Westernization in Present Day: Globalisation in Singapore

Globalization can be described as an ongoing process where resources, believes, ideas and technology from different cultures are integrated to each other and promote new ways of thinking and practices among the society. As a continuing progression, globalization aroused from the influences of other cultures, which has been adapted with the local cultural conditions and modified to fit in the context of social behaviour. The external influences will directly override some local particularities, and the culture itself will be altered, or maybe damaged, or even enhanced, according to the perspective of society life. Therefore, the expression of culture itself will be interpreted and analysed in different way which encouraged the people to think, act, and learn the new disciplines in every aspect of life.

These processes, hence, have an outcome of a cultural diversity, in which introducing the local values in global culture. In other words, it offered a global and local linkage of social changes that happened in the nation. Looking through the contemporary social life, globalization has become a major issue all over the world. Many countries have developed new approaches in most of the living aspects, and transformed people’s lifestyle in order to follow the major flow that happened globally. In today’s modern days, globalization can act as a tool to open the opportunities of influence by other countries, and expand the cross-cultural interaction that may build up the cohesion among the nation.

Globalization, however, implies to westernization in present days. The nature of western countries seems to appear as a science based tradition and the world is highly developed towards that tradition, as a sense of control. These global forces appear to superficially standardized and homogenized cultures, and equivalent to westernization. Majority of cultures are converging to the western standards, local identities have been replaced with global culture, and western values have become significant trends in this modern world. 

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Looking at Singapore, a cosmopolitan city, where variety of cultures merges together, is one of a good example of a country that embraces globalization. Besides accepting the westernization, Singapore has been spanning borders through other cultures, such as Malay, Chinese, Indian, and Caucasian. These four interwoven cultures has created a genuine blending of traditions, believes, and ideas. A fusion of cultures in which Singapore brought in, has created a multi-disciplinary notions and practices, rooted in many cultural traditions. This synthesis has altered and transforms the peoples’ way of life according to the local context.

On the other hand, not only western value that the world, including Singapore, has been developing on, but also majority of the countries have welcoming influences from Asian culture. Japan has brought a significant shift in the world’s globalization. Beside westernization, it has been become a popular culture among the world. Japanese culture has generated a different approach in global trends. Its tradition does not rest on science based technology and for them technology is a choice, not a necessity. Japan has greatly developed their long standing traditions towards something that instinctive rather than rationalistic way of thinking, like what the western do. Japan has its own original characteristic, which has a capacity to adapt and integrate new forms and function. Hence, there is no doubt that Japanese influence has an impact on the worlds’ culture, such as, in space, design, architecture, style, and even food culture.

There is no large city in the world in which a Japanese restaurant cannot be found. Far from being a passing fad, Japanese cuisine is an establishment item in restaurants all over the world. The popularity of Japanese food is in part due to its reputation as a healthy alternative and also the curiosity and willingness to constantly introducing new tastes in their daily meals.

Japanese way of dining, since the olden days, has put emphasized on food arrangement as a piece of art. For the Japanese, food must be enjoyed visually and pleasing to the eyes. They have developed the aesthetic sense to design exquisite harmony between colours, texture and shape throughout the food arrangement. This visual pleasure is an essential prelude and accompaniment to the savoury pleasure that follow.

The influence of Japanese cuisine has been successfully creating a new atmosphere in Singapore food culture. It is proven that Singapore people accepted the taste and ambience of Japanese food by looking to the increasing number of sushi chain restaurant, such as Sushi Tei, Sakae Sushi; numerous traditional and contemporary Japanese restaurant, and also Japanese themed food court such as Ishimura and Manpuku.

The diversity of food which has been influenced by Japanese cuisine, has become an inspiration for the designers to introduce innovative and exciting solutions to design dining spaces, through the essential aspect of Japanese dining and design in new ways that suit today’s restaurant-goers.

Recognizing the context of social behaviour in Singapore, innovation is the key elements for Singaporean. In terms of food culture, people like an excitement and it is a challenge for them to try something fresh and different, both in food and also ambience of dining space. Experience is another strong point, another extra ordinary atmosphere can attract people to get in and try a new restaurant.

Besides the tendency to look for new things, the image of Singapore as a fast paced country gave an impact to the society. The time-oriented and multi-tasking people have built a busy working environment and hectic lifestyle in this metropolis city. Consequently, they are likely don’t have time to have the luxury of enjoying social fellowship during the weekdays. This could be why it seems that forms of entertainment in Singapore tend to be designed to fit people’s activity on weekends. The big leisure activity that Singapore offers is shopping. There are numerous numbers of malls and shopping centres have been build or even renovated to drag people in the shopping as an attraction. Other than shopping; casinos, theme parks, nature reserves, are the other forms of leisure that Singapore provided.

Despite the fact that all those type of facilities can serve as a very relaxing and stress relieving activity, people need to spend their time on weekend to do these activities.