Page 19 - Visionary Arts 2019

His political agendas always exhorted Singaporeans to be thrifty and
efficient. Indeed, Tay Soon fails to follow this national philosophy and

becomes greedier as he makes more money from stock exchange. This
is probably what concerned Lim about the housing policies and the
development of the society at that time - a society where people live
in isolation without caring about other people or other ethnic groups.
While Tay Soon’s mother’s terraced house symbolises a sense of

social security and community in a culturally diverse environment, Tay
Soon’s “dream house” is obviously a detached or single house that
implies isolation and self-centrism of the modern people in Singapore.

A house in Stamford Road, Singapore

From my own experience on the trip, Singapore is without
a doubt crowded and full of skyscrapers and blocks of flats. There
are still several districts such as Chinatown and Little India that are

heavily occupied by a particular ethnic group despite the
government’s efforts. In fact, there is the Sri Mariamman Temple
(Singapore's oldest Hindu temple) in the downtown of Chinatown but
I rarely saw people across ethnic groups talk to each other,

especially the Indian and the Chinese. My friend who has worked as
an intern at the Royal Thai Embassy in Singapore for almost half a
year told me that “the Chinese rarely visit Little India (the district
where he lives).

19