Conclusion
After exploring Joo Chiat the past few weeks, we have found a lot about Joo Chiat. We have based our explorations mainly around the stretch of Joo Chiat Road and Katong and the surrounding areas.
Joo Chiat can be broadly sectioned into three parts. There is the Katong area, with its rich Peranakan and Eurasian culture; the area near Geylang, which has strong Malay influences, a spillover effect from Geylang (we didn’t manage to explore that area though); and the middle section, which has ‘Little Vietnam’ and a whole lot of other stuff.
As we can see, ‘Little Vietnam’ is a rather small area within Joo Chiat and the name cannot be generalized to the entire area. Also, the place is not yet deserving of its name because there are still missing elements necessary to truly re-create the Vietnamese culture in Joo Chiat.
In addition, even within these broad categorical areas of Peranakan, Eurasian, Vietnamese, etc. There is no clear-cut distinction from one area to the next. Joo Chiat is a mish mash of way too many elements, in which things of total opposites can be neighbours. Popular culture and high culture (when we visited Black Earth Art Gallery, the coffee shop opposite was bustling with the lunch crowd); holy and debauchery (karaoke joints and pubs were found in close vicinity to churches and temples); holiness versus holiness (churches and temples of the different religions are found near each other; one temple can house more than one type of Buddhism).
It is also a place in transition as tradition battles modernity. Traditional shophouses and landmarks are also constantly being torn down to make way for modern buildings. Many walk-in condominiums were traditional shophouses bought over by developers and torn down to build these walk-in condominiums. Traditional things are being interpreted in new ways, such as the very existence of Peranakan restaurants. And traditional shophouses undergo renovation and are transformed into new spaces and given a new lease of life as posh residential districts (Lotus at Joo Chiat Place), art galleries, and boutique hotels (Hotel 81, Peranakan Hotel).
The blurring of boundaries was not a recent phenomenon either. Even in colonial times, when Joo Chiat was known for being a Peranakan and Eurasian enclave, such racial boundaries were not so distinct. (There was a sizable Ceylon Tamil community in the area as well).
Singapore has been described as a mixing pot for the different cultures, and Joo Chiat is the very representation of Singapore. This is a place where you can find people from all around the world, each bringing a little of their culture and adding it to the mix. Each culture is distinct in their own sense, but also, to a certain extent, the cultures have blended together to form a totally eclectic mix.
So is Joo Chiat ‘Little Vietnam’? No. It isn’t. Joo Chiat, is a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and a whole lot of unique.
DATE: Friday, March 23, 2012
TIME: ||1:39 PM ||