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“Eurasian” in Singapore genealogy Article Tracing Genealogies of Mixedness: Social Representations and Definitions of “Eurasian” in Singapore Zarine L. Rocha 1,* and Brenda S. A. Yeoh 2 1 Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117573, Singapore 2 Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117570, Singapore; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: Social representations theory provides a key lens through which to approach mixed racial and ethnic identities. The concept and contextual histories of “mixedness” highlight how meanings are ascribed and constructed, and social representations of mixed identities shape and are shaped by what it means to be mixed. This paper explores mixedness in Singapore from a social representations perspective, drawing out and comparing the state representations of the Eurasian community, and social experiences of mixedness. Utilizing data from 30 interviews with participants who self- describe as Eurasian, the paper explores the interactions between historical and contemporary state representations of mixedness and popular representations of Eurasians as a mixed racial/ethnic group in the diverse and racialized context of Singapore. By tracing the genealogy of Eurasian identity (and mixedness) in this context, it contributes to the theoretical development around social representations of mixedness, and how the constructed realities of singular and/or mixed identities interact and develop. Keywords: social representations; mixedness; mixed race; Eurasian; Singapore Citation: Rocha, Zarine L., and Brenda S. A. Yeoh. 2021. Tracing Genealogies of Mixedness: Social 1. Introduction Representations and Definitions of The social representations of mixed racial and ethnic identities around the world “Eurasian” in Singapore. Genealogy 5: vary widely, and provide a fascinating window into contextually specific understandings 50. https://doi.org/10.3390/ of what it means to be mixed. As a theoretical lens, social representations allow us to genealogy5020050 study how “everyday” explanations and understandings come to be, a way for researchers to explore the constructions and histories behind the taken-for-granted aspects of social Received: 16 March 2021 groupings, interactions and meanings (Aspinall 2015; Lorenzi-Cioldi and Clémence 2010). Accepted: 7 May 2021 Published: 17 May 2021 “Mixedness”, as describing mixed racial and ethnic identity, presents a key case study into the way meanings are ascribed and constructed, both individually and socially, and how Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral these meanings shape and change identities. with regard to jurisdictional claims in As a scaffolding for both social action and analysis, social representations theory published maps and institutional affil- helps to make sense of social structures and relations (Jodelet 1991; Howarth 2002, iations. 2006). While not simple to define (see Howarth 2006), social representations can be seen as “ ... images that condense manifold meanings that allow people to interpret what is happening; categories which serve to classify circumstances, phenomena and individuals with whom we deal, theories which permit us to establish facts about them” (Jodelet 1991, p. 14). Representations thus intertwine across micro and macro levels, reflect- Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. ing and creating what we perceive as real: a way of understanding our world. However, This article is an open access article social representations are not straightforward or uncontested. The tensions within and distributed under the terms and between representations mean that “[i]t is not that social representations simply reflect conditions of the Creative Commons or inform our reality, but that in doing so they become what reality is inter-subjectively Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// agreed to be. What is critically significant here is that different representations compete creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ in their claims to reality, and so defend, limit and exclude other realities” (Howarth 2006, 4.0/). p. 69). The multiplicity and dissonances inherent in social representations theory thus Genealogy 2021, 5, 50. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy5020050 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/genealogy Genealogy 2021, 5, 50 2 of 18 lend themselves to research into mixedness and mixed racial/ethnic identities. Questions of mixedness and belonging, a sense of community, identity negotiation and boundary crossing can be illuminated by such a scaffolding. This paper explores the interactions between historical and contemporary state repre- sentations of mixedness and popular representations of Eurasians as a mixed racial/ethnic group in the diverse and racialized context of Singapore. By tracing the genealogy of Eurasian identity, it contributes to the theoretical development around social representa- tions of mixedness, and how the constructed realities of singular and/or mixed identities interact and develop over time and across space. Social representations theory provides us with a unique way to approach what it means to be mixed, unravelling how social (and cultural) representations of mixedness have come to constitute the reality of claiming and existing within a mixed identity in the contemporary world. Singapore’s history of British colonialism, and the long history of migration and intermixing that predates this colonialism, have powerful impacts on contemporary rep- resentations of belonging and mixedness. The nation’s colonial history and post-colonial state development provide a crucial context and “symbolic resources for the positioning of identity” (Liu et al. 2002, p. 5). Mixedness is most commonly understood in Singapore through the lens of the Eurasian community, historically seen as the intersection of the colonizer and the colonized (Stoler 1991). As a multigenerationally mixed and complex community, a consideration of Eurasian identity highlights the overlaps and dissonances between colonial and post-colonial identities, histories of migration, and current under- standings of what it means to be mixed. The Eurasian community challenges the state narrative of the Chinese, Malay, Indian and Other (CMIO) racial framework, a largely hege- monic representation (Moscovici 1988) shared by the majority of the population and which is central to the carefully constructed and portrayed symbolism and tradition defining the nation-state (Liu et al. 2002). Each CMIO group is officially sanctioned and promoted by the state, and race is assigned at birth (historically along patrilineal lines), with ethnic boundary crossing not easily recognized in heritage, representation, categorization and identification (Chua 2003). Within this state-sanctioned multiracial framework based around singular, bounded racial identifications (Benjamin 1976; Chua 1995; Rocha and Yeoh 2019), Eurasian identity, and the mixedness it represents, remain difficult to pigeonhole. Eurasian identity in Singapore, and how it has changed against colonial and post- colonial backgrounds, is thus a particularly useful case study in analyzing social representa- tions of mixedness. Crucially, this paper explores the representations of mixedness through changing terminology, from self-identification and popular social labels through to official and state-sanctioned bounding of communities. Tracing developments in terminology highlights how groups can be created, defined and delimited, and how “Eurasian” has been understood in different ways (and to different ends) over time. Stereotypes and ge- nealogies of stereotypical representations are linked to these developments, as the position of the Eurasian community has shifted in the Singaporean context. This paper draws out these contrasting, and sometimes overlapping, personal, social, institutional and state representations of Eurasian-ness, looking at how these representations provide a window into the construction of mixedness against a singularly racialized state background. Exploring how mixedness is defined and bounded, the paper highlights the practical role played by the Eurasian Association, the administrative body for the Eurasian com- munity and an organization with significant definitional power in mediating between the state and the Eurasian community. This paper brings together a combination of historical literature and research on the history of the Eurasian community in Singapore and the development of the Eurasian Association with a series of 30 detailed, narrative interviews with Eurasian individuals. These 30 interviews were conducted as part of a 2017 research project on ‘Changing Ethnicities’, which explored personal narratives of mixedness for self-identified Eurasians: involving 30 participants across three generations, ranging from 20 to 80 years old, with roughly equal numbers of male and female participants. It is interesting to note that more male than female participants spoke at length about the Genealogy 2021, 5, 50 3 of 18 Eurasian Association and definitions of Eurasian identity, and this is reflected in the quotes used in this paper. Potentially, this difference relates to the historical definition of race in Singapore along patrilineal lines, and the colonial history of male membership in associa- tions such as the EA. Reflecting the centrality of the EA in everyday life, the Association was a key contact point for research, and participants were recruited through convenience sampling techniques, while also snowballing beyond EA members to reach
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