Singapore is often promoted as a centre of the crossroads of the world. However, its connections with its immediate neighbours, Johor (Malaysia) and Riau (Indonesia) have commonly been taken for granted as an everyday fact not worth much attention. Many Singaporeans may not only have familial or economic connections to these places, but also simply go to these nearby places for work and leisure.

In this conversation, Rifqi Amirul and Try Sutrisno Foo share their personal experiences of living and having family on both sides of the border, at Johor Bahru (Malaysia) and Tanjung Pinang (Indonesia) respectively. These intimate connections that transcend borders sometimes contradict the nature of national borders, and put into question how we include and exclude peoples based on nationality. These issues are thrown into sharper relief with the closure of national borders due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, effectively preventing loved ones from connecting across borders.

00:16  - The topic of this episode

00:34 - Why Rifqi referred to himself as the “Causeway Kid”

01:20 - How Trisno relates to being a “Causeway Kid” but with islands south of Singapore

02:20 - Why does Rifqi feel strongly about being a “Causeway Kid”?

03:10 - Rifqi recalls residing in Johor Bahru for 4 years

04:59 - What a day is like for someone who lives in JB and comes to Singapore for school

06:59 - Trisno & Rifqi recalling how growing up in Singapore and Tanjung Pinang / Johor Bahru affected their sense of belonging and social life growing up

17:27 - An observation on the demographics of Singapore families living cross-border lives

21:44 - A gripe about passing through immigration so often

25:49 - Stereotypes one learns people in Singapore hold about the “other side” while growing up and living cross-border lives

31:37 - Whether the difference in nationality made it harder to get to know our own families

33:55 - Experiences in Malaysia that shaped the way Rifqi sees both countries

48:06 - Rifqi’s familiarity with JB, despite not being so “present” while living there

48:45 - Being different from people around us because we made our way around JB/Tg. Pinang differently from other residents there - usually not by car or motorbike

51:50 - Not getting asked “where are you from” in Tanjung Pinang & different norms in terms of social mixing in Tg. Pinang, which Trisno wishes Singapore can have bit more and Rifqi’s observations in JB

54:25 - How COVID-19 affected border-crossers & Trisno & Rifqi

59:31 - Singapore’s perception of people outside the country and not being attentive to nearby areas

01:01:22 - How various checkpoint are worlds apart and get different treatments - Changi vs Woodlands, Tuas, ferry terminals

01:03:07 - New perspectives speakers hope listeners can gain from this episode

01:04:02 - “You can travel to Paris and immerse in their culture, there are other countries that are even more accessible”

In this episode, we explore the social world of hybrid shrines of Singapore with Francis Lim. From his initial studies of Chinese shrines, he shares with us how his research into such shrines inevitably led him to study the diverse and informal nature of hybrid shrines and their worshippers in Singapore. These shrines serve functions beyond the religious and spiritual, playing an active social role in worshippers’ daily lives. Sometimes, the gods are even actors in Singapore society. The perseverance of such shrines is a testament to the religious resilience and creativity of ordinary people in Singapore.

03:34 - Background on Francis' personal interest with shrines.

05:44 - In Singapore not much systematic research done on such shrines and how Francis got started on researching shrines

07:33 - Initially conducting fieldwork on shrines with more 'Chinese' features and finding deities of other religions sometimes being housed in the same shrine

11:39 - Coming across 'Hindu' shrines also with dieties from other religions, alhough such shrines did not fall under his scope of research

12:24 - Datuk Gong shrines as an example of shrines where cultures and traditions overlap

15:35 - Trisno speaks about shrines he has seen around Geylang and Francis weighs in and various reasons people of all backgrounds worship shrines

23:17 - Sometimes an informal shrine can become 'organised' if someone who upkeeps it strikes lottery

24:02 - Shrines where people do not know who are the ones 'in charge'

25:15 - "Some deities will disappear after a while, new deities will replace...origins are lost even to those who worship there"

