Snorvey wrote:Its a love story.
Essentially, poor girl meets rich boy. Full of mega rich elitest Singaporians with very posh English accents, six packs, servants, ridiculous shopping habits and a grudge against the commoner in their misdst. ...
Sounds entirely authentic to me
Having lived there (full household relocations) 3 times, and being married to one. I half-jest, rather, it sounds like a glammed-up pastiche on what is popularly referred to as the 'white horse' class, Chinese extraction, rich family, born privilleged.
I'd note that mega-rich Singaporeans are way more likely to have attended US universities than UK ones, and adopt the accent they picked up there. A Singaporean with a British accent would (IME) be regarded as quite the knob, even if they studied there. You do encounter them though, and it can be amusing how they respond to a genuine Brit
'Servants'? That's entirely normal, almost everyone has them, even what we'd call the upper-working class, and lower middle. ps. they call them 'domestic helpers' or 'maids' i/o servants, and a full-time one costs about £300/pm + basic board and lodging.
'Ridiculous shopping habits'. No, not really. Most super high-end retail in Singapore is aimed at tourists, from Indonesia, China, Brunei, etc., in fact the locals are banned from entering the only casino in the country at the Marina Bay Sand$ complex. (Imagine the poshest, yet non-member, casino in the UK in Knightsbridge or Mayfair, only open to tourists and from which Brits were banned...).
'A grudge against commoners'? Absolutely spot on. The average Brit has no concept of how racist Asians can be, and I'm referring to educated/sucessful/wealthy Asians.
If there were no intrinsic 'grudge' or embedded perhaps new-money disdain this ad would have been less jaw-dropping
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k92o4RyVDBc (Singapore :'''Workers''', Coke ad). We heard about it, thought it sounded honestly radically on-point, then saw it the first time in the ads at the cinema in Singapore. I recall sitting there in utter disbelief, amazed that it had passed the government censors, in fact it was part-sponsored by the government! That caused a buzz for a couple of months.
Beyond the gloss of sponsored 'kindness', I still don't notice any lasting change, and the same applies ('of course') with indentured labour across most of the Middle-east, SE and NE Asia.