Tuesday, March 17, 2026
China’s Oppo reveals world’s first crease-free foldable phone
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/chinas-oppo-reveals-worlds-first-crease-free-foldable-phone
2026-03-16
Half a year before Apple is expected to unveil its first foldable iPhone, a Chinese rival has solved the biggest compromise with such devices to date: the crease.
Oppo’s new hinge technology effectively makes the fold in the display imperceptible to the eye, flattening out the dip in the surface that would usually be apparent.
This marks a long-in-development breakthrough, something that companies have promised to do several times over the seven years foldable phones have been around. Oppo’s flagship foldable model with this technology, the Find N6, launches on March 17.
Foldables may emerge as a rare bright spot in a smartphone market expected to decline by 13 per cent in 2026 due to component shortages.
While they remain niche due to pricing, durability and camera concerns, Apple’s reported foldable is expected to stimulate global growth and market awareness in 2026. Phone makers are likely to focus their energies on encouraging consumers towards premium handsets – like foldables – to make up the revenue shortfall from selling fewer units, according to analysts at IDC.
Samsung Electronics and Huawei Technologies pioneered the segment in 2019, and both have moved on to creating larger and pricier trifold devices.
Oppo’s advance signals a further refinement that brings foldables closer in line with mature smartphone designs – and shows the feasibility of engineering a flexible screen that is truly flat when open.
The new device, whose full specifications and dimensions will be detailed at this week’s event, is no thicker than a regular bar handset.
Considering Oppo’s track record of moving closely in sync with local rivals like Vivo and Xiaomi, Apple can expect fierce competition for its foldable iPhone upon its debut in China. Shenzhen-based Honor Device added to the ranks of ultra-thin foldable devices with the debut of its Honor Magic V6 at MWC Barcelona at the start of March.
Oppo’s solution to smoothing out the screen involved taking 3D scans of each individual hinge, applying droplets of polymer upon the uneven segments and solidifying them in place with UV light.
The company says that resulted in a 75 per cent reduction in height variance underneath the display, lending it the appearance – and feeling, while in use – of having no crease at all.
The Android-powered Find N6 will highlight Oppo’s partnership with Alphabet’s Google Cloud, the Chinese company said ahead of its launch.
It will debut alongside an Oppo AI Pen accessory that will leverage Gemini Pro to allow users to convert handwritten notes into organised tables. Beyond that AI Chart feature, an AI Image tool built on Nano Banana will convert doodles into more refined work or apply particular art styles. BLOOMBERG
More than one reason why S’pore couples fear having a second child
https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/more-than-one-reason-why-couples-fear-having-a-second-child
2026-03-17
By--- Darius Lee is the executive director of Cultivate SG, a non-profit organisation dedicated to “growing the good, one conversation at a time”. He also practises law as a locum solicitor.
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The father of a newborn was talking to me about how life had dramatically changed with the birth of his second child. Being second-time fathers, we both keenly feel the demands on our time juggling work, caregiving and rest.
His frank explanation of the situation will hit home for many: “With one child, we can take turns taking care of the child. But with two, we can’t.”
The financial cost of parenthood frequently features in discussions of Singapore’s falling fertility rate over the years, which hit a new record low of 0.87 in 2025.
Surveys point to financial cost as the top barrier to childbearing for many. High living costs such as housing and education are often cited as the reasons why couples delay having children.
And as a recent letter to The Straits Times Forum page put it: “It is understandable that many prioritise reaching a certain level of financial stability or personal freedom before considering parenthood... but fertility does not wait indefinitely. In life, many things can be postponed, but biology follows its own timeline.”
However, there is another, sometimes overlooked cost: Once a child is born, it’s the tight-rope of managing the demands of work, and the time and emotional bandwidth needed for parenthood.
Time, a scarce resource
In our cosmopolitan and fast-paced society, the scarcity of time is acutely felt.
Work is necessary to earn a livelihood for oneself and one’s family, but often places high demands on time and energy, both physical and mental. A 2024 Ministry of Manpower survey found that one in three employees here experienced work-related stress or burnout.
Caring for children is no less time-consuming and demanding. Even when children are old enough to enter childcare and educational institutions, there are days when parents have to step in at short notice because children fall sick and are unable to attend school.
Work and parenthood both require availability and commitment, but there are only 24 hours in a day, and seven days in a week.
In a society where the majority of married couples are both working, adding the stress of parenthood is a step too far for some.
According to the 2021 Marriage and Parenthood Survey, the stress of raising children and difficulty managing work and family demands were among the top four reasons cited by married respondents deterring them from childbearing.
