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 Language Tips > 2003
Updated: 2003-07-18 01:00

Bungee jumping allowed in Singapore

新加坡摈弃保守禁例,市民允许去蹦极

Singapore will now permit bungee jumping. Also, people can dance on the bar in saloons allowed to stay open 24 hours. And theater performances can use explicit language.

"In fact, so changed is our mind-set that we will even allow reverse bungee," Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said Saturday, in launching a "Remake Singapore" program designed to shake up the dull image of this famously uptight city-state.

Bungee jumping allowed in SingaporeOr at least try.

While being catapulted into the sky at the end of a giant rubber band is now allowed, jaywalking at bus stations is forbidden.

So Singapore's government remains in strict control, even in its efforts to loosen up and market itself as a media and arts center.

Among the committee's more than 100 proposals to remodel society is an "Audience Development Fund" to "educate" citizens about art and encourage flea markets with no government permit.

Earlier, the prime minister also said his administration would begin employing openly gay people, a surprising development in Singapore, where homosexuality is thought to violate conservative Asian social norms.

"Not every room needs to be furnished to the same taste," Goh said. "Some may like their room to have cool colors, while others may prefer to decorate it with pinups."

Permitting bar-top dancing - once a legal offense - also was announced, along with the longer bar hours.

"If we want our people to make more decisions for themselves, and if we are to encourage a derring-do society, we must allow some risk taking and a little excitement," Goh said.

Singaporeans enjoy one of Asia's highest standards of living under some of the world's strictest laws. The government regularly fines people for spitting and not flushing public toilets and only recently allowed the sale of chewing gum.

Critics have long argued that there is not enough room for dissent and that the pace of liberalization in this Southeast Asian island republic of 4 million is glacially slow.

The government censors movies and television shows it considers too racy, such as the HBO series "Six Feet Under," deemed too explicit and out of line with Singaporean society.

Cosmopolitan magazine and HBO's "Sex and the City " are banned.

(Agencies)

新加坡近日将允许开放蹦极运动。同时,人们也可以在获准24小时营业的酒馆吧台上跳舞。剧院里的演出还允许使用露骨的语言。

"实际上,我们的观念有很大转变,我们甚至将允许开放弹射式蹦极。"新加坡总理吴作栋在星期六启动"重塑新加坡"计划时这样说。该计划的目的是彻底改变这个城邦之国以保守而著称的乏味形象。

或者至少尝试去改变。

把人拴在巨大的橡皮带的一端,一下子射到天上的蹦极运动虽然已经得到批准,但是市民在公共汽车站严禁违反交通规则。

所以即使新加坡政府努力放宽限制,推销自己是一个媒体和艺术中心,它仍然保留严格的控制措施。

在委员会的100多个重塑新加坡的提案中,有一项是"观众发展基金"。该提案旨在培养国民的艺术素质,并鼓励发展无需政府许可证的跳蚤市场。

早些时候,新加坡总理还表示,他这一届政府将公开聘用同性恋者。这是一个令人吃惊的变化,在新加坡,同性恋被认为是有悖于保守的亚洲社会准则的。

"不是每个房间都要装饰成同一种风格,"吴说,"有些人可能喜欢把房间布置成冷色调,而有些人则喜欢用偶像照片来装饰房间。"

早些时候政府宣布允许在吧台上跳舞,而这曾经是违法的, 同时还允许酒吧延长营业时间。

"如果我们想让人们为自己做更多的决定,如果我们要鼓励成为一个敢做敢为的社会,我们就必须允许人们做一些冒险和带点儿刺激的事情。"吴说。

新加坡是亚洲生活水平最高的地区之一,他们的有些法律也是世界上最严格的。政府常常对随地吐痰和不冲公厕的人罚款,就连口香糖也是最近才被允许出售。

批评家长期以来一直认为反对意见没有足够的空间,这个有着400万人口的东南亚共和岛国的自由化进程极其缓慢。

政府对那些它认为粗俗的电影和电视节目进行检查,例如HBO播放的连续剧《六英尺之下》,被认为过于直白露骨,不适合新加坡社会。

《时尚COSMO》杂志和HBO播出的《欲望城市》则被禁止发行。

(中国日报网站译)

 
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