Page 67 - Visionary Arts 2019
P. 67
The melting pot theory of multiculturalism assumes that
various immigrant groups will tend to “melt together,” abandoning
their individual cultures and eventually becoming fully assimilated into
the predominant society. On the other hand, Singapore is totally
distinctive from the definition. It is not a melting pot. Singaporean
populations can keep their cultural identity and live with harmony and
respect at the same time. At this point, cultural diversity in Singapore
would be described as self-professed global city where the resident
does not eliminate any of their cultural identity or lose their way of
life to live with other culturally different group of people.
Importantly, all residents highly respect who they are and ignore that
everyone in the country is different. Due to their attitude toward
other populations, it makes Singaporean populations see cultural
diversity differently than certain countries. It then leads to their
individual behaviors within the same-culture group that Malay and
migrants do not have to speak Chinese in Singapore as majority is
Chinese. In other words, they accept cultural differences inside and
out.
Public transport is a perfect example of how Singaporean
populations live together. Mass Rapid Transit or MRT is the public
transport that portrays how people from different backgrounds live in
Singapore. As Singlish is a famous spoken language that mixes all
languages in Singapore into the use of English, Singlish is not forced
to use in formal situations or places. The use of Singlish functions
like a melting pot. If Singlish is applied or written in public sphere, it
will mean that dominant people want to mix all people from different
backgrounds into the same shoes. Thus, they cannot preserve their
cultural diversity while living in Singapore. They have to get rid of
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