Paper short abstract:

This paper interprets how Chinese Singaporeans understand their past by observing kopitiam, a traditional Chinese-style coffee shop with a focus on practices surrounding the interpretive turn by Geertz. I conclude that people cut and paste their own elements to create an imagined past and homeland.

Paper long abstract:

In the Malay Peninsula, traditional Chinese-style coffee shops are called kopitiam and have been cherished by the public for ages. Kopitiam offer a wide variety of foods, but are especially famous for their signature breakfasts and thick, aromatic, sweetened coffee. Many kopitiam offer Hainanese-style Western food as in British colonial times. At the same time, they serve Malaysian Chinese specialties such as Hainanese chicken rice. In this way, kopitiam appear to be a good example of the hybrid culture of the Malay Peninsula with the influx of Hainanese Chinese immigrants in the late nineteenth century.

From the mid-2000s onward, the mushrooming growth of modern kopitiam became a notable phenomenon. Such fast-growing modern café chains have interiors that reflect a "traditional atmosphere", even while the café provides a modern, comfortable gathering space with air conditioning, table settings, and wireless Internet access with Muslim-friendly halal foods. However, kopitiam are gradually earning the position of an irreplaceable cultural icon for Singaporeans to represent their rich past and culture.

This paper explores how Chinese Singaporeans enthusiastically cut and paste their own elements of the past to create an imagined past and homeland, all while avidly consuming nostalgic sentiment. Kopitiam are like a complex assemblage of texts and memories that constitutes a web of meanings. These meanings are understood by actors themselves as "national culture." By analyzing the discourse on kopitiam with the discussion of interpretive turn by Clifford Geertz, I attempt to indicate how kopitiam evoke nostalgic sentiments among patrons.