Singapore at 60: Raffles and the Republic
The hotel keeps colonial traditions alive - should it move on or preserve the past?
Business Daily · BBC World Service
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Show Notes
We take a tour of one of the world's most famous luxury hotels, the Raffles in Singapore.
Raffles' 83-year-old resident historian Leslie Danker tells us about some of the famous guests who have stayed in the Beach Road suites, including the author Somerset Maugham. But with Sikh doormen manning the lobby and a cocktail bar designed to evoke the days when British miners and planters dominated the local economy, the hotel can be read as an unapologetic celebration of the country's colonial era.
As Singapore marks 60 years of independence, does it matter how hotels - and tourists - frame the past?
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Presented and produced by Vivienne Nunis
(Picture: Leslie Danker, resident historian at the Raffles Hotel, Singapore.)