Nostalgic games are heirlooms for future generations

Unwrapping this nostalgia, Mr Chang says: "These old games represent and reflect values that I think are worth preserving – a slower pace of life, people coming together as a community regardless of their backgrounds."

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FROM C1 Unwrapping this nostalgia, Mr Chang says: "These old games represent and reflect values that I think are worth preserving – a slower pace of life, people coming together as a community regardless of their backgrounds."

In that light, remembering these games is not so much about the activities themselves, but more about the games being like a time capsule of Singapore's way of life. The games are also a portrait of community interaction in an older Singapore.

Professor Han Minju of Singapore Management University, whose research interests include heritage and nostalgia, points out: "Singapore has undergone a dramatic transformation in just a few decades. Such dramatic change can create a need for psychological anchors, something timeless and grounding."

"These games may serve exactly that function. They represent a simpler, more 'authentic' time that helps manage the anxiety of rapid modernisation and change."

Prof Han and her research collaborators have found that when societies experience rapid change or uncertainty, people gravitate towards products from their collective past. These might be games – even ones they never played.

"These products provide a sense of stability and permanence. In this way, nostalgia becomes less about memory and more about meaning," she says.

In fact, communal nostalgia is actually stronger when people lack personal experience with the objects being codified, she adds.

"Without real memories to complicate things, these games become idealised symbols for collective imagination about what Singapore 'used to be' or 'in essence, what Singapore is'."