I wanna apologise to the entirety of Singapore and you for being mislead by their flag and making assumptions about its politics. 😔 (My *genius* brain already wondered how a “strict muslim country” would ever allow bls being produced. 🤦♀️) Turns out the 🌙 and ⭐️ on the flag are symbols for “a young nation on the ascendant, universal brotherhood and equality, and national ideals” (©️ Wikipedia).
And there we have it…✨Summer Daze✨. Well the Christmas special – for now. Have you already watched it? Otherwise I won’t spoil but say that, based on these 10+ minutes alone, I’d sent half of my monthly income to Singapore if it would help produce this joy to watch. 🥹 (Unfortunately I am poor and on social benefits – thanks Dutch government for not letting me starve. 🥲)
Now that I am here, let me use this occasion for:
Merry Christmas 🎄 (for all those who celebrate) and a Happy New Year 🎆 (for all those year starts at 1 January) to you and all your followers! 🍀
P.S. I can’t really point out what it is about it, but I think I really like Singaporian (idk is this the right adjective? 🤨) humour. 😂
I thought the Summerdaze Christmas Special was adorable. It reminded me a lot of Ingredients, which is not unsurprising given its source.
Some Stuff About Singapore & BL
Singapore is one of my favorite places on earth. If you ever get the chance I cannot recommend visiting there higher. I would live there if I could (and I still might someday). And I agree about the humor, there's a tiny edge of dry wit and sarcasm that we rarely get in Asian dramas (for good reason), and to me it smacks of the UK and sinks into my brain really well.
Singapore has a unitary parliamentary republic, it is a city-sate (one of the few remaining) with a totalitarian feel because it has STRICT social rules and regulation (for example they still use caning and other forms or corporal punishment) but technically it is a republican form of government in which the political power is vested in and entrusted to the parliament with confidence of an electorate (representative governance).
It has an absolutely fascinating history of colonial occupation, independence, modern intentional social planning, and is very much a melting pot of mixed cultures, religions (there is a large Muslim population), and spoken languages plus THE FOOD IS INSANE (it’s very very much an island port city). While English is the de facto main language and helps keep Singapore at the forefront of business trade and conference hosting (the reason I’ve been there so often) their national language is officially Malay. The constitution also states that the 4 commonly used languages of Singapore are English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil (it’s one of the only nations that does this, recognize multiple languages) but Singaporeans also speak Singlish which is an informal, colloquial form of English.
Summerdaze: Stay Away From Me
Summerdaze started as a microfilm BL clothing advertisement (from The Authority brand)
I list it as KBL on my spreadsheet because it was filmed in Korea in 2018 but it featured a Singaporean cast. It has no dialogue. You can watch it on YouTube.
Last year, 2021, Singapore attempted to crowd fund a full series based on this with the same leads. Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful. Then there were rumors they managed to get sponsorship, but right now nothing is set in stone.
This Christmas special was a bit of a surprise to me. While it was known about in BL circles, the team behind this series are still clearly struggling to get greater recognition.
I would LOVE to see Singapore actually make a full BL series. Singapore, like you said, has a very unique sense of humor, and their cultural background makes them pristinely perfect to give us the first Asian BL in English, and I’m dying to see what that would feel like as an immersive experience.
They have given us a gay rom-com-esk show: Getaway. By my sorry arse DNFed the fucker.
They are a truly tiny country of 5.6 million (that’s smaller than NYC, about 1/4 of the population of Taiwan) with an insanely high cost of living, and have little to no film industry infrastructure but very mature film quality taste. Basically they’re Vietnam level but with European aesthetics, that’s a challenging demand to meet.
P.P.S. One final thing. On the channel of the production company that produces Summer Daze, I found this short docu about being queer in Singapore. Might be a nice recommendation for anyone who was as surprised as me about bl from Singapore and wants to know (like me) more about what the reality of being queer in Singapore is like. One thing I noticed from both this docu and the way Summer Daze is presented, is that it appears they stress the word “queer” (which I assume is used in the context of referring to anybody lgbtqia+) rather than using terms like “boy love,” “gay” or “yaoi”. Also, the narrator of SD is notably genderdiverse to some extent (I can’t comment on how exactly). Which gives the impression that this new “niche” in the Singapore media market seems to be more about genuinely wanting to represent the community rather than just producing a bunch of boy love themed shows because as a commercial opportunity (bc fetishising boys will do well with an audience comprised of mainly teen girls). And that in turn makes me moderately optimistic about this whole new development. Since, you know, Thailand seems to only have started to realise that girl love can also be a thing for example ever since…idk last year? 🙃