A Question of "Chineseness": The Chinese Diaspora in Singapore 1819-1950s. by Lynn Ang Ling-yin A thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Stirling 2001 Acknowledgements My gratitude to Dr. Sudesh Mishra, for being my harshest critic, a good friend, and a supervisor who made me think about my argument from new perspectives and who questioned my every word and phrase. To Dr. James Procter, my second supervisor, I am grateful for his critical insights in the revision of chapters, and to Prof. Angela Smith, for being a mentor and always generous with her time. My gratitude to both for their support throughout the three years, especially during the process of up- grading. My thanks also to Prof. Robert Hewison, for his faith in my work from the very beginning, and to Dr. Philip Holden, for being so generous with his ideas and materials. I am grateful to the department of English Studies, for providing the scholarship and a stimulating intellectual environment. To my valued friends, who encouraged me in my aspirations, among others, Maggie, Susana, Julie, Juliet, Kerry, Seema, Shadow, Marjorie, Shanti, everyone at D2 1, the congregation of Queen St. Methodist church, and especially to Chit, whose boundless e-mails sustained me through difficult times. I am indebted to my family, for reminding me that there are more important things in life than a PhD. This thesis would not have been possible without them. My gratitude to Peng Tze, my husband, for his unconditional love, patience, support, and for selflessly bearing with my explosions that result from the frustrations of writing. To my family in Singapore, England, and Ipoh: the Angs, Hos, Minjoots, Larsens, Cheongs, Tohs, and especially to mummy in London, for being always a phone call away. I owe a debt of gratitude to my parents, for making my education in UK a reality in the first place. Finally, to mama, my grandmother, to whom I owe the most. I am grateful to her for being a role model in her own strength and character, for providing the language from which I now speak and write, and for instilling in me the values, beliefs, and faith that make me the person I am today. This thesis is dedicated to her. II Abstract This thesis is a study of the Chinese diaspora in Singapore from 1819 to the 1950s. It begins by situating the diasporic subject in a historical context, highlighting some of the key moments in the diaspora's development, such as the advent of colonialism during the nineteenth century, and the formation of an ethnic enclave in the settlement. The discussion then calls into question the construction of the Chinese subject in colonial discourses, and interrogates the ways in which the diasporic population was constituted within the framework of colonialism. The main purpose has been to examine how the diaspora in Singapore has evolved, and to explore the adequacies, or inadequacies, of existing diasporic theories in the ways they relate to the Chinese experience. This is achieved by recapitulating the theoretical implications of existing diaspora frameworks, and questioning the tensions and limitations generated by such discourses. Simultaneously, this study takes into consideration the construction of a "Chinese identity", and does so by presenting possible ways of conceptualisng what it means to be "Chinese" for subjects of the diaspora. In discussing the extent to which the subject's sense of "self" and belonging has been shaped by its immigrant past, this research draws on and studies the writings, both literary and non-literary, that have emerged from the community. A central concern in all this is the identity and subjectivity of the diasporic subject, and the point here is that not every subject experiences diaspora in the same way, but that these alterities are important in the constitution and formation of a Chinese identity. As I note in the introduction, the issue of what it means to be Chinese, and indeed, the issue of home and belonging, is one that is always contested for people in the diasporic community, and the aim of this thesis has been to continually deconstruct the idea of a "single" Chinese diaspora, and to expose it as a heterogeneous, fragmented, and internally differentiated construction. 111 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements Abstract II Table of Contents 111 Introduction Chapter One 13 A "Historical Context" to the Early Chinese Diaspora in Singapore 1819-1950. The Development of the Early Diaspora: The Straits-born 24 Chinese and China-born Chinese. The Straits-born Chinese. 25 The China-born Chinese. 44 The Straits-born Chinese and China-born Chinese under Colonial 53 Rule. Representations of the Colony and the Two Diasporic Groups. 54 Ethnic Stereotypes and Colonial Narratives. 75 Chapter Two 86 Theorising the Early Chinese Diaspora: "Home" and Identity. Re-thinking Diaspora: The Early Chinese in Singapore. 87 Notions of Belonging for the Diaspora: The "Home" In and 96 Outside China. The Meaning of "Xiang" and the China-born Chinese. 