Heritage spaces in a global context: the case of Singapore Chinatown

ABSTRACT

Chinatowns are heritage spaces that are historically and geographically specific. Chinatowns are commonly leveraged as heritage attractions in tourism. In this paper, we used data from semi-structured interviews conducted in summer 2018 in Singapore to examine how locals and tourists view Singapore Chinatown. Our results suggest heritage and commercialization are two major themes regarding Chinatown. Both locals and tourists see Chinatown’s heritage value, though their interest levels vary. Their views on commercialization differ: locals see it as a loss of heritage whereas for tourists, it homogenizes Chinatowns. We recommend placing Singapore Chinatown in a global context to amplify its distinction.

KEYWORDS:

• Chinatown
• heritage spaces
• Singapore
• global context
• tourism

Acknowledgement

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the ICCAUA 2018: 2nd International Conference on Contemporary Architecture and Urban Affairs, Alanya, Antalya, Turkey, May 2019, and won the best paper award. This project was funded by the ASIANetwork Freeman Student-Faculty Fellows Program.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Voon Chin Phua is Professor of Sociology. His research on tourism has been published in Annals of Tourism Research, Tourismos: An International Multidisciplinary Journal of Tourism, and Shima: The International Journal of Research into Island Cultures.

Jesse E. Shircliff is a graduate of Gettysburg College and a 2018 ASIANetwork Student-Faculty Research Fellow.

ORCID

Voon Chin Phua http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1368-9121

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the ASIANetwork Freeman Student-Faculty Fellows Program].