Singapore's Orchard Road as Conduit: Between Nostalgia and Authenticity

Through the frame of reference of a conduit or "flowing channel" (both literal and figurative), this article shows how Orchard Road juxtaposes many elements emblematic of Singapore's post-traditional environment — its colonial legacy, present patterns of mass consumption, fascination with artificial spectacle, the symbolic economy, youth culture, Singaporean national identity, flows of global workers and tourists, locally historic architectural and landscape forms, underlying geography, and enlivening spatial practices. The construction of Orchard Road as the main public space of the nation through a montage of these erstwhile or embedded elements provides insights to Singapore's postglobal moment. Three related issues focus the examination. First is the collision of history, values, contemporary culture, and the symbolic economy — how are these represented or embodied in space? Second is the division of space between global and local actors (and the formal and informal economy) — how do these groups come together? Third is the disjuncture of fragmented personal experience and memory with mass urban phenomena — what is the nature of nostalgia within the post-traditional environment, and how does this affect the sense of Orchard Road's authenticity?