Mark Brooke

Fongzi, dragons and corporate culture: An analysis of corporate dragon-boat paddlers’ motivations

This research focuses on corporate companies’ involvement in dragon-boating in Singapore and, in particular, employees’ motivations for joining and remaining in this sporting culture. Two very different theories are applied to interpret data collected from semi-structured interviews with four corporate dragon-boat paddlers. Findings demonstrate that dragon-boating offers paddlers important social connectivity but that the associations which paddlers construct tend to be for their free time, and operate as ways of sharing and bonding to escape the adversity of the workplace rather than making the workplace more democratic and empowering. Indeed, it appears that a tension may exist between the friendships that paddlers build in and out of the office.

Bidding for a lion's share: Singapore's Olympic medal aspirations through the Foreign Sporting Talent Scheme

As the country that currently provides the highest cash pay-out for an Olympic gold medal (Soh, 2013), it is clear that Singapores government is committed to pushing for greater excellence in sports. However, in a small island state where participation rather than excellence has tended to be the function of sport, this objective appears problematic. A controversial scheme used to overcome this is the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme (FSTS), a sports labour migration innovation. This article discusses the scheme and contextualizes it in light of Singaporean government sports policy over the past two decades. It is argued that despite some public dissatisfaction, the Singapore governments objective to augment its Olympic medal capacity will lead to continuance, if not augmentation, of the programme. It is thus clear that tension between the PAP and Singaporean citizens will continue to grow unless a more efficient system for identifying and developing the local sporting talent pool is developed.

The Singaporean Paralympics and Its Media Portrayal: Real Sport? Men-Only?

This article explores the discursive representations of Paralympians in South East Asia, particlarly in Singapore. One goal is to look at the extent and nature of media coverage of the Paralympics. Another goal of the research is to examine whether female Paralympians are exposed to the dual burden of sexist and ablest ideology in the media. Over 2 years, data from 100 articles were collected from three local Singaporean and Asian media sources; additionally, interviews and a survey were conducted with both Paralympians and citizens from the disabled community as well as a cohort of nondisabled Singaporean citizens. Findings suggest that coverage of Paralympic sport is significantly low, and that patriotism is more starkly linked to the Paralympics than the Olympics. Findings also suggest that othering (presenting the disabled as passive as well as challenged), or the supercrip narrative is apparent. Disabled women athletes tend to be overrepresented in passive poses out of the sport field. Finally, and more positively, the study finds that there are many images of Paralympian women as sophisticated and attractive without being sexually provocative. Therefore, evidence of sexual objectification or presentation of asexual disabled women tends not to be as present, as other similar studies have found.

Masculinity in Singapore: the residual culture of the Chinese martial artist

Abstract The study set out to understand the complex landscape of masculinities in Singapore. In particular, it sought to investigate whether, apart from the common muscular and powerful dominant form, there are traditional views of masculinity sustained by Chinese cultural influence, in particular, the culture of Chinese martial arts. Open-ended survey responses from 48 male and female Singaporean first and second year undergraduate students on a sport and critical thinking course were elicited and then followed up by focused online asynchronous discussions to further elaborate understandings. Informants reflected on elements that construct masculinity in Chinese martial arts and how these may differ to what they consider to be the dominant or hegemonic masculinity, related in particular to the body builder. Responses indicate that a residual culture persists nourished by traditional Chinese culture and that this is quite different to the contemporary male identities of metrosexuals and spornosexuals revered in the West.

It’s not how old you are, it’s how you are old. State discourse on successful ageing in Singapore

ABSTRACT According to Asher and Nandy, the global population of seniors will increase to 1.41 million in 2030 and is predicted to further grow to 2 billion by 2050. This will cause a fundamental change in the world’s ageing structure, with the number of seniors equal to the child population (0–14 years). Today, seniors are being encouraged to be part of the workforce for as long as possible to cater for this shift. One of the means to achieve this is to stay healthy through regular engagement in physical activity. This paper takes Singapore as a case study. Its purpose is to examine the relationship between the discourses on successful ageing, physical activity and employment in Singapore and how these are embodied by local seniors in their everyday lives. It asks whether this demographic group should be predominantly doing menial work and should their salaries be significantly lower than their younger counterparts? Is it right to use a discourse that links work to physical activity, and therefore health, and to make this a part of ageing successfully?

Changing perceptions of disability through sport: the case of Singaporean wheelchair basketball

Abstract The Wheelchair Basketball Association of Singapore (WBAS) was formed in 2007 with the vision of promoting societal awareness of disability and encouraging interaction on the basketball court between people with and without disabilities. This paper investigates the prevailing attitudes of Singaporeans towards disability today and ascertains how Singaporean wheelchair basketball has so far impacted this. Two key personnel in the WBAS organization were interviewed to provide an informed perspective on the general opinions of both the government and the Singaporean public with regard to people with disabilities (PWDs). A semi-structured interview format was utilized with a grounded theory approach used to analyse the data. In addition, one of the authors became a person without disability player in the WBAS so that insider interviews and focus groups with athletes with disabilities could be conducted. Results demonstrate that efforts to outreach and educate Singaporeans, particularly its youth, about disability are present. However, there is a great deal of work to do. The authors recommend that more action research involving government, institutional and community levels be coordinated to construct policies to further work towards promoting societal awareness of disability and encouraging interaction with people with disabilities.