Singapore ‘A Land Imagined’: Rising Seas, Land Reclamation and the Tropical Film-Noir City
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.19.2.2020.3739Keywords:
Singapore City, Tropical Imaginary, Rhizomatics, Climate Change, Film Ethnography, Land Reclamation, Rising Seas, Migrant LabourAbstract
Sea level rise due to climate change is predicted to be higher in the Tropics. As a low-lying, highly urbanised island near the equator, Singapore is taking an active response to this problem, including through large land reclamation projects. Incorporating both environmental and aesthetic elements, these projects also serve to bolster Singapore’s reputation as a shining example of a global city, a leading arts centre in Southeast Asia, and an economic hub to the world. This paper draws attention to urban development through an ethnographic reading of Yeo Siew Hua’s film A Land Imagined. A Singaporean tropical-noir mystery thriller, the film follows the rhizomatic path of a police investigator and his partner as they attempt to solve the disappearance of two foreign labourers. Interwoven within the film is a critique of Singapore’s treatment of migrant workers as it constructs the imaginary of the ‘Singapore Dream’.
References
Abdullah, A.K. (2009). The Hikayat Abdullah (A.H. Hill, Trans.). Kuala Lumpur: The Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.
A Land Imagined (6 June, 2018). A Land Imagined a film by Yeo Siew Hua. Locarno Festival Concorso internazionale (Press Kit). https://medias.unifrance.org/medias/23/243/193303/presse/les-etendues-imaginaires-dossier-de-presse-anglais.pdf
Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization. University of Minnesota Press.
Barr, M. D. (2000). Lee Kuan Yew and the “Asian Values” Debate. Asian Studies Review, 24 (3), 309-334. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357820008713278
Bullock, N. (2018). Ocularcentrism in Singapore: A Preliminary Analysis of Architecture. eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics 17 (1), 25-40. https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.17.1.2018.3640
Chaudhury, S. & Lundberg, A. (2018). Singapore as a Creative City: Vignettes from the Perspective of la flâneuse tropique. eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the Tropics 17 (2), 110-131. http://dx.doi.org/10.25120/etropic.17.2.2018.3660
Chin, C. (2019). Precarious Work and its Complicit Network: Migrant Labour in Singapore. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 49 (4), 528-551. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2019.1572209
Chua, B. H. (2011). Singapore as model: Planning innovations, knowledge experts. In A. Roy & A. Ong (Eds.), Worlding cities: Asian experiments and the art of being global (pp. 29-54). Wiley-Blackwell.
Clarke, D.B. (Ed.) (1997). The Cinematic City. Routledge.
Comaroff, J. (2014) Built on Sand: Singapore and the New State of Risk, Harvard Design Magazine, 39. http://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/issues/39/built-on-sand-singapore-and-the-new-state-of-risk
Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (1987). A Thousand Plateaus. (Vol. 2 of Capitalism and Schizophrenia) (B. Massumi, Trans.). University of Minnesota Press. (Original work published 1980).
Department of Statistics Singapore (2019). https://www.singstat.gov.sg/modules/infographics/population
Geerlings, L.R.C. & Lundberg, A. (2018). Global discourses and power/knowledge: theoretical reflections on futures of higher education during the rise of Asia. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 38, (2), 229-240. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2018.1460259
Glaser, R., Haberzettl, P. & Walsh, R.P.D. (1991). Land reclamation in Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau. GeoJournal 24, 365–373. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00578258
Gray, G. (2010). Cinema: A Visual Anthropology. Berg.
Greene, W. (March 22, 2019). Review: A Land Imagined Is a Noir-Tinged Rumination on Identity. Slant. https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review-a-land-imagined-is-a-noir-tinged-rumination-on-identity/
Hassler, U. & Topalovic, M. (Eds) (2014). Constructed land: Singapore 1924–2012. Singapore: ETH Zurich DArch and Future Cities Laboratory.
IMDb (2018). A Land Imagined, Plot Summary. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8726116/?ref_=tt_sims_tti
Jamieson, W. (2017). There’s Sand in My Infinity Pool: Land Reclamation and the Rewriting of Singapore. GeoHumanities, 3 (2), 396-413. https://doi.org/10.1080/2373566X.2017.1279021
Kong, L. & Yeoh, B.S.A. (1997). The construction of national identity through the production of ritual and spectacle. Political Geography 16 (3), 213–239. https://doi.org/10.1016/0962-6298(95)00135-2
Law, L., Wee, C. W-L., & McMullan, F. (2011). Screening Singapore: The Cinematic Landscape of Eric Khoo’s Be With Me. Geographical Research, 49(4), 363–374. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-5871.2011.00717.x
Lee, H.L. (2019). National Day Rally Speech. 18 August. Prime Minister’s Office Singapore https://www.pmo.gov.sg/Newsroom/National-Day-Rally-2019
Lee K.Y. (1966) National Day Rally Address by Singapore’s Prime Minister, National Theatre, Singapore, 8 August. National Archives Singapore. Audiovisual file. https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/audiovisual_records/record-details/68691f57-1164-11e3-83d5-0050568939ad
Liew, K. K., & Teo, S. K. (2017). Singapore Cinema: New Perspectives. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315683874
Lim, E. (2018). Celluloid Singapore: Cinema, Performance and the National. Edinburgh University Press. https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474402880.001.0001
Lim, T.S. (2017). Land from Sand: Singapore’s Reclamation Story. BiblioAsia 13 (1), 16-23.
