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Youth Push for Hawker Culture to Get UNESCO Listing

Youth Push for Hawker Culture to Get UNESCO Listing
www.oursgheritage.sg | A hawker preparing meals at one of the over 110 hawker centres located in Singapore

As Singapore prepares to nominate its hawker culture for inscription into Unesco's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, some young Singaporeans have stepped up to lend their support to the bid.

One of them is Miss Poh Huan Rong, 19, a third-year business and social enterprise student from Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

She was in Shanghai for six months on an internship last March and while there, found herself craving her favourite char kway teow.

After three months, she finally found a restaurant serving the dish - but it was too salty and the noodles "didn't taste right".

She said: "I even tried cooking it myself, but they don't sell the right kind of noodles or sauce there.

"Only when I came back to Singapore could I have a proper plate of char kway teow."

Pamphlets encouraging people to pledge their support to uphold Singapore's hawker culture by scanning a QR code. Image: ST Photo/Jasmine Choong
Pamphlets encouraging people to pledge their support to uphold Singapore's hawker culture by scanning a QR code. Image: ST Photo/Jasmine Choong

 

The restaurant environment was also a far cry from the casual familiarity of the Clementi hawker centre where she often had supper with friends after their co-curricular activities, she said.

This experience made her realise the importance of not taking Singapore's hawker culture for granted.

When she returned, she signed up as a volunteer for the Our SG Hawker Culture travelling exhibition to showcase hawker culture and encourage members of the public to pledge their support for the nomination. The exhibition features a miniature hawker centre diorama and colourful information boards. 

Since its launch in October last year, it has garnered more than 220,000 pledges online and at various venues around the island.

Passers-by can hit a button at the exhibition to signal their support without penning a full pledge.

Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu having a local breakfast with (from left) Temasek Polytechnic students Vivian Zhu and Keisia Lim-Urquhart, Ngee Ann Polytechnic student Poh Huan Rong and Ngee Ann Polytechnic lecturer Pauline Ooi at Yuhua Village Market and Food Centre in Jurong East. They also gave out pamphlets encouraging people to pledge their support to uphold Singapore's hawker culture by scanning a QR code. Image: ST Photo/Jasmine Choong
Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu having a local breakfast with (from left) Temasek Polytechnic students Vivian Zhu and Keisia Lim-Urquhart, Ngee Ann Polytechnic student Poh Huan Rong and Ngee Ann Polytechnic lecturer Pauline Ooi at Yuhua Village Market and Food Centre in Jurong East. They also gave out pamphlets encouraging people to pledge their support to uphold Singapore's hawker culture by scanning a QR code. Image: ST Photo/Jasmine Choong

 

Yesterday, Miss Poh was at Yuhua Village Market and Food Centre in Jurong East, where the exhibition ends today, with first-year culinary and catering management students Keisia Lim-Urquhart and Vivian Zhu from Temasek Polytechnic.

They had breakfast and chatted with Culture, Community and Youth Minister Grace Fu, who was there to pen her own support. Ms Fu wrote that she supports the nomination because hawker culture "is an important part of our lives".

She said: "The many variations of dishes like mee siam show the diversity in Singapore. Malay hawkers don't add coconut milk to the gravy. And with nasi lemak, Chinese hawkers introduced luncheon meat.”

The Our SG Hawker Culture exhibitions will continue to collect pledges from the public until March, when the nomination will be submitted to Unesco.

 

 


Source : The Straits Times

Indah Gilang Pusparani

Indah is a researcher at Badan Perencanaan Pembangunan Penelitian dan Pengembangan Daerah Kota Cirebon (Regional Development Planning and Research Agency of Cirebon Municipality). She covers More international relations, tourism, and startups in Southeast Asia region and beyond. Indah graduated from MSc Development Administration and Planning from University College London, United Kingdom in 2015. She finished bachelor degree from International Relations from University of Indonesia in 2014, with two exchange programs in Political Science at National University of Singapore and New Media in Journalism at Ball State University, USA. She was awarded Diplomacy Award at Harvard World Model United Nations and named as Indonesian Gifted Researcher by Australian National University. She is Researcher at Regional Planning Board in Cirebon, West Java. She previously worked as Editor in Bening Communication, the Commonwealth Parliament Association UK, and diplomacy consulting firm Best Delegate LLC in USA. Less
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