Consuming Femininity: Nation-Nation -s--state,sstate, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

by

Wendy Poh Yoke Chew

A Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy undertaken at the University of Western

2007

Declaration

I declare that this thesis is entirely my own work and that it has not been submitted for a degree or award at this or any other university. To my knowledge it does not contain material previously published or written by another person where due reference has not been made in the text.

Wendy Chew

Submitted 31 August 2006

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Abstract

My research seeks to understand ways in which English-educated Chinese women in cosmopolitan bolstered their identity while living under the influences of Confucian values, patriarchal nation-building and racial concerns. My thesis examines women who have themselves been lost in translation when they were co-opted into the creation of a viable state after 1965. Often women are treated as adjuncts in the patriarchal state, particularly since issues of gender are not treated with the equality they deserve in the neo-Confucian discourse. This thesis takes an unconventional approach to how women have been viewed by utilizing primary sources including and Female magazines from the 1960s and 1990s, and subsequent material from the blogosphere. I analyze images of women in these magazines to gain an understanding of how notions of gender and communitarianism/race intersect. By looking at -sponsored advertising, my work also investigates the kind of messages the state was sending out to these women readers. My examination of government-sponsored advertisements, in tandem with the existing mainstream consumer advertising directed at women provides therefore a unique historical perspective in understanding the kinds of pressures Singaporean women have faced. Blogging itself is used as a counterpoint to show how new spaces have opened up for those who have felt constricted in certain ways by the authorities, women included. It would be fair to say that women’s magazines and blogging have served as ways for women to bolster their self worth, despite the counter-argument that some highly idealized and unhealthy images of women are purveyed. The main target group of glossy women’s magazines is English-educated women readers who are, by virtue of the Singapore’s demographics, mostly Chinese.

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Acknowledgements

This thesis would not have been completed without the combined encouragement and support of my parents and my supervisor Esta Ungar. In the final days of writing and preparing this paper, heartfelt thanks must also go to Samina Yasmeen and James Trevelyan, and to my partner, Andrew Shelton. To my friends, thank you all for having faith in me.

4 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

Table of Contents

Declaration ...... 222

Abstract ...... 333

Acknowledgements ...... 444

Chapter One

 Introduction ––– The State of the Nation ...... 777

ChaptChapterer Two

 The Importance of Being a Nation ...... 272727 2.1 Early Days of Nation-building ...... 27 2.2 Cohesion: Identity and Racial Unity ...... 33 2.3 Citizenship and National Identity...... 37 2.4 Mechanisms of Nation-building ...... 43 2.5 Blog-Central – Community-Building Outside the Square ...... 72 2.6 Of Community Building and the Nation ...... 88

Chapter Three

 Multiculturalism and : Values to Live ByBy ...... 909090 3.1 A New Beginning ...... 90 3.2 Part 1: The Dichotomy Between East and West ...... 94 3.3 Part 2: Value Re-Orientation in the Late 1980s and 1990s ...... 103 3.4 Part 3: Women and the State ...... 120

Chapter Four

 Magazines in Singapore During the 1990s ...... 141 4.1 A General Overview of Local Magazines ...... 146 4.2 Women’s Magazines in Singapore ...... 153

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Chapter Five

 How to Live Your Life ––– Women’s Magazines and the

Generation of Meaning ...... 158 5.1 Using ...... 160 5.2 The Cult of Femininity ...... 162 5.3 The First Appeal: Hailing the Reader ...... 164 5.4 The Face of Femininity ...... 166 5.5 Subsuming Race...... 171 5.6 The Allure of the Orient: Mid-1960s ...... 173 5.7 Skin Exploitation: Mid-1990s ...... 176 5.8 Ethnicity through Dress ...... 180 5.9 Slaves to Fashion ...... 182 5.10 The Celebrity as Icon: Celebrity Covers and Endorsements ...... 185 5.11 Star Power in Product Endorsements ...... 190 5.12 Values and Ideals in Advertising ...... 192 5.13 National Concerns at Stake ...... 193 5.14 In Defence of the Motherland ...... 199 5.15 A Sweet Ideal – The SIA Girl ...... 204 5.16 Dealing with AIDs, Health and Sexual Awareness ...... 206 5.17 Moving On ...... 208

Chapter Six

 ConclusConclusionion --- (Re)Constructing Perceptions ...... 210

 Bibliography ...... 225

 Appendices ...... 262626226 222

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Chapter One  Introduction

The formation of Asian national identities has happened in the shadow of European (including Russian) and US domination, and the memory of colonial subjugation remains a crucial element in the national self-perceptions of many Asians. This memory consists not only of an enemy image, but also contains a kind of admiration for the former colonial master. ...

For a long time the West has been the Significant Other, and this has provided Asian nationalisms with a basic ambivalence, which is still alive, not least in discourses about . On the one hand the nationalists have aimed at liberation from Europe, hence separation. On the other hand they have seen their only chance of achieving this aim in learning Western ways and being recognized by Western powers as sovereign nations with a role to playing global . In order to obtain recognition of the right to difference, they have had to become similar. 1

I started this thesis with the intention of looking at women’s magazines in Singapore because I had been working there for several years, over which time I noticed a number of issues about the so-called glossies. When I was a girl back home in Singapore and my young aunts read magazines, these glossies were the ones promoting a way of life that seemed to encourage women to throw away the shackles of yesteryear, pushing women to become more pro-active in the workforce and affirming their right to remain feminine inspite of daily family routine and work worries. As I did my research I noticed that over time the recurrent messages coming from the government (through newspapers, , etc) sometimes went against with the growing boldness of women’s magazines. Gradually, it appeared that the government’s image of what the ideal Singaporean woman should be was different from the kind of self-involved images found in Her World and Female , the primary women’s magazines of my childhood. After some analysis, I realized that many of the attractive models used in these magazines subscribed to a pan-Asian ideal, while the Singapore government remains at odds with but firmly entrenched in its promotion of multiculturalism and multiethnicity as the model for communal harmony. All of a sudden, the whole issue of ‘race’ became prominent as I realized that the Singaporean discourse for race was very different from the public (government) sphere to the private (women’s magazines). Further investigations into census data on major

1 Stein Tonnesson and Hans Antlov (ed.), Asian Forms of the Nation , Surrey: Curzon, 1996, p. 30.

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indicators such as labour force participation rates also did not reveal much about the ratio of ethnic participation – the breakdowns are primarily done by gender, and not race. Much of this kind of research is already evident in work done by sociologists like Nirmala Purushotam, Aline Wong and Stella R. Quah on changes in women’s roles over the last 40 years. It was only later, at the end of writing this thesis, that I discovered a hitherto unpublished paper which set out some of the statistical changes over the years. However, as I had started out with a desire to discuss gender identity and not race identity, I could not ignore the fact that by virtue of its absence, the issue of race was problematic.

I began to see that the ways of confronting the racial characteristics of Singaporean women were different between the state and women’s magazines. This was sometimes (often!) in conflict with one another. On the one hand, government discourse was tied closely to its nation-building efforts, and thus its continuing search for a definable Asian Value system, out of which arose the Confucian drive and the 1991 Paper on Shared Values. 2 There has since been a wide body of work done on the Asian Values debate which has engaged the Southeast Asian region. From the 1990s, scholars like Clammer and Michael D. Barr, as well as Lilly Zubaidah Rahim have been at the forefront of much of this work. Michael Hill and Lian Kwan Fee have also contributed to the discussion, especially with reference to the debates on communitarianism and nation-building – two elements of Singapore history which I believe was pivotal to understanding how Singapore has developed since the colonial period and under the hand of the PAP. Within these discourses, there has been a visible struggle by women against the accompanying constrictions which were placed on their freedom to express themselves. Indeed, the pervasive influence of the government in all aspects of public life has ensured that a particular kind of environment was created for the publishing industry (and vis-a-vis, the magazines publishing industry). It was one in which control was paramount, the state stepping in when certain moral boundaries were crossed (see Chapters 4 and 6 of this thesis). The pervasive sense of control became an added dimension to my examination of the consumption of women’s glossies by Chinese English-educated Singaporean women, who were by far the largest group constituting their target audience. As such, I noted the environment of control in something even as frivolous as women’s magazines:

2 The Singapore government engaged a number of pre-eminent Confucian scholars during the mid- 1980s in an effort to examine the existing value system and to bolster the cultural ‘ballast’ of the nation. Chapters 2 and 3 of this thesis will further investigate how nation-building has been tied to Confucian leanings.

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there were boundaries, even in the publishing industry, and crossing it meant that the authorities would take a hand in reining in what they perceived as unacceptable content.

The Asian way of perceiving governance, for instance, was predicated on the genuine belief that society was best regulated by the Confucian model, in which is embedded a strict code of patriarchal values and practices. As such, the government viewed itself as being a benevolent if stern father figure – a view recognized by many of the scholars on Singapore history, such as David Brown, John Clammer, Lian Fen Kwee and Joseph Tamney, some of whom were critical of the very nature of this benevolence. It is in the nature of this model of governance that women are conceptualized in a particular way, one in which they are excluded from the public domain. Moreoever, women of other races are subsumed in this dominant discourse. As such, in the modern magazines the predilection for only models of certain racial types seems to deliberately follow this path. However, as I discovered in my analysis of the magazine content, were other factors involved: while many of the models used were either clearly Caucasian, Chinese or of the pan-Asian variety, the impulse behind their use were primarily market-driven.

As my research deepened, the became one of the most relevant sources of information.Many secondary sources were becoming digitised, and a variety of government bodies were putting previously inaccessible (to me, as they were archived overseas) material online. I also began reading blogs written by as they were useful in providing a link to current issues in Singapore. It struck me that blogs were also very much a contested space in as much as magazines were, but with different parameters. That is, women were using cyberspace as much as men, and there was space for freedom of expression that was not available in other parts of the public sphere for . Moreover, in utilizing the very things which characterize blogging, women were also able to employ it to refine their identity. Women consume mainly for themselves the images put forth by the huge beauty industry– for reasons like vanity, self-esteem and (financial) proof of their ability to do so. The use of cyberspace is similar. Moreover, the anonymity of cyberspace opened up another aspect for the freedom of expression. The relative confidence being expressed by the modern Singaporean woman as reflected in the magazines was carried onto the blogs in which many of these same Singaporean women were able to voice controversial views, be politically incorrect, have desires and yearnings not considered proper of the good Confucian model. There was however a major

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contrast: in magazines, the omission of race was deliberate, in blogs, race was irrelevant. Although both mediums relied on image and text, magazines relied on images to convey their messages, while blogs relied on text. I began to realize that as a new medium, the internet was allowing Singaporeans in general to make headway in getting their voices heard in a state where control was paramount. Since race and gender were not barriers to being heard (perhaps the most obvious difficulty would be economic), the internet discriminates on fewer grounds. To be heard, I concluded, was formative in the way women could establish their identity within a state concerned to construct racial harmony and political stability.

The selection of magazines used for primary analysis in this thesis is based on several factors, a number of which were circumscribed by circumstance and availability. The availability of English language women’s magazines dating back to the 1960s was limited to one, and it was only in the 1970s when a serious contender to this one magazine appeared on the market. Her World and its later rival, Female , were devoted to the same target group – namely, English-educated (predominantly) Chinese women from middle-income backgrounds – women who form the focus of this thesis. The National University of Singapore stored an almost complete collection of both titles and it is from these which I was fortunate enough to have been granted access since I was at that time a foreign visitor to the country. At the same time, I was also granted several days’ access to the archives of the offices of Singapore Press Holdings to view their collection. However, due to the limited duration of my research visit in Singapore, there was a limitation to the amount of physical data I could carry away with me. As such, the selection of magazines I have used in this research is not as random as one might first suspect. I have endeavoured to use as many October editions of magazines from the 1960s as possible as they were the most consistent editions for consecutive years in the collection, while making the best attempts to ensure that I had access to the same monthly editions of both Her World and Female magazines from the 1990s (again, October issues). In fact, I compiled some rough statistics to reflect the proportion of advertisements as opposed to articles of different varieties (fiction, advice columns, cooking instructions, home decor). This effort gave me an approximate idea of how each magazine has changed over time in terms of content and volume. Statistical limitations were also due to the group being analysed, and it proved to be difficult to get a reliable circulation data for earlier years as distribution statistics were not extant.

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After obtaining access to these magazines, further examination of them revealed that Singaporean magazines operate on two different levels and can be a most ambivalent kind of text to read. On the one hand, many of the advertisements sanctioned by various ministries for use in women’s magazines in the late 1980s and 1990s are indicative of how the government viewed women and what they expected of them. The bulk of a magazine, however, contains fashion spreads, beauty tips, commercial advertisements and feature articles. This formula is how the marketing industry views women and can be considered representative of what many women aspire to, or are told to aspire to by consumption culture. This antagonism is partially surmounted by the equally slick and glossy government advertising campaigns designed to encourage women to have larger families and to get married. The propaganda value inherent in most government-sponsored initiatives is masked by the thematic use of nostalgia and tradition. 3 The most tangible tension, however, arises from the presence of such advertisements extolling national values and goals in what could be a potentially subversive weapon for women, if the audience being targeted were not merely ignoring the government message.

The crux of the matter is defining what being female means: is it femininity per se, or is female-ness a more abstract concept that cannot be easily defined by women’s magazines? Advertisements chosen for my analysis succinctly promote a particular view of femininity or female-ness, while others emphasize a strong undercurrent of race (of its lack thereof). Government-sponsored magazines, or what I have termed ‘public service announcements’ (PSA) are analyzed where they are found. They are not abundant and tend to follow the extensive periodic media campaigns on values or nation-building launched by the government. There has not been much work done on these advertisements, in particular with reference to an ongoing and sustained campaign to influence the minds of Singaporean women. My examination of these advertisements, in tandem with the existing mainstream consumer advertising directed at women, is therefore a contribution towards a historical understanding of the kinds of pressures Singaporean women have experienced since the People’s Action Party came to power. 4

3 For pictures and discussions, see Chapter 5.12. 4 Chris Hudson has carried out some work on the romantic and social aspects of one such campaign to encourage marriage and family (see “Romancing Singapore: Economies of Love in a Shrinking Population”, in Examined: Proceedings of the 15th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia , Canberra, 2004); however, it is more of a snapshot of an issue at hand. Peter Teo ( “Ideological dissonances in Singapore’s national campaign posters: a semiotic deconstruction”, Visual Communication , vol. 3.2, 2004, pp. 189-212) on the other hand, has made an investigation of

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My analysis works on the premise that the female identity constitutes a core of conventions that define how women should behave, dress, speak and think. The conventions are modified from time to time in tandem with social standards. One aspect that has long held true is that femininity implies a level of sexual attractiveness to men. 5 Like gender and nation, it is difficult to maintain a static view of what constitutes a female identity as the criteria fluctuate with time and are inevitably influenced by fashion and beauty. In the magazines from the 1960s, the femininity of the Singaporean woman was in part measured by how well she subscribed to fashion trends and whether she measured up to societal expectations as a cook and seamstress. She also had to be well versed in taking care of her family and her husband. There was greater emphasis on ethnicity than today, only in so far as it could be exploited as a fashion trend. 6 In the following two decades, from the 1970s to the 1980s, the move away from being an expert cook and seamstress followed women’s move to offices and the boardroom. Many other changes have occurred but the essential aspects remain the same: women continue to slavishly follow the current dictates of fashion and beauty.

A problematic issue here is that cultural definitions of femininity assume sex- role stereotyping, which is also prevalent in the media. Sex-role stereotypes need not be, however, an obstacle in understanding the historicity of women’s roles as they provide strong indications of popular conceptions and expectations. Feminists have frequently attacked femininity as a prescription for failure, victimization and limitation. While not negating the important contributions made by scholars writing along those lines, another view would be to see that the discourse on feminine identity, by its very nature, positions women as the “other”. 7 Marxist and socialist theory, on the other hand, contend that meanings of masculinity and femininity, intertwined with the development of capitalism, are dynamic prescriptions, nor can they be unified. 8 Moreover, many of these theories are Eurocentric in nature and were never formulated to take into account different rates of change experienced by many post-colonial societies. Alternatively, female identity and women’s attempts to define it can also be interpreted positively as empowerment and a form of affirming their identity within a

workplace campaign posters which is similar to my own analysis of the PSAs in women’s magazines. 5 Maggie Humm, The Dictionary of Feminist Theory , New York: Prentice Hall, 1995, p. 93. 6 See Chapter 5.5 and 5.6. 7 Susan Brownmiller, Femininity , New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984; Julia Kristeva, Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art, Oxford: Blackwell, 1980. 8 A. Foreman, Femininity as Alienation: Women and the Family in Marxism and Philosophy , London: Pluto, 1977.

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patriarchal society. Indeed, this notion is one of the main working definitions adopted by some feminists writing in the developing world. 9 Femininity can transgress attempts by the nation state to impose a dominant masculine national identity. It is within this context that I analyze Her World and Female magazines.

