Singa the “will-he, won’t-he” Lion
For three decades he smiled and waved at Singaporeans from his spot on billboards, posters and brochures. He was dedicated to his task of making Singapore a kinder, more courteous place for everyone to live in, regardless of whether he had trousers on or not.
Then the news broke. On 15 May, Singa the Lion announced his resignation and impending retirement.
“I suppose it’s time for real people to step up and for the mascot to step aside,” he wrote. “It’s not that we aren’t a gracious society, or that kindness is not innate in all of us. But some days it feels like not very many of us believe in or care about expressing kindness.”
I asked on Twitter what people thought about his resignation.
#AskTheTweeps: What do you think about Singa the Lion’s resignation? (RT please!)
— Kirsten Han (@kixes) May 16, 2013
@kixes I actually have no idea what to think about it. As a PR stunt it seems somewhat strange and off-message. — ☣ JY Yang (@MizHalle) May 16, 2013
@kixes I mean, this is basically a manufactured symbol that has no agency outside of what you give it. Every move then becomes symbolic, so
— ☣ JY Yang (@MizHalle) May 16, 2013
@kixes ..what kind of symbolism were they aiming for by having him "resign"? That we are beyond hope? That we need to be publically scolded? — ☣ JY Yang (@MizHalle) May 16, 2013
@kixes doesn't have much impact - I never saw the use of Singa in the first place. Citizens should be gracious, not educated to be gracious.
— You can call me Kay. (@rainbow_striped) May 16, 2013
@rainbow_striped How do you think we can go about achieving this, if not through a campaign? — Kirsten Han (@kixes) May 16, 2013
@kixes maybe an unofficial, non-gov campaign. Like a twitter/fb anon acc started to chronicle horrid behaviour, but not like stomp.
— You can call me Kay. (@rainbow_striped) May 16, 2013
@kixes think its a futile attempt to remind Singaporeans to be "courteous" before they banish the lion to nostalgia. —Cathect (@Andregmh) May 16, 2013
@kixes to get people to talk about his resignation and thus stir debate on kindness and courtesy (or the lack of) among Singaporeans.
— Francis Zhang (@fzz87) May 16, 2013
Yuan Zhi asked if Singa’s retirement was real:
@kixes Are they really retiring him? Because they usually don't bother with the announcements about the retirement of any campaign or mascot — Yuan Zhi (@xyuanz036) May 16, 2013
This, as it turned out, was a more than valid suspicion, as it was then announced that Singa could potentially make a “comeback”.
It’s an interesting PR move, but I'm not sure it's been particularly effective. Although Singa's resignation has got people talking, it seems unlikely that they're actually reflecting upon how kind (or unkind) they've been. They're more likely to be talking about the stupidity of taking a fictional retiring-or-maybe-not-retiring lion seriously.
And what about this "comeback", then? It's reminiscent of a children's show, where the MC exhorts children to cheer and scream and shout for their favourite cartoon character to come back out onstage and soak up their love and adoration. "Do you want to see XXYY come back?"
"Yessssss!"
"Then let's cheer! Cheer! Cheer!"
Is this what we're supposed to be doing with Singa, then? Is his resignation meant to shock us into feeling tremendously guilty about our ungracious ways, so that we beg for his return as we promise to be good and never mean again?
If that is indeed the intention of the Singapore Kindess Movement, then it's a pretty condescending one. The state can never preach or chastise its way towards making the population more gracious.
So perhaps Singa made the right move to retire after all. He might make more of a mark helping to clean up migrant worker dormitories or being the next face of Pink Dot.
