Singapore is making a bid to have its hawker culture listed in the Unesco's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

What is this Representative List?

According to Unesco, the Representative List "is made up of those intangible heritage elements that help demonstrate the diversity of this heritage and raise awareness about its importance".

A Unesco committee meets annually to evaluate nominations and "decide whether to inscribe those cultural practices and expressions of intangible heritage on the Convention’s Lists".

Being put on the list does not mean a particular culture or heritage supersedes another.

For example, Belgium's beer culture is on the representative list, but does not mean it is the de facto beer culture that discounts the beer heritage of say, Germany or Australia.

Another example is China having the 24 Solar Terms inscribed to the list.

While the ancient Chinese divided the sun’s annual circular motion into 24 segments (or Solar Terms) to help farmers tell time and seasons, it does not supersede other cultural forms of date-telling by being on Unesco's list.

New York Times reports that Malaysians are riled up

In an article titled "Singapore's Claim as a Street-Food Hub Riles Malaysians", the New York Times interviewed Malaysian chefs and food critics who were none too pleased at Singapore's bid.

The article quoted Malaysian food writer Foong Li Mei who said that street food "has always been one of the few areas that Malaysians can confidently say they do better than their richer, cleaner and more efficient neighbor".

She also said: "This could be why Singapore’s petition for Unesco recognition of its hawker culture offends some Malaysians — it sounds as if Singapore is saying that their hawker food is the original, and best."

NYT also interviewed Malaysian lifestyle writer Samantha Khor, who said: "We’re very proud and protective of our hawker culture, I think... Singapore’s hawker food is just not at our standard."

Singaporeans react

Today carried a report featuring the comments of Foong and Khor defending Malaysian hawker food.

In the Facebook post of Today's report, many comments pointed out that the Unesco bid was not about whose food was better:

NYT's problematic headline

It is curious that NYT's headline claimed that Singapore wanted to be a "street-food hub" in the context of the Unesco bid.

Rather than stemming from a mischievous misreading, it could be the result of a misunderstanding.

Singapore's bid to put its hawker and hawker centre culture onto the Unesco list was first announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his 2018 Mandarin National Day Rally speech.

He said the bid was to help preserve Singapore's unique hawker and hawker centre culture, and also share this aspect of Singaporean life with the world.

Perhaps the NYT writer had misinterpreted PM Lee's use of the term "小贩中心".

As understood by Singapore Chinese speakers, 小贩中心 is the Chinese term for hawker centre.

However, without a Southeast Asian context, the direct literal translation for 小贩中心 can be misinterpreted as a hawker hub.

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