Exploring the gendering of national subjects in Singapore The branding of Singapore International Airlines with the im- H Beyond age of a beautiful, petite and servile ‘Oriental’ woman dressed in U figure-huggingsarong-kebaya is one of the world’s longest running DS the and most successful advertising campaigns. But this image does not simply advertise a service; it is part of a global and national O Singapore Girl regime of symbolic constructions of gender that today is seen as N outdated and sexist, and bearing little relation to modern Singa- BEY Discourses of Gender and Nation in Singapore pore where women have good access to education and increased life choices resulting from engagement in the wage economy. The nation’s economic success has been a force for their liberation. O CHRIS HUDSON One catastrophic consequence of women’s changed lives has been T ND the plunge in fertility rates. Singapore has one of the world’s low- est despite energetic government campaigns encouraging women to have more babies – and men to be more ‘masculine’. The failure H of these campaigns and rethinking of the Singapore Girl highlight E S a key premise of this book: there are limits to the power of discur- sive constructions of gender in the national interest. I NGAP ABOUT THE AUTHOR Chris Hudson is a research leader in the Globalization and Culture Program at the Global Cities Research Institute as well as Associate OR Professor of Asian Media and Culture at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. E G IR L GENDERING ASIA a series on gender intersections www.niaspress.dk Hudson-pbk-cover.indd 1 01/08/2013 11:39 BEYOND THE SINGAPORE GIRL Hudson book.indd 1 01/08/2013 11:27 GENDERING ASIA A Series on Gender Intersections Gendering Asia is a well-established and exciting series addressing the ways in which power and constructions of gender, sex, sexuality and the body intersect with one another and pervade contemporary Asian societies. The series invites discussion of how people shape their identities as females or males and, at the same time, become shaped by the very societies in which they live. The series is concerned with the region as a whole in order to capture the wide range of understandings and practices that are found in East, Southeast and South Asian societies with respect to gendered roles and relations in various social, political, religious, and economic contexts. As a multidisciplinary series, Gendering Asia explores theoretical, empirical and methodological issues in the social sciences. Series Editors: Wil Burghoorn, Gothenburg University; Cecilia Milwertz, NIAS; and Helle Rydstrøm, Lund University (contact details at: http://www.niaspress.dk). 1. Working and Mothering in Asia. Images, Ideologies and Identities, edited by Theresa W. Devasahayam and Brenda S.A. Yeoh 2. Making Fields of Merit. Buddhist Female Ascetics and Gendered Orders in Thailand, by Monica Lindberg Falk 3. Gender Politics in Asia. Women Manoeuvring within Dominant Gender Orders, edited by Wil Burghoorn, Kazuki Iwanaga, Cecilia Milwertz and Qi Wang 4. Lost Goddesses. The Denial of Female Power in Cambodian History, by Trudy Jacobsen 5 Gendered Inequalities in Asia. Configuring, Contesting and Recognizing Women and Men, edited by Helle Rydstrøm 6. Submitting to God. Women and Islam in Urban Malaysia, by Sylva Frisk 7. The Authority of Influence. Women and Power in Burmese History, by Jessica Harriden 8. Beyond the Singapore Girl. Discourses of Gender and Nation in Singapore, by Chris Hudson NIAS Press is the autonomous publishing arm of NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, a research institute located at the University of Copenhagen. NIAS is partially funded by the governments of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden via the Nordic Council of Ministers, and works to encourage and support Asian studies in the Nordic countries. In so doing, NIAS has been publishing books since 1969, with more than two hundred titles produced in the past few years. UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN Nordic Council of Ministers Hudson book.indd 2 01/08/2013 11:27 BEYONDthe SINGAPORE GIRL Discourses of Gender and Nation in Singapore Chris Hudson Hudson book.indd 3 01/08/2013 11:27 Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Gendering Asia series, no. 8 First published in 2013 by NIAS Press NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 Copenhagen K, Denmark Tel: +45 3532 9501 • Fax: +45 3532 9549 E-mail: [email protected] • Online: www.niaspress.dk © Chris Hudson 2013 A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-87-7694-124-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-87-7694-125-3 (pbk) Typeset in Arno Pro 12/14.4 and Frutiger 11/13.2 Typesetting by NIAS Press Printed in Great Britain by Marston Book Services Limited, Oxfordshire