S'porean character in Law & Order: SVU episode: 'My father is a church deacon in Jurong East'

It is not often that Singapore gets mentioned in a US TV series.

But in a Feb 29 episode of the police drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Singapore was not only mentioned a number of times, but a western part of the island also got a shout-out, albeit somewhat awkwardly.

The episode called "Carousel" is about a Singaporean woman staying in a New York hostel who was raped after meeting two men in a bar.

The woman's name is Leah Tan and the character was played by Chinese-Canadian actress Anastasia Lin, who bears a passing resemblance to Singaporean actress Melody Chen.

In one scene, Tan was asked by police why she did not inform them earlier of a vital detail of the case.

She said: "My father is a church deacon in Jurong East. His congregation looks to my family as a moral example.

"My father, he expects me to stay a virgin for my future husband."

While the character is fictional, there is indeed a church at Jurong East Street 13 called the Jurong Seventh Adventist Church.

Below is the promo for the episode.

In 2017, another US TV series Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders drew flak for its inaccurate and "stereotypical" portrayal of Singapore.

In one scene, a character called Geylang "the dark side of paradise" and added: "Officially, it's known as the red-light district, but more accurately it's an overcrowded slum with a thriving underworld.

"In a country as affluent and educated as Singapore, employers have a hard time finding unskilled workers to do manual labour. So they get migrant workers from other countries to come do the menial jobs.

"But then that leaves the Ministry of Manpower with nowhere to put them. So a lot of times as a result they end up in government dormitories in Geylang."