Do Singaporeans have a culture?

I remember in the late 1990s, or was it early 2000, there was this question posted nation wide- Is there a Singaporean culture?

Back then, I didn't know the answer. I couldn't really identify what was Singapore culture. But today, I would say, Singaporeans have somewhat a culture that is shared by all the cocktail of Straits living, Malay flavor and Chinese immigrants who came and shaped it.

We have... the Peranakan Culture. I am not Peranakan. My ancestry came straight from China's Swa Tow... (Turtle Mountains I call it :P )

But there are so, so many aspects of Peranakan Culture that I can identify with so much more than my great grandmother land of China.

Thats because I was born and brought up here. So were my parents. My grandparents grew up here.

Let me list some aspects of Singapore that shaped its unique culture:

It was heavily influenced by the colonial masters, therefore giving shape to many westernised buildings and a mix of British and Southeast Asian culture in many things we have:

- Kaya toast with tea and coffee and half cooked eggs, Singapore style

- Hainanese Pork Chop

- Roti John

- Teh-cino

Apart from food, we have:

- Western looking furniture and architecture in places like shop houses. Shop houses are a local construct because of the 5-foot way corridors. But yet the designs are Western. I have a good example:

I remember visiting my great-grandmother's place which looked a little like a shophouse, with all the peranakan- looking designs and wesstern-asian architecture. I remember those teacups and tea saucers and those rustic-looking marble tables and chairs. All brings nostalgia in my heart.

I remember peeling off layer by layer the rainbow coloured kueh (jiu chen gao) and eating it with joy as a toddler. Or even drinking my milo from a tea saucer which used to be the trend.

To me, that is where my culture is, from young. Mama shops, hawker centres, old-school coffee shops, a mish-mash of the different flavors and sights of Singapore, - definitely not sergregated strictly to the CMIO category.