Yushui Village in Lijiang, Yunnan, with snow mountain backdrop and cascading waterfalls.
12/14/2010
Good names for MRT stations
We have Phoenix, Petir and Pending in the Bukit Panjang LRT line. We are going to have Kadaloor, Coral Edge and Riviera in Sengkang. The ST asked whether these names ring a bell. I heard a thud.
Maybe I shall offer a few nice sounding names that will ring a bell. Obama ok? Harry Potter should definitely ring a bell if Obama doesn’t. Mickey Mouse will be music to the children. Buckingham Palace, this should sound glorifying. Pavarotti is another excellent name for a train station. ‘You have arrived at Pavarotti Station.’
OK, OK, I got carried away a bit. Do we have a basis in selecting names for MRT stations? Old landmarks are acceptable. Honouring our historical personalities is also OK. But how to relate to Devan Nair Station in Sengkang? Did Devan lived there before, his birth place, or any institution or landmark that reminds people of him there?
A better way out is to hold a naming contest. But don’t engage the professional agencies. They will charge a million bucks for a name. Get the people to suggest and the winners be awarded with a prizes. $1000 for each station name accepted. There will be many participants and the involvement of the people will make them feel proud and comfy with the names they have chosen.
Let me guess what the people will choose. The kids will like Valkrie, Ironman or Spiderman. The youth would love to call the station Angelina Jolie or Christie Chung. Who are they anyway? The aunties would be crazy with names like Baey Yong Joon. But those aunties in the grassroot organizations would probably vote in favour of Lim Sway Say or Lim Boon Heng. The well heeled and well travelled may want things like Metzingen, Baden Baden, Marienplatz or something like that.
Come to think of it, finding a good name for a station is not easy huh. Better leave it to the supertalents and live with Kadaloor, Coral Edge and Riviera. Never mind if they don’t ring a bell. One final attempt, Timbuktu!
Kadaloor, Coral Edge and Riviera...WTF?????
ReplyDeleteHow about naming them after planets and galaxies since everything about this joint is "Out of this Earth."
ReplyDeleteThe dumbfocks thinking about names ought to have a thought for us aunties and uncles. How to say "Coral Edge" in Cantonese or Hokkien? Or "Riviera"? Sounds weird. Keep it short and sweet especially when translated to dialects, willya?
Hehe.
Mr. Bean, this topic very dry leh. Who the fock cares about the stupid names.
Let's have more, more about the Wiki fiasco especially in the local context.
Hehe.
Yes Sir, your wish is my command Sir.
ReplyDeleteRiviera in Sengkang?
ReplyDeleteSounds like a karaoke lounge suggesting suburban sleaze.
Yes, the supertalents are doing fine. Let's leave them alone to be the creative artists they are, and in time they'll stun us with their "creations".
What kind of name is Sengkang? If they want the place to sound classy, they need to do a full shop like a complete overall starting with Sengkang. Have a theme like a theme park. And American, British or French theme will be quite appealing.
ReplyDeleteStart with the Americans. Rename Sengkang as Jackson's Ville or something like that. Then all the stations can name after the American states or cities. Florida Station or Houston Station. Now that will be really nice. Don't anyhow rojak rojak.
Hehe,
ReplyDeleteYour daily rant is a must fix every morning on waking up and before breakfast.
Keep those posts coming.
A better read than the straight time.
Offer me $500 for using each name me proposes. Me will give a list of two hundred names and it will be the delights of kids, teens, aunties, uncles and our leaders. It will be easy for all races, foreigners included.
ReplyDeletepatriot
Eh redbean,
ReplyDeleteYou got eat potato, chiak kentang ah? Wat? U tink mat saleh better? Sengkang no hi class? wah lau eh!
You call Sengkang "Jackson's ville" people say si mi taichi??
Hmm.. upgrading the heartlands by "westernizing" the names. redbean, property prices will go higher!
Why, you not amused? Ok compromise. Just add a few suffixes like ville to viera to all the names. Sengkangville or Sengkangviera. Like that ok?
ReplyDeleteThe name creates a higher class image. It is all about lifestyle. A dog's kennel can be sold for 3/4 of a million if you give it a good name. Imagine how much more will the bigger HDB flats fetch if they change their names to something classier...Hougangville, Buangkokviera, wow! Oh Grove is also a favourite. Toa Payoh Grove!
