Page 17 - Visionary Arts 2019

On the younger side, there are Tay Soon and Yee Lian, a middle-
class couple, who obsess with ownership of “the prestigious house”

and value stock exchange over traditional commerce. On the other
side, there is Tay Soon’s mother, a grocery store owner and a
prototype of traditional Chinese woman, who believes in thriftiness
and perseverance of her cultural heritage. Throughout the story, Lim
ironically shows the couple’s greediness that leads to the tragic end

of their dreaming house and the loss of almost all of their savings in
“the bursting of the bubble” in the 1970s. Their obsession with house
ownership and materialism clearly echoed that of Lim’s middle-class

contemporaries and is still relevant to the status quo. This focal point
will be elaborated in the following paragraphs by integrating my
actual experience from the trip.

Home Ownership and the Making of Multicultural Society

Before going deeper into the topic, I would like to clarify
that the short story obviously lacks the presence of multiculturalism.

All the characters are Chinese Singaporeans, which is the majority of
the country (74.3%). However, the zeal for home ownership in Tay
Soon and Yee Lian was not limited to the Chinese community.
According to Calder (2016, p. 75-76), he stated that Singapore’s
government used home ownership as a political tool to mitigate racial

and cultural tensions between different ethnic groups.

After World War II ended, only 10% of Singaporeans owned

a residence due to the devastation of the war and low construction
rates. The prime minister at that time, Lee Kuan Yew, aimed to solve
these housing problems by establishing several policies that would
encourage home ownership for every ethnic group.

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