Slang images: on the ‘foreignness’ of contemporary Singaporean films

Sinophone Cinemas

“…Wu Nien-jen, 1996), to assert that 'the different fates of Hokkien in the two locations [Singapore and Taiwan] are manifestations of the different ways of "doing" Chineseness, giving the lie to claims of a single "Cultural China" …' (2003, p. 173). Building on Olivia Khoo's work on 'slang imagery' in recent Singaporean cinema, Song Hwee Lim cites, among other aspects, the deployment of linguistic slang in the dialogue of Royston Tan's 15 to argue for the film's 'indecipherability to an audience outside Singapore' (Khoo, 2006;Lim, 2008, p. 13). The juxtaposition of Hokkien, Mandarin and, to a lesser extent English and Singlish, become part of Brenda Chan's class and gender analysis of Tan's 881 (2009).…”

The Construction of "Singapore" in Singapore Cinema

“…However, a small domestic market, the Government's internationalising strategy and the culture of Western media consumption have contributed to Singapore cinema becoming a transnational cinema before solidifying as a national cinema. As Khoo (2006) notes, Singapore is keen both to build and yet disperse the notion of a national cinema in order to become a regional hub and a site of global media exchange (p. 94). Yet Tan (2012b) states that thinking about Singapore's filmmaking efforts in terms of the transnational film may be premature and counterproductive since depth, complexity, and authenticity have yet to be established in the Singapore films that pose and problematise questions of national and cultural identity (p. 153).…”

Screening Singapore: The Cinematic Landscape of Eric Khoo's Be With Me

“…By the 1990s, Singapore had joined the ranks of the so‐called ‘developed’ economies, and the state began to believe that in order to be competitive in the next phase of development, it was crucial to ‘promote the arts’ (Kong, 2000, 415; see also Yeoh, 2004; Wee, 2010). In the words of the then Minister for Information and the Arts, George Yeo: ‘[I]t may seem odd but we have to pursue the subject of fun very seriously if we want to stay competitive in the 21st century’ (quoted in Khoo, 2005, 3). Film was identified as a potential growth industry, and the state began to promote Singapore as a regional hub for international film production and distribution (Tan et al ., 2003).…”