{"id":17895,"date":"2019-03-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-10T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2019\/03\/11\/cosmolanders-and-singapores-dual-personality\/"},"modified":"2021-02-15T14:49:46","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T06:49:46","slug":"cosmolanders-and-singapores-dual-personality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2019\/03\/11\/cosmolanders-and-singapores-dual-personality\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Cosmolanders\u2019 and Singapore\u2019s dual personality"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Photo: \u2018People at Vivocity\u2019 by Kelman Chiang from SRN\u2019s SG Photobank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Professor Tan Tai Yong from the NUS Department of History traced Singapore\u2019s development alongside its dual personality as both city and state in a speech given at the IPS-Nathan Lecture Series, which was featured in The Straits Times.<\/p>\n

According to Prof Tan, upon achieving independence in 1965, Singapore had to quickly reconstitute and reimagine itself. To this end, two processes had to occur, each reinforcing the other: state-building and nation-building. The former was driven by a single-minded commitment to the goal of survival. This fed into the latter, which required a much longer time, given the diversity of Singapore\u2019s population as well as the lack of a common culture, struggle, and history. Furthermore, with global competition, Singapore had to actively and continuously connect with the rest of the world, while at the same time look after its population and build national identity within its shores.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Singapore\u2019s dual personality has not only enhanced its adaptability, but has also resulted in advantages in regulating its population and resolving urban issues. Moreover, as large nation-states turn inwards, globally-oriented cities like Singapore can become important international actors. Diversity is also a key strength, though managing it remains a complex task, owing to local discontentment and rising inequality.<\/p>\n

Prof Tan suggests that a possible approach to these competing needs and wants is to look at them as two differing orientations \u2013 that there is a part of Singapore which is more oriented towards itself, inward-focused, or perhaps closed \u2013 even as Singapore also regards and markets itself as outward-looking, cosmopolitan, and open. Alternatively, one can consider Singaporeans as \u2019cosmolanders\u2018 (a portmanteau of \u2018cosmopolitan\u2019 and \u2018heartlander\u2019). Either way, there will be a constant need for accommodation, acceptance, and adaptation as the global and local both negotiate for space in Singapore.<\/p>\n

Read the article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professor Tan Tai Yong from the NUS Department of History traced Singapore\u2019s development alongside its dual personality as both city and state in a speech given at the IPS-Nathan Lecture Series, which was featured in The Straits Times. According to Prof Tan, upon achieving independence in 1965, Singapore had to quickly reconstitute and reimagine itself. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247,"featured_media":17896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4529],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/247"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17895"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28442,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17895\/revisions\/28442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}