Singapore nominates hawker culture to be on UNESCO's heritage list

Singapore has filed its nomination to the United Nations in hopes of inscribing its hawker culture on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage, according to a statement released here Thursday.

The nomination was jointly submitted Wednesday by the National Heritage Board (NHB), the National Environment Agency (NEA), and The Federation of Merchants' Associations, Singapore (FMAS), said the statement jointly issued by the three sides.

The nomination documents submitted to UNESCO will be available for viewing on UNESCO's website and the websites of the three organizations by July 2019.

Besides the official nomination, they also comprise letters and videos showing community support, a set of photographs that include contributions by Singaporeans through social media and entries to a photography contest themed with the Hawker Culture as well as a 10-minute video.

These documents were carefully chosen with the suggestions and inputs of a Nomination Committee, whose members include hawker representatives, academics, community partners, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other government agencies.

Statistics show that over 80 percent of the Singaporeans visit the hawker centers at least once a week, making the latter "community dining rooms" for people of all backgrounds who gather together and bond over their shared love for affordable and good quality hawker fare, said the statement.

So far, over 850,000 pledges of support and over 31,000 messages supportive of the nomination have been registered across various platforms. The Singaporeans are encouraged to continue to show their support until the final results would be known by end 2020.