I m not defending Mr Tan, sometimes I do hate his style too. However, I do understand his difficulty as he cannot speak any Chinese at all but living in this country so is supposed to write thing likes this in order to survive.
Go back to that article, it is not just 一个破牌子, but a number of them along the many streets (i.e.,Dominion Road) which was identified as an issue; also, many of them dont have any English at all which is the biggest concern so the locals dont know what is it about - this changed the streetscape /character of the area (which is an urban design issue) and no wonder why the locals dont feel very comfortable, and I think it is quite understandable.
There is nothing wrong to put up signs in Chinese, but they should be at least in English as well so they dont look so "exclusive".作者: yellowfishs 时间: 2012-5-15 15:55:45