About time!
If you live in Singapore, you’ll be well aware of the city’s entrenched Hawker Culture. And now, that’s officially been recognised around the world.
Singapore’s Hawker culture has officially been added to the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The proceeding took place virtually on Wednesday (December 16), and Singapore’s application was unanimously approved in all of three minutes.
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This comes from three years of hard work by the National Heritage Board, the National Environment Agency and the Federation of Merchants’ Associations. It joins the 463-list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Mr Edward Tong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth spoke in a video about Singapore’s Hawker Culture.
He said: “Singapore’s hawker culture is a source of pride for Singapore and all Singaporeans. It reflects our living heritage and multiculturalism, and is an integral part of the daily lives of everyone in Singapore regardless of age, race or background.
“I thank all our hawkers and Singaporeans for their overwhelming support of this nomination… We pledge to do our part to safeguard our intangible cultural heritage.”
A place on this list marks Singapore’s pledge to protect and promote this piece of culture, with reports due to UNESCO every six years.
It also marks Singapore’s second place on UNESCO lists, after Singapore Botanic Gardens was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 2015.