Mamak Shops: Community and Identity in Singapore
Xinyi Ji
As a child in primary school, Mamak shop (pronounced ma-ma) visits were an after-school thrill. We would scrounge up change to purchase a small snack or cold drink in the sweltering Singapore heat, or a quick lunch on a busy day while chatting eagerly with friends. An amalgamation of the convenience store, post-game snack stall, supermarket, pharmacy and everything in between (akin to a bodega in New York), Mamak shops have served as a cornerstone for neighborhoods in modern Singapore history.
Today, Mamak shops, once a cornerstone of neighborhoods and grassroots communities, are few and far between. As Singapore has become a modern 21st-century urban marvel, Mamak shops are slowly becoming endearing markers of nostalgia for many Singaporeans today as they shutter their doors for good.
Through a four-part publication, featuring personal writings, interviews, obsessive archiving and research, Mamak Shops: Community and Identity in Singapore makes the case for preserving Mamak shops as a third place and community gathering sites for Singaporeans. These publications explore the need for community in increasingly isolated urban societies, the nostalgia evoked from interviews with friends and a small catalogue of the unique snacks and items that could be found in these Mamak shops. Together, these writings and archival work seek to articulate the unique cultural footprint of Mamak shops in Singapore’s cultural fabric.