Lundberg, A. (2016). Rhizomes, Weak Links and Far Flung Networks: Empowering women’s space in Tropical Asia. eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics, 15 (2), 106-117. https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.15.2.2016.3547
Lundberg, A. (2020). Balinese Dancer wearing a Gas Mask: Climate Change and the Tropical Imaginary. [COP26 Perspectives Special Issue]. Scottish Geographical Journal RSGJ. 136 (1-4). https://doi.org/10.1080/14702541.2020.1858589
Marzin, C., Rahmat, R., Bernie, D., Bricheno, L., Buonomo, E., Calvert, D., Cannaby, H., Chan, S., Chattopadhyay, M., Cheong, W-K., Hassim, M.E., Gohar, L., Golding, N., Gordon, C., Gregory, J., Hein, D., Hines, A., Howard, T., Janes, T., …Zhang, S. (2015). Singapore’s Second National Climate Change Study – Phase 1. Published by Met Office, Exeter, UK; Centre for Climate Research Singapore, Singapore; National Oceanography Centre, Liverpool, UK; CSIRO, Australia; Newcastle University, UK http://ccrs.weather.gov.sg/publications-second-National-Climate-Change-Study-Science-Reports
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore (MFA). https://www.mfa.gov.sg/SINGAPORES-FOREIGN-POLICY/International-Issues/Climate-Change
Ministry of Manpower (MOM) (December, 2019). https://www.mom.gov.sg/
Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources; Ministry of National Development (2016) windmills and projects on land reclamation sites (ie more drainage etc). y-state is one of the governments Climate Action Plan Singapore’s Climate Action Plan: A Climate-Resilient Singapore, For a Sustainable Future. https://www.nccs.gov.sg/docs/default-source/publications/a-climate-resilient-singapore-for-a-sustainable-future.pdf?sfvrsn=662eccb_12
National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS). Impact of Climate Change on Singapore. https://www.nccs.gov.sg/singapores-climate-action/impact-of-climate-change-in-singapore/
Observatory of International Complexity (2018). https://oec.world/en/profile/hs92/52505/
Ong, A. (2011). Introduction Worlding Cities, or the Art of Being Global. In Roy, A. & Ong, A. (Eds.). Worlding Cities: Asian Experiments at the Art of Being Global (pp. 1-28). Wiley-Blackwell.
Oppenheimer, M., Glavovic, B. C., Hinkel, J., van de Wal, R., Magnan, A.K., Abd-Elgawad, A., Cai, R., Cifuentes-Jara, M., DeConto, R.M., Ghosh, T., Hay, J., Isla, F., Marzeion, B., Meyssignac, B. & Sebesvari, Z. (2019). Sea Level Rise and Implications for Low-Lying Islands, Coasts and Communities. In H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, V. Masson-Delmotte, P. Zhai, M. Tignor, E. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Nicolai, A. Okem, J. Petzold, B. Rama, N.M. Weyer (Eds.). IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, In press.
Patapan, H. (2013). Modern Philosopher Kings: Lee Kuan Yew and the Limits of Confucian 'Idealistic' Leadership. European Journal of East Asian Studies, 12 (2), 217-241. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700615-13120204
Peer, J.T. (2019). Hidden Transcripts in Singaporean Film: An Anthropological Analysis. [Unpublished Honours Thesis]. James Cook University, Australia.
Sassen, S. (2002). The Global City: New York, London, and Tokyo (2nd Ed.). Princeton University Press. First published 1991. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400847488
Shiel, M. & Fitzmaurice, T. (Eds) (2001). Cinema and the City: Film and Urban Society in the Global Context. Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470712948
Sim, J. (2020). A Land Imagined: Transsensorial States of Transmigration. International Journal of Diaspora & Cultural Criticism. 10 (1), 31-61. https://doi.org/10.15519/dcc.2020.01.10.1.31
Singapore Land Authority. (2019). Total Land Area of Singapore (data set). https://data.gov.sg/dataset/total-land-area-of-singapore
Tan, K.P. (2012). The Ideology of Pragmatism: Neo-liberal Globalisation and Political Authoritarianism in Singapore. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 42 (1), 67-92. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2012.634644
Temasek (January 2019). Climate Change and Rising Sea Levels: Mitigating and Adapting to the Looming Threats. Prepared by AlphaBeta strategyxeconomics.
The Straits Times. (2019, Aug 18). Greater Southern Waterfront & key projects that have shaped Singapore. The Straits Times. https://graphics.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/Interactives/2019/08/ndr-2019-transform-sg/index.html
UNEP (2019). Sand and sustainability: Finding new solutions for environmental governance of global sand resources. GRID-Geneva, United Nations Environment Programme, Geneva, Switzerland. https://unepgrid.ch/en
Voelcker, B. (August 23, 2018). Interview: Yeo Siew Hua. Film Comment. Published by Film at Lincoln Centre. https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/locarno-interview-yeo-siew-hua/
Yeo S. H. (Director). (2018). A Land Imagined [Film]. Akanga Film Asia, Films de Force Majeure, mm2 Entertainment & Volya Films.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 CC-BY

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who submit articles to this journal agree to the following terms:
1. Authors are responsible for ensuring that any material that has influenced the research or writing has been properly cited and credited both in the text and in the Reference List (Bibliography). Contributors are responsible for gaining copyright clearance on figures, photographs or lengthy quotes used in their manuscript that have been published elsewhere.
2. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License that allows others to share and adapt the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository, or publish it in a book), with proper acknowledgement of the work's initial publication in this journal.
4. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access or The Open Access Citation Advantage). Where authors include such a work in an institutional repository or on their website (i.e., a copy of a work which has been published in eTropic, or a pre-print or post-print version of that work), we request that they include a statement that acknowledges the eTropic publication including the name of the journal, the volume number and a web-link to the journal item.
5. Authors should be aware that the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License permits readers to share (copy and redistribute the work in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the work) for any purpose, even commercially, provided they also give appropriate credit to the work, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. They may do these things in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests you or your publisher endorses their use.