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The Scripting of a National History

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The Scripting of a National History The f A Pas童醫 Hong Lysa and Huang Jianli 香港式學出版社 HONG KONG UNIVERSITY PRESS Hong Kong University Press 141F Hing Wai C巴ntr巴 7 Tin Wan Praya Road Ab巴rd巴巴n Hong Kong 。 Hong Kong Univ巴rsity Pr巴 ss 2008 ISBN 978-962-209-883-1 All rights r巴 serv巴 d. No portion of this publication may b巴 reproduc巴d or transmitt巴d in any form or by any means ，巴l巴ctromc or m巴chanical ， including photocopy, r巴cording ， or any information storag巴 or r巴tn巴 val system, without p巴rmission in writing from th巴 publi 斑白 CJ-LH O 巴一八日c-PAJ- o-w 叫3JV-nn σ 巴一的 L-wm-h 。一 一戶-m 一位 •• 、。 σb British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogu巴 r巴cord for this book is available from th巴 British Library. Printed and bound by Liang Yu Printing Factory Ltd. , in Hong Kong, China Hong Kong Univ巴rsity Pr巴 ss is honoured that Xu Bing, whos巴 art 巴 xplores the compl巴x th巴m巴 s of languag巴 across cultures, has writt巴nth巴 Pr巴 8 日 's nam巴 in his Squan巴 Word Calligraphy. This signals our commitm巴 nt to cross-cultural thinking and th巴 distinctiv巴 natur巴 of our English-languag巴 books publish巴d in China. “At first glance, Square Word Calligraphy appears to be nothing more unusual than Chinese characters, but in fact it is a new way of rendering English words in the format of a square so they resemble Chinese characters. Chinese viewers expect to be able to read Square word Calligraphy but cannot. Western viewers, however are surprised to find they can read it. Delight erupts when meaning is unexpectedly revealed." - Britta Erickson, The Art of Xu Bing Contents Foreword lX List of Photographs Xlll Abbreviations XV Acknowledgements XVll 團且司、 Introduction: Beginning of History The road to ‘in-dependence' UA Light at the end of the tunnel 且可吋 Singapore's postcolonial history /AY Scripting Singapore's past PARTI SCRIPTURE 11 1111222234581279 1. New Testament: Singapore and Its Tensed Pasts A Martian's view of Singapore history Pre-tense: Revolutionary sons of Ra凹的 A tensed past: Plots uncovered The tensed present: The plot thickens Racing towards the inevitable Quintessentially Singapore: Essentially Chinese Presenting the past 2. Apotheosis: The Lee Kuan Yew Story as Singapore's History 31 Barr code on Lee Kuan Yew: ‘Simultaneously brilliant and 33 hopelessl y erroneous' 司 rAUO In life and death: Reading maketh a man 31UA Setting the record: Right from the start 凸 Aυ The family first: The First Family 且可 vi Contents 3. Sermon: Rajaratnam and Devan Nair as High Priests 45 The template of Singapore history 48 'From someone who knows . .' (Joe Yeoh) 51 Genesis and the Revelation 52 The final verdict: Le巳 Kuan Yew and Rajaratnam 56 The final verdict: L巳e Kuan Yew and C. V. Devan Nair 59 4. Liturgy: Telling Singapore's Past through Oral History 65 Singapore's Oral History Centre 65 What is an oral historian? 67 The common voice 69 The singer and the song 72 PART 11 SINGAPORE'S CHINESE DILEMMA 75 5. Political Vanguard: PAP Leaders of the Chinese-Speaking 79 Community Profiling the PAP Leaders 79 Marching to the battle front 82 Fighting for a Malayan vision 85 Battles over merger and beyond 88 Campaigning for a ‘Malaysian Malaysia' 94 Holding the fort: Discourse on ‘East versus West' 96 Extending the discourse to ‘generational di缸erences' 99 Changing of the guards: Language of displacement 10 1 Bridging the gap 107 6. Language Fault Lines: The Wang Gungwu Report 109 on Nanyang University Setting the stage for another university review 110 Essence of the report and its immediate aftermath 114 ‘ B 巳ing Malayan': A bridg巳 too far 119 Position of th巳 Chin巳 se language: Trilingualism or bilingualism? 126 Accusations of Anglicisation 128 Lamentations 132 7. Student Political Activism: Articulation, Contestation 137 and Omission Highlights of student politics, 1950s-1980s 137 Problematising the articulation of a binary world: Chinese vs. 139 English-educated activists Contesting for a place in history books: Memories and archives 143 Contents vii Interrogating through allegory: Nove1s and theatres 152 Winning over the post-1965 generation: Political apathy and the 157 omission of history PART 111 CON/SCRIPTING SINGAPORE'S NATIONAL 163 HEROES 8. Toying with Pandora's Box: The Scripting of Singapore 法 165 National Heroes The heroic ente叩 rise: From negating history to spotting heroes 167 Interim heroes, mutating pasts 169 Simp1y a war heroine 174 A nationa1 treasure: Revealing or reiterating the si1ences? 175 Swan song of a heroic ghost? 