The postcolonial ambiguities of Eurasian pan-ethnicity in Singapore

Abstract

There is a need to critically address the latent conceptual ambiguities in the pan-ethnic Eurasian label, and how it functions within the Singapore nation state's ethno-racial regimes of representation. In response, this paper provides conceptual clarity by discussing the reaches and limits of this term as a floating signifier, as well as how it can be better operationalized as a modality of research. As a prelude to calling for a departure from understanding subjectivities within the city-state's containment categories of ethnicity that have been legally institutionalized as 'races,' it is argued that the monolithic racial label 'Eurasian,' as well as the variegated cultural identities it is assumed to represent, need to be critically interrogated.

Contested Communities in Southeast Asia: The Law and the Singapore Eurasians

“…They were clerks, supervisors, lawyers, accountants and even foremen. A relative of George Rappa, Jr., for example was appointed by the Colonial Secretary of Malaya to supervise the building of the Selangor Road [9] while George Bogaars was the Head of the Singapore Civil Service and played a critical role in its development. There are certainly many prominent Eurasians who could lay claim to building Singapore since 1965.…”

What does it mean to be Eurasian in South East Asia, Malaysia?

“…Eurasian identity is formed from historical and cultural constructions of interactions from multiple practices of identification that is internal and external to the population (Santasombat, 2008, pp.151–152). Often Eurasian identity is seen as ambiguous and lacking in distinct and cultural values typically associated with different ethnicities (Lowe & Mac An Ghaill, 2015, p. 240). This community of individuals with mixed blood is a typical fusion of culturally and geographically disparate people that is not uncommon in countries previously under colonial control (Chan, 1983, p. 264).…”

“…As Eurasian identity is linked to colonialism, postcolonial theory is often used to explain this aspect of hybridised identity from the aspect of prejudice faced within and outside the community on the aspect of ‘whiteness’. Walker (2009), Lowe and Mac an Ghaill (2015) and Barrett (2014) focus on the concepts of hybridity and strategic hybridity proposed by theorist Homi Bhabha explaining how identity is complex and reflects the contradictions found in many mixed‐race subjects. The hybrid subject often creates a third space that becomes the new ‘pure’ and fixed ethnic category such as ‘Eurasian’.…”

“…Currently, there is growing literature in understanding the construction of race and how it is taken for granted in everyday life on macro and micro levels. Recent studies conducted by Barrett (2014), Lowe and Mac an Ghaill (2015), Pue (2017) and Rocha et al (2019) explain how policies have been used to manufacture Eurasian identity.…”

Eurasian Emigration from Singapore

“…Emigration presents 'left-behind' Eurasian Singaporeans with a smaller pool of Eurasian spouses to marry. With intermarriages between Eurasians and Chinese, Malay, or Indians now common as a survival strategy (Lowe and Mac an Ghaill 2015;Rappa 2000), the overall population of this ethnicity will inevitably decrease.…”