28:41 - Not just hybridised in terms of religious deities, hybridised in terms of functions as well — community centre-like social spaces

37:51 - Lengkok Baru shrines where the local Member of Parliament would visit 

41:06 - Shrines that run afoul of mortal law

44:48 - Gods as actors, not just worshippers or state authorities

50:07 - A Shrine in Thomson which private developers bought over and 'donated' a piece of leftover land back to villagers by selling back the piece of land for $1

54:14 - The big role of shrines in a country supposedly built on secularism

55:45 - Political secularisation, where secular principles guide policy making 

58:23 - "Although the state has secularised, it doesn't mean that the people have secularised"

1:03:07 - Popular religions are popular in Taiwan but it's hard to find shrines in the city of Taipei -- unlike how it's everywhere in urban areas of Malaysia and Singapore 

1:04:34 - Secular spaces mixed with little pockets of sacred spaces; people continue to view the world as enchanted and find enchantment in everyday life — trees, rivers etc.

1:12:31 - A kind of grief seeing shrines coming and going and how shrines fit into CMIO categorisations 

1:18:07 - Shrines a testament of people creativity and religious-spiritual resilience at the grassroots

1:18:37 - Although secular, state recognises role of religion in people's life and is treated seriously

Peranakan culture in Singapore is something that most Singaporeans will know a thing or two about, whether it’s Ayam Buah Keluak, Sarong Kebaya or through the Mandarin soap opera Little Nyonya. The culture is widely celebrated, admired and even endorsed by the state as a beautiful rojak of cultures of different ethnicities in Singapore.

However, there’s a less about talked side of the community: the conversion of most Peranakans to Catholicism. In this episode, we are joined by artist Jee Chan as they delve into their own family’s negotiation with the tug of Peranakan traditions of ancestral worship and their Catholic faith. Jee uncovers a banal and often overlooked side of the Peranakan community: the dynamics between tradition, family and faith. For a culture that has been deemed a “national heritage”, we see how this heritage is not static but is instead still evolving, or rather, rojakifying, with Peranakans negotiating different pushes and pulls of various societal forces in the present.

Reflecting on the previous episodes in the "Are You Singaporean?" series, Afra and Tze Yang discuss issues of nationality and race, the dangers of a country prioritising one identity over others, and the vagueness of the label of "Singaporean".

The question “ARE YOU SINGAPOREAN?” implies an underlying assumption of a set of characteristics that make a Singaporean. By looking at the stories of individuals who have constantly been faced with this question, these conversations explore the grey areas of being Singaporean.

Born in Singapore to Filipino parents, Harvey talks about competitive rugby and life in between two national identities.

The question “ARE YOU SINGAPOREAN?” implies an underlying assumption of a set of characteristics that make a Singaporean. By looking at the stories of individuals who have constantly been faced with this question, these conversations explore the grey areas of being Singaporean.

Having lived in Singapore for more than 10 years, Arina has come to call Singapore home. But not everyone’s convinced.

The question “ARE YOU SINGAPOREAN?” implies an underlying assumption of a set of characteristics that make a Singaporean. By looking at the stories of individuals who have constantly been faced with this question, these conversations explore the grey areas of being Singaporean. 

Inter-racial marriages have more than doubled in the last twenty years, and VJ is proudly mixed-race. In this episode, we discuss what it means to her to be part of an inter-racial Singaporean family.

Engineer by day and all-round heritage enthusiast, Sarafian Salleh (aka Tuah Bugis) explores Telok Blangah with us and shares with us how kampungs can be “cosmopolitan”—shedding oft-repeated images of kampungs as the rural, unsophisticated settlements belonging to a parochial past.

Race. Diversity. Chinese Privilege. Pluralism. Xenophobia. Multiracial Society. What is Looking Differently about?

A series of conversations on the sometimes difficult aspects of diversity and difference in Singapore.