Another Wednesday, and another dutiful trip to the Nee Soon East Community Club in Yishun...
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What is the third floor? What if it's not called that? Is the third floor by any other name still just as mysterious? Does the third floor only exist, if at all, by the mutual consent of those doing the naming of les étages? Are all floors merely a construct of our neoliberal minds longing to escape from their patriarchal oppressors to a higher plane of existence...or just suffering from the oppressive heat in increasingly neurotic ways?
These were the philosophical brambles in which I caught myself while I ate another solemn dinner at the hawker centre outside Yishun MRT this evening. In East and Southeast Asian cultures, the number 4 is considered inauspicious. In some parts of China, you may find buildings with no fourth floor; the lift will take you from 3 to 5. But of course there is a fourth floor; it's just labelled as "5" or, more correctly, "6". So too for the number 13 in the West. To this day, there are hotels that lack a 13th floor, at least by name.
In Singapore, we do not do things this way. We use "levels", and this is presumably to avoid confusion between the Limeys and Yanks. But when you are explicitly instructed to go to the third floor, this only perpetuates the confusion in a system where floors are not labelled thus! So the third floor might be level 3 or it might be level 4. In some places, level 1 is below ground, so maybe the third floor is level 4 or level 5! Perhaps you should not be surprised, then, if you arrive at a dark and silent room no matter which level or floor you go to!
I expect you're all wondering where this is going...if you've made it this far. This cheesy song will reveal all.
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By
The Imperial Orange,
13th April 2016
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