Changi Airport

 

Changi Airport is one of the most Singaporean things ever. A modern metropolis, a futuristic caravansarai. An island in the tropics which is somehow not like the rest. In a relatively backwards (but not necessarily unpleasant) part of the world. Hospitality, cosmopolitanism. A gateway between worlds. Between the Chinese, Malay, Indian and Western worlds. Between the civilised and rural worlds. A concrete jungle in the lush tropics. A piece of tarmac carved out from filling the sea in. A garden city housing a facility which is inherently destructive to the environment. A waiting room, a quarantine. A check-in area which is neither here nor there. A hundred kopitiams await you as you while the time away. In case you didn't know that Changi Airport is a bubble, they even built a glass dome around Jewel to press the point home.

Singapore is one of those great contradictions. It aspires to be a great city, and yet it is obviously too small to be a great country, let alone a great power. It is not a great cultural centre, and yet it imbibes from the great cultures of the world. It is small and yet it aspires towards exceptionalism. This exceptionalism is necessary, because without it, that would be the end of our existence as a an independent entity.

I was talking to a visiting angmoh, and he told me that this was an unreal and ephemeral vision. That was back in the day when Asia was still a rising power, and not yet a serious challenger to the west. I thought there was something quite condescending about that remark, but other than that, it showed how the idea of an Asian metropolis is quite strange and alien to his point of view, and it does highlight the vast contrasts – if not contradictions – in the various aspects that make up who we are.

It's not true at all that we are nothing more than a vision of the “floating world”. There are solid bases to who we fundamentally are. You should look at all the old photographs of pictures from the Rust Belt during the glory days. Your Detroits and Cincinnatis and Kansas Cities. The beautiful art Noveau buildings which no longer exist. That's ephemeral too!