Career is not exactly the problem, as only less than one in 10 (8.9 per cent) respondents said careers held back their childbearing, in a 2024 survey on parenthood and work by my organisation, Cultivate SG.
Instead, the challenge seems to lie in the immediate, day-to-day demands these competing responsibilities place on one’s time and capacity.
Work and parenthood both require availability and commitment, but there are only 24 hours in a day, and seven days in a week. PHOTO: PIXABAY
A ‘reset’ in perspective
These concerns are certainly familiar to me.
Coming from the demanding profession of law where clients were billed according to every sliver of time we spent on their case, it hit like a tonne of bricks when my first child was born.
Counting the hours that my wife and I spent feeding, bathing and changing my newborn son, I simply could not shake the nagging thought that those hours could have meant thousands of dollars in income.
However, as months went by, my perspective changed.
I was not simply providing care, which is something a domestic helper or childcare institution could do for a price. I was nurturing a new life.
It was also a journey of growth, discovering aspects of oneself and one’s spouse that we could never have otherwise known. We were building a relationship of love, as a family.
It was not a mere change in my cost-benefit analysis, tipping the metaphorical weighing scale more to one side than the other. It was about looking beyond that scale altogether, to a deeper sense of meaning and fulfilment.
More On This Topic
Kids, in this economy? Singaporeans on the barriers to having more children, if at all
Singapore wants more babies. Will a radical reset reverse the fertility crunch?
These perspectives made it easier for me to step back from full-time legal work to a different role where I could have the flexibility to provide care, with the support of my son’s grandparents and a helper – an arrangement that not many can choose.
With perspectives and practical arrangements in place, the stage was set to have and receive our second child when the time came.
Even as the Government plans to cultivate “positive mindsets about marriage and parenthood” as part of its “Marriage and Parenthood Reset” to improve birth rates, one necessary societal “reset” is to relearn the value of things which are not immediately measurable in dollars and cents.
Family life, love, commitment and care often risk being undervalued because they do not show up on a company’s balance sheet or a country’s gross domestic product.
But these components are priceless.
Career as a long game
Beyond that, wider changes can help to rebalance work and caregiving, such as how we view the concept of “career”, and how we support one another at work.
Career is a “long game” and a “marathon”, notes a mother who just had her second child, and who was comfortable not hitting professional career “milestones” or promotions at the same time as her peers at a law firm.
So much so, that with support from her colleagues, she scaled back on work there to stand by her beliefs and values, and devote more attention to her children.
While not everyone can do the same, there is room for our wider work ecosystem to be more accommodative of career breaks among employees and potential candidates.
At job interviews, perceived “gaps” in a person’s curriculum vitae or work history for the purposes of caregiving should not be seen as evidence of lack of relevance, competence or commitment.
In fact, caregiving often requires good qualities such as compassion, patience and endurance; these are universal virtues that could also be applied to work.
More On This Topic
Will an endowment of $300,000 per child move the needle?
Govt to look at easing hurdles for new mothers to rejoin workforce: Chan Chun Sing
Flexible work arrangements
Various second-time parents we spoke to also shared that flexible work arrangements (FWAs) help ease the path to having another child, though more needs to be done to normalise this.
While the Government has issued the Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement Requests, these guidelines only set out the process for formal requests of FWAs, without prescribing any outcome.
With the ultimate decision on FWAs lying in the hands of employers, a bigger change is needed in employers’ hearts and minds for FWAs to be effective.
Hard work and dedication are valued in all employees, but we need a rethink of the need for constant availability or physical presence in the office.
Even for jobs that are naturally inflexible in schedules or work location, steps can be taken.
Employers can implement clear start and end times, with overtime limited to exceptional circumstances, so that employees have space to manage their other commitments.
More On This Topic
Work cannot come at the cost of family
The way we define success makes it hard to raise children in Singapore
Wider societal shift in attitudes and behaviours
In the latest Budget announcements, the Government is providing another $500 in Child LifeSG Credits for every Singaporean child aged 12 and below.
This is on top of various measures in recent years including enhancements to the Child Development Account, Baby Bonus Scheme, MediSave Grant, paternity leave, and the new Shared Parental Leave and Large Families Schemes.
These are helpful, but we also need a wider societal shift to recognise and value the contributions of both men and women at work and in family life.
While there is nothing wrong in recognising the complementary strengths of both sexes, the problem lies where these are hardened into rigid demands.
Employers’ gendered expectations of men do dissuade their involvement in caregiving, such that only slightly more than half (56 per cent) of fathers take parental leave, compared with three-quarters (73 per cent) of mothers.
