Question: Recently Hawker Culture of which of the following island nation has been included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity?
a) Maldives
b) Sri Lanka
c) Fiji
d) Singapore
Answer: (d)
Related Facts:-
- On 16 December 2020; UNESCO has announced that it has recognised Hawker centres at Singapore for its cultural significance.
- Singapore’s tradition of communal dining at hawker centres, open air food courts are very much popularised by celebrity chefs around the world.
- The United Nations’ cultural agency announced that it had added the city-state’s “hawker culture” to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
- It should be known that this recognition of hawker culture of Singapore has come nearly two years after Singapore submitted a bid to be included in the list.
- Singapore’s hawker centres were set up to house former street vendors, or hawkers, in an effort to clean up the island in the 1970s.
- They serve a variety of cheap, no-frills dishes to locals as well as providing a social setting.
- According to UNESCO, these centres serve as ‘community dining rooms’ where people from diverse backgrounds gather and share the experience of dining over breakfast, lunch and dinner.
- Celebrity chefs including Anthony Bourdain and Gordon Ramsay have effused over favourite hawker centre dishes such as chicken rice.
- The 2018 film Crazy Rich Asians showed its stars tucking into heaped plates at a famous night market.
- Some stalls even gained Michelin stars for meals costing only a few dollars.
- However, Singapore’s hawker culture does face its challenges.
- The median age of hawkers in the city-state is 60, and younger Singaporeans are increasingly shunning cramped, sweaty kitchens for office jobs.
- The COVID-19 pandemic also dealt a blow, halting the usual train of tourists to the centres.
- Even local peoples were prevented from dining out for a few months during a lockdown earlier this year.
- Singapore must submit a report every six years to UNESCO, showing the efforts made to safeguarding and promoting its hawker culture.
By – Rajesh Tripathi
Links:-
https://indianexpress.com/article/world/singapore-street-hawker-food-unesco-recognition-7108347/