Fabric of a family : alternative families in Singapore.

• Main Authors: Goh, Chay Teng., Quah, Dai Wei.
• Other Authors: Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Journalism::Photojournalism
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/52571
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This photojournalism project documents the lives of various types of families in Singapore. The Singapore government has made no secret of what it considers to be the ideal Singaporean family. In 1999, then Parliamentary Secretary Chan Soo Sen described a family as “a man, wife and children living in the same household.” Almost a decade later, in 2007, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had the same definition of a family. Although the government’s stance on family has not changed in decades, the rest of Singapore’s has. There are no official statistics but the occurrence of a ‘normal’ family as defined by the government has decreased in recent years. Instead of living in the same household, many families have separated due to globalisation – where one parent or children works or study overseas. Divorce rates have increased throughout the years and more people are not even getting married. Gays and lesbians are more ‘out’ in today’s society and many of them have set up their own families without being legally recognised by the government. But just because these families deviate from what the government’s definition of family does not make them any less of one.