Creativity and cultural globalisation in suburbia: Mediating the Perth-Singapore network

According to Singapore-based academics Randolph Kluver and Wayne Fu, there is a need to seek out cultural proxy signifiers “which indicate the extent to which beliefs and values are moving across national boundaries” (Kluver and Fu 2004). This paper examines how Singaporeans who have settled in the Western Australian city of Perth – which houses the largest single concentration of Singaporeans outside Singapore, to the extent that it has been dubbed ‘Singaperth’ by The Straits Times (Long 2003a; 2003b) – reconnect with Singapore culturally in and through their creative pursuits. The motivations and thoughts of three Perth-based Singaporeans who belong to the ‘creative class’ (Florida 2002), and who continue to relate to Singapore in their work and cultural activities, are presented and analysed. Using these three respondents as ‘proxies’, this paper considers the extent which Perth might be seen as a creative suburb of Singapore where cultural globalisation entails the embrace of the new creative and cultural ‘network’, one which enables these ‘Singaperthians’ to enjoy their ‘new’ suburban home, yet gives them autonomy to selectively, albeit consciously, mediate their diasporic ‘homeland’ and cultural ‘centre’ identities.