- Joined
- Sep 11, 2010
- Messages
- 39,422
- Points
- 113
Has Tanjong Pagar Always Been SO Gay? Yes, According to History
To co-opt the opening lines of The Merchant of Venice , “In sooth, I know not why Tanjong Pagar is SO gay?”
When I throw that question around RICE HQ, only one of the esteemed senior staff writers had any insight into the matter.
“Oh, all the gay spaces are in Tanjong Pagar because Lee Kuan Yew will protect us.”
Thanks for that insight, [REDACTED].
According to a much more credible source, Singapore Infopedia, much of Tanjong Pagar’s modern history seems predictable and ordinary. In the first half of the 19th century, the agricultural commercial ventures of Europeans and wealthy Chinese led people to seek work as plantation labourers, resulting in the proliferation of villages around Tanjong Pagar.
In the second half of the 19th century, the establishment of Keppel Harbour would lay the foundations for Tanjong Pagar to become a hub of economic activity. The harbour would eventually disappear over time, but the economic aspirations wouldn’t.
Fast forward a few decades of development, we end up with the Tanjong Pagar we know and love today—chock full of those affluent Ann Siang types.
So far, so straight. As far as the annals of Singapore’s history are concerned, Tanjong Pagar’s colonialism-to-capitalism story is as conservative as it gets.
But if you saunter—I mean if you swagger down Neil Road today like the man’s man you are, you’d find that the stretch of road is pretty, for lack of a better word, gay. A quick gander around the road will tell you why: multiple gay bars—Tantric, ebar, and Outbar, to name a few—exist side by side, less than a hundred meters away from each other along a small stretch of the road. Singapore’s only existing gay club, Taboo, sits along the road among its ‘sisters’, completing the set.
On any weekend night, unreasonably fashionable men find themselves strewn around the pavement outside the repurposed shophouses. In their small groups, snatches of laughter and cigarette smoke drift together, accompanying their inebriation in a heady mix. Inside the bars themselves, tea is spilt and shade gets thrown, with boisterous cheer in an abundance of alcohol and good company.
As the night drags on, barhopping revellers hold hands while crossing the road, and the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple looms over them in the distant background, blessing their safe passage across the road and through the night...........
https://sg.yahoo.com/news/tanjong-pagar-always-gay-yes-080941230.html
To co-opt the opening lines of The Merchant of Venice , “In sooth, I know not why Tanjong Pagar is SO gay?”
When I throw that question around RICE HQ, only one of the esteemed senior staff writers had any insight into the matter.
“Oh, all the gay spaces are in Tanjong Pagar because Lee Kuan Yew will protect us.”
Thanks for that insight, [REDACTED].
According to a much more credible source, Singapore Infopedia, much of Tanjong Pagar’s modern history seems predictable and ordinary. In the first half of the 19th century, the agricultural commercial ventures of Europeans and wealthy Chinese led people to seek work as plantation labourers, resulting in the proliferation of villages around Tanjong Pagar.
In the second half of the 19th century, the establishment of Keppel Harbour would lay the foundations for Tanjong Pagar to become a hub of economic activity. The harbour would eventually disappear over time, but the economic aspirations wouldn’t.
Fast forward a few decades of development, we end up with the Tanjong Pagar we know and love today—chock full of those affluent Ann Siang types.
So far, so straight. As far as the annals of Singapore’s history are concerned, Tanjong Pagar’s colonialism-to-capitalism story is as conservative as it gets.
But if you saunter—I mean if you swagger down Neil Road today like the man’s man you are, you’d find that the stretch of road is pretty, for lack of a better word, gay. A quick gander around the road will tell you why: multiple gay bars—Tantric, ebar, and Outbar, to name a few—exist side by side, less than a hundred meters away from each other along a small stretch of the road. Singapore’s only existing gay club, Taboo, sits along the road among its ‘sisters’, completing the set.
On any weekend night, unreasonably fashionable men find themselves strewn around the pavement outside the repurposed shophouses. In their small groups, snatches of laughter and cigarette smoke drift together, accompanying their inebriation in a heady mix. Inside the bars themselves, tea is spilt and shade gets thrown, with boisterous cheer in an abundance of alcohol and good company.
As the night drags on, barhopping revellers hold hands while crossing the road, and the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple looms over them in the distant background, blessing their safe passage across the road and through the night...........
https://sg.yahoo.com/news/tanjong-pagar-always-gay-yes-080941230.html
