I was humourously reminded, of cultural imperialism. "Eh, dun watch already la, Man utd playing like S-league leh!", said one of my friends.
What is cultural imperialism? In lay-man terms, in the domination of a foreign culture. For example, the typical example, Macdonalds. It has dominated the world; You surely would be able to find a Macdonald store anywhere you go.
So how does soccer relate to cultural imperialism? The English Premier League.
Our local league, The S-league does not impress us. We find ourselves supporting ENGLISH clubs that is of no relation to us. Would it matter that they won or lost? Why are we even watching something that geographical-wise is a million miles away. We have always considered the western culture superior. (Of course, time might have changed) We rather watch Hollywood than support Jack Neo, listen to Chris Brown rather than Joi Chua and support Liverpool rather than Gombak United.
I have always thought it is because the S-league's game play cannot be compared with the EPL. The EPL is much more exciting than S-league. But then again, Who says the S-league cannot be entertaining? There might be exciting games in the S-league and boring games in the EPL. If you would support a club, you would accept its flaws and stand by it through thick and thin.
The real reason i believe is that EPL is a form of cultural imperialism. You will find many asian countries supporting English clubs too instead of their own. Singapore is such a multi-cultural society that it is easily influenced. I do not think this invasion is a bad thing, however if we do not give support to our local sportmen, how do we expect them to do well?
As the Singapore Sports scene progresses, perhaps one day we'll reach the world cup. Singapore Vs England. Who would you then support? Even Westerners are picking up Mandarin. Its time we embraced our own.
In what i observe, I think most people do not enjoy S-league is because of a few reasons.
ReplyDelete- not able to finish off clear chances
- the dominating side lose because of some stupid goal scored by the weaker side
- giving possession away easier
It becomes increasingly frustrating for soccer fans to continue watching and therefore more people choose EPL for more "entertaining" soccer.
However, to be honest its pretty saddening to see people get so upset over foreign soccer teams and not over local soccer teams.
Man U will still win the Quintuple! :)
ReplyDeleteCome on Joseph, lets be honest...
ReplyDeleteThe S-league is worlds apart from the EPL.. The speed of play, the skills, the entertainment value far exceeds that of local soccer. But I prefer La-Liga, because the passing is much more cleverer.
But I applaud the efforts we are making towards geting to a world cup final. May Singapore win the asian cup in the future at least....
Barcelona vs Man U for Champions League Final..
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With Man U losing 3-0 due to a Messi hattrick..
HAHAHA
farhanfranhafraahn
Well, singapore vs england who will i support? i'll still stick with singapore even though i'm a hardcore manchester united fan. We feel a sense of pride if our national team excels.
ReplyDeleteHowever comparing the premier league to s league, the S league is way below. S league isn't even a professional league but just an amatuer league. The S league lacks of several factors like
: - Crowd Intensity
- Match Tempo
- Exciting play
- Fanciful Tricks by players
- Slow progress in development
- Low wages to attract talented players
Singapore's experiencing cultural imperialism because the country's small, lack of manpower thus we're limited to focus on more important things like education and getting the economy going. We do not have the luxury of focusing on sports, music industry etc. Unless s league starts transforming into a professional league, otherwise i cannot see it growing anymore. Japan and korea set good examples of their football leagues even though they belong to asia!
ReplyDeleteComparing S league with Premier league is totally a joke man. It is like asking pikachu to fight with metapod. Anyway, i still think that Gombak united can win Manchester United.hahahaha.
ReplyDeleteTo someone like me who isn't interested in soccer, both S'League and EPL are rather similar.
ReplyDeleteMany people buy the Newpaper simply for the soccer news. Personally, I had never looked at the sports section much. However I do know that mainly it's not about local soccer news. It goes to show how much support they give.
I believe that one day Singapore will succeed in becoming a top-notch team. We are already very active in our youth sports campaign. Maybe with some foreign talent to help initially, we will become more skilled in the near future!
You can of course argue that the popularity of the EPL is primarily caused by cultural imperialism, but the fact stands that the S. league, even by your own admission, is evidently less exciting.
ReplyDeleteIn fact it being "less exciting" would be an understatement of titanic proportions. The distinction in quality and entertainment value is more than enough to put off any discerning viewer if given a choice to between the S. league and the EPL.
Cultural imperialism isn't the notion at fault here, but rather plain inadequacy (in terms of the standards between the aforementioned leagues).
Say for example you're given a choice between a first-rate Creative MP3 player and an iPod. The Creative MP3 player costs significantly lesser, but doesn't lose out in terms of form neither function. The iPod is, well - an iPod. I pick the iPod, unflinching. Heck even if Creative MP3 Player had better specs, i'd still pick the latter. Why? Branding? Image? Cultural imperialism? Maybe, probably.
If however, the tables were turned and the Creative MP3 player is crappy while the iPod lives up to its universal acclaim, could you still argue that i picked the iPod because of cultural imperialsim? It may cost alot more, but the price is arguably justified because the difference in question is QUALITY and not the branding, image, cultural imperialism or anything else - as is, which brings us back, the question as to whether cultural imperialism is the reason why Singaporeans would rather fork out 150 to watch Man United play rather and not be willing to part with 2 bucks for an S league match.
Bottomline is, why pick something lousier when a much much better option is available?
To reiterate my point from a different perspective, if Singapore and the English were playing table tennis in different fixtures, i don't think any general viewer from Singapore would watch the English. I know i damn well wouldn't. I'd be watching Lee Jia Wei whoop some foreign butt. The only Singaporeans tuning in to the English would be
ReplyDeletea) those with completely no prior knowledge of this sport (unlikely if you're a local)
b) those who couldn't care less which side was better (possible, considering the nonchalant channel-surfing i-don't-give-a-shit teenage profile)
c) those who think the English players are hotter (guilty as charged)
d) those biased because of cultural imperialism. Ah, point taken.
Xiao ding dang has a more humorous take on this, but his point is well made - it is like asking pikachu to fight with metapod - Pikachu being EPL and metapod being S league. Lol.
To sum, i'm not saying that cultural imperialism is innocent in this argument. I'm saying that it is not the KEY influence resulting in Singaporeans picking the English over their own.
That said, i can't deny that cultural imperialism has indeed permeated the very core of our society in countless ways, and unfortunately it's here to stay. Perhaps not so much in football, as being the main culprit for poor local viewership, but like you mentioned for example, the iconic McDonalds stealing business from our local eateries.
Sooo. If you can't change it, why not embrace it? Haha!
And just for argument's sake if the day comes that Singapore do qualify for the World Cup and they tee up against England, i'd support the lions unquestionably. Underdogs for the win, y'all :)
haha! metapod vs pikachu! yes, cultural imperialism is evident esp. in Singapore's culture. yea perhaps it is not the main cause of the lack of support of local football with other causes such as branding, quality etc. but as we know all these causes, its time to break down the walls and start supporting our local teams! its a two-way thing. if we fork out $2, they would be able to get better players, den they would increase their prices, to get even more better players -> improving game play.
ReplyDeleteAs for the world cup, I would certainly be standing on Singapore's Side!