Race and Multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore

Goh, Daniel P. S.; Gabrielpillai, Matilda; Holden, Philip; Khoo, Gaik Cheng

doi:10.4324/9780203878170

Cited by 86 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 4 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Those who support the continuation of such policies regard it as a form of ethnic entitlement, while detractors claim that the policy has been abused and is racist. In the last few years in Malaysia, there have been attempts to theorize beyond racialization and to explore the plural ethnic and cultural foundations of Malaysian society and history by academics (Goh et al 2009;Lim, Gomes, and Rahman 2009;Loh 2010) and in the proliferation of blogs and in alternative media. 2 This anti-racist embrace of Malaysia's ethnic diversity in the face of calls to reinforce Malay primacy and increasing Islamization is supported by the Opposition parties' 3 strategic divestment in racial politicking in the last two general elections.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction: theorizing different forms of belonging in a cosmopolitan Malaysia

Khoo

2014

Citizenship Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article introduces this special issue on new ethnoscapes of a cosmopolitan Malaysia. It investigates questions of belonging and analyses the conditions that make possible cosmopolitan solidarity between citizens and sub-and non-citizens in a globalized world. I posit several critical frameworks on cosmopolitanism, citizenship and the public sphere to theorize the relationship between citizens and non-citizens in Malaysia: 'zones of sovereignty', the refugee as homo sacer and 'acts of citizenship' that constitute rights and subjecthood for non-citizens. In an attempt to outline a more detailed ethnography of everyday ways of belonging, I touch briefly on Conradson's 'spaces of care'. Lastly, I focus on the public sphere, which can be a barometer for gauging whether cosmopolitan solidarity and transnational crossings can occur.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction: theorizing different forms of belonging in a cosmopolitan Malaysia

Khoo

2014

Citizenship Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Distinctions have rightly been made between the politics of multiculturalism in European states and settler states such as the USA, Canada and Australia, where the politics of whiteness matter more than assimilation into national cultures (Gunew 2004; Moran 2005). Critical work has also begun on the specificities of Asian multiculturalism in relation to ethnic pluralism, citizenship and developmental state formation (Hefner 2001; Kymlicka and He 2005; Goh et al 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

State carnivals and the subvention of multiculturalism in Singapore¹

Goh

2011

British Journal of Sociology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Increasing attention is being paid to the specificities of Asian multiculturalism in relation to ethnic pluralism, citizenship and developmental state formation. This article examines these relationships by analysing three carnival events in colonial and postcolonial Singapore that were organized by the state to promote its official multiculturalism. Through its cultural logics of horizontal racial segmentation, cascading symbolic authority from the state to co-opted communal representatives and multi-modal ritual iteration, the 1937 King George VI coronation celebrations proffered an imperial multiculturalism based on mediating plural groups and procedural norms. Adopting the same cultural logics in the 1970s, the newly-independent nation-state revived and transformed Chingay, a creole Chinese religious procession, into an annual parade celebrating the nation as comprising racially plural groups bound together by the modern ethos of progress the developmental state exemplified. In the 2000s, Chingay has been turned into an international spectacle celebrating Singapore as a cosmopolitan global city of hybridizing multiculturalism. But indicative of new racial-class segmentation, the old nation-building pluralism is promoted by Racial Harmony Day carnivals held in suburban public housing neighborhoods. This bifurcated multiculturalism reflects the developmental state's attempts to deal with new citizenship trends as they grind against the old ethnic pluralism. While faced with the same issues globalization brings, this postcolonial multiculturalism is distinctively different from liberal multiculturalism, not least because the subvention of multiculturalism is achieved through the state appropriation of vernacular cultural practices through its carnivals.

show abstract

“…In a collection of literature, highlighting issues of migration and multiculturalism in Asia, Malaysia presents a dilemma. "By the 1990s, Malaysian … multiculturalism had to respond to a changing world order" [8]. However, there is also a debate over millennial multiculturalism in Malaysia and its association with Asian forms of neoliberal multiculturalism.…”

Section: Multiculturalism In Malaysiamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Goh and Holden, [8] "in economic terms, [Malaysia is] frequently praised as success stories of modernization", and "in cultural terms, [Malaysia is] is often seen as falling away from the principles of liberal democracy that are taken as representatives of modernity" [8]. The authors mean a way of thinking about race that examines differences between groups, aiming to understand and celebrate these differences, to also celebrate diversity.…”

Section: Multiculturalism In Malaysiamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Ideological Struggle of Multicultural Nationalism: Cultural Identity in the 2014 Malaysian Top-Grossing MovieThe Journey

Changsong

Chen

2017

SHS Web Conf.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. This study attempts to discover how multiculturalism interacts with sub-state nationalism as portrayed in the Malaysian top-grossing film of 2014 -The Journey directed by Chiu Keng Guan. The nature of Malaysian society and its colonial history might suggest that cultural interaction among its three major races (Malays, Chinese, and Indians) is a norm, but this study argues that the culture of these three major races as portrayed in the fictional film is made up of "systems of representations"; such systems of representations do not reflect the intentions of the subjects, but rather, actively construct meanings as conditions and instruments, signifying practice in reality. The application of in-depth interviews (e.g., the film director and the screenplay writer) discovered cultural identity depicted in the film as always having a specific 'positionality' within their representation, and the ideological struggle of multicultural nationalism embedded in the film is considered 'nonsubjective'. The authors believe that every culture is local, but no culture is autochthonous, and cultural identity illustrated in the film can be regarded as 'uniqueness of the soil'.

show abstract

Race and Multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore

Cited by 86 publications

References 4 publications

Introduction: theorizing different forms of belonging in a cosmopolitan Malaysia

Introduction: theorizing different forms of belonging in a cosmopolitan Malaysia

State carnivals and the subvention of multiculturalism in Singapore¹

The Ideological Struggle of Multicultural Nationalism: Cultural Identity in the 2014 Malaysian Top-Grossing MovieThe Journey

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Race and Multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore

Cited by 86 publications

References 4 publications

Introduction: theorizing different forms of belonging in a cosmopolitan Malaysia

Introduction: theorizing different forms of belonging in a cosmopolitan Malaysia

State carnivals and the subvention of multiculturalism in Singapore1

The Ideological Struggle of Multicultural Nationalism: Cultural Identity in the 2014 Malaysian Top-Grossing MovieThe Journey

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

State carnivals and the subvention of multiculturalism in Singapore¹