Laws and policies can only go so far. The competing demands on our time are found in day-to-day interactions, and the change must lie in our attitudes and daily behaviours as individuals and as a collective.
It calls for empathy, mutual understanding and a reprioritising of family life.
As a first-time father a few years ago, I declined a meeting organised by the chief executive of a non-profit organisation due to paternity leave. Her reply inspires me to this day, “Go, be a good father to your son. This is a role no one else can fill.”
Now, as a father of two, those words remain ever true.
Darius Lee is the executive director of Cultivate SG, a non-profit organisation dedicated to “growing the good, one conversation at a time”. He also practises law as a locum solicitor.
More On This Topic
To raise birth rate, the middle ground is fertile ground
When did conversations on parenthood and fertility in S’pore become such a downer?
Monday, March 16, 2026
卓娓：欢聚
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/lifestyle/columns/story20260316-8731949?utm_source=android-share&utm_medium=app
新年期间，亲人都齐聚在我家。大弟自从7年前离异后，孤家寡人一个，便与回新工作的妹妹的大儿子一起前来。二弟跟二媳妇、姐姐夫妇和儿子也先后来到，加上我大儿、偕伴携儿同来的二儿，气氛可说热闹非凡。各人平常难得碰面，唯有在这喜庆的日子才得以欢喜相见。撇开远在澳洲的妹妹不说，唯独将永远缺席的是猝然离世的小弟。就不知在另一空间的他，可有“遍插茱萸少一人”之慨。
大家久未谋面，顿时天南地北谈得炸开了锅似的。
二弟媳妇是个德士司机，虽说教育程度不高，但“社会大学”熏陶下的她，谈话内容也并非“泛泛”。往往语带幽默，闻者莫不笑个七倒八歪。她和二弟之间喜欢互相调侃，你听：“看查某huh?”（福建话）二弟专注看着手机，不予理会。二弟媳妇转头又对着我们说：“我每次叫他‘看查某’，他都不看。”“一个都够头痛了，还看？！”二弟出其不意来这么一句，又低头继续看手机。大家都已笑得弯了腰。二媳妇却毫无愠火地窃笑着继续大啖美食。
两人真是天造地设的一对，是最平凡的夫妻。虽然并不富裕，但懂得和谐相处之道，完全活出了模范夫妻的样子。母亲生前曾担心二弟会不婚，因他个性耿直，忠厚老实，加上寡言低调，恐难找对象。谁知上帝却似乎为他量身定做了这么一个女子。真是“众里寻他千百处，蓦然回首，那人却在，灯火阑珊处”。母亲若在天上有知，亦应感到告慰。至于大弟婚姻的离异，个中原因千丝万缕，但毕竟是令人遗憾的事。有时又想，幸亏母亲已经回归天家，否则以她的个性，不知该要有多么忧愁。
人生没有完美，因为人性既有缺陷，生活也有缺场的时候。夫妻之间同处就犹如一场相聚。大家都盼着能够圆满，事实上，往往都会出现缺憾。或许，唯有接纳这份缺憾，生活才能够得以继续欢聚下去。
Sunday, March 15, 2026
陈迎竹：延续生命是一切意义之本
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/forum/views/story20260315-8728933?utm_source=android-share&utm_medium=app
2026-03-15
现代人满足“生活意义”的选择太多，延续生命这种古老的意义，总是容易被搁置；然而忽视以致这一意义崩溃，是生育雪崩的最大原因。