A little ingenuity would make the names sound more wonderful. SaintCarniville, BuonaKokviera....
Next thing you know Heartlanders will be slanging here and there like those fucked DJ's on the radio.
ReplyDeletePeople will start adding French words to the Hokkein-based Heartlander-ese.
Hmmm... I think injecting more Pinkerton memes into the language and culture could be interesting.
Afterall, Singaporeans like hi-class. As soon as you can afford it you buy a Merc, drink cognac, and wear (at least) a Rolex...and let's not forget our women too.. they like Prada, YSL and all thngs European.
Come to think of it...if you have a Benz and your babe wears Chanel, it's nice to have an address which reads:
JooChiats-ford, Changi-On-Sea, Yishunshire, Place d'Sembawang, Cote' du PasirRis, Provance Alps' D' BukitMerah.
Nice.
ReplyDeleteOh, actually they are inviting the public to submit names. But I think no prizes leh.
ReplyDeletePeople will have difficulty remembering all the names when the whole island gets covered by a spiderweb of stations with names alien and weird.
ReplyDeleteThey should keep it simple, named the stations according to the constituency they are in and numbered in sequence. For example, all stations in Punggol could be named sequencially as 'Punggol 1', Punggol 2' etc. Everyone will know where they are located and which constituency they are in.
But my suggestion is wee bit too simple for our expensive talents to even want to contemplate. They must make things complicated to justify their high salaries, otherwise you people will say, might as well pay me a little and I can do a better job.
And I was just wondering about the project study now being considered and amenities envisaged to cater for the oldies in Marine Parade.Will this be followed by another kind of new upgrading project island-wide in the years ahead. And be used as the next bargaining chip for the coming election?
A MRT station will not be like a school which can be moved easily. Not that moving a school is easy. Eg Dunman High School is nowhere near Dunman, or Haig Girl's School is nowhere near Haig Road.
ReplyDeleteSo I'd rather a station be named after the area, landmark or road. If not, then a historical person or event is good enough for me. It makes it so easy to remember.
Punggol 1 Punggol 2? Cannot lah. Become like Petaling Jaya... Punggol SS57/9...and anything with numbers in Singapore encourages more 4-D playing.
ReplyDeleteAlso numbers make S'pore look more like a communist country -- full unsophisticated churls. That would spoil the Singapore Brand...which enjoys a premium position on the world-stage.
However, we live in a topsy-turvey world: east wants to emulate west, west wants to emulate east -- especially in the ancient 'spiritual' traditions.
So in keeping with the spirit, the westernern-named places in Singapore should be renamed with a "local" flavour.
Holland Village: Kampong Holland
Newton: Tanjong Newton (taking into account the body of water flowing nearby: Bukit Timah/ Rochor Canal)
Raffles Place: Dacheng Raffles
...and so on.
Then no one can claim that Singapore is not multicultural.
If we want to consider the elderly, got to make it simple and easy to remember. How about Sengkang 1, Sengkang 2, Sengkang 3 etc? The oldies only need to remember 1,2,3.....: )
ReplyDeleteExactly!
ReplyDeleteMention 'Sengkang' followed by the number and they know where it is.
No need to have naming contest and in the end 'cho boh lan'
wah, you all want to engineer your society using the useless elderly as a benchmark?
ReplyDeleteThese fuckers are going to die lah! You would sacrifice the "hipness" and sophistication of European style for a few bad smelling people with bad digestion and posture?
Crazy lah!
Look, look, it is only a matter of opinion. Compromise ok.
ReplyDeleteSengkang1 aka Louis Vuitton Station, Sengkang2 aka Burberry Station, Sengkang3 aks Prada Station....
The young and hip board at Louis Vuitton Station and alight at Burbery Station. The Ah Pek go up at Sengkang number one station and go down at Sengkang number two station.
All happy and satisfied customers. Swee swee.
I hope they open an Old Chang Kee at Louis Vitton Station and a Spinelli's at Sengkang.
ReplyDeleteYou have apeks and aunties eating curry pup outside the fashion haus (European spelling lah), and you have the stylo-milo mat-saleh slang types (aka presumptuous assholes) with their MacBook Pro's at Sengkang's "cafe society".
Then you have compromise.