Singapore as a "Renaissance City" : image or reality?

Abstract

Since the 1980s, the State’s focus has changed to the Arts and Culture of Singapore. In the year 2000, the State initiated the Renaissance City Plan (RCP), which represents the essence of the State’s commitment in developing the arts and culture. However, in this paper, I will study how the RCP is discussed in the journalistic discourse and hence unravel the latent functions of the arts and culture. With rising literacy and information exchange worldwide, there are more consciousness on and rejection to repressive power. Hence, through the “Renaissance City” rhetoric, the State attempts to economize the people’s minds and inculcate a notion of discipline, thus using the arts and culture as an ideological state apparatus to maintain its political control and legitimacy without being criticized as repressive.