Of memories culture and my sense of being

Ok instead of studying i was watching this TV documentary on this coffee shop in singapore.

It's really old and filled with memories.. It's so sad knowing how much love the owners have for this place but they can't possibly hold onto it forever due to westernisation of the area and new "hip" shops popping up, hence vieing for business..

When asked what will she miss most about the place, the woman was speechless for more than a minute and had to be promoted to speak T T she wS tearing up and her eyes just told me that she would miss everything about the place. Even the floor tiles and wall colours. 

Kinda reminds me about my grandfather's coffee shop.. He used to have a coffee shop named Meng Meng coffee shop (now defunct ofc haha sigh) and he sold it off for half a million dollars (that space is probably worth ten times more now). I think it's another coffee shop taking it's place now. My mom told me about how the residents there would still refer that space to Meng Meng coffee shop despite the sign board change. 

Idk I feel so strongly about this. Spaces like these are all part of culture. It's a place where memories are held. When they are replaced, it's almost like.. Memories are lost. Memories are taken away. Ofc you'll still have them in your head but it's better having a physical space to look at and reminisce. Memories are so precious. So fragile. So... Uncertain. Such spaces are reminders that our memories are real and not made up from our active imagination.

Preserving a culture is honestly hardwork. Especially when young people are uninterested. Of course there are people who are but the majority isn't. I feel that Singaporeans mainly take interesting in discovering other cultures, be it Japanese, Korean or even western cultures, simply because they are more accessible in the mass media and that this is a cosmopolitan country. There is almost this sense of curiousity about others in everyone here. Because we have so many cultures seen here in singapore, we start to take notice of them more than our own. 

It really makes me sad and depressed. If I don't even know about my culture.. Who am I? Culture is what defines people, and to lose sense of myself is perhaps the saddest thing I will ever feel. 

Jaslynnxxx