In a country such as Singapore, issues of race, ethnicity and religion have become of prime importance, and while Singapore calls itself a multicultural, multiracial and multi-religious society, the same weight is not given to each aspect. Worries about the number of religious groups co-existing harmoniously are not without foundation but Singapore approaching the millennium faced more complex causes for racial tensions. These included vastly improved economic conditions, higher mean wages, high consumption rates and an increasingly media-savvy population. 10 Moreoever, racial categorization was also problematic. In Singapore, one’s racial group is categorized the same as one’s ethnic group, of which there are three major categories – Chinese, Malay and Indian – all else fall into the rather ambiguous category of ‘other’. Race, however, is acknowledged to be a complicated issue as it cannot be divided into neat homogeneous groupings. The labels multiculturalism and multiracialism are used by the government, however, to signify the explicit and official support for racial diversity and harmonious co-existence. The terminology of ‘race’, however, is more divisive. People outside of Singapore may use the term broadly, but in Singapore, it is contentious and requires entirely in itself a separate discussion that is beyond the scope of this thesis. Relevent historiography concerning race, however, is considered later in this chapter. It is sufficient at this stage to point out that the ‘race card’ is sometimes used to intimidate the population into toeing the line.

There are also a number of other terms which require clarification. Nation- building, for example, should not be confused with nationalism although the latter is an important component in the formation of national identity. Many terms used throughout this thesis have been subjected to rigorous debate by many scholars. For the purpose of this paper, nation and state are separate entities. The state is akin to the government: that is, it is a hierarchical governing structure within a particular territory. State and government are thus used interchangeably. Nation and gender, on the other hand, are ongoing constructions, subject to the fluidity of changing social and political perceptions, and therefore cannot remain isolated from economic, political and social concerns. They are dependent on collective understanding. As the

9 B. Emecheta, The Joys of Motherhood , London: Heinemann, 1979.

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collective identity changes, which it would due to the moulding of national identity, it is likely that the criteria which constitute nation and gender also change as will be shown in the following chapter.

Recent histories of Singapore have focussed primarily on one topic: that Singapore, beyond everything else, is an economic miracle. Politically, its stability has been in contrast to the rest of the region, even if the roots of this stability lie in the implacable resolution of one particular man and the party he represented. Since ’s departure from the prime ministership, countless books and articles have been written about him; he has published his own two-volume memoir in since leaving that office. Both international and domestic views of him, however, are not entirely rosy. Lee has many detractors, especially amongst journalists, as frequent reports in the Far Eastern Economic Review , The Economist , the International Herald Tribune have alluded to the Lee family habit of nepotism. It is particular difficult to provide a literature review of this in the context of this thesis without reference or acknowledgement of Lee’s contribution to the overarching ideological bent of state policies on social development.

Understanding Lee’s place in Singapore politics is a good departure point for to Singapore’s nation-building practices and their importance to this research. Michael D. Barr has written extensively on Lee and his views on race, culture and eugenics over forty years, noting as he does so that Lee’s earliest documented statements about race was on 27 December 1967, when he was asked by a member of a group at a meeting at the University of Singapore what the ‘X-factor, in development’ was. 11 In response, Lee gave an analogy which implied that that certain races were imbued with certain factors which made them stronger and which were inherent or genetic; in other words, there was a hierarchy of races. 12 Barr’s writings comprehensively develop what he sees as the progression of Lee’s views on race, ultimately leading to entire ‘Asian Values’ debate. 13

There have been many scholars who have devoted much time and expression to deconstructing and debating the relevance of the entire push for a comprehensive

10 Throughout this thesis, the terms ethnicity and race are often used interchangeably. 11 Michael D. Barr, “Lee Kuan Yew: Race, Culture and Genes”, Journal of Contemporary Asia , 29.2, 1999, pp. 145-166. See opening quote and the subsequent reference to the incident, pp. 147-149 12 Barr, 1999, p. 148. Barr goes on to suggest that this view was already apparent when Lee referred to 13 See also Michael D. Barr, “Lee Kuan Yew and the ‘Asian Values’ Debate”, Asian Studies Review , 24.3, September 2000, pp. 309-334.

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set of ‘Asian Values’ that would serve Singaporeans and her regional counterparts against the prevailing hegemonic forces of politics, culture and social norms that would be considered western. The use of the ‘Asian Values’ rhetoric has also highlighted a unified non-Western and principally Asian ‘us’ in contrast to the Western ‘other’. This debate also runs parallel with the discussion on national – one which incorporates multiethnicity, multiracialism and meritocracy. Amongst these scholars are John Clammer, Jon S.T. Quah, Joseph B. Tamney, Lily Zubaidah Rahim, Lian Kwan Fee and Michael Hill. 14 Clammer has done much work on the post-colonial Singapore, in particular using it as a case study for the management of a multiethnic state. 15 He gives a framework for the Confucian drive initiated in the mid-1980s, situating it in the ‘re-Sinification’ drive that was occurring elsewhere in . 16 He suggests that this phenomenon was in contradiction to Lee Kuan Yew’s and the PAP’s early proclamation to maintain Singapore as a multiethnic state. The government instead put some effort into making the switch from the pursuit of multiethnicity to a which entrenched a patriarchal hierarchy. The aim was to turn this work of social engineering into a process of ‘normalization’ . He argues that the issue of population imbalance was therefore used as part of a normalization process. That is, since it was in the Chinese population where this imbalance originated, it was therefore imperative to tackle it at the root cause, vis-a-vis the core of Chinese society, the family. The Confucian drive then seemed like a natural extension. As he and other scholars have pointed out, however, no Confucian state had existed for a long time in any society although elements of it persist, for instance in mainland and . The re-invention of Confucianism ( neo-Confucianism ) however was seen as vital because in its original form it was alien to many Singaporeans. Clammer, as with Lily Zubaidah Rahim, believed that the process was useful as it also rationalized the means of sustaining the high economic growth

14 Jon S.T. Quah, Quah, Jon S.T., “Government Policies and Nation-Building”, in Jon S.T. Quah (ed.), In Search of Singapore’s National Values , Singapore, The Institute of Policy Studies: Times Academic Press, 1990a, pp. 45-65; “Searching for Singapore’s National Values”, in Jon S.T. Quah (ed.), In Search of Singapore’s National Values , Singapore, The Institute of Policy Studies: Times Academic Press, 1990b, pp. 91-105. Joseph B. Tamney, The Struggle Over Singapore’s Soul: Western Modernization in Asian Culture , New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1996. Lian Kwen Fee & Hill, Michael & Lian Kwen Fee, The Politics of Nation-building and Citizenship in Singapore , London: Routledge, 1995. 15 John Clammer, Race and State in Independent Singapore, 1965-1990: The Cultural Politics of Pluralism in a Multiethnic Society , Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998; “Modernization and Cultural Values: The Paradoxes of Transition in Singapore”, in R.E. Vente, R.S. Bothal & R.M. Nakhooda (eds), Cultural Heritage Versus Technological Development , Singapore: Maruzen Asia, 1981, pp. 223-240; “Deconstructing Values: the Establishment of a National Ideology and its Implications for Singapore’s Political Future”, in Garry Rodan (ed.), Singapore Changes Guard: Social, Political and Economic Directions in the 1990s , New York: St Martin’s Press, 1993, pp. 34-51. 16 Clammer, 1998, pp. 193-195.

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Singapore was so proud of as well as stemming the tide of supposedly harmful influences of Western cultural and political values; in effect, neo-Confucianism justified capitalism. 17 The set of ‘Asian Values’ which arose from the intervention of a panel of foreign experts was therefore the result of a highly selective exercise in which many of the original fundamentals of Confucianism were repackaged in such a way as to meet the context required by the PAP.

Scholars who have worked on issues relating to women in Singapore like Kanwaljit Soin, Nirmala Purushotam, Geraldine Heng and Janadas Devan too have recognized that the Confucian spin the government has put on social policies have put women in an unenviable position. 18 In fact, the work of numerous authors writing on Singapore’s national ideology or its search for a set of ‘Asian Values’ have inevitably investigated how women have been asked to bear the brunt of paternalism. Race once again becomes subsumed by the recurring emphasis and urgency placed on the need to define the core ‘Asian Values’. Rather then helping women define their place in the growing economy, the Confucian drive only served to bolster the rights of the government to enhance social and communal stability, racial harmony and patriarchal family values. In itself, stability is not a bad thing, and although comparative statistics from various censuses show just how far women have come in terms of their economic power and educational qualifications, they still continue to lag behind men as the proverbial glass ceiling remains. Those who have worked on women’s issues in Singapore point out that it is not without irony that in utilizing women to enable Singapore to grow and become economically viable, it has not actively worked on lifting women’s wages on par with men. 19 In fact, government policies reiterate patriarchal family structures. Too many social policies actively encourage women to bear the double burden, whether during times when they were encouraged to

17 Clammer, 1998, pp. 193-195; Lily Zubaidah Rahim, “In Search of the ‘Asian Way’: Cultural Nationalism in Singapore and ”, Commonwealth & , 36.3, November 1998, pp. 54-73. 18 Kanwaljit Soin, “National Policies: Their Impact on Women and the Family”, in AWARE, The Ties That Bind: In Search of the Modern Singapore Family, Singapore: Association of Women for Action and Research, 1996, p. 190-208. Geraldine Heng & Janadas Devan, “State Fatherhood: The Politics of Nationalism, Sexuality and ”, in “, in Aihwa Ong & Michael G. Peletz (eds), Bewitching Women, Pious Men: Gender and Body Politics in Southeast Asia , Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995, pp. 195-215. Nirmala Purushotam, “Women and Knowledge/Power: Notes on the Singaporean Dilemma”, in Ban Kah Choon, Anne Pakir & Tong Chee Kiong (eds), Imagining Singapore , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1992, pp. 320-361.

19 Heng and Devan, 1996. Soin, 1999.

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participate in the workforce or when they were targeted to redress the ‘population imbalance’. Women’s identity is therefore subsumed to the interests of the nation- state. Clammer’s work has also signalled this theme.20 It is easy to see from his analysis, as well as Heng and Devan that women bore the brunt of the Neo- Confucianization drive, where the finger was pointed at them for not ensuring that they were producing enough future Singaporeans. Often women have been lost in translation within the nation-building rhetoric and serve to function as adjuncts to state motivations.

What the literature about Singapore’s national ideology, its nation-building processes and its search for a set of ‘Asian Values’ have suggested is that when the state discusses women in those terms, it does so to deflect issues of race or patriarchy which persist as a sub-text throughout their rhetoric. State policies end up homogenizing women, who are dealt with as a monolithic group, without respect to race, class or ethnic barriers. This argument is in effect what this thesis puts forth. For the many nation-building policies which are enacted, the way they have been enacted has been to act on gender as a whole, without regard for race barriers, except where dealing with the gender issue have been deemed crucial to maintain the status quo. Rather, class is seen as more important, or more specifically, their educational background or earning capacity. Where women are the focus of such policies, they are treated as a group distinguishable most notably by their socio-economic background, and rarely by race. A simple statistical analysis would show however that even percentage-wise more Chinese women dominate the group with higher educational levels, while those with a low level of educations are usually Malays or Indians. The 2000 Singapore Census showed for instance that of 118,673 Singaporean women who have attained a university degree, over 100,000 were Chinese women. Malays were vastly under-represented at a figure of 2,908, while Indian women counted for 11,843. Even given the proportional representation, Indian women were doing better than Malay women. 21 These are significant figures, especially because of these educational gaps which seem to pervade the racial groups – bringing to mind that it is very much a case of the ‘haves’ versus the ‘have-nots’.

20 Clammer, 1998, pp.180-188. 21 Singapore Bureau of Statistics, “Table 3: Resident Non-Students Aged 15 Years and Over By Highest Qualifications Attained, Marital Status, Sex and Ethnic Group”, Singapore Census of Population 2000, Statistical Release 2: Education, Language and Religion, 2000 , accessed on 22 May 2007, available at http://www.singstat.gov.sg/keystats/c2000/r2/t1-19.pdf

17 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

Because the race issue has remained so contentious, not just in Singapore, but in Malaysia too, it is seldom mentioned when policy decisions are made. Even more revealing, an Occasional Paper on Social Statistics from the Singapore Bureau on Statistics, Social Progress of Singapore Women: A Statistical Assessment , fails to account for how ethnicity itself impacts on these statistics. 22 Although considered preliminary research findings (a note to the effect is on the cover), it is a measure of how women have progressed in comparison to their male counterparts, with women in other countries and numbers from various censuses. Only in a later Occasional Paper was there a racial breakdown of women’s participation in the labour force. 23 Even more revealing was the notation on the cover of these Occasional Papers that no part of the papers were to be quoted without the express permission of the Singapore Department of Statistics. The sense of ownership and control of data, even though it has now been made public, is strong, giving the impression that information is a vital weapon of control. No mention is made of how different ethnic groups have fared, once again highlighting the impression that it is either irrelevant or too sensitive to be tackled.

My thesis therefore looks at women who are often lost in translation when it comes to refining an understanding of their identity and place in Singapore society. While ‘histories’ of Singapore women fully acknowledge the important contribution they have made to the country economically, socially, politically and culturally, these narratives are frequently defined against their part in the increasing productivity of the state. But what is the Singapore female identity then if not through this method? Is it possible to understand the myriad of facets which make up the Singapore female identity through other means? While an attempt to examine the formation of such an identity is beyond the scope of this thesis, it is important to have other methods at hand to examine how women function otherwise under the dualities of Confucianism with its patriarchal sub-text and nation-building. Often, these two discourses have obscured the role of women, or at the very least, relegated them to conventional ways of viewing their participation in Singaporean society; even more so, they also partially conceal the way women might otherwise state their identity (and a very Singaporean one at that) on the global stage.

22 Singapore Bureau of Statistics, Social Progress of Singapore Women: A Statistical Assessment, 1998 , accessed on 22 May 2007, available at http://www.singstat.gov.sg/papers/op/op-s4.pdf 23 Singapore Bureau of Statistics, The 1965 Singaporean Cohort: Profile and Progress, 2002 , accessed on 22 May 2007, available at http://www.singstat.gov.sg/papers/op/op-s8.pdf

18 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

My thesis therefore argues that race is not used as a definitive characteristic in government rhetoric on women; rather, gender is the definer. That is, discussion takes place on the stage of gender differences. Thus gender in turn becomes a tool of the state, used to subsume racial differences among women, just as ‘Asian Values’ functions as the umbrella of patriarchy, enveloping racial and cultural differences among men. There is a significant lack of dialogue on how race makes an impact on the contribution of Singaporean women, or how they identify themselves as Singaporeans. In fact, this absence and the use of comparative data on how far Singaporean men and women have come obfuscate the race issues. How, if at all, have women of different races measured up against one another? The analysis of magazine content in Chapter Five therefore attempts to answer this question – is race used to differentiate? Or are there other factors at play here? Perhaps it is the cult of femininity which implies that all women have membership.

Postcolonial states such as Singapore have continually searched for a definitive identity and while this is not unusual in comparison to non-postcolonial states, their singularity lies in their political and social heritage. The legacy from the imperialist masters incorporates both Western and Asian elements. 24 The Western face of post-colonialism manifests itself in the way popular culture is readily adopted and the continued use of selective elements in the political process to consensus. The absorption of Western values and influences is not always successful or complete, but is instead tempered by the pre-existing codes of Asian cultures. As this thesis will show, there is a strong engagement on the political and social levels as to the way Singaporean should proceed on how it should incorporate the so-called Asian values in its nation-building endeavours. The investigation of the women’s magazines highlights just how contentious such these issues may be, especially when women receive one message from the government about their roles, and quite another when they ‘consume’ women’s magazines in a search to validate their own self worth.

Singapore’s uniqueness lies in the hybridity of its citizens. Furthermore, as a post-colonial state, it is distinguished by the form of governance which has developed: that is, a type of benevolent which is characterized by a strong patriarchal values, a strong focus on meritocracy and multiculturalism, and tight control over the media.

24 The use of “West” and “Western” is to simply denote what is not Asian or part of Asia. It can be taken to mean European, American or Australian, for example.

19 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

Social cohesion thus remains the overriding focal point when it comes to the formulation of government policies. As part of the search for a singular national identity, the government has put into action a series of strategies designed to synthesize different cultures into a singular Singaporean culture. Plurality is recognized as a founding principle – multiracialism is a by-word in official rhetoric. The culture that exists in Singapore today, however, is neither natural nor authentic in comparison to what has evolved in China, and Malaysia – the motherlands of the existing major ethnic groups. Instead, the national ideology has tried to entrench a variety of traditional practices by homogenizing, demystifying and recreating them as occasions which are palatable and without offence to other races. In the postmodern context, “culture” is a man-made edifice for the purpose of unity and in the case of Singapore, it has also been moulded as needed to fit the political framework of a multiracial Singapore. The media has thus been co-opted into perpetuating this construct. The ultimate aim is to develop an overarching cultural identity that allows modern Singaporeans to distinguish themselves from other Chinese, Malays and Indians in the region. To say that Singapore’s culture is not natural is merely to suggest that it is consciously influenced and modified by a government with a specific agenda in mind.

