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Over the past two decades, Singapore has advanced rapidly towards becoming a both a global city-state and a key nodal point in the international economic sphere. These developments have caused us to reassess how we understand this changing nation, including its history, population, and geography, as well as its transregional and transnational experiences with the external world. This collection spans several disciplines in the humanities and social sciences and draws on various theoretical approaches and methodologies in order to produce a more refined understanding of Singapore and to reconceptialize the challenges faced by the country and its peoples.
List of contents
Table of Contents - 6 List of Tables - 8 Foreword - 10 1. Introduction - 12 2. From Political Rhetoric to National History: Bi-Culturalism and Hybridisation in the Construction of Singapore's Historical Narrative - 22 3. Gateway and Panopticon: Singapore and Surviving Regime Change in the Nineteenth Century Malay World - 40 4. Beyond the Rhetoric of Communalism: Violence and the Process of Reconciliation in 1950s Singapore - 70 5. The Politics of Fires in Post-1950s Singapore and the Making of the Modernist Nation-State - 89 6. Gender and Discipline in 'The Singapore Story': The Female Chinese Factory Workers in Perspective, c. 1980-c. 1990 - 110 7. Textualising the Baba Identity: Insights into the Making of a Bibliography - 134 8. Negotiating Identities, Affiliations and Interests: The Many Lives of Han Wai Toon, an Overseas Chinese - 156 9. Singaporean First: Challenging the Concept of Transnational Malay Masculinity - 176 10. Trans-National Biographies and Trans-National Habiti: The Case of Chinese-Singaporeans in Hong Kong - 196 11. Indian Media and the Lure of 'Uniquely Singapore' - 214 12. Localising the Global and Globalising the Local: The Global Households of Filipina Trans-Migrant Workers and Their Singapore Employers - 230 13. Raffles Hotel Singapore: Advertising, Consumption and Romance - 248 14. The Role of Recruitment Agencies for Japanese Working Women in Singapore - 270 About the Authors - 284 Bibliography - 290
About the author
Derek Heng is assistant professorin the Department of History at the Ohio State University. Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied is assistant professor in the Department of Malay Studies at the National University of Singapore.
