By Darell Tea

‘Heritage doesn’t somehow seem a youthful word’ – This statement was made by Burke et al. (2001) and I was just wondering, how many of us agree with this statement?

At first glance, I see some mertit in this statement. But upon sitting down and pondering  a little more,  I hesitated. Was that statement really true? So I went to do some research. I sat down in front of my computer and googled the word ‘Heritage’.

Before I can decide if the word ‘Heritage’ is a word more associated with the young or the old, I had to first find the definition of the word. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines heritage as ‘something of special value and worthy of preservation’. This therefore focuses primarily on the historical and physical aspects of heritage. I also found the definition of heritage to be ‘something handed down from one’s ancestors or the past, as a characteristic, a culture, tradition, etc’ on YourDictionary.com. This definition differs from the first definition as it would not be focusing on the tangible aspects of heritage. In contrast, it focuses on the intangible aspects of heritage. And I’m sure there are many other different definitions that can be found from various sources.

A MORI survey (2000) was done in England to explore attitudes to heritage amongst 1,500 people. People in this survey defined heritage very broadly and included history, environment, etc in their concept of heritage. The most commonly named area of heritage was the tangible aspect of heritage. However, many people also viewed heritage as much more than just the physical environment. Rather, heritage included ways of life, types of food, dialects, languages, religions, fashion, etc. These were the things that tied people to their ‘roots’, to where they came from. This survey concluded that for many people the ‘traditional’ concepts of heritage – like old houses, monuments and so on, meant very little to them.

^ One of our local delights – fried carrot cake. How can this not be part of our heritage? It represents Singapore. Just like Laksa or Fried Kway Teow and Hainanese Chicken Rice. We won’t be able to get these in America or England. You can only taste the best in Singapore.

Indeed, I made a similar comment to one of the blog posts on yesterday.sg previously. I commented on the post Have we truly lost our soul as a nation? on 24^th Feb 09:

Memories are not built on physical objects. Memories will live long after buildings are torn down. I feel that memories or history and heritage are passed down from one generation to another via word of mouth or books. That’s what’s important. Singaporeans, in general, do not make such special trips to reminisce. Most Singaporeans also do not appreciate old buildings or areas until they are about to be torn down. Take the last kampung in Buangkok for example. People are only rushing down now because it’s reported in the news that it will be gone soon.

To which, I believe, some other friends of yesterday.sg disagreed with. Which made me wonder, am I thinking this way because of my lack of attachment to my surroundings, to the buildings I grew up with or other reasons? Could this be due to my youth? Despite having grown up in Singapore for 21 years, I don’t feel as though I have much attachment to the places or buildings in Singapore. The talk of demolishment of Singapore’s last Kampung strikes no terror in my heart. I’ve never even seen what a kampong looks like. How could I possibly miss something I have never known before? Occasionally I look back upon my primary school days, which were almost a decade ago, with a fond smile, but that’s about it. No rush to find all the ‘old school’ products like just a few of my friends do.

^ Ringpop – an ‘old-school’ product that used to be wildly famous amongst children. I used to buy it from mama shops and attaching it to my ring finger before sucking on it. The end result of eating this candy, without fail, is having extremely sticky fingers.

^ Selling ding ding candy. I miss the ringing of the bell whenever someone is selling ding ding candy at the carpark. And there’ll always be the ding ding ding ding noise that is made when the candy is being broken into smaller pieces.

I think it’s true that youths in Singapore, in general, are less likely to visit places like museums or art galleries, as compared to the more mature group of adults. At that age, youths mostly find such places both boring and irrelevant, especially since students are always forced to go on compulsory educational trips (or learning journeys, which was what it used to be called back in my days) to museums. When it’s compulsory, it just turns students off. Personally, I’m not that turned off by museums, but when it comes to art galleries or museums, sorry, not my cup of tea. I mean, honestly, how could history or art compare to fashion, food, music or facebook? But that’s just my opinion.

But I digress. What I wanted to say was that when Burke stated ‘Heritage doesn’t somehow seem a youthful word’, the words ‘heritage’ and ‘youth’ are portrayed as completely unrelated, as poles apart. But this was only because of the way that heritage is seen and portrayed, as the world of museums, galleries, monuments and all boring things possible under the sun. Using this conception of heritage, young people are rarely interested in these areas. However, when heritage is viewed more widely, its applicability to young people becomes more evident – as Burke et al. describes it, heritage is ‘… the inheritance of environment, behaviour and attitudes that shapes the society young people live in…’

Now that makes more sense. If heritage was defined as such, it’s definitely part of my life. Heritage encompasses the kind of environment I’m brought up in, my religion, my dialect, my race, my language, my traditions and customs etc. These are part of my life, part of everybody’s lives. If you think about it this way, heritage doesn’t just apply or appeal to the mature adults any longer. ‘Heritage’ becomes a word that can be associated with both young and old, with people of all ages!

So if people out there still think that the word ‘Heritage’ doesn’t seem like a youthful word, change your dictionary! Your dictionary has the traditional definition, and it’s definitely time to keep up with the times!