The Singaporean Way of Life

The Singaporean Way of Life

Chief Paper

ANT101

Mrs. Candice Ferrel

February 14, 2013

The Singaporean Way of Life

Singapore is a diverse mix of many ethnic, religious, and socio-economic groups, cohabitating together to create a single Industrialist society. In exploring the unique properties of this Industrialist society, I will focus on the Singaporean family structure, the political establishment and laws, and the economic stability of this country. Singapore is a small country located on a grouping of small islands, toward the south tip of the Malaysian Peninsula. It has a combined area mass about four times smaller than the state of Delaware, but is considered one of the quickest growing and prosperous countries in Asia (Singapore:1, 2001). Singapore’s population growth comes in the form of immigrant and foreign labor for the skilled industrial manufacturing and technological jobs abundant within the society (Fong & Lim, 1982). The ethnic makeup of this country is predominately Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Indonesian (Bellows, 2009). Although this country has enjoyed much success, it struggles with many of the same social problems as the larger western societies it strives to emulate. In having a better understanding of the cultural diversity of these and other cultures, will greatly enhance my social interactions with other societies in my future.

Although Singapore is a cultural mixture of nationalities, many changes have affected its family structure through courtship, divorce, and maintaining ancestral cultural norms pertaining to family, throughout the quick growth of this industrialized nation. Singapore shows little difference in this devaluation of family, when compared to most industrialized nation (Straughan, 2004). The nation’s family arrangement is similar to many Asian cultures and constructed on a nuclear family structure (Straughan, 2004). Throughout many research studies on Singapore, the family structural dynamics are...