Hawker Centres/Food courts : A Singaporean's perspective - Joyce

As like almost every other singaporean, i grew up with hawker food. i fondly remember the days when my family and i would at least frequent nearby hawker centres at least once a week. almost every sunday morning was spent patronising the same 'lor mee' stall at the hawker centre nearby while my parents did the weekly grocery shopping at the wet market.
growing up, it seemed like the hawker centre is a really practical and matter-of-fact 'creation' or idea. stalls selling different kinds of food under on roof so that people can eat whatever they want, regardless of what other people are having. it seemed like such a natural concept, i only realised that this hawker centre phenomenon is indigenous to this region later on in life.
chinese food, malay food, indian food. whatever you want, whenever you want. usually located in HDB/residential areas, hawker centres, to me, reflects what singapore is all about - a conglomeration of different ethnicities under one roof, existing in harmony and serving one another.
with a bit of research done, i've come to realise that hawker centres were actually created out of the combination of what was mobile stalls, hawkers plying their trade along the streets made to have a permanent location. the main reason for abolishing the mobile hawking was due to management. this mobilty caused much disarray in traffic when stalls kept blocking streets; questions of hygiene were posed; many more management issues were put across and before the idea of just housing all these hawkers under one roof came about, the then municipals were even intent of just abolishing hawking altogether.
hah! to think, what is now considered one of our main cultural identity, our singaporean icon, one of the main tourism draws, could have not existed because the government wasn't too keen on it. (brings to mind the whole singlish issue too doesn't it?) something that they were unhappy about but yet celebrate like they've always been proud of it.
and now that we have our food courts. it seems like almost a natural progression that we move from the hawker centre to the air-conditioned, much more hygenic and clean and orderly food courts. just like how everything in singapore is changing and always being 'upgraded'. never really thought how different hawker centres and food courts are. probably cos i sorta grew up with both and both seem so natural to me. but slowly, through this project, through what this project has made me observe, it hits me that there is a reason for this progression of hawker centre to food courts, just as how there was a progression from road side hawkers to hawker centres.