@article{a071802f14bd4c339bde0cd436c5ef89,
title = "Going global and staying local: Nation-building discourses in Singapore's cultural policies",
abstract = "Utilizing the 'Singapore Story', this study will explore cultural policies implemented and aimed towards cosmopolitanism, and how these policies have affected the international arts scene, which has led to a polarization within the community by excluding the elderly and disadvantaged members of the population from participating. Singapore's cultural policy has served the function of nation-building and at the same time goes with globalisation and thus calls for constructing a cosmopolitan yet patriotic citizen in terms of identity. This article considers the role of nationalism as a guide to the understanding of cultural policy discourses and argues that a top-down cosmopolitan construction of national identity in cultural policy discourses lacks representation of people's daily life.",
keywords = "cosmopolitanism, cultural policy, nation-building, nationalism, Singapore Story, Singaporean identity",
author = "Chang, {Pi Chun}",
note = "Funding Information: These examples echoed the message in RCP in that they spelled out in numbered form what the {\textquoteleft}Renaissance Singaporean{\textquoteright} should be: creative thinkers, entrepreneurial spirits and {\textquoteleft}cultured{\textquoteright} enough to impress the most cosmopolitan of the world{\textquoteright}s elite business professionals (MITA 2000, pp. 38–39). Likewise, visual artists and art galleries have exhibited their works abroad with logistical and financial support from government ministries and agencies. The above stories demonstrated a normatively successful {\textquoteleft}Singapore Story{\textquoteright} that is economically motivated and which, by packaging the local content, would be palatable to the international audiences. A subtle signal is that there are certain types of Asian work which may not help develop Singapore into an {\textquoteleft}international centre for the arts{\textquoteright}. Singaporean artists thus risk engaging in an appropriation of traditional performance forms that often goes on in the West under the name of {\textquoteleft}globalisation{\textquoteright}. The emphasis is not on the development of the so-called {\textquoteleft}local content{\textquoteright} or endangered local artistic talent. Rather, the cultural production that wins international accolades and affirms the capacity of global consumption may represent the brand of {\textquoteleft}Singapore{\textquoteright}. The national character is dissolved into the international market.",
year = "2012",
month = nov,
doi = "10.1080/1070289X.2012.745409",
language = "English",
volume = "19",
pages = "691--707",
journal = "Identities",
issn = "1070-289X",
publisher = "Routledge",
number = "6",
}