Christine Doran

The Chinese Cultural Reform Movement in Singapore: Singaporean Chinese Identities and Reconstructions of Gender

From about 1895 to 1910, prominent leaders of the Straits Chinese community in Singapore implemented a cultural reform movement, with the aim of reconstructing the meaning of Straits Chinese ethnic identity. The movement attempted to revive and re-invent aspects of Chinese tradition, while at the same time making an accommodation with pressures for modernization. This paper focuses on the gender policies and prescriptions formulated by reformist leaders, whose recommendations had important implications for the lives of Chinese women in Singapore. It is shown that the reformation of Straits Chinese women was an integral and essential component of the cultural reform programme.

Marriage and marginalisation in Singaporean politics

Abstract This article charts the ways in which gender politics have featured within political landscape of contemporary Singapore. It is shown that there has been remarkable consistency in the approaches of the Singaporean government to women and gender relations in the post-independence period. Gender policies have consistently been interventionist and proactive, and have revealed the willingness of the government to subordinate the interests of women to those of the state. Fluctuations in policy regarding women are traced, and shown to be related to such factors as changes in Singapores position within the global economy, the putative invasiveness of Western culture and perceived ethnic imperatives of Singapores dominant ethnic group, the Chinese.

Globalization, the Patriarchal State and Women's Resistance in Singapore

This article explores the impact of globalization and the state policies on women in Singapore. It traces the trajectory of the governments globalizing policies and its deliberate use ofgender to counteract the perceived erosion of traditional social relations in the workplace and the home. Singaporean women have been economically marginalized and remain vulnerable in many respects, as the recent economic crisis has shown. Nevertheless, the pursuit of global integration by the Singaporean government has produced a steadily rising standard of living with increased opportunities for womens education and employment. This has led to the womens resistance, and given them leverage to pressure the government to acknowledge womens social and political claims. This article suggests that globalization has generated new political dynamics, transcending the power of the nation-state, in this case the Singaporean state, with some positive outcomes for women. The article thereby challenges the idea that the effects...

Gender matters in the Singapore mutiny

In 1915 a rebellion broke out among the Fifth Light Infantry of the British Indian Army which was stationed in Singapore. Several historical studies on the Singapore Mutiny are already available but so far no analysis has been offered of the ways in which gender issues became entwined within British constructions of the significance of the rebellion. This article explores some gender matters arising from the Singapore Mutiny. It considers how the British colonizers created gendered interpretations of the uprising with images of lecherous as well as treacherous Indian rebels targeting British womanhood. A comparison is suggested between the ways in which the British mythologized the Singapore Mutiny and their constructions of the significance of the Indian Mutiny of 1857. (authors)

‘Oddly hybrid’: childbearing and childrearing practices in colonial Penang, 1850-1875

Abstract European society in the British colony of Penang was ethnically very mixed, which makes it interesting for a study of cultural interchange of child raising practices. Most women included in the European community were of Asian descent, from a variety of Asian backgrounds; women of European descent also came from a range of cultural backgrounds. In their child raising practices, they were involved in complex processes of cultural mixing – acculturation processes to which they contributed significantly. Although there was increasing medical intervention in child care during this period, practitioners in Penang achieved only a limited degree of influence over modes of child raising. The cultural agency of women in the colonial context is highlighted.

Nationalism is Not a Dirty Word

In recent times, in both academic publications and in the media more generally, there has been a notable tendency to depreciate nationalism and in some cases the very idea of the nation. In the media, there is the constant linking of so-called ‘right-wing extremism’ and nationalism. Both are presented as deplorable current trends. This ‘right-wing extremism’ can encompass developments as widely separated, and as popularly supported, as the electoral win of Donald Trump, the support for Marine Le Pen in France, the Modi government in India, or the movement for Brexit in the UK. In media commentary nationalism is frequently treated as the equivalent of racism. One of the most egregious examples of this is the widespread use in the media of the term ‘white nationalism.’ This is used as a synonym for racism. In academia, the disparagement of nationalism was in the past most often associated with left wing writers; but increasingly it be part of the ideological commitments of what Tariq Ali [1] has called the ‘extreme centre,’ identified with the political and economic agendas of neoliberalism and globalisation. In academic work, the emphasis has been on the constructed nature of nationalism, with the implication of artificiality; in addition, the thoroughgoing and relentless analysis of national myths has– at the very least– implied that they are false.

Jung’s Answer to Job: a modern myth for the times

ABSTRACTJung’s Answer to Job was one of the most allusive, and yet elusive, texts he ever wrote. This article offers an interpretation of what Jung was intending to accomplish in writing this strange book. It places it in historical context in the aftermath of World War II, a time of widespread public shock at the Holocaust and fear of imminent global destruction. By outlining some notable theories about the nature of myth, the true significance of Jung’s achievement can be better understood. In this regard the insightful concepts of the Italian philosopher, Giambattista Vico, are particularly helpful. The myth that almost immediately began to grow up surrounding the writing of the book and its controversial public reception is also discussed.

Bright Celestial: Progress in the Political Thought of Tan Teck Soon

Tan Teck Soon was an influential Chinese scholar who contributed to the reformist impulse within the Chinese community in Singapore around the turn of the 20th century. This article calls attention to the importance of Tans work, which has been comparatively neglected by historians. It examines the nature of Tans political thought and provides a detailed analysis of two significant articles which were markers of his political development. The article emphasizes the salience of concepts of progress in Tans thinking, and charts the radicalization of his political ideas during the first decade of the 20th century.

Instruments in the hand of God: Missionary women in Malaya, 1815-45

Abstract Most previous research on female missionaries in the Asia-Pacific region has dealt with the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and/or has concentrated on American women In contrast, this article explores the motives and experiences of British women who were actively involved in mission stations in the Straits Settlements in Malaya, working under the auspices of the London Missionary Society; and it examines the early period of missionary activity in the region, from 1815 to 1845. The paper focuses on a key, but previously neglected issue: the womens motives for becoming involved in missionary endeavor. These women created a notional space for themselves as mission workers, firstly by means of ideas about being useful instruments in Gods work; and secondly by asserting a direct relationship with their God, unmediated by male missionaries or the officials of the missionary society. This conceptual strategy gave them scope for maneuver within gendered power structures and thus some degree of social and political leverage.