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Kopi culture: consumption, conservatism and cosmopolitanism among Singapore’s millennials

Cheryl Chang,Ian McGonigle

Published 2020 in Asian Anthropology

ABSTRACT

Abstract In Singapore, traditional local coffee (kopi) and coffee shops (kopitiam) compete with a growing slew of third-wave cafés and their specialty brews. In this context, we show that coffee offers a window into understanding contemporary millennial youth culture in the society. This report tracks this phenomenon through ethnographic work in Singapore’s cafés and coffee shops, combined with interviews from coffee consumers and staff. Moving beyond describing coffee as a beverage, this report shows that coffee is mobilized to self-fashion a traditional Singaporean heritage, while also offering a platform for performing creative global consumersism in the international city. Coffee consumption thus offers a medium for performing an ambivalent (g)local version of what it means to be a Singaporean. This report thus speaks more broadly to the anthropology of consumption and to the anthropology of identities in urban South East Asia.

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