“Other designs were suggested too. They included an all-blue flag and a blue and white one with the emblem at the left or centre.” — “No conflict, clear-cut symbol of unit”. The Straits Times, 9 August 1981. p13.
Tag: national flag
Your Singapore Icons
Our highly-tamed national lions are increasingly being used as canvases by artists. Is Singapore really loosening up and letting them into the wild?
It may be YourSingapore, but not your Merlion. While the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) website encourages you to create your own version of Singapore, try using the Merlion symbol (or even a close representation of it) without permission and be prepared to be fined up to $2000 or even jailed for six months.
Other than the state flag and crest, the Merlion is the only Singapore symbol that receives such heavy protection from the authorities. Created in 1964 as the tourism board’s corporate logo, the Merlion became a “Singapore symbol” eight years later when a close to eight metres tall statue was installed at the mouth of the Singapore river. The hope was that the Merlion would come to represent this island “just as the Eiffel Tower is identified with Paris.” This has since led to this part-fish part-lion becoming a symbol of all things Singapore to tourists, appearing on T-shirts, keychains and even chocolates. By setting itself as the national icon, it has also become a lightning rod for artists dealing with the Singapore identity — and was itself struck by lighting in 2009, damaging its luscious mane.
Singapore On A4 #2 – Design the Singapore Flag
Based on a section of “Dialogues with S. Rajaratnam”, a book containing interviews with the former Minister of Culture compiled by Shin Min Daily News, this piece depicts how the design of the Singapore flag was guided by various political, religious and racial tensions then.