What is this agenda? When the British prepared to gradually withdraw from Singapore in the aftermath of the Second World War, self-rule was already on the mind of David Marshall, first Chief Minister of Singapore (1955-1956). Although he failed in securing autonomy for Singapore, subsequent leaders of the state sought the same. By the time the PAP came to power in 1959, it was evident that the survival of the nation was imperative, even more so when the island was unceremoniously ejected from the Federation of Malaya in 1965. This theme of survival has consistently resurfaced over the years to remind Singaporeans of their precarious geopolitical position in what is essentially a Malay/Muslim-dominated region. 25 Survival, in the eyes of the government, is dependent on the people of Singapore developing a strong affinity with one another and a solid sense of nationalism. Benedict Anderson proposed that the notion of nationalism is as much a cultural artefact as anything else; consequently, the efforts of nation-building, and therefore the inculcation of nationalistic feelings, are part of this cultural artefact too. 26 The build-up of survivalist tendencies and nationalistic sentiments thus requires a strong manifestation of

25 For a brief discussion of the metaphors used for survival see Michael Hill & Lian Kwan Fee, The Politics of Nation-building and Citizenship in Singapore , London: Routledge, 1995, pp. 100-101. 26 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities , Verso: London, 1983, p. 13.

20 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

national identity which the Singapore government has been doing its utmost to entrench in Singaporean culture.

The process of nation-building is the focus of the first part of this thesis: Chapter Two looks at the government's efforts at nation-building, how it has gone about developing strong nationalistic feelings amongst the population, and what the effect of these mechanisms of nation-building has had on women. The notion of a self-determining country, coupled with the idea of a uniquely patriarchal Singaporean nationhood was not thrust unknowingly onto its people. As the idea of a uniquely Singaporean identity and community has been built up over the years via government strategies, there have also been other ways identity and community have consolidated outside of the official spheres: that is, via blogging, and I intend to use that as an example to demonstrate just how another type of Singaporean community has been created. Historically, however, Singaporeans were increasingly dissatisfied with their relationship with other members of the Malayan Federation in the period after World War II; they felt they had been short-changed with the political bickering that was rampant between the People’s Action Party (PAP), the central Kuala Lumpur government and the colonial authorities. As such, while there was a distinct communal identification within racial groups, there was little political amity. Moreover, the race riots in the latter part of the 1960s showed how ethnic tensions could be fanned by the differing perceptions of what constituted nationhood. Inevitably, formal separation from the Malayan mainland appeared to be the only possible outcome.

Despite his withdrawal as leader of the PAP-led government in 1990, Lee Kuan Yew maintained a high profile. Prime minister from 1959 till 1990, he is considered the most influential man in Singapore politics even to this day. He was named in ’s government, and in April 2004, was named in his son, ’s cabinet – a special advisory and consultative role created especially for Lee. His strong leadership from the days of Singapore’s nascent independence has left an indelible legacy which the current generation of leaders do not appear to have any intention of radically changing. Under Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, it was evident that many dominant concerns and issues were carried through and refined to suit the context of increasing globalization without deviating from the prime directive to safeguard Singapore’s . Chapter Three thereby establishes a linkage between the nation-building policies of Lee Kuan Yew and the subsequent government. It illustrates how, under the leadership of the People's Action Party (PAP), a particular and specific national ideology has been

21 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

promoted through instrumental policies that embrace the multiracial nature of Singapore while bearing in mind that the indigenous people are no longer its majority. Thus the government's policies have had to treat the issues of race, religion and culture with great care.

When nationhood came about for Singapore, both the people and the government were not ready for it nor were they willing to accept it. In a television broadcast on 9 August 1965, Lee Kuan Yew wept openly as he broke the news of Singapore's separation from Malaysia. Viewers then were mesmerized by a usually eloquent and articulate Prime Minister in the throes of shock, despair and speechlessness. It is an image which has been often repeated, dusted from the archives and replayed in exhibitions, documentaries and on the anniversaries of Singapore's new beginning. It serves as a jarring reminder to successive generations of Singaporeans of the fragility of the nation, and contrasts sharply against its strength as a thriving economic power and influential political voice in the developing world today. Indeed, the prosperity of the 1980s and 1990s has led to higher than average regional incomes, thus enabling Singaporeans to afford luxuries and a high standard of living. Because the country has prospered so remarkably under what has in essence been one party rule, the PAP worries that economic stability has fostered a complacent attitude at odds with the traits it believes are required for Singapore's survival in a region where the Chinese are the minority. 27

The and white broadcast of a weeping Lee Kuan Yew encapsulates the fundamental mythology of the birth of a nation. Nations such as France and Italy have a long history of where one could pinpoint certain events which, in a sense, created modern France or modern Italy. Moreover, with a history spanning a hundred, two hundred or even a thousand years, the evidence of a golden past has more than mere historical value. It can create a culture much as the Renaissance did in fourteenth and seventeenth century Europe. The collective memory of such a past contributes much to a sense of unity and community, not least because there was a homogenous culture (such as language and customs) present in the first place.

Singapore, however, did not have a historically dated past, golden or otherwise, that could be shared by its racially divided population. It did not have a

27 Unlike the countries which surround it, Singapore has a significant Chinese majority. , Malaysia, Brunei, , and all have a Chinese minority. In this way, Singapore finds itself disadvantaged because it has to tread carefully so that its domestic and international policies are not seen as Chinese chauvinism. In the racial mix of 1970, which has remained constant to this

22 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

homogenous environment nor circumstances which demanded the fiery rhetoric of nationalism. S. Rajaratnam, then Foreign Minister, stated unequivocally in 1968 that while the nationalism of the past and hence the regressive identity of a golden past proved eminently suitable in the fight for freedom and national liberation, it could not deal with the new set of problems introduced by independence. 28 Nor could Singapore have constructed a shared past from its colonial experiences or when only indigenous Malays inhabited the archipelago. Even to draw from the culturally-rich history of any of the racial groups in Singapore would have proven ethnically divisive. Therefore, Singapore’s “birth”, the agony of the moment and the lingering trauma serves as a point of anchorage for a collective memory. Pain is transformed into a discourse of survival, and thus the myth of the modern Singapore state is created. 29

This thesis will not attempt to fit Singapore into a single theoretical framework so that it can be more easily understood. Rather, it investigates how the nation- building process has evolved since 1965, paying special attention to women’s roles in it and to women’s magazines as an expression of this process. I would maintain that this is crucial background towards a conventional view of women’s participation and contribution to Singaporean society, and equally important in providing a juxtaposition for future chapters using less conventional means of understanding women and their identification of self. Chapter Three identifies the dynamics of national ideology and national identity articulated through a value system, and how this may have impinged on the public perceptions of women and expectations exerted on them. I argue that the systematic emphasis on women's issues, such as tax concessions for family size, the marriage debate, the theory of eugenics and the Women's Charter, were designed to maintain a benevolent patriarchal balance of power. 30 In some cases, the efforts by the government to entrench a set of Asian values in its national ideology have gendered certain policies to the extent that women have been time and again disadvantaged. Although the does not actually bar women from participation in the highest echelons of political and administrative structures, the national ideology as espoused by the PAP has implicitly discouraged women from doing so. Indeed, Singapore’s official cultural ideology is inherently masculine, and so women are heavily proscribed by a patriarchal value system.

day, over 76% were Chinese, 15% Malay and 7% Indian. 28 Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 32. 29 Anthony Smith, “The Myth of the “Modern Nation” and the Myths of Nations”, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 1988 12.3, pp. 1-25 (quoted in Hill & Lian, p. 12) 30 This has already been argued by scholars such as Geraldine Heng and Carole Pateman.

23 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

Women have not been however ignored and they have played a crucial role in Singapore’s elevation to a widely respected country in the region, and internationally for its political and economic strength. Women in the manufacturing industries have proved a boon and have been co-opted into the nation-building effort, especially in semi-skilled factory jobs, allowing the country to build up a respectable profile in a number of fields like electronics. Legislation such as the Women’s Charter reformed a variety of laws pertaining to women, such as marriage and divorce. This thesis draws an often-dismissed aspect of popular culture (that is, women’s magazines) into a historical analysis of nation-building and the formation of national and female identities. It also examines community building – how citizenship is formally expressed, and how the formation of different types of communities is manifested. In particular, the activity of blogging on the internet serves to show that gender is not an issue the same way social and political communities are formed elsewhere. Rather, they are not interpellated the same way that the community of women inherent or implied in the consumption of the magazines and the products are. I use blogging (Chapter Two) as an example of a community to counteract the more traditional form of print media (magazines). A number of blogs by Singaporean men and women is examined to determine the extent and usage of computer-mediated communications in their day to day lives, bearing in mind that blogs are often used anonymously and that there are limitations to how much information one may gleam from such an investigation. In any case, I propose that the internet has as much scope in creating communities, especially ones which may impede or subvert the hegemonic discourse that is part of PAP legacy. As such, my theoretical framework utilizes ideological, feminist and sociological methodologies in the historical context of Singapore to explore the way Singaporean women negotiate their identity as consumers of women’s magazines and online communities within the overarching political preoccupation with national identity.

Chapter Four is a general discussion of the magazine industry in Singapore today and outlines the main players and the categories they dominate. This background is essential to understanding how gender and national ideology intersect as it also includes a section dealing with the government’s interest in media – of which the magazine industry is an important component. Studies on the media in Singapore suggest that the media itself is tightly managed and controlled. Prior to 1960, all printing presses and publishers abided by the Printing Presses Act which was introduced by the colonial government in 1920. A yearly license was applicable and

24 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

the government could at anytime rescind the permit if any publication or publisher antagonized the authorities, the people of Singapore, or caused unrest and violence within the community. After the Malayan states and Singapore were granted self- government, the act was amended to include government control over newspapers published in Singapore, including the sale and circulation of newspapers in Singapore that were printed within the Federation of Malaya and overseas. Amendments in 1972 further defined the right of the government to revoke licenses should publishers run

any article which is likely to cause ill-will or misunderstanding between the government and the people of Singapore, and the government and people of Malaysia; or which is likely to excite communal or racial emotions; or which glorifies or justifies the use of violence in politics. 31

The government also further tightened ownership of publishing houses; directors of such companies had to be Singapore citizens. 32 By 1974, however, a key piece of legislation that today governs Singapore was enacted; the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act (NPPA) gives the power to the government to determine who is on a media company’s board of directors. While this indeed sounds draconian, many observers believe that the habit of co-opting the media, auto-regulation and a long history of self-censorship has also ensured that the press does not attempt to interfere with government policies by criticism or actively seeking influence.

The Singapore government has, however, effectively used the existing laws to rein in subversive elements in the media and there are often timely reminders of just how far a magazine can go in order to extend its profit margin. An example involved a temporary ban on the local publication of FHM (For Him Magazine), a men’s leisure magazine. In May 1998, the magazine’s permit was “revoked for carrying images associated with pornography”. 33 The Ministry of Information and the Arts (MITA) claimed that the publisher had not been able to change its style to satisfy local publishing standards. The offending issue (June 1998) featured sexually explicit interviews, a review of sex aids and carried “illustrations normally associated with risqué lingerie or soft porn publications”. 34 It was reported also that the publisher “regrets the decision taken by the Ministry and is deeply sorry and remorseful that its

31 Ivan Lim, “The Singapore Press and the Fourth Estate”, in Abdul Razak (ed.), Press Laws and Systems in ASEAN States , Jakarta: The Confederation of ASEAN Journalists Association, 1985, p. 118. 32 Newspaper and Printing Presses Act (Chapter 206), Part III, Section 10.1 (a), Singapore Statutes. 33 Weekly Edition , 30 May 1998 34 The Straits Times Weekly Edition , 30 May 1998.

25 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

licence has been revoked”. 35 FHM then apparently toned down its contents and was allowed to resume publishing after the lapse of a few months.

Because of the strictures the government imposes on the media and many other aspects of women’s lives, it is easy to see that women do not have a much public space to negotiate their personal identity. Although women’s magazines can be criticized for being too blatantly commercial and opportunistic, and even for peddling unreal hopes for adolescent girls, they remain one of the few places women can turn to affirm their femaleness and understand what it means to be a modern woman in Singapore. On the other hand, my analysis of the magazines also reveals how the government responded to perceived ‘issues’ which plagued Singapore society by using these very magazines to run their public service announcements (PSAs) as part of their multitude of social campaigns. Other images within the magazines are analysed to show how the market-driven economy plays up on the desirability of femininity and how race is or is not subsumed by the dialectic between market forces and the cult of femininity. Even the sugar-coated daydreams of being unrealistically “supermodel” thin can take on a subversive note when counter pointed with the government’s desire to homogenize female roles. There is conflict in the jostling of the postmodernist world of self-gratification and individualism against the more traditional and Confucian patriarchal view of women as wives mothers and nurturers, as will be seen in Chapter Three. Chapter Five analyzes how social and national identity is portrayed in magazines dating from as far back as 1965, mindful that in effect the magazines reflect social trends rather than the other way around. Because gender is an ever-changing term, episodic history is used to compare competing definitions of social and ethnic identities in magazines over an approximately thirty-year period (1965-1996). Chapter Six concludes the thesis by taking an overarching view of mass media as a tool of the government to spread communitarianism, multiracialism and Asian values, and within that context, to manage gender issues.

35 The Straits Times Weekly Edition , 30 May 1998.

26 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

Chapter Two

 The Importance of Being a Nation

Early Days of Nation-building

Once the shock of the 1965 separation from Malaya had subsided, it was clear to the PAP that plans needed to be put in place quickly to prevent chaos from erupting. Singapore had attained the status of nationhood, however unexpected, but now it needed the infrastructure, the labour force and the mind-set to sustain it. Nation-building in this case referred to instrumental means by which Singapore could secure a healthy future; it would need to create institutions to direct economic growth; make education universal and promote technical courses among all students so that there would be a workforce for the future; institute government-funded housing through the newly created Housing Development Board. Many government policies were implemented aggressively and in far-reaching ways, and ultimately, nation- building was further to engender a distinctive national identity with a patriarchal sub- text.

This chapter therefore examines the ways in which nation-building is applied in Singapore. It explores the conflicts and contradictions arising out of nation-building strategies and the creation of a national identity. More specifically, it attempts to identify the negotiational spaces within the current nation-building discourse whereby women try to resist being drawn into the hegemonic discourse. This chapter will therefore explore the variety of ways the PAP has attempted to foster nation-building and a national identity through instrumental means. In particular, it will focus on how policies and institutionalized process have generally worked together to create a community as well as a nation. Citizenship is the most political manifestation of rights for belonging to a nation, but there are other ways, such as participation in the living environment and the social discourse within the multiracial make up of the population. The state has always been extremely concerned with the creation and maintenance of racial unity, which is as much a reaction to the survivalist mentality as a means of ensuring social cohesion in a fragmented society. Gender is also an issue, but one which was frequently considered only in relation to maintenance of the patriarchal

27 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

balance by the political leaders of the time. 36 By looking at the mechanisms of nation- building, it is apparent that much of the ideology behind them is strongly patriarchal in nature. National Service, for instance, is something which is directed at men. Women are not conscripted, but may display their patriotism in supporting roles, should they choose to volunteer for it. For them, it becomes a choice, but for the men of Singapore, it becomes a necessary part of the discourse on the survival mentality and a crucial part in shaping their masculine identity.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, women (as seen in the following chapter) were often singled out for public chastisement over non-conformity to Confucian and patriarchal norms which constitute the foundation values behind nation-building. The female identity is rolled up with the double burdens of being a mother and labourer, and these concepts are constantly reiterated as part of the nation-building drive. Another example of nation-building is the issue of public housing. The high ownership rate has given Singaporeans a vested interest literally in the nation. Furthermore, a racial quota policy in public housing estates was enacted not long after a government- sponsored search for a national identity, and in this context, national identity can be perceived as a significant aim in government policies and within government departments. There is also the debate over relative values in the 1990s, as epitomized by the release of the White Paper on Shared Values in 1991. The widespread interest that led up to and following it provides another clear example of how the state believed that they were capable of and justified in instituting a set of definitions of group identification for the masses to follow. The Confucian nature of the values themselves once again juxtaposes itself harshly against the multiracial nature of the population. Many social and economic policies are inevitably tied up with notions of suitable values for Singapore, many of which have focused on investing ordinary Singaporeans with a strong loyalty to the state and the recruitment of grass roots leaders to assist in this process.

The latter part of this chapter provides a counterpoint to the discussion on government efforts at nation-building. While there has been a careful build-up of Singapore’s national identity over the past 40 years through use of mass propaganda, symbolism, intermediary structures and official policies, another kind of more personal group identity has sprung up in the technological age. The past decade has seen the

36 Kanwaljit Soin, “National Policies: Their Impact on Women and the Family”, in AWARE, The Ties That Bind: In Search of the Modern Singapore Family, Singapore: Association of Women for Action and Research, 1996, p. 190-208.

