Time fries : how fast food took Singapore's consumption culture by storm and its impacts on Singapore society

Abstract

The first fast food outlet in Singapore was established in the late 1960s and the industry took off soon after in the 1980s. This thesis will first chart the chronological development of fast food joints in Singapore from the 1960s to the 1990s. Thereafter, it investigates the impact of fast food on Singapore through the lens of glocalisation. This occurred in the public sphere of the fast food industry and the state. Americanisation and the import of Western fast food had altered Singapore’s consumption culture. This had implications for the class discourse and the role of women in the rapidly developing nation. Western ideas were equally pervasive within the private space of the domestic household with fast food advertisements shaping the vision of an ideal family.