The nostalgia industry : producing longing and belonging in Singapore

• Main Author: Lim, Jialiang
• Other Authors: Md Saidul Islam
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology::Culture; DRNTU::Humanities::History
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/62410
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This paper discusses the nostalgia industry in Singapore. Using Kopytoff’s cultural biographies, we expand upon the traditional Marxian thought on mass culture. Trends such as the memorialisation of physical spaces and the revival of everyday objects of the past show the expansion in cultural biographies and the expansion in commodification in the current nostalgia industry. This cultural logic has significant buy-in amongst those who subscribe to hipster culture, and consumption of this nostalgia is also mostly undertaken by the middle class. Results have shown that there is a new regime of authenticity beyond that of the State that these cultural producers subscribe to, leading to the expansion of the cultural politics of Nostalgia and influencing discussions of identity and belonging.