28 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

growth of the internet create a space for personal communities, and for Singaporeans who want to be heard outside of the official boundaries, blogging has become an often stimulating and lively site for personal and political thoughts. No matter where Singaporeans are globally, they can come together online and celebrate their Singaporean-ness. Just as with other online communities, the notion of a cohesive self-identity is vital to the confidence needed to post up snippets of one’s personal lives in a public space for all to consume. It would seem even more dangerous then, in the context of a heavily controlled-media, to present one’s own political ideas in such an arena, but the internet has proven harder to patrol than traditional media such as newspapers, radio and television. Yet it is certainly a channel through which a distinct communal feeling has grown; witness the growth of blogging itself, as well as the recent creation of metablogs, such as tomorrow.sg and singapore.metblogs.com .

Historically, however, the instinct for survival was already apparent from the time of the Japanese Occupation, and in fact. the urgency of the post-1965 nation- building efforts was partly predicated on this particular mentality. While World War Two had indeed planted the seed for the desire to survive (as the nature of war demands that its participants strive to be survivors), the ensuing nation-building propaganda perpetuated by the PAP government meant that this instinct also became a constructed ideology. Over the ensuing years, the rhetoric used has changed the way the survivalist mentality operated. For instance, it became apparent that in the economic boom time of the 1970s and 1980s, the goal of survival was articulated so as to formulate an abiding sense of togetherness, shared citizenship and hence loyalty to the state, and it appears to have succeeded remarkably well in the short period Singapore has been an independent nation. As subsequent generations are born in periods of relative economic prosperity and further away from the struggles of the post-war years however, the survivalist motif is likely to hold less appeal.

The style of nation-building has changed as the PAP changed leadership at the beginning of the 1990s. The second-generation leadership style of Goh Chok Tong heralded a more participatory and consultative kind of government. Compared to the senior Lee, the Goh government seemed more open to consultation with parapolitical organizations and the growing number of ethnic, cultural and interest groups. Goh Chok Tong’s government continued to invested in nation-building and the consolidation of a Singaporean identity but it is also useful to identify the earlier efforts of the PAP under Lee as much of it remains valid. What the Goh government initiated was in fact followed through from established policies and founding myths, particularly

29 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

the discourse on multiracialism and meritocracy.

From the moment Singapore split from Malaya, it has been extremely concerned with economic survival. One way was to ensure that women joined the labour force to alleviate the labour shortage. As such, education was made universal and young girls were thus given more opportunities than ever before. One of the PAP’s earliest platforms was the enactment of The Women’s Charter to protect the rights of women and children. 37 The Charter was to

consolidate the existing laws relating to marriage, divorce, the rights and duties of married persons, the maintenance of wives and children, and the punishment of offences against women and girls. 38

While it was directed primarily at the non-Muslim population, it has nonetheless had a significant impact on society. During the 1960s, the PAP’s manifesto had been to work on equal rights for women, but policies and legislation have subsequently been enacted to reinforce the importance of women’s role in the home and the traditional order in the family. The emphasis on women’s role is a double-edged sword as women were often singled out for not following the prescribed roles considered necessary for nation-building.

As the PAP became engrossed in constructing an economic base that would support a basic standard of living, it was evident that the labour shortage could be met by encouraging women to work for a wage outside the home. The protection of women via the Charter meant they now had a say in marriage and divorce rights; getting women to join the workforce presaged their road to financial and social independence. On the other hand, a cheap female workforce was one of the inducements offered to multinational companies to establish factories in Singapore in the 1960s and 1970s. As much factory work involved repetitive unskilled and semi- skilled tasks, women were also promoted as having keen eyesight, nimble fingers and were docile. 39 In the midst of industrialization, Lee Kuan Yew enthusiastically applauded the new role of women helping the nation:

On the whole, we have been fortunate in educating our women, opening up jobs for them, and having them more independent,

37 Singapore Legislative Assembly Debates , 06/04/60, p. 443. 38 K.M. Byrne, Minister of Law and Labour, quoted in Aline Wong & Leong Wai Kum, A Woman's Place: The Story of Singapore Women , Singapore: PAP Women's Wing, 1993, p. 81. 39 Noelene Heyzer, Working Women in Southeast Asia: Development, Subordination and Emancipation , Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1986, pp. 104-110.

30 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

without too great an upset in traditional relationships. 40

He saw women as making a substantial contribution to strengthening the nation.

Societies which do not educate and use half their potential because they are women, are those which will be the worse off. Those that do, and face up to the problems of new social and family relationships and new social institutions to help working wives bring up the new generation, are those most likely to provide better lives for their people. We cannot NOT educate and use the energy and ability of our women. 41

Throughout the 1970s industrialization and economic modernization took hold in Singapore at such a pace that the standard of living is today on a par with industrialized nations like and the USA.

By 1983, however, the PAP had come to feel even more strongly that women should be encouraged to pursue more traditional roles. A woman should work if she had to - after all, her income was increasingly essential to support the family. Census results on fertility showed that more educated women were having fewer children while those without the benefit of tertiary education were having more. 42 Because of his eugenicist views, Lee Kuan Yew was afraid that the imbalance would cause Singapore to suffer from a lack of intellectual resources, thereby endangering the future of the country. The enrolment of students at the National University of Singapore in 1982 showed that women outnumbered men 5563 to 5530. 43 The second-language requirement was then identified as the area in which male applicants did badly, and as such, was lowered to rectify the gender imbalance. This particular policy change went hand in hand with Lee Kuan Yew's belief that the better educated women was a direct cause of more women graduates either marrying later or not marrying at all since Singaporean men have a preference for marrying women with equal or lower educational qualifications. Lee's worry was that this trend would contribute to fewer offspring from educated women and hence would not being able to pass on their genetic intelligence. Ironically, his speeches and rationales fail to consider that men

40 Lee Kwan Yes, in the inaugural speech of a National Trade Union Congress seminar/exhibition to mark International Women's Year in 1975. Quoted in Jasmine Chan, "The Status of Women in a patriarchal State: the Case of Singapore", in Louise Edwards and Maila Stivens (eds), Women in Asia , NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2000, p. 46; Nirmala Purushotam, "Women and Knowledge/Power: Notes on the Singaporean Dilemma", Ban Kah Choon, Anne Pakir and Tong Chee Kiong (eds), Imagining Singapore , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1992, p. 326. 41 Chan, 2000, p. 48 42 Stella R. Quah, “Marriage and Family” in in Aline Wong and Leong Wai Kum (eds), Singapore Women: Three Decades of Change , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1993, p. 58 (see tables 6-7, Figures 20-21). 43 Chan, 2000, p. 52.

31 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

are as much responsible for the pattern of marriage and fertility. To this day, men are not urged to swallow their pride and woo women who might be their intellectual superior, whereas women are told that they have to lower their expectations if they are to marry and lead productive lives - by extension, a productive life in service of the nation. The onus is on women to take responsibility, not men. While childbearing is no doubt a women-only prerogative, the social attitudes that aggravate the phenomenon of changing population demographics are untouched; there is little focus on changing how society perceive unmarried, well-educated women or the roles of men in the family, or indeed, the social and economic pressures placed on women. Women are instead told that in order to fulfil their rightful role, they have to be wives and mothers first and foremost. Hence whatever rights they have are centred around the family and the man as head of the family, and whatever else that they receive which are the equivalent of men's rights are conferred as privilege.

Changes in secondary educational policies have also reinforced role divisions. In 1968, to further the modernization drive, technical programmes were open to both male and female students as the government wanted an equal gender balance in such courses. 44 Yet by 1984, girls were banned from technical classes while home economics became a compulsory subject, and vice versa for boys. To the government's mind, "girls would be girls" and therefore should be trained for their roles as "wives, mothers and workers" in that order. 45 Women were already being discriminated against at the tertiary level when in 1978 a quota was put on women applying for the medicine course at the local university. This was justified on the grounds that the attrition rates were too high; approximately 15-20% of female medical students drop out before the end of the course. Moreover, the government claimed that as women doctors marry and have children, they are often unable to put in the same number of hours as their male colleagues since they would either withdraw from the profession, work part-time or need to take leave for maternity, child-rearing and other family matters. To a highly resource-conscious government, this would appear to be a waste of investment for the country. 46 As doctors put in such long hours, there is also an inherent fear that women doctors may not devote enough time to getting married and raising a family. Such worries, however, have proved to be unfounded as women doctors do not work any less hard than male doctors, while many juggle the

44 Vivienne Wee, "The Ups and Downs of Women's Status in Singapore: A Chronology of Some Landmark Events, 1950-87", Commentary , 7.2/3, p. 7. 45 The Straits Times , 04/09/85. These views were expressed by the Minister of State for Education. 46 Kanwaljit Soin, 1996, p. 201.

32 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

double burdens of motherhood and career. In the long run, such a move to uphold the ideology of a 'normal family' limits nation-building because it places boundaries on women's potential. By swinging from enthusiastically working to greater freedoms for women in 1959 to cautiously but vigorously moulding a patriarchal and paternalistic state, it sends an ambiguous message to Singaporeans, especially to women, that they are a flexible commodity subject to the dictates of economic forces and a strong Confucian ethic.

Cohesion: Identity and Racial Unity

A crucial component of nation-building involves the creation of a collective identity - certainly not an easy task in a racially diverse state like Singapore. To this day, the maintenance of racial unity, which is as much a reaction to the survivalist mentality as well as a means of ensuring social cohesion, is at the heart of the PAP's agenda. Because the race issue has always remained a major focal point, it obscures the fact that the PAP's commitment to creating a national identity is masculinist. The state which implements and directs the initiatives is rooted in a paternalistic worldview, one which treats motherhood and traditional women's roles as highly suitable for modern Singaporean woman. While they do not deny that work and career are irrevocable aspects of modern women's lives, marriage and having children are the natural and rightful functions of women. Thus the collective consciousness that the PAP seeks to inculcate is defined by such gender relations and leaves little space for women to argue for greater equality in the political and economic arenas. Citizenship (discussed below), in the strictest sense of the word, is conferred only automatically on children of Singaporean males, even if they were born overseas. Children of Singaporean women with husbands who are foreign citizens achieve citizenship only if they were born in Singapore. 47 Foreign wives of Singaporean men also find it easier to attain citizenship than foreign men married to Singaporean women. 48 The state, moreover, sees patriarchy as being beneficial to the nation and if women are in some way disadvantaged by legislation and policies, they would be subsumed by the greater good for Singapore. Hence when male rights (such as workplace benefits) are

47 Chan, 2000, p. 49. 48 Chan, 2000, p. 50. Changes made since have meant that such men now find it easier to attain permanent residency via their wives' sponsorship. Previous sponsorship criteria were based only on

33 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

extended to women, these are regarded as privileges - which could be easily taken away at the next policy change if the welfare of the nation demands it.

Strategies employed by the state to create a collective consciousness and a communitarian spirit have been aggressive and all-pervasive. They have also generated a fair share of controversies and widespread discussion domestically and internationally. The debate over relative values in the 1990s, for example, has been characterized by waxing and waning like the tide. In the hands of the government, the dialectic of Asian values has at times been a powerful weapon towards differentiation and mobilizing a sense of togetherness. Moreover, the debates were couched in strong patriarchal terms that served to highlighted just how gender and women’s issues can be easily dismissed or subsumed by what the government considered more pressing issues. Other government policies, such as public housing, are ongoing, constantly revised and refined. The high property ownership rate has given Singaporeans a vested interest in the nation, but policy changes, like enacting a quota policy in public housing estates reinforce the view that national identity is a significant aim in government policies and within government departments. Policy formulation inevitably takes into account the values considered necessary to draw Singaporeans closer to the bosom of the state and towards one another.

Even in the pre-Independence period, the PAP was keen to embark on a comprehensive programme to construct a singular identity that would bind the people in Singapore and those in Malaya in tighter accord. The population on both sides of the peninsula shared a similar ethnic combination, and their recent past provided a major shared historical consciousness, but as events unfolded, it proved insufficient. Nationhood involves not only such a restructuring of collective identity and its contents, it also involves the creation of a series of cultural-symbolic capital in society on which the people can draw on and identify with. Breton argues that people

expect some consistency between their private identities and the symbolic contents upheld by public authorities, embedded in societal institutions, and celebrated in public events. 49

One consequence of any endeavour to generate or modify a collective identity is the inevitable modification of social status or recognition within society. 50 Certain groups,

their merits alone. 49 R. Breton, "The Production and Allocation of Symbolic Resources: an Analysis of the Linguistic and Ethnocultural Fields in Canada", Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology , 21.2, 1984, pp. 124- 5; quoted in Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 22. 50 Breton, 1984, pp. 126; quoted in Hill & Lian, p. 22.

34 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

perhaps long used to having a higher status or advantage over other groups, may find themselves overlooked or shunted aside as adjustments are made to ensure that the state's social policies take precedence. This has been the case many times over as the PAP implemented educational, language, multiracial and various social policies. Over the years, it has seemed as if the English-educated have been privileged over the Malays and Chinese-educated, but it is not only over racial boundaries that the issue of discrimination has been identified. The preference for scientific and technological skills over the arts and social sciences has moreover long been a point of contention. 51 The state has controlled access to the educational system according to the kinds of skills and labour needs the country requires for the future. Thus students are streamed and encouraged to take up courses which will best produce the types of workers Singapore needs. 52 The PAP has rationalized much of their efforts at channelling precious human resources in certain directions as 'economic pragmatism'; in order to survive as a nation, without the backing of a larger state such as Malaysia, Singapore has to deploy its scarce natural and human resource as wisely as possible to ensure long-term survival.

Women have also been placed in a disadvantaged position within nation- building and especially in relation to the PAP's vision of meritocracy. While one cannot dispute that there have been gains in women's income and other indicators of differences, there continue to be salary disparities between women and men; Bello indicates that differences exist 'in all categories of employment, from 47% of men's wages in professional technical categories to a high of 86% in clerical.' 53 In education, Singapore has been criticised for being 'one of the few countries outside the Middle East that impose quotas limiting the number of women in educational institutions, a form of sexual apartheid.' 54 Women are often excluded from more senior positions within the government . In , for example, there is a lack of female representation. During the 1959 , five women were elected, four of whom were PAP candidates. The presence of women in Parliament ended in 1970

51 E.C. Paul, Obstacles to Democratization in Singapore , Working Paper no. 78, Monash University: Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, 1992. 52 Far Eastern Economic Review , 22 March 1984, p. 25. 53 Walden Bello & Stephanie Rosenfeld, Dragons in Distress: Asia’s Miracle Economies in Crisis , London: Penguin, 1992, p. 307. 54 Far Eastern Economic Review , 31 August 1989, p. 34. The term "sexual apartheid" can be understood to refer to gender discrimination. In the pursuit of medical degrees, for instance, the number of females allowed entry into the course is limited to one third. The assumption is that women will not be able to compete with male doctors in the workplace because they would need to take time off, or at most work full-time in the first few years before opting for shorter hours to cater to their own family. Hence the government believes that the heavy investment in women doctors is not justified on the grounds of such meagre returns. See Kanwaljit Soin, 1996, p. 201.

35 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

with the resignation of Chan Choy Siong, who had been increasingly isolated in the handling of women's affairs; more women MPs had either resigned or defected to the (Socialist Party). It took fourteen years before another three women were elected under the PAP banner: Dr Dixie Tan (medical doctor), Dr Aline Wong (sociologist) and Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon (trade unionist). Since then, out of 83 elected MPs and a handful of Non-Constituency Ministers of Parliament (NCMPs) and Nominated Ministers of Parliament (NMP), the number of women in Parliament has swung between five and two. In the mid-1990s there were only three: Yu-Fu Yee Shoon, Aline Wong and Claire Chiang, the latter occupying a special position as an NMP. In recognition of the fact that there were few non-PAP voices in the Parliament and to prevent further discontent among the population over the lack of opposition views, the NMP scheme was introduced in 1990. Members of the community selected by the government for a tenure - were allowed to contribute to debates without having to run for election and thus to discharge duties to their constituencies, but were not allowed rights within parliament either.

