Comments on: Singapore Singles Scene

By: Leona

Leona — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:17:36 +0000

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.

By: Lara

Lara — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:21:02 +0000

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.

By: Lara

Lara — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 08:51:32 +0000

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.