TOURIST FROM HERE: PERFORMANCE OF TOURISM, HOME AND EVERYDAY IN SINGAPORE Desmond Wee A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Leeds Metropolitan University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2011 Abstract In the context of multi-level mobilities, the notion of „home‟ as a fixed frame for identity is challenged; there seems to be many homes, no homes and new homes that are constantly being created. With these fluidities in mind, this thesis re-examines concepts of belonging and identity, and questions the ways in which the performance of self, along with associated materialities, practices and representations are being reproduced in ways that inform tourism and the being of a tourist. By exploring how tourism is performed in the everyday, questions of home and identity emerge relating to who is a tourist and what is tourism. Rather than looking at traditional definitions of what constitutes tourists or tourism, this research explores these notions using their relations with the „local‟ and how the local performs tourism. This reveals other more complex questions such as „when is a tourist a local‟ and „when is a local a tourist?‟ The reconstructions of what makes the „local‟ and the „tourist‟ make the case in which tourism is seemingly integrated with home and reflected in everyday practices. The core of the thesis explores the complex relationships between tourism processes and the reproduction of identities through the performance of home and everyday practices in multi-layered Singapore. The aim is to understand how tourism is performed and framed within the everyday in which paradoxes and contradictions become increasingly inherent in a globalised world. The symbolic categories in which tourism is performed become more than representations, rather, they are preformed and transformed through tourist practices. Ultimately, embodied practices are performed on an everyday basis whereby the researcher, the tourist and the local are all doing tourism at the same time. By re-evaluating tourists, tourist places, tourist practices and their concomitant relationships, this research seeks to understand the dynamics that reproduce different spaces of performances and how they relate to the acquisition of identity. Hence, performance is explored in terms of being „away at home‟ by premising home mobilities and immobilities, as well as, the adaptability of self in various spatial contexts and practice. In this study, the self is situated as mobile agent within emergent flows of place, encounter and meaning, where personal identification factors into how identities are negotiated. Hence, it undertakes the challenge of exploring the blurring of the tourist- local-researcher divide, incorporating self-reflexivities and emergent meanings as new spaces are being reproduced. The qualitative element of this research frames such spaces of performances by supporting a bricolage research methodology that 2 investigates various interactive and embodied spaces. Performances are also reviewed in the light of visualities and their related practices such as embodied material culture. As such, notions of subjectivities and reflexivities surface especially with a reverse gaze in which the subject and object, local and tourist, nation building and tourism are confused. This thesis contextualises the sovereign city-state of Singapore and investigates through cultural discourse and practice, how Singaporeans engage tourist spaces as performed spaces in the formulation of a national identity. The field research that informs this paper is about the reproduction of cultural encounters through the reflexive lenses of the researcher, tourist and the local as it considers how „home‟ is performed through national discourses to „Rediscover Singapore‟. It incorporates various elements of photography in an effort to frame the self as both subject and object, to reveal how tourist practice is assimilated in the everyday and how this contributes to the reiteration of identity in Singapore. 3 Declaration I confirm that the thesis is my own work; and that all published or other sources of material consulted have been acknowledged in notes to the text or the bibliography. I confirm that the thesis has not been submitted for a comparable academic award. 4 Acknowledgements The PhD process is nothing short of a journey, one that is like this thesis, filled with cultural encounters and performed spaces. This research began as part of the centenary studentship award at Leeds Metropolitan University to which I am thankful for. This however would not have been possible without the support of the CTCC, beginning firstly with Mike Robinson and Phil Long who were instrumental in coordinating my research as Supervisors. My colleagues have also been more than inspirational in various forms of collaboration, Jakob Calice, Birgit Braasch, Claudia Müller, Suleiman Farajat, Valerio Simoni, Josef Ploner, Yi Fu, Kim Sangkyun, Hanna Wadle, Sonja Buchberger, Fabian Frenzel, Martin Bastide, Tamas Regi, Hong Sunyoung, Donata Marletta, not forgetting my favourite interns, Charlotte Terrapon, Abeti Ilofo and Mathilde Vers. Special thanks goes especially to Simone Abram and Barbara Schaff who have been gracious enough to read my drafts and Josef Ploner for submitting this thesis on my behalf. The fieldwork that informed this thesis was in conjunction with the National Library in Singapore of which I was awarded the Lee Kong Chian Research Fellowship. I am most grateful to the staff for their support, Johnson Paul, Isabel Kam, Veronica Chee and especially my research assistant, Ivy Lee. Other libraries in Singapore where I spent time researching include the Tourism Resource Centre at STB and the Asian Civilisations Museum Library, both of which have been extremely cooperative. Yvonne Huang and colleagues at the Singapore City Gallery as part URA have been most helpful in providing material for this research. Many thanks to Ming Wong who was kind enough to meet during his hectic schedule in Venice and Berlin, and Jeff Lim, Bernie Yuen and my ex-students (especially the Terre Rouge alumni) who gave me insightful accounts that moulded my understanding of „Singapore‟. The greater peripheral of colleagues in Leeds who have influenced my thoughts include my „founding‟ colleagues at PORESO, including Ko Koens, Karen Horwood and Venetia Giannakouli, Ayeray Medina Bustos at SAGE, Arianna Giovannini at the Institute of Northern Studies and Kostas Zervas at HOME. Other groups whom I have met along the way at conferences include the Tourism people in Bournemouth and Istanbul, the Body people in Cardiff, the Identity people in Györ (IALIC), the Cultural Studies people in Kingston (ACS), Exposure Leeds and PLEGO, the Leisure Studies people in Palermo (ISA). Special thanks to Evelyn Annuß who have been most tolerant on my manuscripts in „Stagings made in Namibia‟. Other people who provided logistical support included Ingrid Holme, Louise Miller and my angels, Laura Walker, Alison Briscoe and Nicola Chance. I wish to thank all my family especially Marie for having an uncanny ability to withstand this adventure with me, Pit and Régine for their immense support and Bryan for uncountable PhD consultations. I would also like to acknowledge the people who have always believed in my work and supported this cause, Jojada Verrips, Michael Rebaczonok-Padulo and Hong Seongpyo. Finally, I dedicate this work to the three people who made (and were made during) this exciting tour with me: Marie who became my wife in Las Vegas, Lukas who was born in Leeds and Anaïs in Daegu, Korea, where this passage is finally completed. 5 Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................... 2 Declaration .............................................................................................................. 4 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. 5 Table of Contents .................................................................................................... 6 List of Figures ......................................................................................................... 9 I. Performing Tourism and the Everyday in Singapore ...................................... 12 A. Introduction ...................................................................................................... 12 B. Aims and Objectives ......................................................................................... 15 C. Background: Spaces of Performance in „Singapore‟ ........................................... 16 D. Overall Research Methodology ......................................................................... 18 E. Chapter Outline ................................................................................................ 20 F. Conclusion........................................................................................................ 23 II. Literature Review............................................................................................ 26 A. Introduction: A contemporary tourism ................................................................ 26 B. Destination, representation and beyond ............................................................. 28 C. Performance: Everyday and Home .................................................................... 31 D. Tourism and Everyday .....................................................................................