Programme and Abstracts 4 Oct 2011 - WKWSCI Home - Nanyang ...

Conference on Film and Cinema in Singapore (6‐7 October 2011)
Jointly organised by Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University and
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
CULTURAL MAPPING OF SINGAPORE CINEMAS
CHARLES LEARY
Faculty of Applied & Creative Arts, University of Malaysia Sarawak
charley.leary@gmail.com
The main objective of this project is to document the diversity of film exhibition and spectatorship in
Singapore. This distinctive quality of different spaces for film exhibition are qualified, for instance, by the
variety of language of films shown and the ethnicity of the audience, as well as by the format and
architecture. Today, most cinemas show Hollywood films in English or films from Hong Kong dubbed into
Mandarin. There are of course also exceptions, but until the 1970s, one could regularly find a number of
theatres showing films in Malay as well as in different Chinese dialects.
Singapore has employed a variety of physical structures for film exhibition. The Cathay Cinema, for
example, was housed in the Cathay Building, the seat of power for the Cathay Organisation and a
Singapore landmark. Singapore film culture featured more informal spaces for film viewing as well. For
example, mobile film units would travel to the kampongs to project films in communities with less access
to the picture palaces. Another unique site, not nearly as prevalent in other major world cities, is the openair
cinema, some of which were permanent structures while others temporary. Today, many of the picture
palaces and stand alone cinemas are gone, and, with the arrival of the Golden Village Corporation in 1992,
Singapore became the first country in Asia to adopt the multiplex configuration for cinema architecture
that has come to dominate the space of film‐going across the world.
I aim to produce a map identifying the locations of cinemas and other sites of film exhibition (including,
where appropriate, tracing the typical routes of mobile cinemas), both extant cinemas and those no longer
in operation. A Geographic Information System (GIS) has been utilized to investigate spatial patterns
emerging in the location of Chinese temples in Singapore (Dean 2010), and I hope to implement a similar
approach in considering variables such as language dominating the particular cinema, corporate holdings,
proximity to housing estates or kampongs, ethnic makeup of neighborhoods, and networks between
formal and informal spaces. UNESCO, for example, has embraced cultural mapping and the use of GIS to
value tangible and intangible cultural heritage in local communities. Although this approach has more
frequently been used to study pre‐modern cultures, cultural mapping provides the recognition of cultural
diversity and this specific film heritage in Singapore, and can also elucidate cultural policy and urban
planning as Singapore continues its “Renaissance City” project in encouraging creative zones in a “global
media city.” (Kong 2009).
Charles Leary (PhD, New York University) is Associate Professor in the Cinematography Programme at the
Faculty of Applied & Creative Arts, University of Malaysia Sarawak. He is currently working on a manuscript
on the Cold War politics of Hong Kong film culture. He was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Asia
Research Institute, National University of Singapore.