Recurrent 'crises' have frequently been stage-managed by the PAP to underscore the ongoing siege mentality and the state's role in keeping Singapore together through the maintenance of racial harmony. They also serve to prove that the PAP is the best option to provide the kind of guiding hand needed to steer Singapore and its people through regional instability and in fostering national cohesiveness. In recent years, the ways through which the state has penetrated so deeply into the lives of its citizens may have engendered a greater sense of security, but it has also to one extreme - complacency. There have also been echoes of discontent. This is illustrated by the increasingly worrying trend of young professionals leaving Singapore for better opportunities and freedom overseas. 55 In Mutalib's opinion, it is likely that people emigrating would not do so if they had a strong sense of belonging to their home country; in other words, self-identification as Singaporean is not enough. 56 Though the Indian community may constitute only a small percentage of the population, the high percentage of tertiary-educated Indians migrating overseas, which is higher than the Chinese figure, is indicative of the 'brain-drain' that is affecting Singapore's precious human resource. 57 Their crisis has been of such proportions that there have been suggestions that returning Singaporeans should be given a helping

55 The Straits Times , 9 August 1989, and 10 October 1989. 56 Hassan Mutalib, "Singaporeís Quest for a National Identity: The Triumphs and Trials of Government Policies", in Ban Kah Choon, Anne Pakir, Tong Chee Kiong (eds), Imagining Singapore , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1992, p. 85. 57 Far Eastern Economic Review , 6 October, 1990.

36 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

hand by the government to re-establish themselves. Critics who do not believe that those who have been ‘disloyal' enough to leave Singapore for greener pastures in the first place should be singled out for preferential treatment have vehemently opposed such well-meaning intentions. The government has, however, been moved to select potential migrants partly based on how well they can complement Singaporean emigrants by age, race, educational background and point of origin. The process of naturalization and gaining permanent residency is moreover far from easy, but clearly, applicants who belong to any one of the racial groups in Singapore, in conjunction with an acceptably high level of education are viewed more positively than unskilled and semi-skilled labourers who only have racial origins in common with Singaporeans. Hence the state remains concerned with maintaining the racial and cultural plurality that characterizes Singapore. For a long time, the state has retained an aura of competence that works to convince the population of its claim to authority. No matter how complacent or disgruntled the people are, there is respect, sometimes grudgingly given, for the expertise of the technocratic and political elite.

Citizenship and National Identity

When Singapore citizenship was introduced in 1957, it was predicated on the belief that it embraced a 'Malayan' identity. A singular Malayan identity had received impetus from a sharp slowdown in the number of Indian and Chinese migrants after World War II; India had achieved independence from the British in 1947 while the had come to power in China in 1949. 58 Furthermore, identification with Singapore's southern neighbours diminished when relations with Indonesia deteriorated with the Konfrontasi, lasting three years from 1963. 59 Certainly the magazine Her World accepted this view; even until August 1966 (a year after independence), the Singapore edition styled itself as 'The Malaysian Women's Magazine'. Two issues later however, it renamed itself 'The National Women's Magazine'. Did it, like many Singaporeans, harbour hopes of Singapore reuniting with

58 Ernest C.T. Chew, "The Singapore National Identity: Its Historical Evolution and Emergence", in Chew & Lee (eds), 1991, p. 362. 59 The Konfrontasi period lasted between 1962-1966 and was sparked by Indonesia’s objection to the formation of the Federation of Malaya. Singapore was then still apart of Malaya; it became involved in the conflict when its embassy in Jakarta was looted (18 September, 1963) and a building in Singapore was bombed (10 March, 1965), killing three and injuring at least 35 others.

37 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

Malaysia? Being a national magazine was ambiguous enough as the spiritual and cultural boundaries at that stage were still far from clear. By then, however, the seeds for a national identity that was not tied to Malaysia were being planted, and some were even germinating into concrete form. Yet even so, in the case of recent migrants to a country, residual patriotism to their country of origin inhibits the growth of loyalty to the new country and this was something that the Singapore government had to contend with.

In the forty years since then, Singapore has hammered out its nation-state identity vigorously and it has also become clear that this identity does not subscribe to the current discourse on the emergence of the modern nation. 60 The current scholarship draws more on examples of western nationhood, and even the more recent post-colonial experiences of Africa; however, they are not entirely applicable in the Singaporean context even though they provide a ready theoretical framework to understand nationalism, nation-states and national identity. Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities has proved a seminal work in the way post-colonial theorists have situated Singapore in the schema of nationhood development. However, few have moved beyond replicating the generic theories to understand Singapore, and examined in detail the effect of social change and the deliberate nature of the Singapore authorities. Moreover, there are problems associated with a terminology that lends itself to more than one interpretation, which would lead to rather different conclusions about the different meanings of nationhood to the government and to the people. To say, as Anderson does, that a community is an imagined one, draws on a number of presuppositions which rely on an understanding of what ties a community together. On the one hand, there are the obvious social and cultural measurements of language, class and race. On the other, there are geo-political boundaries such as territorial belonging and the governance of the land. What makes Anderson’s argument so compelling is that he regards the advent of print paper to have been the biggest common denominator in drawing a community together. Hence no matter the distance, so long as a printing press was available, it would lead to the growth of literacy and civic-mindedness.

The standard western definition of what constitutes a nation has long been differentiated from non-standard or post-colonial nation-states, such as the ethnic

60 The nation-state (whether hyphenated or not) is understood to be the sovereign territory which exists to be both a political/geographical and cultural/ethnic entity.

38 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

conception. 61 Most countries, however, are a combination of these two modes. Anthony Smith has identified 4 elements in the formation of national identity within the nation: the political community, legal community, legal political equality, and the common values and traditions of the population. 62 Singaporean national identity embodies each of these four elements, some in larger quantities than others; this can be seen in the following section dealing with the mechanisms of nation-building, where it becomes apparent that when entrenching some of these elements, the state has decided to embed them infrastructurally and culturally.

The importance of the national identity cannot be underestimated. It is frequently referred to as a construct, an artefact, but it is because that is precisely what it is that makes it a powerful tool to invoke nationalism and to unite people when there is dissent or a crisis. As a construct it implies agency and shifting boundaries, for it straddles the cultural, the political, the legal, the ethnic, the religious and the economic. It also implies a body of mythological and artificial components deliberately predetermined by an external force. However, once impressed on the population, it also takes on an entire level of meaning which could be translated into the personal. This can sometimes be at odds with the dominant force that constructed or perpetuates it in the first place, and it can also be used as a platform to challenge and demand change.

National identity, for example, is determined by territorial boundaries mapped out by whoever is in ascendancy at the moment. In the period of dynastic Qing China, the borders of the middle kingdom seemed to stretch endlessly and their rule lasted for over 300 years, allowing the Qing emperors to perpetuate and innovate the social, political and cultural infrastructures of the previous eras. Yet it still had to contend with the residual discontent of the displaced Han Chinese. The Han - Confucian influenced and in the majority - could identify themselves via their ethnic origins and the spacial boundaries that enveloped them. The previous dynastic rulers had championed Han superiority and recognized the value of their ethnic identity as being the proto-national identity. In this sense, their simmering resentment to being displaced by the Manchu forced a re-evaluation of what it meant to be Han in a different political and cultural context. The strengthening position of the White Lotus Cult and other secret societies reflected an attempt to reclaim their proto-national identity. The challenge to the political integrity of the Manchu, therefore, was a challenge to the dominant entity that

61 See for example writings by Anthony Smith, Eric Hobsbawm, and Benedict Anderson.

39 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

had in many respects continued to affirm elements of the existing Chinese identity of the last 1000 years.

In post-colonial states, however, the situation may appear similar, apart from the issue of many of the colonial states not having first developed a cohesive national identity that could effectively defend against the imperialists. The colonized would indeed feel aggrieved at their territory being invaded and their identity subsumed by the invaders. There is no doubt that before the coming of the white man, there were few places in the non-western world that could lay claim to being a nation based on the criteria of a civic model of nationhood. However, monarchical states and tribal cultures seem closest to this model of the nation and hence posed challenges to imperialists, but even then the narrow field of power and the familial transfer of power weakens the continuation of a broadbased and far-reaching national identity. Instead one identifies with the reign of a monarch (e.g. Elizabethan, Edwardian, Victorian). Tribal cultures, on the other hand, while a good example of how it is possible to maintain a singular identity as a nation, is always dependent on a common ethnic origin to tie one individual to another.

In the case of Singapore, there was neither a nor a tribal-based society to lay the foundations of a modern Singaporean identity and this made it unique among post-colonial states. Today it is comprised of several races, the dominant group being the Chinese. It is also unique in that it is one of the most recent nations to successfully construct a national identity out of fragments of a left over colonial empire, basing it on the goal of economic survival in a volatile region. It has always been the primary goal of the People's Action Party (PAP) to ensure that Singapore survives economically, and if that meant that some freedoms had to be curtailed, it has always therefore taken the more pragmatic path. The PAP has taken the longer view of creating cultural capital out of disparate social and cultural symbols. Singapore therefore occupies a unique space in the discourse on national identity, having taken on both the western modes of what it means to be a post-colonial nation state as well as innovating on more means to build on a ‘shared past’ for its multicultural population. However, there are many elements of that nationalistic effort which would not be deemed to fit into the traditional western criteria for a nation. Singapore is a one-party state which has been in control since the start of its modern history; it functions under what could be called a benevolent dictatorship, in which the

62 Anthony Smith, National Identity , London: Penguin, 1991, pp. 9ff.

40 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

government works towards the , investing heavily in the country’s infrastructure. The ethnic make-up of the nation is also not typical of many western nations – the lack of homogeneity consequently explains also the lack of a shared historical past.

The PAP had realized early on that they could not overtly base a Singapore national culture on Chinese-ness although critics would argue that efforts to mould Chinese-based values have not ceased. The crisis of ethnic conflict in 1963-1965 was a very real reminder and to this day there is no intention of allowing opportunities for the repeat of such violence. Although the Chinese constitute the majority, Singapore's fear of its Malay neighbours drove the PAP to appeal to pragmatism, especially in the economic sphere, as a way of embracing a single Singapore national identity and preventing the divisive nature of race to prevail. 63 The myth of a shared tradition had no basis for further transference into a new era as a tool to inculcate a common identity. Earlier on, , as the Minister of Interior and Defence, admitted that

We are a complex, multiracial community with little sense of common history, with a group purpose which is yet to be properly articulated. We are in the process of rapid transition towards a destiny which we do not yet know. 64

Hill and Lian thus claim that

nation-building in Singapore does not consist, as one might expect, of the cultivation of nationalist feelings but rather the practice of citizenship in the civic-republican tradition. 65

Oldfield defines this civic-republican tradition as a form of citizenship in which the rights and status of citizenship is contingent on an individual fulfilling the duties of the practice of citizenship; not participating means not to be a citizen. Moreover, it is recognized that unsupported (for instance, by the state, by parapolitical and educational institutions), 'individuals cannot be expected to engage in the practice.' 66 Thus it would seem that much of the PAP's efforts before and, more vigorously, after 1965 have been to steer Singaporeans towards active participation in the mechanisms of not only nation-building, but also of citizenship. In this context, the two are

63 Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 32. 64 Quoted in Alex Josey, Lee Kuan Yew , Singapore: Donald Moore for Asia Pacific Press, 1968, p. 541. 65 Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 32. 66 A. Oldfield, Citizenship and Community: Civic Republicanism and the Modern World , London: Routledge, 1990, p. 5.

41 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

explicably linked. Citizenship can be given without the trappings and state-sponsored efforts of building nationalist sentiments; it could merely be a legal status that confers formal rights, such as membership to a community, without the social and moral obligations to provide for fellow members. Barbalet draws on Marshall's idea that 'the inequality of the social class system may be accepted provided the equality of citizenship is recognized.' 67 He claims that the interaction between citizenship and class is never final; cleavages and differences remain but citizenship does contribute to the integration of society through the equalization of rights in the formal sense. Over a longer period of time, it would include the acceptance of national and social values. Indeed, this is something that was already apparent in colonial Singapore. In a state facing new independence, however, formal citizenship rights are not enough; there is a real need to bind the people together lest the state fragments further and becomes prey to annexation by neighbouring states. At this point, nation-building steps in to consolidate ties between the community and the state.

Nation-building in Singapore is taken to mean the

nurturing of the growth of a Singaporean national identity among the population, which will surmount all the chauvinistic and particularistic pulls of the Chinese, Malay, or Indian identities of the various ethnic groups on the island. 68

It is a much more sophisticated means of ensuring loyalty to the emerging nation, and hence to the state. In multiethnic societies such as Singapore, the issue of superseding individual ethnic identities by placing a heavier onus on the welfare of the greater community has often been articulated. Indonesia has developed the concept of Pancasila (Five Principles ): belief in God, a just and civilized society, unity of Indonesia, guidance by wisdom in deliberation and representation, and social justice. In Malaysia, there is the Rukunegara (Pillars of the State ), which includes belief in God, loyalty to King and country, upholding the constitution, the rule of law, and morality. 69 In most cases, however, minority groups - the Chinese in the case of Malaysia and Indonesia - have been sidelined and their interests under-represented or ignored. Clammer argues that these national are the result of political and social upheavals, and that in the case of Singapore, the formulation of the Shared

67 T.H. Marshall, "Citizenship and Class", in Class, Citizenship and Social Development , Westport: Greenwood Press, 1973, p.70. 68 Jon S.T. Quah, "Government Policies and Nation-Building", in Jon S.T. Quah (ed.), In Search of Singapore’s National Values , Singapore, The Institute of Policy Studies: Times Academic Press, 1990, p. 45. 69 Leo Suryadinata, "National Ideology and Nation-Building in Multi-Ethnic States: Lessons from Other Countries", in J. S. T. Quah (ed.) 1990, pp. 24-44.

42 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

Values 'emerged at a time of political transition and major sociological shifts and when the old world order is being shaken by massive changes.' 70 The Shared Values White Paper, however, is but one of the government's contribution to a set of common values that attempt transcend all ethnic identification and loyalties, and could therefore be promoted as national values.

In effect, a national identity is an artificial construct – one that takes a significant amount of effort, and not least, much perseverance. As such, many policies have been enacted in a such a manner as to pursue a national identity which would fit into what the PAP believed would be most relevant, and more importantly, be a cohesive bind on those who called Singapore home. There is a heavy emphasis, not restricted only to Singapore, on the paraphernalia of nation-building: from the anthem, local music, national costume, the flag and identity card. These are common elements which many countries have used to create for itself a distinctive identity as much within as without. The evolution of these symbols heralds as much the beginning of a shared commonality amongst all the ethnic groups. Apart from the co- option of the usual economic, welfare and educational infrastructures of the state into nation-building, the government has also made moves to ensure that popular culture and those who disseminate it are regulated and can easily be drafted into helping the state spread its messages. In the context of women’s magazines and the publishing industry, the ties between the government and the publishing houses are relatively strong as ownership firstly needs to be officially sanctioned by the government.

Mechanisms of Nation-building

Symbols of Statehood

In the wake of separation from Malaysia, breaking social barriers and building national bridges of communication was helped by the fact that the conflict with Indonesia ended not long after Singapore's ejection from the Federation. Other mechanisms to invest cultural-symbolic capital in the consciousness of its people were already in place by 1965. A range of purely symbolic forms was chosen to reflect

70 John Clammer, "Deconstructing Values: the Establishment of a National Ideology and its Implications for Singaporeís Political Future", in Garry Rodan (ed.), Singapore Changes Guard: Social Political and Economic Directions in the 1990s , New York: St. Martinís Press, 1993, p. 36.

43 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

Singapore's cultural diversity. The national flag, coat of arms and anthem were unveiled on 3 December 1959 at the installation of the new , the di- Pertuan Negara. They were conceived and created by a committee headed by the Deputy Prime Minister, Toh Chin Chye. The flag, in an act of prudence perhaps, is a combination of both the Malaysian and Indonesian flags. It consists of two equal horizontal halves, above white. The red symbolizes universal brotherhood and equality of men, while the white reflected purity and virtue. 71 The white crescent and five stars in a circle in the upper left corner represents a young nation on the rise and the five ideals of democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality respectively. The same symbolism is inscribed on the shield on the coat of arms, with the shield supported by a lion on the left and a tiger on the right. The lion represents Singapore and the tiger refers to Singapore's historical links with Malaysia. The motto '' (''Onward Singapore') is on the banner beneath the shield. The national anthem, Majulah Singapura , was composed by a Malay, Encik Zubir Said and is sung in Malay. 72 Further symbols have been added over the years, including the lion symbol that adorns public service announcements for excellent quality and workmanship; this was launched in 1986 for commercial use and as an alternative to the national symbols. The choice of a lion was deliberate in order to capitalize on the courage, strength and excellence it symbolizes, whereas the five partings in the lion's mane allude to the ideals represented in the five stars on the flag. The lion has long held a mystique for the island and one of its most famous landmarks, the legendary , sits as a guardian at the mouth of the . 73 Singapore also has a national flower - the Vanda Miss Joaquim - an indigenous hybrid that was designated in 1981 for its qualities of resilience and perennial qualities. 74

National Service

71 On the official Singapore Infomap website (supported by the Ministry of Information and the Arts, and the National Computer Board) on the world wide web, the description of the symbolism for the map and other symbols of Singapore is gendered in that it refers to "brotherhood and equality of men", and not "humanity and equality of all". See Singapore Infomap, "Our National Symbols - The National Flag", available at http://www.sg/flavour/sym-flag.html , retrieved on 29 October 1998; Singapore Infomap, "Our National Symbols - The National Coat of Arms (State Crest )" , available at http://www.sg/flavour/sym-coat.html , retrieved on 29 October 1998. 72 See Appendix B for translation of the anthem. 73 See Singapore Infomap, "Our National Symbols - The National Coat of Arms (State Crest )" , available at http://www.sg/flavour/sym-coat.html , retrieved on 29 October 1998. 74 The national flower, the Vanda Miss Joaquim, appears to be the only feminine symbol. Yet its most representative characteristics - resilience and a drive for success (ambition) - are ones that are masculinized. Singapore Infomap, "Our National Symbols - The National Flower", available at http://www.sg/flavour/sym-flower.html retrieved on 29 October 1998.

