GEYLANG SERAI
Look at all the kuehs!
- Juliette: It is very important to conserve our heritage because if it is forgotten, we will lose a big part of our history. We are losing not only a national identity, but also our individual identity. Our heritage tells a story, and we will be able to get an insight at Singapore’s past. Our heritage is not a showcase for tourists, but it is for future generations and tourists to understand more about our history. Future generations can find solutions to problems in the past, to prevent common problems from occurring. Both parties can learn how far Singapore has come since 1965, which is remarkable for a small country. I want to explore the food, because I have not tried many cultural food, thus I am curious to try them. As many youngsters (including me) nowadays are unsure of their cultures’ practices, I would also like to learn more about the traditional practices of my heritage. My parents do some of these practices, but I am always not sure what and why they are doing it, so I would like to find out more about them. The challenges are future generations might not be willing to make an effort to conserve our heritage, which might result in us losing a part of our heritage. Some questions I would like to ask are: How exactly can we (students) do to conserve our heritage? How can schools encourage future generations to conserve their heritage? Why are future generations unwilling to conserve their heritage?
Yuexin: To me, conserving our heritage is about giving Singapore a unique identity. It provides Singapore with information about it’s rich past and history. I think everyone should play a part in conserving our heritage. No matter how big or small that contribution is, it will not be wasted.It is just so important to Singapore as we have come so far. What builds Singapore up into a multi-racial country is all because of our founding fathers.Younger generations can build a better Singapore is they can learn from our history. If Singapore do not conserve it, what will happen to Singapore in the future? Our roots will be forgotten and our heritage, lost. Although the heritage displays can be for the tourist to view, I personally feel that we Singaporeans can also learn a lot from these displays. I can try more traditional food of a ethnic group that I’ve haven’t really tried before. This way, I can get to appreciate the traditional food in Singapore more. I think we can also search up the origin of traditional food and maybe find a fun fact about it. Then, I can tell my friends about it. I can also recommend my friends to try these traditional food in order not to lose our unique hawker culture and food. The challenges are if the youngsters are steered to the Western culture, no one will care about our national culture. It also depends on them if they want to conserve our heritage or not. People might have evolved, so their taste might be different.In what ways can we do to conserve our heritage? How do we encourage youngsters to conserve our heritage?
Sharlene: It means a lot to me as I am very used to being in a country here there are many races and if we don’t conserve the heritage, Singapore won’t have a significance anymore. By conserving it, we are also storing the heritage for the future generations. Singapore a place where people feel like they belong. We can try new food and research more about other countries. I would like to know how we can preserve our culture heritage? I believe that if we all put in effort to cultural heritage, it is possible to conserve our heritage, however, what steps must we take to conserve it. Is it possible to bring back what has disappeared? Some of our cultural traditions and heritage that were once considered precious and valuable to others have disappeared and many people are left disappointed. If there was a way for the future generations to know what was once a tradition or a heritage to that culture, what can we do? Last but not least, what can we do in order for our cultural traditions and heritage to not disappear? For example, buildings take up a lot of space in this small country and it is impossible to us to be able to keep all the buildings, especially the ones that people hold dearly to their cultural traditions and heritage. Is there a way to remove them without removing the memory that was once lived by the people in the olden times?
Yixuan:To me, conserving our heritage means a lot. Our country is a country full of heritage, tradition, and culture. If we all do not make an effort to conserve it, Singapore will not be known for a country full of different kind of cultures. It is not only for ourselves, but also for our future generations. Conserve our heritage will help the future generations know more about their roots, and have a better understanding of who they are. We can do more research on food and heritage. Some heritage are disappearing or have already disappeared, but the only thing we could do is to try our best and try to protect the heritage. However, how are we going to protect our heritage? Are we going to educate our children? Are we going to conserve our intangible culture also? Or are we just staying here and only thinking blankly? It is definitely not easy to carry out a plan to conserve our heritage, but it is a must for us to do it. However, Is it possible for us to bring back the heritage that have already disappeared? Or is it possible for us to let people remember their true identity?
Vera: Our heritage is our history. The things our forefathers did for us to be where we are today. We must be proud of our culture and teach our future generations to appreciate what our forefathers have done. It is important that we understand that it was not an easy life for our forefathers. I must conserve my heritage by never forgetting it and educating my younger relatives about it. I can read up more about the countries my forefathers came from and see how they came to Singapore. These resources can come from books or old texts. These are tangible. Also, I could ask my parents or my grandparent about their parents and grandparent. The memories they tell me are intangible yet very real. The challenges are that nowadays younger generations are forgetting what our forefathers did. They always use their electronic devices for things other than research. It will be difficult to get them interested in the past when all they think of is the future. They might even feel that our history is boring. Are there ways to make our history more interesting so that younger generations will be more eager to learn about it? Will they teach us how to conserve our heritage in school? Are Teachers going to educate the children on the importance of conserving our heritage and culture?
110 IDS Group 2 