ABSTRACT
We first started talking about this book in the canteens of the National University of Singapore, the scene of outdoor food stalls where the mix of smells and spices from Malay, Chinese, and Indian dishes hangs heavy in the constant humidity. The food vendors continue the tradition of hawkers who historically worked streetside; the Singaporean governm ent organized them into food centers during the m odernization drive, separating functional spaces and ordering public landscapes. As visiting academics, we were there for research, driven by understanding such landscape transformations as well as interested to explore the city’s diversity of places. We were, in essence, tourists. And like many tourists, we were motivated by Singapore’s cacophony of cultures, its juxtaposition of m odernity and tradition, and the social contradictions that result from being an economically open yet politically circumscribed society. As tourists we were seduced by the promise of new sites/sights, foods to savor, the sounds and pace of the urban scene, and full body im m ersion in the equatorial climate. Being in Singapore (like many of the m ost seductive tourist destinations) was a continual intellectual and sensory experience. It is often out of such com plex milieux that new ideas em erge to challenge conventions, and that was the context in which we forged the collaboration for this book.