生育问题对整个东亚社会都迫在眉睫，但这一代的人大多无感，因为很多社会的人口刚刚来到顶峰开始下坡，仍不见实际威胁。一些政府包括新加坡一直在寻找药方，但这个世纪之问牵涉极广，千头万绪，如果抓不到重点，可能于事无补。
生育率警报很容易令人联想到半世纪前一个著名实验“25号宇宙”（Universe 25）。美国动物行为学家卡尔霍恩在1968年设立一个老鼠乌托邦，有源源不绝的食物，舒适的哺育空间，足够的居住空间，没有疾病、天敌和气候挑战，没有生存压力。他严选四对健康年轻的雌雄老鼠放进去，一年后有了600多只，兴旺蓬勃。然而，老鼠后续行为开始变化，鼠口增长速度慢了下来。问题出在哪里？卡尔霍恩指出“老鼠的行为表现不再像老鼠”，他提出一个名词“行为沉沦”（Behavioural sink），在往后几十年的社会学、心理学乃至经济学界引起热议。
具体说，起初，公鼠会积极觅食、保护地盘、寻找配偶，母鼠在生育后会保护幼崽和打理鼠窝，两者角色清晰，也发挥各自本能。但在300多天后生下的幼崽，社会已经建构完整，一些鼠辈在百无聊赖的情况下变得凶悍，无目的残杀同类经常发生，幼鼠逐渐倾向从社群退却到自己的小窝，不参与互动。公鼠不打架、不交配、不互动，只在小窝里吃喝、睡觉、梳理毛发。因为没有受伤又勤于梳理，它们的鼠毛特别漂亮，卡尔霍恩把这群叫作漂亮宝贝。实际变化正是发生在这群鼠辈的内在，它们不想活动，日常动静已经看不到意义和目的，更没有了生育欲望。母鼠也不再以繁殖保护幼崽为本能，而是在危险时抛弃不顾。经过几代变化，它们已经没有最初那些母鼠的典范参照，不知道怎么做个母亲，甚至会咬死自己的宝宝。
乌托邦里的鼠口最终归零。卡尔霍恩在此前后还做了很多较小型的实验，以不同变数测试，结果几乎毫无例外。他把老鼠社会的瓦解看成先是社会角色的死亡，继而身体死亡。他的实验在某个程度上是回应二战后美国城市人口暴涨、犯罪激增的焦虑，却也证明社会结构和人口密度会导致繁殖终止，自然限制人口增长。
“行为沉沦”理论一度在美国被视为预示人类的未来。它说明在城市生活越来越安逸后，人类会失去面对挑战、承担责任的本能，很多人在社会中缺乏有意义的角色扮演。然而，封闭式的实验无法真实对照人类世界的开放性，例如压力过大的社会，会促使人们迁居别处。
于是，在1980年代末，荷兰两位人口学家莱斯泰格与范德卡提出“第二次人口转型”理论（第一次是进入工业化时代，生育率上升、死亡率下降），指出生育问题已不是传统上以集体、家庭存在为中心的需要，而是个人价值观、婚恋观改变，乃至把婚姻与生育脱钩的思想变迁，低生育率是工业化与高教育创造更多个人发展机会的结果。这套分析架构更贴近现实，因而成为主流的人口学理论。
东亚生育率不断探底给更多理论提供空间，因此今日探讨问题多采取务实解释，包括性别平等的需求、经济与职业压力等等。人口学界当下最热门的话题，是2.1的替代生育率已经成为历史，发达社会永远回不去，课题重点因此变成如何延缓“宇宙归于寂灭”的速度。
城市社会结构、经济商业模式、教育与就业压力，都会改变人的行为以适应环境，行为改变过了一两代，观念也会发生变化。
观念巨变是低生育率的最主要原因，因此，决策者和社会观念也必须做出更大调整。“行为沉沦”理论值得借鉴的是，环境越舒适，越要避免下一代躲在自己的小窝里梳毛。现代人满足“生活意义”的选择太多，延续生命这种古老的意义，总是容易被搁置；然而，忽视以致这一意义崩溃，是生育雪崩的最大原因。
根本的改变必须从教育着手挽救认知，学生从小就应该了解两性、生养等课题，由浅入深，促使孩子有足够时间去思考这个已经不是他们本能的课题，教育体制则从中引导。这不是尊重个体选择与否的问题，人生很多认知都须要雕琢、塑造，尤其是意义的学习与建构。当一两代人中，独居者、不婚者多过婚配家庭，宠物多过孩子，新生孩子的参照点就会发生变异，意义也就在下一代出现根本改变，家庭的意义被遗忘，婚姻关系无从学习，都是可能的结果。
政策须要反思的包括：要不要继续坚持把婚姻和生育挂钩，欧洲一些国家的例子值得考虑；是否应该结束单一性别学校；组屋政策该不该向生育多的家庭倾斜更多，包括孩子多的家庭优先获得大型组屋甚至黄金地段组屋选购权；不在政策上向自愿养宠物不生孩子的家庭退让。
四年前，本栏《从一人家庭到无人城镇》写道：“如果消失的人口、萎缩的经济都来自文明与发达的国家，新增人口却集中在欠发达地区，30年后的世界或许会变得更加不可预测。”
对所有东亚社会来说，中年以上对人口下滑大概无感，但孙子辈会面对经济等多方面的冲击。当孙子老来也染上世纪大疫孤独症时，或许会忽然想起生命意义这种古老问题，到底算不算是个问题？
（作者是《联合早报》高级评论员）
My brunch (Early lunch) on 2026-03-15
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