Hudson book.indd 4 01/08/2013 11:27 For Fergus, Rory and Ciarán Hudson and for Philip Mears Hudson book.indd 5 01/08/2013 11:27 Hudson book.indd 6 01/08/2013 11:27 Contents Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 Rethinking the Singapore Girl • Imagining the Nation • Public Spaces of Discourse • A Word on Critical Strategies • The Limits of Narrative Control 1. Narrating the Nation 17 Masculine Nation • Creating Modern Subjects • Vulnerable Nation • Global Citizens 2. Family and Nation 43 Creating the Capitalist Family • The Nation and Family as Discursive Objects • The Female Body and the Unsettling of Nation 3. The Politics of Fertility 61 Decreasing Reproduction to Increase Production: the ‘Stop at Two’ Campaign • Quality vs Quantity • Have Three or More if You Can Afford It 4. Romancing Singapore 85 Selling Marriage and Parenthood • The Romance of Nation – Family and Capital • No Sex, Please – We’re Singaporean 5. Resisting the Hardsell 113 Pragmatism vs Love • The Paradox of Romance • Beyond Babies 6. The New Singapore Woman 139 Bad Subjects • Taming the New Singapore Woman • Peeling Prawns – Recovering the Asian Woman 7. The Crisis of Representation 163 Loss of Narrative Authority • Reinscribing Men – The New Singapore Man • Feminised Nation References 187 Index 207 Hudson book.indd 7 01/08/2013 11:27 Hudson book.indd 8 01/08/2013 11:27 Acknowledgements any people have generously spent time with me over a number of years, giving advice and sharing their personal M experiences with me. They all had a hand in some way in the preparation of this book, but most of all I enjoyed their com- pany. Thanks go to Sarimah Binte Abdul Samad, Susan Atkins, Perle Besserman, Terrell Carver, Jeff Chan, Chia Soo Chin, Jerry Clode, Jane Goh, Barbara Hatley, Peter Horsfield, Chengju Huang, Colin Hudson, Jeff Lewis, Vera Mackie, Warwick Mears, Lauren Murray and K.K. Seet. I am particularly indebted to Terry Johal for the many hours he has spent discussing Singapore culture with me. Ariel Heryanto of the Australian National University and Anoma Pieris of the University of Melbourne deserve special thanks. Thanks also to Matt Meng who helped with the editing. Jo Tacchi in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University provided practical support in the form of leave from normal academic duties in the school to write this book. Paul James, Director of the Global Cities Research Institute at RMIT ensured that I enjoyed an exciting and stimulating research environment and warm collegial support. Denise Varney of the University of Melbourne has been consistently generous with her time and ideas. Her friendship and support have been soul-sustaining for many years. I have learnt a great deal from her and have very much enjoyed our collaborative projects. My deepest intellectual debt is to Manfred Steger. His generosity of spirit, towering intellect and encouragement have been truly inspira- tional. It has been a privilege to work with him. Finally, I wish to thank my children Rory and Ciarán who have provided the reality checks. Without the constant kindness, love and ix Hudson book.indd 9 01/08/2013 11:27 Beyond the Singapore Girl endless domestic labour of Fergus Hudson, this book would not have been possible. I dedicate this book to them, and to my brother Philip Mears who was not here to share in the fun. x Hudson book.indd 10 01/08/2013 11:27 Hudson book.indd 11 01/08/2013 11:27 Hudson book.indd 12 01/08/2013 11:27 Introduction Rethinking the Singapore Girl s there a feminised symbol of a nation more globally recognis- able than the Singapore Girl? The branding of Singapore Inter- I national Airlines with the image of an Asian woman is one of the world’s longest running and most successful advertising campaigns. The Singapore Girl does not simply advertise a service; she has a particular significance in a global and national system of symbolic constructions. She is the boundary marker for Singapore, an element in a global scopo- philic gaze through which Asian women are sexualised for commercial purposes (Mackie, 2000). It has also been argued that she can be seen as the Other of a global modernity through which Asian women are im- agined as service providers for a global hypermasculinity (Ling, 1999). The petite and beautiful Singapore women dressed in figure-hugging sarong-kebaya has not failed to incite the erotic imagination of the male consumer. A Qantas chairman once referred to the campaign as ‘mas- sage parlour in the sky ads’ (Dahinten, 2007). While this well-known image, and the uses to which it is put in strat- egies of symbolising the nation and advertising the airline, have been highly successful, its image has recently lost some of its glamour. The international advertising agency Batey Ads managed the advertising campaign for some 35 years.