Juan Foo (wearing cap) and classmates from Ngee Ann Polytechnic at Yoyogi Animation Gakuin, November-December 1994.

It is often said that the Singapore economy is run by a paternalistic government, which has been in power since 1965. Foreign media often associate the Island's economy with the tag name "Singapore Inc." Singapore Inc. or not, there have been salient changes in the broadcasting sector since the early 1990s. Amidst lawsuits and warnings against foreign press interference in the domestic politics of Singapore, the government was not shy about stating its objective to develop the island city as "an information and media hub." These developments were crystallized at the recent MIP Asia Exhibition held in Hong Kong, a premier Asian broadcasting exhibition event; the Singapore Pavilion was noticeably represented by 13 media companies. Two of them were animation companies, namely Animata and Animasia.

Drawing and Illustration class at Nanyang Polytechnic. Photo courtesy of Albert Lim.

Government Focus
Singapore's technocratic government has always shown a penchant for engineering or IT-related industries. Computer animation seem to fit the high-tech picture. Having attracted companies to set up shop on the hardware side, i.e., production and post-production facilities, including satellite uplink and transmission capabilities (the country now boasts of being home to some 15 satellite programmers using it as a regional beaming base), the infrastructure is now ready for more adventurous nurturing.

I say "adventurous" because animation deals with content production, and it is also closely related to art and design. Such areas have traditionally been given a low priority. Singapore can never be a second Philippines, which is well-known for her pool of talented artists and animators. Virgilio S. Labrador, Marketing Manager at Asia Broadcast Centre, said that, "Up to today, our best selling medium is still the Komics, which we [have been] acquainted with since early childhood. It is an expressive society, basically. Singing, drawing, believing in romance and adventure--this is part and parcel of our visual culture." His view is also shared by fellow Filipino, David Patanne, a full-time animator based at Animata, "due to our economic background and structure of society, paper and pencil are the cheapest materials we can lay our hands on. We simply draw ourselves into college."

In the Singapore context, investing in high-end computers and software is not a financial problem, provided that it justifies public spending. In August 1996, Alias/Wavefront, the American animation software company, set up an office in Singapore. Its Senior Asia Sales Manager, Alex Kelly, reiterated a key fact, that the "government and the education segment" is growing rapidly in Singapore.