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Negotiating Chineseness in the Post-WWII Context of Singapore (1955–1965)

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Contesting Chineseness

Part of the book series: Asia in Transition ((AT,volume 14))

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Abstract

The years between 1955 and 1965 marked an extremely turbulent period for Singapore. In the span of a decade, Singapore first transitioned from a British colony to self-government in 1959. It gained independence through the merger with the Federation of Malaysia in 1963 but was asked to be separated in August 1965.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Following the relaxation of the ban on emigration by the Qing government in 1860, this is likely to have encouraged Chinese females to emigrate. The approximate sex ratio of the Chinese population in Singapore also improved from 11.3 in 1830 to 6.2 in 1871 and to 2.8 in 1911 (Saw 1970).

  2. 2.

    Among the six gentlemen, Wu Dun Min played an important role in leading the Communist activities in British Malaya (see Yong 1997).

  3. 3.

    For details of the Incident, see Kenley (2003, pp. 56–59).

  4. 4.

    It was mentioned that Huang Yuan Jian (黃淵鑑), manager of the Tiong Nam Film Company, also donated to the School. See The Chinese Industrial and Commercial Continuation School Sixtieth Anniversary Magazine, 1921–1980 (1980, p. 11).

  5. 5.

    The logo of the Nanyang University as designed by the South-bound Chinese intellectual Pan Shou featured three rings which represented the Chinese, Malay, and Indian ethnic communities in Singapore.

  6. 6.

    S. Rajaratnam, Lee Kuan Yew, and Othman Wok also attended the film screening.

  7. 7.

    These film critics are Lin He Li, Long Sha, and Fang Liang.

  8. 8.

    The Ministry of Education Language Centre was set up in 1978 to offer French and Japanese as a Third Language for local secondary school students in Singapore. A year later, the choices for Third Language were expanded to include German. Subsequent years saw the introduction of Malay as a Third Language in 1986 and Arabic and Bahasa Indonesia in 2008. See https://www.moelc.moe.edu.sg/courses/.

  9. 9.

    More recently, political leaders like Mahathir’s vision of building a Bangsa Malaysia (Malaysian Malaysia) instead of a Bangsa Melayu (Malay race/nation) garnered lukewarm support among the local population. While the implication for the former suggested a civic sense of nationalism similar to what was proposed by Yi Shui, the latter represented the populist view of linking a core ethnic/race to the nation through the national language of Malay as well as aspects of the Malay culture such as the Jawi script. In 2019, the introduction of khat (Jawi calligraphy) into the curriculum for vernacular schools led to much public anxiety among the Chinese in the local society. The issue of language, culture, and identity clearly remains a potential fault line in Malaysia even in the twenty-first century.

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  1. Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Soo Ei Yap

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  1. Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Brunei, Brunei Darussalam

    Chang-Yau Hoon

  2. IIAS, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Ying-kit Chan

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Yap, S. (2021). Negotiating Chineseness in the Post-WWII Context of Singapore (1955–1965). In: Hoon, CY., Chan, Yk. (eds) Contesting Chineseness. Asia in Transition, vol 14. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6096-9_5

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