44 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

On February 1967, the government instituted national military service for young eligible males, but not women. The exclusion of women remains in place today, and has been criticized by some as being a discriminatory practice which devalues the importance that women have in Singaporean society. Today, the process of national service is lengthy and ongoing; on reaching their eighteenth birthday, males are required to undergo military training for up to two years and a half years, and reservist training continues until they have reached forty years of age, or more, depending on rank and skills attained. 75 Minister of Defence Goh Keng Swee focused on national service as a uniting factor for young Singaporean males from different backgrounds, saying in parliament just before the National Service (Amendment) Act was passed:

Nothing creates loyalty and national consciousness more speedily and more thoroughly than participation in defence and membership of the armed forces... The nation-building aspect of the armed aspect of defence will be more significant if its participants is spread over all strata of society. This is possible only with some kind of national service. 76

A Ministry of Defence statement further argues that

The community of Singapore is not a closely knit one. National Service will provide an opportunity for all races to come to know one another better in an environment in which they will start to love their nation, to understand their social obligations and develop civic mindedness and strength of character. 77

The on-line Recruit's Handbook suggests that national service is not merely a strategy for defence:

NS is not merely a matter of serving in the (SAF). NS contributes to the safety, security and welfare of our families and our nation. It is our duty to protect and to make Singapore a better place to live in. Hence, the defence of Singapore is the responsibility of every Singaporean. 78

Quah argues that national service has since become an accepted element of Singaporean life for three reasons. 79 In the first place, during the initial stages of

75 Ministry of Defence, "National Service", Mindef Interactive Webservice , available at http://www.mindef.gov.sg/midpa/saf/ns.html , retrieved on 29 October 1998; Enlistment Act, Chapter 93 (August 1970). 76 Bernard , "National Service and Nation-building", in Petir: 25th Anniversary Issue , Singapore: Central Committee, People’s Action Party, 1979, p. 116. 77 Jon S.T. Quah, "Singapore: Towards a National Identity", Southeast Asian Affairs 1977 , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1977, p. 214. 78 Ministry of Defence, "The Recruit’s Handbook", Mindef Interactive Webservice, available at http://www.mindef.gov.sg/dag/cmpb/recruit_handbook.html , retrieved on 29 October 1998. 79 J. S. T. Quah, 1990a, p. 52.

45 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

implementing the system, the government campaigned carefully to explain the motivation and meaning behind national service to the public. Secondly, there was the assurance that it would be administered with ''absolute impartiality' and 'there would be no privileged families able to secure exemptions for their children by money or influence.' 80 Thirdly, the original limitation placed on the number of Malay males in the Singapore Armed Forces was lifted in 1973 as a move to pacify Malay discontent. 81 The number of Malays were initially limited not only for security reasons, but also to correct the racial imbalance already evident in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF); there were many Malays in the military as it was deemed an important method of securing employment and social mobility. 82 By 1988 a small number of Malays were being recruited into sensitive sections of the defence force. 83 These reasons, however, continue to be underscored by tensions. The public campaign was but one in a long line of many similar campaigns directed at inculcating the desired social traits, and to this day, it is still difficult to assess for certain how far such propaganda has contributed to nation-building.

When national service was introduced, the immediate desire was to build up a substantial military capability to counteract the early withdrawal of British troops. Implicit, however, was the notion to create a 'rugged society' - achieving an adaptability to change and become 'better disciplined, more self-assured and physically fit' - as well as to instil a higher degree of national consciousness, loyalty and responsibility in the men who go through the process, thereby making them 'aware of the threats to national survival.' 84 While the matter of who is liable for national service is ostensibly impartial, wealth and influence have enabled some sons to escape from the rigorous physical demands of military training, sometimes paying a high price. Sons of emigrant families frequently find themselves open to prosecution

80 Goh Keng Swee, "National Service and Defence Policy", in Towards Tomorrow: Essays on Development and Social Transformation in Singapore , Singapore: National Trades Union Congress, 1973, p. 60. 81 Stanley S. Bedlington, "Ethnicity and the Armed Forces in Singapore", in DeWitt C. Ellinwood and Cynthia H.E. Enloe (eds), Ethnicity and the Military in Asia , New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1981, p. 242. 82 Lai, p. 174. Until 1985, not all eligible Malays were called up for national service. Those who were attained mainly lower ranks or were distributed among the non-strategic sectors. Moreover, there were less job opportunities for those who were not called up. One of the regulations regarding the employment of men who have completed their national service stipulates a higher starting salary. The government justifies this on the grounds that the two and a half years out of their lives were out of patriotic duty for the country and they should not be penalized by being offered a lower starting salary than their female peers. 83 Raj K. Vasil, Asianising Singapore: The PAP’s Management of Ethnicity , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1995, p. 108 84 Yeo Ning Hong, "The Buildup of the Singapore Armed Forces" in S. Jayakumar (ed.), Our Heritage and Beyond , Singapore: National Trades Union Congress, 1982, p. 28.

46 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

once they return to Singapore soil for failing to register for national service on their sixteenth birthday, after which they remain bound to serve out their training. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. The only recourse is to renounce one's citizenship, at age 21, while still overseas. Meanwhile, others are unable to return to Singapore for fear of this regulation. The price may seem high, but the government remains adamant that they are serious about national defence and are willing to heavily penalize defaulters. Young men who go overseas to study before entering national service are required to deposit a bond with the government to ensure their eventual return - a costly sum which guarantees that only the wealthy can afford to send their sons overseas for an early tertiary education. For those who have already served their terms, the bond is not an issue, but there still remains the question of returning or deferring reservist training. National service can been understood as part of what Turnbull sees to be

increasing pressure and exhortation... used to induce parents to educate their children in Singapore, in order to increase national cohesion, to instil the national ethos and to ensure that they were trained in the skills and professions the government deemed necessary for Singapore. 85

'Absolute impartiality' is also sometimes modified in the case of deferrals in the pursuit of higher education. 86 In an effort to encourage more students to sit for and pass their Cambridge 'O' and 'A' levels, permission to defer is sometimes given for young men past the age of 18 who want a second chance at such academic qualifications. Government scholars are also able to gain deferrals as they are deemed to be essential to the future of the state.

The place of women in the national service has also been one of some controversy. Since the enactment of the Enlistment Act (Chapter 93) in 1971, the law has clearly stated that it is only men who were required to front up for compulsory national service; women have been exempt from registration, though they are not barred from joining the defence forces. The original explanation was that women were to support the men by taking part in the economy instead. In more recent times, Second Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen has repeated:

we currently have no operational need for women conscripts to serve in the defence force. NS, yes, must be for the critical need of security and survival. While National Service can help in national education

85 Turnbull, 1977, p. 314. 86 It is extremely difficult to get tertiary qualifications without either "O" or "A" levels; diploma courses, for example, require at least a pass in some "O" level subjects, while entry into universities need "A" levels or the equivalent.

47 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

and character building, these are not sufficient reasons in themselves to call up women for NS. 87

In pursuit of its survivalist mentality, men have frequently been exhorted to view their time in the defence forces as a patriotic duty, and as something they should do willingly, and not shirk. Even so, there have been many cases of those who attempt to defy the policy. Pianist Melvyn Tan, who left Singapore in the mid-1970s to study music in the UK, found himself facing the authorities over a charge of avoiding national service. Despite the fact that he had given up his Singaporean citizenship over 25 years ago, he was forced to pay a fine of SGD$3,000. 88 The official rhetoric, for instance, exhorts young men to view their time as an accepted duty to their home (not motherland), where the implicit argument is that security remains a vital part of Singapore’s overall growth strategy. Yet women remain excluded, and according to some local female MPs, it smacks of discrimination because of the fact young men finishing national service were entitled to an additional wage allowance when they started work, ostensibly to cover their lost income over the period of time they were in the service. 89

Despite greater Malay participation in the military, Malay discontent has not lessened over the years and has in fact become more complicated. Many Malays remain aggrieved with what they see as the government's insensitivity towards them, especially in the latter questioning their allegiance to Singapore. Arguments about their low socio-economic background and the way the government has handled Malay problems, such as their having the highest attrition rate at all levels of government examinations, allude to how Malays are perceived as being somewhat alienated from mainstream Singapore life. In a region where the Malays are a majority, being a minority group in their own country contributes significantly to a sense of dislocation. The government has indicated its willingness to protect ethnic rights and explore the particular problems that beset minority groups; as early as the mid-1960s, a Presidential Council of Minority Rights was established as a direct result of an early 1966 constitutional commission into how best to protect the constitutional rights of racial, linguistic and religious minorities. The board consisted of prominent non- elected members who act in an advisory capacity to debate on policies affecting

87 Dr Ng Eng Heng, “Speech by Second Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen at Committee of Supply Debate 2006”, available at http://www.mindef.gov.sg/imindef/resources/speeches/2006/06mar06_speech2.html , retrieved 21 March 2006. 88 “Singapore-born pianist cancels concert over draft-dodge controversy”, available at http://newsfromrussia.com/society/2005/12/04/69137.html , retrieved 21 March 2006. 89 The Straits Times , 23 July 2002.

48 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

minorities and to act as a check on new legislation. 90 The state, however, remains firm in its stand not to enact policies that would privilege one racial group over another; in government rhetoric, they do not want to encourage racial chauvinism. 91 Defence seems to be another matter and to this day, Malays are barred from high-ranking military positions. Gender is also the basis for backhanded discrimination of women in the defence force as they are not required to complete national service but may volunteer for service. Only in the 1980s and 1990s were women actively encouraged to join. In some cases, it would appear that women joined because the military offered better medical and fringe benefits than the private sector.

Mass Propaganda

The Singapore government has sought to inculcate desirable social values through frequent mass campaigns. Catchy slogans and pithy statements are visible in print, television, billboard and poster advertisements, ranging from 'Courtesy is our way of life', 'Keep Singapore beautiful' to 'One nation, many races' and 'Kids Make Your World Brand New'. Though the goal is to foster a national identity among the local population, it also has the added effect of selling a positive, if somewhat simplistic image of Singapore to visitors.

Celebration of national holidays is conducted on a mass scale that is ritualized to the extent that they become public symbolism of what is culturally diverse about Singapore. Because ethnic groups are given a public stage for celebrating the cultural and hence private, it means that there is a strong tendency for hegemonic control to be imposed. Culture, and hence ethnicity, could easily become policitized and become a threat to the government. By relegating it to the realm of the private, the government has depoliticized the potential sting it might inflict. Public cultural displays have therefore contributed to pushing ethnicity into the social sphere and divested it of its political nature. People of different races are encouraged to take part and share in one another's celebrations, but it does not mean assimilation. The National Day celebrations provide the most graphic illustration of how each ethnic group is responsible for putting on a performance that is unique in its traditions and cultural symbols. There are also a number of items that involve all races, but these are staged to extract the greatest amount of unity.

90 Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 64.

49 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

The National Trade Unions Congress (NTUC), community groups, the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and schools always participate in mass displays. Each year a theme is set for National Day celebrations to give it a further sense of cohesiveness. In 1988, a songbook of new and old songs with a strong Singaporean flavour was published. Together with a cassette recording, it was sold at retail outlets in an effort to encourage both young and old to celebrate their Singaporeanness. Songs like 'Count on Me Singapore', 'Stand Up For Singapore', 'We are Singapore', and old folk favourites such as 'Chan Mali Chan', 'Dayung Sampan', ' Sipaku Geylang' and 'Singapura' had catchy lyrics and an upbeat feel. Moreover some songs were translated for each ethnic group. Even the pledge that every Singaporean student from primary to secondary school recites before they begin school in the morning was set to music. The choruses were simple and for a while, they could be heard everywhere from radio and school classrooms to community celebrations. 92 Mutalib suggests that

It was hoped that these expressive symbols and slogans, regularly repeated in mass and joyful settings, such as the National Day celebrations, could help instil virtues and values in the hearts and minds of the citizenry.... Perhaps, from the perspective of the authorities, these national songs and slogans could help people externalize and broaden their otherwise insular ethnic horizons to embrace one that is Singaporean in orientation. 93

These symbols and slogans have also been visible on hoardings on buses and Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) trains, while they have also been seen on colourful pennants and banners flying from lamp-posts.

These kinds of communal and social values have also appeared in women's magazines like Her World and Female , where there have been a variety of public service announcements (PSA), in particular those extolling the benefits of marriage and family life. The exhortations to take up marriage and the responsibilities of family life are part of the government's attempts to create the ideal family structure and their frequency has the characteristic media bombardment similar to the way other desirable traits are inculcated. 94 Elevating the ideals of marriage and family life to the heights of intrinsic cultural practices of the Singaporean people supports Breton's

91 Vasil, 1994, pp. 143-144. 92 By the time I was working in Singapore (1993-1996), however, I rarely heard them except during National Day celebrations, and only then the most well known ones, which were in English. 93 Mutalib, 1992, p. 77. 94 See for instance Dayna Minn Lim, A Critique of Singapore: Public Housing Policies in Relation to the Family , unpublished honours dissertation, Perth, WA: University of Western Australia, 1997.

50 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

thesis that nation-building involves investment in cultural-symbolic capital. This and other cultural-symbolic capital mentioned above, while providing the necessary foundations for nation-building can often be found wanting in the long-term, especially when they are constantly being packaged and repackaged for public consumption. The frequent iteration of such formulas puts them in danger of being dismissed by a society which grows to take it for granted, whose tastes are becoming more sophisticated and whose demands are for the more exotic. As it is, promotional campaigns have had to keep pace by launching into a variety of multimedia formats.

Public Housing

Another major instrument for nation-building is public housing. The record set by the Housing and Development Board (HDB) in providing low-cost housing is nothing short of phenomenal. Between 1968 and 1988, the HDB built 642,043 flats and housed 86% of the population. 95 In the 1960s, the urgent provision of public housing was a result of deteriorating living conditions and part of the goal of generating infrastructural growth. In the long run, the success of the providing affordable public housing to the majority of its population has legitimized the PAP's hegemony. The implementation of a comprehensive housing policy, argues Pugh, is part of the PAP's political strategy, especially in relation to the Chinese-language educated who were in the poorest segment:

Politics have also been important in the Singapore housing story. It was in the later 1950s that the PAP became committed to the priorities in housing, employment and development. Those were the years of anti-colonial agitation, ferment in the mass population, and a political leadership that was close to the people. It was in this context that housing policy was formulated. 96

By committing to social development, particularly through housing, the government directly linked its legitimacy to the success of the HDB and provision of public housing. 97

Although the HDB was established as a statutory board in 1960 and its bureaucracy functions separately from the government, the fact that the HDB policies

95 Tan Han Hoe (ed.), Singapore 1989 , Singapore: Information Division, Ministry of Communications and Information, 1989, pp. 158-159. 96 M. Castells, L. Goh & R.Y.W Kwok, The Shep Kip Mei Syndrome: Economic Development and Public Housing in and Singapore , London: Pion Ltd., 1990, p. 215.

51 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

frequently intersect with government policies further blurs the line between social provision and politics. In retrospect, the success of the HDB has only added to the PAP's gloss, but what if matters had been otherwise? The political implications can be enormous. Adverse reactions in the past have exposed the kind of hold the electorate can have over the political process. While public housing in Singapore has often been lauded for its integration of ethnic groups and for its relative success in promoting unity and harmony, there has been little comprehension that the relationship between the government agency responsible and the people involved is a fragile one. Hill and Lian argue that, for instance, the opposition won control of the seat in the constituency of Anson in 1981 because of a number of negative HDB policies and actions. 98 The legitimacy conferred on the government as a result of the HDB's success is therefore constantly open to negotiation, thus nation-building, communal tolerance and the fostering of a common national identity within a public housing estate cannot be taken for granted either.

