( CULTURAL BRIEFING N^O 07 )

The over-commercialisation of nostalgia in Singapore and Taiwan

_EN

            In the early 2010s, Singapore had a budding creative scene that was basking in the last light of print’s golden era — a little renaissance of tastemaking boutique design studios, if you will.

            It is under such circumstances that the first brands capitalising on Singapore’s cultural visual markers from the 80s and 90s were born. You might be familiar with some of them — merlion 臭臭 plushies, icing biscuit and pineapple tart cushions, enamel pin badges with paraphernalia like Milo tins, ice kachang, etc.

            But the number of such brands kept growing, and increasingly, it felt like we were prematurely codifying our visual culture. It worried me. It still worries me. When a nation starts doing this at scale, it risks petrifying cultural markers while they are still in mid-bloom.

            Which is why I was saddened to witness the same happening to Taiwan after Covid-19. When one sees the same design souvenirs in the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, a tourist memorabilia gift shop in Jiufen, and a Japanese stationery shop in Singapore, the commercialisation of nostalgia has gone too far.

            I hope both nations can pause and take stock before it replaces culture altogether.

Notes from Ben:
This Cultural Briefing was first observed in Feb 2024, and written in Nov 2025. Slight revisions were made in Feb 2026.

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