Singapore Singles Scene
The singles scene here is dire, apparently. Everyone is too busy working to date. No dating, no offspring, and nobody to support the elderly population. The solution? Encourage marriage! Once married, it’s hoped the couples will take advantage of the Baby Bonus to assist them in reproducing.
The Prime Minister is of course behind the Baby Bonus scheme, but its effects are limited. Single people still don’t have time to date. So after the annual National Day speech last August groups of patriotic parents who really want grandchildren tried meeting together, with pictures of their eligible children, to do sort of proxy speed-dating. Only a limited number of matches resulted.
So – Government Intervention to the rescue!
The Singapore government created not one, but two official government dating services: SDS (Social Development Services) for those of limited education, and SDU (Social Development Union) for a more educated clientele. They figured that like would turn to like.
But (and this was predictable) it turns out that opposites attract, to some extent: educated men are looking for less educated women, and less educated women are looking for more educated men. So the government, demonstrating a pragmatism and flexibility that Americans can only envy, today announced a merger between the two dating services. This will enlarge the pool of available mates for everyone. Of course, uneducated men and educated women will be left out in the cold, but I guess they’re no worse off than before.
Will this solve Singapore’s population difficulties? Only time will tell.
February 2nd, 2009 at 4:51 pm
A friend with old ties to Singapore sums up Singapore’s population policy as follows:
Singapore behavior-mod campaigns have been around since LKY began trying to shape the place after independence. Early-on, the big fear was that there would be a population explosion — the technocrats read Ehrlich’s Population Bomb and other things, and (always copycats) they pondered China’s one-child policy. The started a campaign “Two Is Enough.” The idea is pretty self-explanatory: have more than two kids and we’ll find a way to grind you. (Lee’s wife is a family planning physician, a Singaporean Indian, so she knew all about it.) OK, fine. But over time what should happen as the country gets richer? Upwardly mobile young people, especially women, start thinking about whether they want to be part of the world of their parents: huge responsibilities and expectations, family hassles, women treated like servants by their husbands and their husband’s family (especially their mother-in-law). So fertility rates among the upwardly mobile start to drop. But fertility rates among the lower-class don’t. Uh oh, the un-meritocratic are gaining population strength! First, the government tried a bit of social engineering. Turns out Accounting in Singapore is a female-dominated profession. So they lifted the Accounting program out of NUS and plunked it down in the middle of NTU, which was mostly male, and hoped Nature would take its course. Kinda, but not enough. So then came the “More if you can afford it” campaign, augmented by incentives (basically a regressive tax on kids) to get the upwardly mobile to procreate. What you’re seeing now is just an outgrowth of that campaign, which was rolling along in the early-mid 90s.
February 4th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Ha – I just figured out something else, another subtle wrinkle in the Singapore dating scene. Nanyang Technological University is fairly male-dominated, especially the various computing and engineering departments. A student body of 28,000, in which the males outnumber the females. So ten years ago Singapore built a shiny new campus for its National Institute of Education, where all Singaporean teachers are trained and all Singaporean education research takes place. It is fairly female-dominated, at least among the students.
Where did they locate it? On the NTU campus, just across the road from the main engineering building. And they built a lovely pedestrian bridge over the road to facilitate visiting between the two groups, as well as a circular outdoor canteen with lovely rainforest views. And a big shaded space on the Engineering end of the bridge so student fairs and parties can occur. So the boys and girls can cross the bridge, eat together, attend movies and lectures, and contemplate nature together. Now we just need the statistics on numbers of children born to teacher-engineer couples in the last 9 years to see if this architectural approach has been a success.
December 8th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Modern people look at finding a date like finding a job, a house. So called realistic meantality. I believe the role plays of women and men definitely change since back then. But probably it is not easy to change the concept in people’s heads. Therefore, there are online dating & matchmaking platforms like http://www.be2.sg which comes out to try to help people find the love of their lives. What is a typical Singapore dating scene? In school, and after graduation at work…? It can be quite interesting to see.