178 9. Imagining a Big Singapore: Positioning the Sun Yat Sen 181 Nanyang Memorial Hall Sun eclipsed: The Villa in the orbit of China's politics 182 Land of the rising Sun: Reorienting history 185 Singapore's essential Sun: Reaching high noon with China as 188 the mega-market Sun's imaginative sons: Opening Windows 2000 191 Singapore's Sun shrine: Creative replicas on disp1ay 195 Sun screened: A1temative discourse from the theatre 199 ‘Take in all the sunlight and 10ve the wind and rain' 203 10. Conscripting Chinese Diasporic Culture into National Identity: 205 Taming of the Tiger Balm Gardens From colony to nation-state: The importance of being ‘Chinese' 205 The Villa that Aw bui1t: The tiger and his habitat 208 The Villa post-Aw Boon Haw: The 10ss of aura 213 Cultures p1ebeian and ‘imperia1': In search ofChinese nativity 215 Enter (and exit) the dragon: Death of a schizophrenic Disney 219 theme park Defenders and detractors: A debate on cuIture and politics 222 Haw Par Villa reloaded: Redefining Singapore's national identity 227 Conclusion: No End to History 231 Notes 235 Selected Bibliography 283 Index 293 List of Photographs On the front cover: The bronze statue commemorating Sir Stamford Raffles as the founder of Singapore was unveiled in 1887 at the Padang in celebration of Queen Victoria' s Golden J ubilee. It was moved to the grounds in front of the Victoria Memorial Hall in 1919, the centen訂y ofthe island's colonial founding. In 1942 the statue was placed in the Syonan Museum (hitherto the Raffles Museum), a process that was filmed by the propaganda unit of the military administration which ruled Singapore as a J apanese colony during the Second World War. The postwar British colonial government returned the statue to its original site where it still stands, accompanied since 1972 by its white polymarble replica situated nearby along the Singapore River where Raffles purportedly first set foot on Singapore. On the back cover: The diorama is the last in a set of twen旬， chronicling the history of Singapore. The opposition benches were empty when the first parliament sat after Singapore separated from Malaysia to become an independent republic. On 3 February 1963 at least 107 left-wing politicians and trade unionists in Singapore had been detained, and could not stand for the general elections held in September of that year, which saw the opposition Barisan Socialis win thirteen of the fifty-one seats. Arrests of three opposition members and the fleeing of two others to escape this meant that there were only eight ofthem left. The Barisan Socialis declared Singapore's independence as spurious, boycotted parliament, and the 1968 elections. Parliament had an opposition member only in 1981. xiv List of Photographs Following page 204: 1. Lee Kuan Yew at the opening ceremony of the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall, 12 November 2001. (Source: Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, Courtesy of N ationa1 Archives of Singapore, No. 19990005942/070) 2. Minister ofEducation Teo Chee Hean (third from right) , great grand nephew of Teo Eng Hock, at the opening ceremony of the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall on 12 November 2001 , posing with the photograph of Tongmenghui members, including Teo Eng Hock (front row, second from left) who was also an e征ly owner of the Villa. (Source: Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, Courtesy of N ationa1 Archives of Singapore, No. 19990005943/004) 3. Granite stele inscribed with Lee Kuan Yew's words ‘One Man Changed China, Dr Sun Yat Sen', March 2007. (Source: K. K. Sim) 4. Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall, March 2007. (Source: K. K. Sim) 5. Tree of Martyrs with calligraphic plaque by Wang Daohan (PRC Cross- Straits relations negotiator) and statues of Nanyang revolutionaries Yu Dongxiong (left, cousin of future magnate Eu Tong Sen) and Huang Heming (rig恤， mechanic from Singapore), Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall, March 2007. (Source: K. K. Sim) 6. Chiku tr巴巴 with calligraphic plaque by Koo Chenfu (ROC Cross-Straits relations n巳gotiator) and statu 巳 of Commission巳r Lin Zexu (of Opium War fame), Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall, March 2007. (Source: K. K. Sim) 7. Japanese cultural troupe touring Tiger Balm Gardens, November 1966. (Source: Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, Courtesy of National Archiv巳 s of Singapor巴， No. 19980005293/18) 8. Capturing a slic 巳 of memory at a Tig巳r Balm Gardens archway and Aw family shrin 巴， November 1966. (Source: Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, Courtesy of N ational Archives of Singapore, No. 19980005293/020) 9. Peddlers at the entrance of the Tiger Balm Gardens doing a roaring trade, 1960. (Source: K. F. Wong, Court的y of National Archives of Singapore, No. 19990003435/037) 10. The Tiger Balm Gardens metamorphosed into the Dragon World theme park, October 1990. (Source: Courtesy of Singapore Tourism Board and N ational Archives of Singapore, N o. 19980006577/116) New Testament: Singapore and Its Tensed Pasts History, as the most basic definition ofthe discipline would have it ，的 the study of the past. Hence the injunction, if one is needed, from the history teacher to beginner students would be that they should write in the past tense as the events under consideration would have already taken place.
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