98 The Politicisation of "Huaqiao" and the Identity of the China- 112 born Chinese. "Huaqiao", Sojourning, and the China-born Chinese. 123 The Meaning of "Home" and Identity for the Straits-born 130 Chinese. Towards Change and Assimilation: the Straits-born Chinese and 140 the China-born Chinese during and beyond the 1950s. iv Chapter Three 159 The Straits Chinese Magazine and Subjects of the Chinese Diaspora 1897-1907. The Straits Chinese Magazine in Context, Its Role, Readership, 162 Funding, and Function as a Discourse of Interaction between Disparate Ethnic Communities. The Straits Chinese Magazine, It Publications, Literary Impetus, 178 and "Intended" Readers. Cultural Reforms and Retrieval: Paradoxes in The Straits 192 Chinese Magazine, with Reference to 'The Chinese View of Cremation', 'The Position of Chinese Women' and Essays on Confucianism. Imperialism and The Straits Chinese Magazine: Colonial or Anti- 211 Colonial? Discordant Voices in The Straits Chinese Magazine. 219 The Final Issue of The Straits Chinese Magazine. 226 Chapter Four 229 Autobiography, Biography, and the China-born Chinese in Chinese Jetsam on a Tropic Shore by N.I. Low and China Roots by Mark Tan. Topographies of Place and Memory: Locating the China-born 235 Chinese Subject in Chinese Jetsam. "Mapping" the Diaspora: Locating the China-born Chinese in 248 China Roots. The Question of a Chinese Identity: The China-born Chinese in 257 China. From Amoy, Foochow to Singapore. 269 From China-born Chinese to Straits-born Chinese. 276 Conclusion 290 Taikongren: The Transnational Chinese Subject. 294 Appendices Appendix 1 311 Appendix 2 312 Appendix 3 313 Appendix 4 314 Appendix 5 315 Appendix 6 316 Appendix 7 317 Bibliography 318 1 Introduction This study provides an innovative framework for exploring the Chinese diaspora in Singapore. There have been significant accounts of these people from different historical, sociological, and anthropological perspectives, as presented in the works of C.M. Turnbull, Felix Chia, K.G. Tregonning, Yen Ching Hwang, Tu Wei- ming, and Wang Gungwu, but there have been few attempts to juxtapose and examine these findings in relation to current theories of diaspora and to existing critical essays and literary writings that have emerged from the community. Thus, while this research is grounded in the works of historians, sinologists, and sociologists, it goes beyond these boundaries by integrating and drawing on both literary and non-literary texts, theoretical material, and empirical research. It contextualises some of the central debates within Diaspora Studies and poses critical questions about the ways in which the Chinese people and their identities have been constituted and contested. What emerges, then, is an eclectic exposition of the Chinese in Singapore, offering fresh and novel insights into the community. Simultaneously, this thesis analyses how the diaspora relates to the question of "Chineseness", that is to say, the question of what it means to be "Chinese", and foregrounds the works of writers, researchers, and scholars of both the nineteenth and twentieth century, who deal with the early diaspora. Migration and the dispersion of the Chinese people to Singapore provide an important background to what it has meant for them to live abroad, in the world outside China. The meaning of being Chinese, or the concept of a Chinese identity, is relative and varies from individual to 2 individual. The question of "Chineseness", as this thesis demonstrates, is also constructed from outside the diaspora, through external pressures and perceptions, and the diaspora's reaction to them. Being Chinese, for example, can suggest an identification with China, where the notion of identity is intertwined with China as a geopolitical concept. This notion of "Chineseness" is immutably tied to a fixed terrain, and based on a conception of identity as inseparable from place. On the other hand, being Chinese can also entail the participation, wherever possible, of the reproduction of Chinese ways and values, and the transmission of these traditions to the next generation.' This notion of identity is based on a cultural, rather than a geopolitical concept, where the formation of ethnicity is tied to the practice and maintenance of cultural features usually attributed to the Chinese.2 The examples delineated above occasion a need to recognise and explore the diversity of Chinese identities, and their implications for subjects of the diaspora. They are significant for describing how the sense of being Chinese can take on varied meanings for different individuals, giving rise to different attitudes as to what it means to be Chinese. What this thesis aims to unravel then, are the possibilities and problems of thinking about "Chineseness". It attempts to examine how the diasporic people conceptualise their own sense of ethnicity, where the meanings of identity, "home" and belonging, are constantly being (re)constructed and (re)negotiated within different discourses, and in different temporalities.