Singapore is a country on the move. Those who can afford to do so are moving up the housing ladder, from public housing flat, to private condo, to landed property. Those who cannot afford to climb the housing ladder – specifically residents of subsidized rental flats – may also be on the move, but not by choice. In this episode of Home on the Dot, …

When Covid lockdowns began around a year ago, some people joked that homebodies didn't even notice. While many young people bristled at being stuck at home, it was thought that homebodies were glad to no longer attend class in person or pretend to have fun at parties. In this episode of Home on the Dot, we discuss how Covid-19 has impacted young pe…

Buying your first home can be a daunting experience. It requires a long-term commitment and a tolerance for risk, not to mention a willingness to compromise if you buy with a partner. Many young Singaporeans buy their first home through the Build-to-Order, or BTO, scheme. These are flats in towers that have not yet been built. Applicants must meet …

2020 brought more than Covid-19. It also brought more time in the kitchen. More people than ever were baking bread, cakes, and cookies to satisfy their cravings for both a wholesome hobby and some sweet homemade treats. This was true in Singapore, where a home baking boom led to shortages of key items like flour and yeast. Of course, not everyone p…

2020 ended with some exciting news for Singapore: in mid-December UNESCO added Singapore’s hawker culture to its list of intangible cultural heritage. In honor of this unique designation, we return to one of the first episodes of Home on the Dot, which explored Singapore’s rich hawker center culture and shared the stories of young “hawkerpreneurs” …

Love knows no boundaries, but in 2020 some boundaries have become more impervious than ever. Covid-19 has hit couples in long-distance relationships hard. Long-distance love has always been difficult, but frequent international flights and relatively open global borders made it possible. The global pandemic has left many long-distance relationships…

Covid-19 has closed the door on house guests. When home is a shelter from the virus, we must limit visitors. This restriction becomes particularly painful during major holidays, when people normally open their homes to family and friends and use the home as a space of celebration. As we await a vaccine, holidays centered on the home must be abandon…

The Covid-19 global pandemic forced young people on exchange around the world to abandon their plans and return home. Their language immersion, cultural exposure, and social outings with new friends came to a sudden halt. A small group, however, chose to remain abroad. Why did they stay, and what was it like to experience the pandemic outbreak in a…

With the new school year just around the corner, universities are struggling to open safely. In the third of our ongoing Covid-19 episodes, we hear from Jared, a Singaporean and rising Sophomore at Brown University. He shares his evacuation from the U.S. last March, his uncertainty regarding the upcoming semester, and his concerns over a recent ann…

What is the value of study abroad? It is a rare opportunity to live and learn overseas. In the life of a Singaporean student, it is a narrow window of ultimate freedom, when educational success can take a back seat to exploration: exploration of the culture, flavors, landscapes, and people of another country, as well as oneself. But first one has t…

This episode marks the beginning of a mini-series of episodes from Home on the Dot about Covid. In this episode, student producer Shriya Sharma shares about her exchange experience in France being cut short. What was supposed to be a five-month-long adventure ended in two months. Shriya describes what it was like hearing the news of her premature r…

The COVID-19 virus has disrupted countless lives as it has become a global pandemic. Hundreds of millions of people in China, Italy, Spain, the Philippines, England, France, Germany, the United States, and elsewhere have been asked--or forced--to stay home in order to prevent the spread of the disease and “flatten the curve.” Never in the history o…

Can a kitchen appliance change your life? In this episode, student-producer Shriya explores the art of making chapatti, a flatbread that is a staple in households around the world. She discusses the laborious process of making chapatti by hand and shares the sounds of learning this art from her grandmother. Then she introduces the Rotimatic, an aut…

What is the flavor of home? What is the flavor of Singapore? There are plenty of national dishes, including chicken rice. But if there is a national breakfast, it’s eggs, toast, and coffee; three simple elements that constitute the flavor of home for many Singaporeans, wherever they are in the world. In this episode, student-producer Ruby introduce…

