S02E01 Singapore audio

Welcome to Season 2 of 80 Days: an exploration podcast. Today we will be exploring the fascinating history and culture of Singapore , the lion city. This tiny island city-state is home to 5.5 million people and is located just off the southern tip of the Malay peninsula, one degree north of the equator. It’s a country without seasons, remaining hot and humid year-round, and gained full independence just 51 years ago, although it wasn’t a cause for celebration at the time, as we’ll see. Since then, Singapore has developed rapidly as an Asian Tiger economy, despite its lack of any natural resources and today is one of the most well-developed and successful cities in the world.

Your hosts are Luke Kelly @thelukejkelly in Hong Kong, Mark Boyle @markboyle86 in the UK, and Joe Byrne@anbeirneach in Switzerland. (Theme music byThomas O’Boyle)

Table of Contents :

[05:02] Early History and founding of the “Lion City”

[14:05] Dutch and British East India Companies in the area

[17:41] Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles founds a British colony

[26:20] Singapore growing, with little government

[31:00] Music break (traditional)

[31:25] World War 1 aftermath and fortification of Singapore

[35:38] World War 2, Battle of Malaya

[44:43] Japanese Occupation

[48:35] Post-war unrest, self-determination, the rise of Lee Kuan Yew

[52:00] A Malaysia including Singapore

[56:15] Involuntary Independence

[58:22] Music Break (modern patriotic song)

[59:00] Modern Singapore

[1:05:55] Economy

[1:09:15] Population planning

[1:13:49] Crime and punishment

[1:19:32] Languages: melting pot of speech

[1:24:54] Military song in Singlish

Generally if you want to keep learning about Singapore in more depth, the following would be useful:

History of Singpore ” documentary on the Discovery Channel directed by Tim Lambert (Lion Television) 2005

The Hisory of Singapore podcast by PJ Thum (who teaches Southeast Asian history at Universoty of Oxford) – this gives very in-depth history of the city state. It is quite political and at times critical of the mainstream opinion of Singaporean history

Talk the Talk episode on Singlish, the unique ‘colloquial English’ dialect common in Singapore and its relationship to the many other languages spoken in this melting-pot country

Some things you might like to know more about:

In 1963, Lee fulfilled his ambition of seeing Singapore join into a political union with British Malaya, Borneo and Sarawak; the modern state of Malaysia – this project, however was doomed to failure because of racial and religious tensions between largely ethnic Malay/Muslim Malaya and the significant ethnic Chinese component of Singapore’s population.

Prime Minister Lee was very emotional when he announced to his people that Singapore was leaving the union and embarking on an unwished-for independence

A few songs may interest you, also, some of which you will have heard:

“Dayung Sampan” – to quote it’s description on YouTube: “This video “Dayung Sampan” features Noraniza Idris, and He Yun (from China Hebei) playing the Erhu, a Chinese traditional instrument. “Dayung Sampan” is the Malay version of the famous Chinese tune “Tian Mi Mi” (甜蜜蜜). This is a fresh collaboration between the Malay and Chinese culture”

Ironic song by Dick Lee, making linguistic jokes and satirising modern politics

“Shine for Singapore” was commission for the 2008 National Day Parade and “One Singapore” was another later commission. Both are examples of patriotic pop songs.

Finally, make sure to check out our sponsor Hairy Baby on www.hairybaby.com! You can get 10% off any purchase using the promo code “80days” and pick up an official 80 Days t-shirt at this link.

Special thanks, also, this week to Paula Cantwell and Rowland Seymour for their backing of the show this season – very much appreciated!