num_pages: 336
description: A compelling illuminating and evocative history of Singaporethe world's most successful city-state.In 1965 Singapore's GDP per capita was on a par with Jordan. Now it has outstripped Japan. After the Second World War and a sudden rupture with newly formed Malaysia Singapore found itself independent - and facing a crisis. It took the bloody-minded determination and vision of Lee Kuan Yew its founding premier to take a small island of diverse ethnic groups with a fragile economy and hostile neighbours and meld it into Asia's first globalised city.Lion City examines the different faces of Singaporean life - from education and health to art politics and demographic challenges - and reveals how in just half a century Lee forged a country with a buoyant economy and distinctive identity. It explores the darker side of how this was achieved too; through authoritarian control that led to it being dubbed 'Disneyland with the death penalty'.Jeevan Vasagar former Singapore correspondent for the Financial Times  masterfully takes us through the intricate history present and future of this unique diamond-shaped island one degree north of the equator where new and old have remained connected. Lion City is a personal insightful and definitive guide to the city and how its extraordinary rise is shaping East Asia and the rest of the world.
language: English
title: Lion City: Singapore and the Invention of Modern Asia
publisher: Pegasus Books