Institutional homes are often stigmatised as dreary places for the poor, the elderly, and those abandoned by society. In this episode, student-producer Weiyun introduces us to a different kind of institutional home: a halfway house, where some of Singapore’s prisoners serve the last few months of their sentences. Weiyun and Chris tour one facility …

In land-scarce Singapore, the living compete with the dead for space. The result is both high-rise living and high-rise dying. In this episode, student-producer Jia Han examines the columbarium, Singapore’s high-rise solution for housing the cremated remains of its dead. He charts the origins of columbaria in Singapore and shares a visit to the col…

How does a foreign land become your homeland? This is the question migrants and host societies ask every day around the world. Singapore has long been a country of migrants. Ask any Singaporean and there is a good chance that they, their parents, or their grandparents came from elsewhere. Some of these migrants may have planned to return to their h…

Every Sunday, Singapore explodes with life as tens of thousands of foreign domestic workers escape their workplaces and head to the island's parks, churches, tourist attractions, and other public spaces. When you live and work six days a week in the home of your employer, how do you spend your day off? Where can you go to rest and recharge for the …

Welcome back to Season 2 of Home on the Dot. In this episode, we return to the topic of public housing by introducing the uniquely Singaporean public space at the base of most HDB blocks: the void deck. Despite its name, there is nothing empty about the void deck. It is a vibrant space for play, socializing, and key life events like weddings and fu…

Young people from around Asia move away from home and family to pursue their education in Singapore. Some arrive as young as 10, moving into dorms or staying with families who are paid to care for them. In a world where educational success can open doors to social mobility and families make financial and personal sacrifices for their children’s edu…

Ghosts are everywhere in Singapore. From the Malay pontianak, a female figure that haunts men, to Chinese festivals that burn offerings for the dead, the supernatural and the occult are integral to everyday life and have long fascinated Singaporeans. But what happens when a ghost is in your home? In this episode, Aisyah investigates when home no lo…

University offers many young people their first chance to live away from home. Staying on campus can be liberating, with the freedom to try new things and meet new people. It can also be overwhelming, with so many distractions competing with study time. How can universities make students feel at home on campus? And how can students manage the stres…

A house can be protected by the very four walls that support it, and a padlock on the door. But how does one defend an entire nation? In this episode, we look at military service in Singapore, and the role it plays in defending home. In this episode, Abi reflects on her childhood fascination with the army, and how the concept of national service fo…

Do you love museums or hate them? Are they curio cabinets displaying old junk or treasure chests filled with carefully curated objects that transport you to another time and place? In this episode, Max walks us around the National Museum of Singapore. Along the way, he admits how distant he feels from the exhibits and tries to understand why. To do…

The HomeWork MachineIn this age of fast fashion, the whirring sound of a Singer may seem to belong to another era. Instead of the hum of domestic industriousness and thrift, it might be the sound of nostalgia. For my student Min, it sounds like home. In this episode I highlight a sewing machine that bound a family together for three generations, bu…

Why do the dead need homes? This episode highlights the Chinese tradition of burning paper houses at funerals and other annual ritual events. NUS professor Richard Lee, an expert on this custom, details the history behind the practice, which today involves burning decadent mansions with pools, manicured lawns, luxury cars, and servants, all made of…

Once upon a time, Singapore’s hawkers peddled their foods on the streets. But in the 1950s, the government began to shepherd them into hawker centres; congregations of food stalls where food hygiene, stall rental, and business could be better managed. Since then, the hawker centre has been a great success, churning out food so cheap and delicious t…

Home. A common word with just one syllable. And yet a word teeming with subjectivity, so personal and abstract that it eludes universal definition. Chris McMorran, the narrator and editor of this project, is an American teaching Japanese Studies in Singapore. He speaks about his own attempts to understand his students’ lives in order to inform his …

About 80% of Singapore’s resident population lives in public housing, more commonly referred to as ‘HDBs’ (after the organisation-in-charge, the Housing Development Board). The quality and affordability of HDBs have been celebrated by many. However, public housing in Singapore is imbued with state assumptions about the notion of home. In this episo…