There is more to life than just malls….is there?

My trip to the US about a year ago started in Portland, Oregon, where I had to attend an academic orientation event under the Fulbright program.

As I arrived a day before the program started, I had some time to explore the city. I enquired at the information desk of the hostel I stayed at for some places of interest. After receiving a list of interesting places of interest to visit, I asked a perhaps “typically” Singaporean question. “May I know where is the nearest mall? Is there a Target or a Walmart or a Kmart or something close by?”

The girl behind the counter looked at me quizzically. Then she said “No, there are shops and some stores but no mega-malls in the city. Here in Portland, we actually strive to keep out the big commercial players because we want our local traders and shops to thrive. Target, Kmart and Walmart are a distance away and you’d have to drive to get there.”

Wow. That was indeed a shocker. In America, the land of consumerism!

My initial thought was “aiyer, so inconvenient”. But as I wandered around the city in Portland, I grew to appreciate it for what it is. Perhaps because there were no big commercial mega-malls, the city had its own character and plenty of unique and charming shops. If you buy something local, there is a good chance that it wouldn’t be a mass-produced good that you can get in another part of the US. Of course it sometimes meant that things cost more, but for the price you pay you get something unique, special, and personal.

Since starting school in Boston, I have visited mega-malls  but I can count the number of times I have done so with my 10 fingers + 10 toes. Most of the time when I go to a mall it is for a necessity. Not to pass time. To pass time, there are museums, parks, fairs, historic places to visit, events to attend and so on.

As my time to return to Singapore looms closer, I reflected on what I used to do in Singapore during my free time. Quite a few people I’ve met asked me “What do you do in Singapore during your free time? Other than go shopping and watch movies?” They are somewhat right. I used to go to the Botanic Gardens every week but other than that, inevitably, an outing would have a high chance of involving a mall. Whether it is to shop, watch movies, or hang out with friends. Singapore is a small country but boy is it filled with malls. And unfortunately, most times, the names that you see in one mall are the names that you will see in 10 other malls around the country. They are almost copies of one another, just scattered around the island.

While Singapore has definitely developed quite a few places of interest in recent months and years, consumerist activities still take a center stage in the lives of average Singaporean. We visit mall after mall, buying some things that we need and many more that we probably don’t. Many of us spend our free time watching movies, playing games, walking through rows of stores that may carry big international brand names that reflect class and style but have little to offer in terms of character, uniqueness and that personal touch.

Some will say that as a small city that strives to be the hub of this and of that, consumerism is not a choice. We are so small that we do not have the luxury that America has, to have cities like New York that are packed with malls, yet at the same time have others like Portland that can afford to have an unofficial motto like “Keep Portland Weird”. We have to keep selling, buying and all that jazz. We must have the latest versions of this phone or that camera, or some gadget. And Singapore’s ubiquitous malls offer all that we think we need.

Or do they?

Isn’t there more to life than just malls? I wonder, what kind of society have we become? At what price, “progress”? Is this what’s meant by “uniquely Singapore?”