Reviews
Serangoon Road (2013)
Playing up the stereotypes
Watching this series as a Singaporean was a cringe-worthy experience for me - it seemed like it was made for the Western audience, with all the accompanying stereotypes of the "mysterious East": Bugis Street transvestites, prostitutes, American sailors, Chinese triad gangsters.
Little attention was paid to the details: Malay women were shown wearing the "hijab", which did not appear till the 80s, as the lacy "selendang" were worn in the 60s setting of this series. The Chinese were shown speaking Mandarin to each other, whereas it's the Hokkien or Teochew dialects that were commonly spoken then.
The only redeeming feature was the elegant Joan Chen, though her character was also a caricature of the exotic Oriental lady: always clad in the high-necked, form fitting Chinese "cheongsam" and carrying a bamboo parasol when she's outdoors. And she inexplicably speaks with an American accent.
The biggest surprise to me was the fact that the Media Development Authority of Singapore actually has a hand in producing this series!