It envisioned Singapore as a reliable port (that media and culture can be transported to and through) and well as a teleport (instant information transfer through secure wireless and telecommunication infrastructure). These new business initiatives and technologies intended to advance Singapore’s portrayal of local culture. However, Associate Professor Terence Lee (NUS Department of Political Science) identifies the constraints that Singapore’s economic agendas place upon local cultural pursuits. He explores this in ‘Forging an “Asian” media fusion: Singapore as a 21st century media hub’ (Media International Australia, 2015).

A/P Lee analyses how Singapore’s creative industries were intended to brand Singapore as a regional hub for the media industry. Under the Media 21 vision, ‘media ecosystems’ such as the Fusionopolis@one-north were developed to house world-class systems and enhance the ease of conducting business. This was succeeded by the Singapore Media Fusion Plan to create a ‘New Asia Media’. These new digital models of storytelling would allow Singapore to tell traditional Asian stories with modern methods of production.

Nonetheless, A/P Lee argues that Singapore’s media hub has not promoted local culture, but has further ingrained Singapore’s image as a trading post. He notes that the media packages local culture to suit the taste of global audiences, thereby marketing Singapore as a thriving economic cluster. Through this article, A/P Lee cautions that without careful management of Singapore’s 21st century media hub vision, the media hub would exist as technological solution for Singapore’s global city ambitions without prioritising local culture.

Read the full article here.