Paper short abstract:

Romantic love in Singapore unfolds through film, television and in everyday relations. Tensions exist between the (neo)liberal, orderly aesthetics of living and transgressive aspects of passionate love. I describe the public scenes and political impasses engendered by these affective configurations.

Paper long abstract:

Contemporary Singaporean living takes place at the intersection of multiple forces, namely, political transitions from the developmental state to neoliberal governance, the rapid rise of an urban landscape pervaded by market capitalism and widespread consumerism, together with the ruling elite's sustained emphasis on developing a unique yet hybrid postcolonial identity for its citizenry, drawing on their multicultural and multireligious "Asian" modernity and traditions. While there has been much academic interest concerning these state-sanctioned modernising trajectories, little has been written about the intimate spaces and affective tenor of everyday relationships. From portrayals of love, desire and sexuality in recent Singapore cinema and television soap operas, to observations from my initial fieldwork of six months, I focus on the lived experience of romantic relationships as a site of intergenerational reproduction, socialised habit, cultural innovation, as well as intensified attachments to material objects and fantasies. I argue that these relationships are marked by tensions between the (neo)liberal and orderly social aesthetics of "balanced" lifestyles, self-moderation and self-regulation, on the one hand, and structures of feeling involving the transgressive or sacrificial extremities of romantic (or other forms of) desire, on the other. These aporias have also blurred the boundaries between private, everyday struggles of individuals and couples, and intimate publics (Berlant, 2008) that offer recognition, validation, and ultimately, reassurance for Singaporeans experiencing these contradictory pressures. Finally, I trace the political implications of these intimately lived tensions, palpable in the state's present difficulty in securing affective loyalties from its citizen-subjects.