Public housing's contribution to nation-building and ethnic integration, however, should not be discounted. Paul comments on how public housing has been central to detribalization, and has effectively dispersed the close ethnic ties within each community. He further contends that the government has been able to mould the social behaviour of HDB dwellers though a series of occupancy regulations. Behaviour can also be monitored through grassroots organizations such as neighbourhood Residents' Committees (RCs) and Citizens' Consultative Committees (CCCs). 99 As early as 1969, the HDB's housing programme was praised for its role in nation-building - for bringing together Singaporeans of all race, religious and linguistic affiliations, and providing a common space for interaction. Shared amenities such as children's playgrounds, wet markets, food outlets and community corners (which were outfitted with study tables, televisions and benches) have facilitated cross-cultural tolerance and greater understanding. Hence the evidence of the HDB's conscious effort to encourage inter-ethnic harmony can balance criticism directed at the detribalization effect. Because applicants for flats are dealt with in a queue, the Board has ensured that there is a mixture of ethnic groups in each block of flats, though it

97 Cedric Pugh, "The of Public Housing", in Sandhu & Wheatley (eds), 1989, p. 855. 98 Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 133. These include: (i) government expenditure grants to the HDB had been reduced; (ii) a large waiting list for HDB flats in Anson; (iii) Authority (PSA) residents (the constituency was near the PSA) living in that area received eviction notices, and (iv) HDB flat prices had risen by 38% in that year, with the possibility that a four-fold rise might occur over the next four years. 99 Paul, 1992, pp. 17-18.

52 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

does not entirely break up racial enclaves. 100 Through the process of upgrading and as more flats are put up for resale, Malays have been ready to purchase cheaper flats vacated by the Chinese and Indians; this too has had the effect of dispersing ethnic groups. The presence of an income-ceiling for flats is also another way of doing so; within one block of flats, and subsequently within a housing estate, there is a mixture of 1-2 room rental and sale flats for low income occupants, to 3, 4 and 5 room executive flats, so this has meant that many lower income families, especially the Malays, are dispersed over a wide area.

Since 1973, however, the growth of the middle class has imposed pressure on the government to meet their housing needs as their higher incomes meant that they were not eligible for HDB housing and yet were unable to afford the much higher prices of private, in particular, landed housing. The government's decision was to establish the Housing and Urban Development Company (HUDC) in 1974. The HUDC designed and provided flats that were located in more exclusive locations, and quality- wise, were comparable to homes in the private sector. HUDC estates eventually manifested their own set of problems as a result of emerging social and economic cleavages. 101 The government's policy of social integration was not helped by the HUDC despite the latter being eventually absorbed into the HDB. HDUC estates remain located in more affluent areas and away from HDB developments; furthermore, rental flats remained segregated from purchase flats within HDB estates. 102

Social integration was most clearly articulated when the government formalized its unofficial policy of distributing different categories of flats spatially and imposing a quota system on the ethnic composition in a block of flats and in a housing estate. Table 1 shows how it was set up to reflect the ethnic proportions of the Singaporean population.

Table 1

Ethnic Composition in a HDB Housing Estate

100 Chua Beng Huat, "Race Relations and Public Housing Policy in Singapore", Journal of Architectural and Planning Research , 8.4, 1991a, p. 347 101 Aline K. Wong & Stephen H.K. Yeh, Housing a Nation: 25 Years of Public Housing in Singapore , Singapore: Housing and Development Board, 1985, p. 237. 102 Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 124-125.

53 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

Race % in Entire % in a Single Block Neighbourhood

Chinese 84% 87%

Malay 22% 25%

Indian/Other 10% 13%

Source: Jon S.T. Quah, 'Government Policies and Nation-Building', in Quah (ed.), In Search of Singapore's National Values , Singapore, The Institute of Policy Studies: Times Academic Press, 1990, p. 50. 103

Resale flats thus had to be sold in relation to these limits. S. Dhanabalan, the Minister for National Development, justified the quota system in these terms:

Mixing the various communities in proportions that approximate the general population has given us racial tolerance and harmony for more than 20 years. To allow the races to regroup now would be to go back to the pre-1965 period where there were racial enclaves and racial riots. 104

Again the rhetoric of survival is used and the ever-present spectre of racial conflict is resurrected. Racial enclaves are thus equated with the propensity to degenerate into racial conflict. The stress is laid on shaping the 'various communities' into a national community as if they were infinitely malleable quantities; personal and communal preferences are therefore relegated to a lower level of priority.

Though the quota system is an effort to control the over-concentration of Malays in particular areas, such as and , it also influences the preference of Chinese dialect groups for certain estates, such as the Teochew for . It would seem then that ethnic segregation is only a temporary condition. As a disproportionate number of people of a particular race gravitate towards new racial enclaves in HDB estates, Quah suggests that

The latter phenomenon is perhaps unavoidable given the tendency for families belonging to the same ethnic group to live in the same

103 For more details, see the pamphlet Promoting a Good Racial Mix in Public Housing Estates , Singapore: HDB, 1989. 104 The Straits Times , 17 February 1989.

54 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

neighbourhood because of the advantages of familial support for child-care and the time and money saved from not having to travel long distances to visit parents or close relatives.105

HDB policies promoting multi-generational living, either within the same estate or same household, have also been responsible for this trend. 106 The enclaves therefore continue to exist for similar reasons. The HDB and the government are, however, always anxious to defuse any potentially volatile ethnic conflict. In any case, the Singaporean government has always tried to pre-empt such events from occurring, believing that prevention is much more preferable to the cure.

As a strategy to foster solidarity amongst different segments of Singapore society, the provision of public housing has produced mixed results and contradictions. Engineering an ideal ethnic distribution has had unintended complications: from an attrition of electoral support to a resurgence in racial enclaves. In attempting to house the majority of Singaporeans, the government has also had to contend with social and economic differences being highlighted. One of the main consequences of public housing has been to give Singaporeans a stake in the nation through home ownership.

Intermediary Structures

The PAP has long relied on parapolitical structures and voluntary ethnic associations to tap into opinions at the grassroots level of the community and to disseminate policy initiatives. In theory, intermediary structures are institutions that act as a buffer between the individual in the private sphere and the large institutions in public life. 107 Individuals need to migrate between the two frequently but to do so is not easy, thus such structures are meant to facilitate such movement. From the point of view of the PAP, having such structures in place also help to draw out and train capable leaders who can then be recruited into the political process. Some of these structures have been set up by the PAP while others were co-opted - a method which the state is rapidly finding to be useful not only in assuring its legitimacy to power, but in meeting dissatisfaction with the PAP's leadership and policies. In the early years of

105 J. S. T. Quah, 1990b, p. 51. For an official statement on the new racial enclaves in HDB estates, see The Straits Times , 17 February 1989. 106 Lim, 1997, p. 19-21. The HDB has readjusted its policies to allow multi-generational families to apply for flats within the same estate; as early as 1978, the Joint Balloting Scheme allowed parents and married children to be allotted flats close to one another. 107 P. Berger & R.J. Neuhaus, To Empower People: The Role of Mediating Structures in , Washington D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1977, p. 3.

55 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

independence, these structures were used to contain ethnic tension and develop community leaders. While they are still proving to be a successful way of developing leadership, especially amongst the younger generation, their initial focus has expanded to include dealing with socio-economic problems, particularly those brought on by rapid economic change.

Ethnic associations have enjoyed a resurgence since the 1980s and the state has gone as far as to sponsor some of the activities initiated by them, partly in recognition of the valuable community and welfare services they provide in lieu of the services usually granted by a welfare state; furthermore, there is still the fear that these associations might foment dissension against the state, and by contributing financial support the government at least has some leverage over how they operate. Parapolitical institutions and ethnic associations, however, should not be seen as mere stooges of the government. Although they have been highly supportive of the ruling PAP regime by being an effective tool in educating the people about the latest government policies and in enforcing them, their high profile affords them the opportunity of representing to the state the opposing views of their members. Moreover, they have been able to exert some influence over certain issues, in particular, education.

Parapolitical Institutions

Parapolitical institutions in Singapore are in essence a means of 'controlled mobilization and participation'. 108 As part of the strategy to inculcate a Singapore identity in the early post-independence years, the PAP perceived that controlled moblization would be essential as it would not only link the people to the government, but also had the added advantage of absorbing and redirecting the people's participatory talents towards effective nation-building. 109 The three main parapolitical institutions in Singapore have not only facilitated two-way communication between the people and the state, they have also worked to minimize the feeling of alienation often felt towards government agencies. This has been achieved by not utilizing party organization or government bureaucracy in the make-up of these institutions. 110 The Community Centres (CCs), Citizens' Consultative Committees (CCCs) and Residents'

108 Seah Chee Meow, "Parapolitical Institutions", in Jon S.T. Quah, Chan Heng Chee & Seah Chee Meow (eds), Government and , Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1985, p. 173. 109 Seah, 1985, p. 174.

56 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

Committees (RCs) come under the control of the Prime Minister's Office, and as grass roots organizations, work more closely with the constituents to form a strong local identity. In turn, the PAP hopes that this will help to consolidate a national identity.

Community Centres (CCs)

The CC is an example of how a parapolitical structure was co-opted by the government to be as a means for further building of communal harmony, nation- building, and assisting in greater integration of a political consciousness. 111 Initially established under colonial auspices, the CCs were little more than recreational centres and were not always centrally managed. When the PAP came to power in 1959, not only did they take control of the CCs, they also created the People's Association (PA) Ordinance in 1960 to manage it. The PA was ostensibly for

the organization and promotion of group participation in social, cultural, educational and athletic activities to foster a sense of national identification and multiracial solidarity as well as to provide leadership training. 112

Consolidation of PAP power and the maintenance of political stability were uppermost in the PAP's mind at that point, as it was a period of intense political debate over Singapore's constitutional boundaries and territorial loyalties. Such political instability was compounded by inner-party conflict between the moderates and leftists. The latter, who fissioned off to form the Barisan Sosialis (Socialist Front), were at that time dominant in the PA and hence the CCs; but as the PAP exerted formal control over the CCs, it also isolated the disaffected political factions. Throughout 1963 to 1965, the CCs were used to encourage national consciousness amidst growing differences with the central Kuala Lumpur government. After independence the establishment of further services and activities overseen by the CCs further drew people towards identification with the new Singapore government, as well as enhanced the PAP's legitimacy. The CCs, since 1971, have been reconstituted due to urban renewal, resettlement and changes in boundary lines. Older CCs have been upgraded to offer more facilities; most offer a range of facilities and activities, ranging from basketball courts, quiet and air-conditioned study rooms and recreational halls, to craft and cooking classes, music lessons and vacation tours. In the early years, the PAP and

110 Seah, 1985, p. 176. 111 Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 176.

57 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

CC kindergartens provided much welcomed relief for lower-income groups; and as these people were the most susceptible to leftist propaganda, it helped to direct them away from it.

The CCs are often venues for the government to explain their policies and to clarify issues. National campaigns are also launched from there. By providing services that are needed and popular with the people, and by using the CC as a springboard, the PAP is therefore able to maintain and mobilize mass participation at the grassroots level. This ensures that the people have a conscious and active civic sense of belonging to the Singaporean state.

The CC, though formally controlled by the PA, is not mired by the levels of bureaucracy that characterizes government administration. It is the PA who sets the schedule and activities for the various CCs, and appoints regular staff, although many of whom have links to the PAP. 113 Committee members are selected by the government and they have to liase regularly with the constituency MP; the latter acts in both an advisory capacity and as a member of a panel that screens potential committee members.

Citizens' Consultative Committees (CCCs)

Set up in 1965, the CCCs have had a strong ethnic element from the beginning. They are similar to the CCs in that the CCCs also sought to identify and cultivate informal community leaders. It is administered in the same way as CCs and there is one in every constituency. Membership is exclusively through nomination by the local MP. Since 1985 they have come under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Community Development instead of the Prime Minister's Office. The CCCs were instrumental in restoring order after the 1964 race riots, and its objectives remain the transmission of information and recommendations of the people's needs to the government. Grievances and requests, for instance, are made at casual weekly meet- the-people sessions at local PAP branches. It keeps the government informed of grassroots responses and ensures that people are aware of government action and policies. In the social sphere the CCCs are responsible for co-ordinating CC and RC activities, fundraising, National Day events and promoting national campaigns. In this

112 Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 177. 113 Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 177.

58 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

way, it enhances the membership of the people within the state:

The Government leaders publicized and presented this new creation as a desire on their part to enlarge citizenship participation in the governance of the country, and a step towards the institutionalization of democratic government. 114

Residents' Committees (RCs)

The RCs were officially introduced at a later date – 1978 – but the first informal prototype already existed in the constituency of in 1974. Co-opted by the PAP, they are not co-ordinated by the CCCs but are under the direction of the Ministry of Community Development. They are perceived by the government as being essential to nation-building efforts as their members are local and closest to grassroots opinions, whereas many CCC members did not necessarily reside in the constituency they served. In the case of RCs, the members were responsible for a zone within the public housing estate made up of approximately 500 to 2,500 flats. 115 Part of the reason why ethnic clans and associations had diminished considerably is because of parapolitical organizations like the RCs. Where the traditional clan associations used to play a major role in adjudicating disputes, the RCs have now taken their place. They are used as a mediation platform for grievances and problem solving:

an important function of the introduction of RCs has been to facilitate social control at the local level without exclusive recourse to such state agencies as the police. 116

There are many problems that never reach the authorities because the RCs have successfully dealt with them.

As a training ground for 'people to acquire the skills necessary for a participatory democracy', they also primarily provide 117

a better channel for communication between residents and various authorities to obtain feedback information and find solutions to the

114 Chan Heng Chee, The Dynamics of One Party Dominance: The PAP at the Grass-Roots , Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1976, p. 136. 115 Lai, 1995, p. 98. 116 Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 179. 117 Jon S.T. Quah & Stella R. Quah, "The Limits of Government Intervention" in Sandhu & Wheatley (eds), 1989, p. 121.

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problems of the residents living in the housing estates. 118

The RCs therefore aim to enhance the standard of public housing living and promote the concept of living together as one community – to encourage the virtue of neighbourliness, increase social and ethnic integration, and act as a conduit for communication between the residents and the government. These objectives, according to a senior minister,

will help shape a more cohesive society of mass participation for mutual benefit and a healthy growth of our state. Our nation cannot survive if the 2.3 million live in separate worlds of their own. 119

Because the RCs and CCCs were conceived of as a means for active participation in community activities, they provide a means by which citizens can fulfil their civic duty to the state which has offered them citizenship. Marquand points to the need for the state to constantly encourage participation in civic duties because of the 'possessive hedonism which lies at the heart of the free-market model of man and society.' 120 He has defined a style of citizen-participation state that is easily identifiable with Singapore:

In it, citizenship is a practice, not a status; active, not passive; public not private ... the practice of citizenship takes place, and can only take place in the public realm: virtue is civic virtue. 121

Ethnic associations, voluntary or sponsored by the state, also fall into the same category. In providing for those who are unable to do so themselves, they also take on this value of civic virtue.

Ethnic Associations

Berger and Neuhaus propose four kinds of mediating structures that are natural spontaneous phenomenon: neighbourhood, family, church and voluntary associations. According to them, structures that result from government intervention

118 Rules for Residents’ Committees in Housing Estates , quoted in appendix C in Jackson D.E. Loy, "The Residents’ Committee in Singapore: An Exploratory Study", academic exercise, submitted in partial fulfilment of the B. Soc. Sc. (Hons) degree, Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore, 1980. 119 Seah, 1985, p. 187. 120 D. Marquand, "Civic Republicans and Liberal Individualists: The Case of Britain", Archives Europeennes de Sociologie, 22.2, 1991, p. 339. 121 Marquand, 1991, p. 338.

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should be viewed with suspicion. 122 Structures like those already discussed above can be regarded in that respect; not only do they mediate, they are also used as a tool for social control and for reinforcing the PAP's hegemony. Existing mediatory groups that have been incorporated are also similarly employed. Because these come from an older tradition of self-help not based on political loyalty but on linguistic or regional diversity, the PAP have been able to draw on them as a 'source of continuity with earlier social and cultural association in a society otherwise characterized by rapid and potentially dislocating social change.' 123

Malay Voluntary Organizations

Malay voluntary associations have not had as long a history in Singapore as Chinese organizations mainly because the Malays do not have a tradition of spontaneous self-help networks nor formal organizational structures outside traditional kampong society. 124 Because the Malays constitute the largest minority group in Singapore, the government has been eager to engage them in the nation-building process. The intermediary structures developed between the Malays and the government have either revolved around religion or ways to advance the Malay community economically and educationally. 125 However, efforts by the PAP to recruit and develop Malay leaders ran into difficulties in the early years. It was essential that a group of English-educated middle-class modern Malay intellectuals, with membership in the upper echelons of the PAP and the government administration, be formed. Their ties to both legitimate political power and the Malay community would allow them a much easier task of bringing their people in line with the PAP's vision of a multiracial society, and helping them to adjust with less complications in the face of rapid economic changes. 126 Few, however, were willing or capable of taking up such positions, but such efforts did awake Malay consciousness of the need for change. 127 Malay leaders were often Arabs or Indian Muslims, but most faced hostility from the community because of identification with a state perceived to be antagonistic to Malay interests. 128 One of the earliest Malay voluntary organizations was the Central Council

122 Berger & Neuhaus, 1977, p. 40. 123 Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 163-164. 124 Hill & Lian, 1995, pp. 170-171. 125 Hill & Lian, 1995, pp. 166-167. 126 R. Betts, "Multiracialism, Meritocracy and the Malays of Singapore", unpublished PhD thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1975, pp. 266-267. 127 Betts, 1975, pp. 306-307. 128 Betts, 1975, pp. 306-315.

