Empathize:
Who is our target audience?
Students and staff of NYGH
What do they know about the ethnic groups in Singapore?
They should know the culture and heritage of the races in general but not in depth. They also might have some knowledge about the ethnic group like their traditional food and clothing. There are public holidays for the specific ethnic groups and the students should also know what they are celebrating and why they have to celebrate. Because Singapore celebrates Racial Harmony Day on 21st of July, there will be talk on the different cultures, hence they will have a deeper understanding as time goes on.
How much do they understand about the rich heritage or diversity that exists in each ethnic group in Singapore (in particular in relation to food, architecture and heritage)?
They might not understand that much about the richness of the ethnic groups’ in Singapore. They might just think that the heritage or diversity in the races in Singapore is not that important. For example, most people know about the well-known Malay food in Singapore: Nasi Lamak. However, what they not know is that there are a lot more Malay food that exist in Singapore which contain rich history as well, and it is should be as recognised as Nasi Lamak. Because of this interpretation, we decided that we should focus on the less popular dishes, so that we can convey a message to the audience about the importance of sustaining them. Thus, we decided to do Chendol and Mee Rebus, as there have been modern efforts to bring back these traditional dishes.
Define:
What is wrong with just knowing about the Chinese culture?
We shouldn’t just know our own race but to know others as well. Singapore is a multi-racial country and the four ethnic groups live in harmony. We should get to know people from different races. We should also know about the practices of different race to prevent any misunderstanding.
Why did Minister Ong Ye Kung say that one-off event like Racial Harmony Day is not adequate to engender learning of the ethnic diversity in Singapore for SAP school students?
Racial Harmony Day only happens annually, which is not enough for SAP school students to understand different races better as it only happens once every year. On the other hand, non-SAP schools’ students are able to interact with different people of different race almost every day. SAP students will not be able to do so, giving them a higher chance of misunderstanding other students of another race.
What is preventing NYGH students from having a deep understanding of other ethnic cultures?
About 95% of our school population is made up of Chinese students, so we don’t interact with people of other ethnic group much. Therefore, we might not have much knowledge about other cultures’ and their traditions as we do not have daily interactions with people from different cultures.
What does it mean to truly understand another culture?
It means that we should understand another culture and accept the difference between races. We shouldn’t be defined by our race. We understand quite a lot of information about their culture, especially those that are very deep and traditional. We should also have some information of the races so that we can prevent misunderstandings.
ideate
What does your audience need to know or understand?
They need to know some examples of how people are putting modern touches to traditional food and selling them in order not to lose the traditional foo culture. They will need to have a rough idea why sustaining traditional food is so important.
What did you choose to focus on?
Through our presentation in NY Givesback, we target to remind the students in our school about the importance of sustaining the traditional food culture of Malay food.
Why is this an important area to focus on?
Most people nowadays like to dine in western restaurants or just eat fast food. What about the traditional food? We can’t let them disappear. We do not want the traditional food to be forgotten. Otherwise, it’s goodness as well as heritage is gone. This results in the culture losing a part of its culture and roots, leading to a loss of identity.
How would you educate or inspire your audience given your focus?
We hope that our audience can do something about the vanishing heritage and traditional Malay food. We will give them advice on how they can help in sustaining the traditional food culture and give them information on delicious traditional food that are not only delicious, but is also at a reasonable price.
Create a prototype
How will you represent and showcase your ideas (i.e. video, models, infographic boards) so that you are able to share what you have learned about a particular ethnic group to your audience?
Our prototypes are clay models of two Malay dishes, Chendol and Mee Rebus. Because it’s made out of clay, our group shaped it to look real, in order to attract the audiences’ attention. Our prototypes are also companions of our Infographic board as the dishes we chose are the less well-known ones. Our infographic board explains how the two dishes have been susatined and why we chose to work on them. Our video plans to showcase ideas of the public on what they think about the traditional local food, sustaining them and the effects of globalisation.
What are the important messages about each ethnic group or groups that you want your audience to have a lasting impression of?
We aim to educate about sustainability, and to us, the two dishes are great examples of Malay food that can be sustained so that they will not disappear. Our audience will have a clearer understanding of our project and the food are also proof to our belief and main idea. Overall, we hope that they will understand why sustaining traditional Malay dishes are so important and how efforts can be done to conserve other traditional dishes, so that they will not go “extinct”. We hope that they will put in efforts to conserve the traditional food culture.
Test
How would you gather feedback about your prototype?
We bought these dishes as a group at Geylang Serai and we all gave them a try. We examined them closely and carefully, taking note of some details that we have used in our prototypes. We also asked some members of the public to comment on any specific details in the two dishes that we should take note of.
What was the reaction of your audience to your prototype?
They were really shocked and they praised it, saying that it looked really real. We know that they probably did not expect our food model to look so realistic, thus it came as a surprise when they saw our food model. They commented that it looked cute and agreed with our choice of using jumping clay to make it.
Did your prototype achieve the effects you intended?
We think our prototype did achieve the effects we intended. We were able to show what ingredients are usually and most commonly used in making chendol and mee rebus, allowing our audience to see how the food really looks like and what can be found in them. We also made a few water droplets at the edge of the bowl of the chendol with a hot glue gun in order to give off a melting effect, making it look even more realistic.
What were some of your audience’s comments or feedback that is useful to help you improve on your prototype?
They commented that we could try to make our food models look shinier to make it look fresh. Therefore, we decided to coat them with a layer of glue to give off that effect, and I feel that it really helped in making them look more realistic. They also commented that we could explain more about the history of each dish and emphasize more on the sustainability of the two dishes when presenting our food models as extra information. That was useful as we were able to tell our audience why it is so important to sustain these dishes and what role they had in the past.
interview Questions:
Audience: Public in Geylang Serai
- What is your favourite traditional Malay food? Why?
- Do you think that making traditional Malay food is important to remember the Malay heritage and history? Why/Why not?
- Do you come to Geylang Serai often? What does Geylang Serai mean to you?
- How do you think Singapore can cultivate traditional Malay culture in future generations?
- What is your daily routine? (to hawkers)
Geylang Serai
110 IDS Group 2 