After joining volunteers from Anchorvale at a popiah-skin making workshop, Jamus Lim wrote about how crucial it is to preserve Singapore’s hawker culture.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday (Dec 1), the Sengkang GRC Workers’ Party (WP) Member of Parliament (MP) wrote that during the workshop, he learnt the “the painstaking craft of handmade popiah-skin making”.

At Kway Guan Huat Joo Chiat Popiah, where the workshop was conducted by one Michael, Mr Lim wrote that he learnt that the former gave up a career in pharmacy to uphold the family tradition.

Mr Lim added: “Our local hawker landscape—which is on the verge of #UNESCO recognition as an intangible cultural heritage for humanity—is an important part of what makes us Singaporean (read: we like our food)”.

He continued that when descendants of hawkers make the “bold decision to continue on their family’s hawking tradition, we should all applaud the gumption they demonstrate in pursuing an increasingly forsaken career path, since it preserves something that we all treasure”.

Local food guru and champion for all things hawker, KF Seetoh, recently gave a final push towards the UNESCO award for Hawker Culture.

In a Facebook post on Monday (Nov 16), Mr Seetoh, the founder of Makansutra and champion for all things hawker, shared that during a National Heritage Board (NHB) focus group in early 2018, a group of respectable foodies including Violet Oon, Azizah Ali and even Koh Seng Choon of Dignity Kitchen, came to discuss – what next, after the Botanic Gardens, for another Unesco Award.

Mr Seetoh wrote:
I raised my fat finger and uttered “Hawker Culture” (not food, but culture) and the group had a lively discussion on the merits”.

On 27 March 2019, Singapore officially submitted its nomination to inscribe Hawker Culture in Singapore on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

In his post, Mr Seetoh continued: “I can sense we are in the cusps of getting the award and i hear the buzz of agencies like NEA shuffling about to do a follow up event to celebrate the impending award”.

Praising the National Environment Agency (NEA) for championing the 6,000 or so public hawkers, Mr Seetoh added that he hoped they could also “champion the wet market hawkers who are also hawkers and are clients of NEA too”. /TISG

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