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of Malay Cultural Organizations in Singapore, or Majlis Pusat – formed in 1969 as an umbrella organization for various Malay non-government organizations. Unlike the Muslim Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) established a year earlier, it focused on forwarding economic and educational standards. MUIS was a governmental initiative to consolidate control over Malay religious organizations, but government appointees in its highest positions have curtailed its autonomy. Nevertheless, MUIS has succeeded in operating as a mediator between the Muslim community and the government. The government appreciates its ability to act as a stop guard for Malay extremism and religious fanaticism. 129

The next major organization to form was also sponsored by the government. The Council on Education for Malay/Muslim Children (Majlis Pendidikan Anak-Anak Islam) ñ MENDAKI ñ was created in 1981. It was later renamed The Council for the Development of Muslims in Singapore - Yayasan MENDAKI – to reflect its growing roles. Its original objectives have since expanded but the aim had been 'to improve the level of educational achievement by Malay/Muslim students, and to increase the number and percentage of higher-educated Malays/Muslims.' 130 Prompted by alarming statistics from the 1980 population census, which showed far higher attrition rates for Malay students, as well as below average Malay educational and employment levels, MENDAKI today continues to help Malay/Muslim students to achieve their best academically but with greater financial and organizational aid from both the Malay community and the government. A statistical comparison of Malay progress since 1981 indicates that there have been major increases. At that time Malay families in HDB flats and home ownership measured 72% and 49.9% respectively. By 1991, it was 97.2% and 94.1% respectively. Moderate gains were made in education. Only 11.7% pursued secondary education in 1981, but the figure more than doubled to 25.4% by 1991. Those who went on to tertiary education, however, increased only from 0.2% to 0.6% in the same period. 131

As Deputy Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong had called on the Malay community, through MENDAKI, to deal with other problems that stood in the way of their progress:

129 I. Kassim, Problems of Elite Cohesion , Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1974, p. 97. 130 Speech by Dr Ahmad Mattar, Acting Minister of Community Affairs and Chairman of MENDAKI, at the opening congress of MENDAKI, 28 May 1982, in Making a Difference: Ten Years of MENDAKI , Singapore 1992, p. 18. 131 Quoted in Vasil, 1995, p. 89, 144. Earlier statistics had shown that the Malays were still lagging behind in education. In 1976, there were only 22 Malay university graduates, but by 1981 there had only been a meagre increase to 27. Vasil suggests that it is these kind of statistics that prompted government response to upgrade Malay education and skills.

62 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

To uplift the Malay community you will have to adopt a total approach. It cannot be through education alone, important and basic though it is. For example, there are those who have already left school. They need to be helped to raise their standard of living. There are special problem areas, like youths going astray and ending up wasting their lives away as drug addicts. 132

Under the second-generation government leaders, the Malays have been urged to look beyond education as a means of coping with socio-economic changes. While the government's concern with the Malay community remains as strong as it was during the 1960s and 1970s, the current leadership has forced the Malays to also address ethnic disparities and social problems - low incomes, drug abuse, increasing divorce rates, single parents and poor parenting - that seem to particularly afflict them. It is no longer a case of helping the Malay underclass catch up to the Chinese, nor finding capable Malay leaders; the need to stem Malay discontent has now shifted to finding ways to deal with so-called 'Malay problems' without alienating the people involved.

The government has tried various ways to deal with these problems, but their promotion and acceptance of the conventional explanation for Malay economic backwardness has been a prime obstacle in their approach. Hill and Lian suggest that their attitude is also a result of wanting to 'assert compatibility of Malay identity within a common national framework'. The need to establish this link arises from having to find a way to articulate the 'overarching concepts…[of] survival, meritocracy and multiracialism.' 133 The myth of Malay cultural values being the cause of their economic inferiority is one that has been perpetuated since colonial times. 134 The Malays themselves have also been active participants in sustaining this mind-set. Because of this, the current government posits that something must be done to re-orientate Malay values so that Malays become conscious of the need for change. This change must, however, come from within and not be imposed externally. Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong has explicitly expressed that the government 'can give a helping hand, but the change in attitude has to be affected by the communities themselves. We can provide the facilities, including finances.' 135 The government has since been supportive of similar organizations for the Chinese and Indian communities.

Until 1989, MENDAKI had devoted itself entirely to advancing educational

132 Speech by Goh Chok Tong, Deputy Prime Minister, at MENDAKI’s second congress, 19 May 1989, Making a Difference, 1992, p. 20. 133 Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 168. 134 See also Tania Li, Malays in Singapore: Culture, Economy and Ideology , New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. 135 Quoted in Vasil, 1995, p. 145.

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standards within the Malay community as its founders had concluded that the pace of economic and social development would be drastically hindered if education was not heavily promoted amongst the younger generation. 136 A sound education remains the main criteria for future progress, but since 1989, MENDAKI has also been involved in economic development, and the promotion of social and cultural affairs. It has, for instance, held seminars on skills and entrepreneurial development, engaged in research on high divorce rates and single parenthood in the community, and co- operated with various agencies in tackling the drug problem among Malays.

In recent years, MENDAKI and pro-Malay interests in the government have had to contend with the formation of the non-government affiliated Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP) in 1990. Founded by young educated Malay professionals who questioned the way Malay interests have been protected, the AMP has challenged MENDAKI's paramount position within the Malay community. Despite initial wariness, the government has been quick to find common ground with it and has even put up financial support, as long as it worked together with and not against MENDAKI, and promoted Malay unity. 137 The relationship between the two has been strained, however, as AMP has attacked MENDAKI for becoming politicized. 138 Surprisingly enough, the PAP's response has been restrained; instead, Lee Kuan Yew has suggested that this is precisely the kind of challenging dialogue needed in the Malay community.139 By recognizing the AMP as a legitimate channel for young Malays to express their concerns and to direct funding to the community, the PAP hopes to regain ground lost from Malays disillusioned with the way Malay issues have been handled.

Chinese Voluntary Associations

The most well known kind of Chinese voluntary associations are secret societies. While Singapore was still a settlement, secret societies began taking participatory roles in the community from the nineteenth century onwards. In a move to secure some measure of control over the distinct dialect and regional communities,

136 Making a Difference, 1992, p. 50. 137 David Brown, "The Corporatist Management of Ethnicity in Contemporary Singapore", in Rodan (ed.), 1992, p. 30; The Straits Times , 9 October 1991. 138 Chua Beng Huat, "Singapore 1990: Celebrating the End of an Era", Southeast Asian Affairs 1991 , 1991b, p. 262. 139 The Straits Times , 13 October 1990.

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the British colonial government co-opted these organizations by giving recognition to their leaders on the basis of dialect groups. It was a mutually advantageous relationship: the British were able to retain social control without resorting to draconian tactics, while the secret society leaders and organizations basked in the prestige and legitimacy conferred through the responsibility entrusted to them. 140

The development of secret societies however went beyond criminal activities. Networks of kin and territorial/linguistic affiliation sprung up to meet the needs of the migrant community and in the presence of what Freedman describes as a challenge over the control of Chinese affairs. 141 Tan suggests that Chinese voluntary associations (both the criminal kind and dialect associations) in migrant Chinese communities in Southeast Asia fall into three distinct periods. 142 From 1819 to 1900 they were mainly concerned with the social welfare of a young immigrant community which lacked the close-knit ties that would normally support them. Between 1900 and 1949, they became politicized as the associations drummed up support first for Republican China and then for the People's of China. After 1949, as many countries cut diplomatic ties with Communist China, the associations became involved in cultural activities. Support from Chinese Singaporeans declined also, partly as a result of the growing number of English-educated Chinese who had different bases of support. Parapolitical organizations instituted by the PAP have further eroded their membership numbers in clan associations. In more recent times this trend has been arrested as the government takes a more aggressive stand on the promotion of multiracialism in Singapore.

An example of a state-sponsored association is the Chinese Development and Assistance Council (CDAC), formed in May 1992 as a joint project between Chinese- educated professionals, clan associations and the government. CDAC aims to promote Chinese education and provide assistance to poorer Chinese. 143 CDAC and SINDA (Singapore Indian Development Association) were formed primarily in response to the Chinese and Indian communities' demands for a MENDAKI-like organization to tackle their problems within lower socio-economic groups. Thus these three organizations have become avenues through which the government can direct funding to the appropriate areas, as well as utilize them to mobilize support for its

140 Ong Jin Hui, "Community Security", in Sandhu & Wheatley (eds), 1989, p. 492. 141 Maurice Freedman, "Immigrants and Associations: Chinese in Nineteenth Century Singapore", Comparative Studies in Society and History , 3.1, 1960, p. 46. 142 T.T.W. Tan, "Voluntary Associations as a Model of Social Change", Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science , 14.2, 1986, pp. 68-84.

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policies. The formation of CDAC acknowledged too the government's awareness that traditional Chinese culture had long been neglected in favour of the cosmopolitan non- Chinese based culture of the English-speaking. Under Lee's leadership, economic growth and prosperity overrode concern about the impact of disparities within the Chinese community, but when Goh became prime minister, there was a distinct shift in priorities. Vasil argues that because the second generation government composed mainly of Chinese bilingual leaders able to switch between Mandarin and English with ease, there was a growing consciousness within its ranks that there was a need to woo Chinese-educated voters lest they became disaffected as the Malays had been during the 1988 elections. 144 Although CDAC's activities are not restricted to the Chinese-speaking, its client base is composed mainly of this group; the educational needs of the Chinese-speaking are seen as more pressing than the English-speaking. CDAC began with low cost tuition in subjects such as Chinese, English and mathematics for students in primary and secondary schools. There are also Skills Training Programmes to help the low-skilled and lower income to upgrade their skills to improve their employment opportunities.

Other Minority Groups

The Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA) was formed in late 1990. Indians had become disgruntled with the government's promotion of Mandarin amongst the Chinese, while a greater number of professional Indians were migrating for similar reasons. SINDA was therefore established to provide the Indian community with the necessary structure to promote education and welfare. Tuition classes in English, science and mathematics, and other educational activities were prompted by the conclusions of the 1991 Report of the Action Committee on Indian Education which pinpointed the problem areas of Indian students. 145 More than MENDAKI and CDAC, SINDA's focus is strongly academic. Ostensibly, it intends to create economic opportunities and integrate the Indian community into mainstream Singapore so it also includes a number of social services: a family service centre, family life education, children and youth development, and counselling and referral services for needy families.

143 Brown, 1992, pp. 27-28. 144 Vasil, 1995, pp. 104-106. 145 Vasil, 1995, p. 148.; SINDA, Report of the Action Committee on Indian Education , Singapore, 1991.

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The Eurasian community, which constitutes only about 13,000 or 0.5% of Singapore's population but is an important and highly visible portion of the 'other' category in Singapore's multiracial composition, also has its own association - the Eurasian Association. 146 Dormant for many years, it has since been injected with new life prompted by media interest. Unlike MENDAKI, CDAC and SINDA, it was not founded by the government, nor has it been co-opted in the same way. The Singapore Broadcasting Corporation has screened a television series, Pioneers of Singapore , detailing the contributions made by the various communities. There is an Eurasian Heritage Day and The Straits Times has also devoted extensive features to Eurasians. 147 Because of the high degree of intermarriage within the community, it has been recognized by the government as playing a considerable role in urging the different ethnic communities to be tolerant of one another. 148 Publications such as Singapore Eurasians: Memories and Hopes , and Seasons of Darkness: A Story of Singapore further maintain their high profile. 149 The association does not, however, focus on socio-economic issues the same way as other ethnic organizations; it is more concerned with preserving their unique cultural heritage.

Financial aid from the government has no doubt dictated the direction these associations have taken, but it has been used to safeguard each community's interests. The government has indirectly imposed limits on the cultural foundations necessary for a national identity circumscribed by rather nebulous Asian values. Government sponsorship of cultural activities and educational programmes has given it leverage over the direction such voluntary associations take, for there is always the threat of aid being rescinded should they act contrary to government goals. Hence the kinds of cultural values encouraged within the framework of these associations have been ones that support the national ideology. On the other hand, offering these channels as a way of articulating these values has become an effective and less disruptive way of cultivating the future economic and social needs of the Singapore state. Moreover, ethnic associations are an easy way of ensuring that help for the less fortunate comes from within one's own community and not from the state. Communal interests are therefore properly expressed in the context of humanistic concern, and

146 Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 235. 147 The Straits Times , 2 November 1991. 148 The Straits Times , 4 November 1991.

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not racial chauvinism.

Language and Bilingualism

Language has long been a contentious issue. Although Malay is the , English is the while the Chinese and Indian communities remain divided by dialects. Language and education policies have, in retrospect, attempted to encourage homogeneity and provide a neutral channel of communication between the different ethnic groups, and because English is seen as the language of progress, business and science, its use has been actively promoted since 1966. In a multiethnic society, the issue of deciding which language to designate as the primary one has not been an easy. The plurality of the communities in Singapore meant that tensions would result if multilingualism became one of the dimensions of nation- building. Bilingualism, while it may complement the myth of multiracialism, maintains a precarious concept, especially within the Chinese and Malay communities. The All- Party Report of 1959 recommended that English become the favoured language, but it also identified segments of potential disagreement as Chinese was the majority language and Malays had historical and territorial links in the region. The issue of language has thus far been resolved in formal public structures but not communally within the private sphere. Efforts by the government have focused on reiterating its stand on bilingualism but are yet contradicted by its unrelenting support for the Speak Mandarin Campaign.

Between 1959 and 1966, the bilingual policy for education specified the use of Malay as the national language and either English, Mandarin or Tamil, depending on the student. Today, the composition is the same, but English has taken precedence over Malay as the first language (EL1). The second language (Chinese - CL2, Malay - ML2, Tamil - TL2) is known as the mother tongue and it was hoped that by making it compulsory, it would have the effect of preserving cultural values and identity. This new policy, enacted as a result of Goh Keng Swee's 1979 Report on Education, meant that a student's second language had to be their mother tongue. By 1983, English was the sole language of instruction in schools except in language classes. In recent times, the policy has had to accommodate public interest in the learning of Mandarin

149 M. Braga-Blake & A Ebert-Oehlers (eds), Singapore Eurasians: Memories and Hopes , Singapore: Times Publishers for the Eurasian Association, 1991; Wilfred Hamilton-Shimmen, Seasons of Darkness: A Story of Singapore , Singapore: Wilfred Hamilton-Shimmen, 1993.

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as it became more prominent in the region as a result of growing Singapore investments in China. However, the government's Speak Mandarin Campaign has also marginalized the other languages. The reverse is also true in that more non- Chinese have been taking up the language.

The English-educated continue to enjoy a more privileged status despite growing interest in Mandarin, but it is a fluctuating situation. As China becomes more open to the outside world, there is added incentive for Mandarin and Chinese culture to gain ascendancy. The bilingual policy seems likely to remain in place for some time yet. Lee Kuan Yew committed his government to this policy by proclaiming that 'a person who is a mono-linguist, competent in only one language, is a problem to himself and to his society.' 150 He further justified his government's stand by saying that,

from my observation, the mono-linguist is more likely to be a language chauvinist and a bigot. He only sees the world through one eye… Bilingualism gives a more balanced and rounded view of the world… If we are to modernize and industrialize, we must be bilingual. If we are to teach the next generation bilingualism effectively, and minimize, even though we may never eliminate, language rivalries and prejudices, we must have more teachers who are bilingual. 151

There has since been a realization that the teaching of a second language was not sufficient in itself to ensure a firm mooring for traditional values. Part of the concern stems from the belief that in taking on the English language, one also takes on the accoutrements and values, both good and bad, associated with it. In Lee's opinion, the use of English meant that the western value system would likely replace the distinctive cultural traditions of Singaporeans. 152 This argument is flawed to say the least, for it is tantamount to implying a correlation between binary opposites: Asian = good values, Western = negative values. Suffice to say the government has taken, and continues to take, various measures to shore up the Asian values considered necessary for a cultural ballast and for a national identity, much to the chagrin of some communities. These measures have not been equal in promoting all cultural values. They have instead been selective and have a tendency to emphasize those that legitimate the government’s own political position and further the economic success of the country. The primary intention though has been to encourage tolerance and

150 Douglas Koh, Excerpts of Speeches by Lee Kuan Yew on Singapore, 1959-1973 , Singapore: University of Singapore Library, 1974, p. 59. 151 Lee Kuan Yew, "Bilingualism for a more balance view of the world", The Mirror , 19 June 1978.

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understanding of diversity.

Speak Mandarin Campaign

The promotion of Mandarin, and by association Confucianism, received renewed impetus in 1979 when the Prime Minister inaugurated the Speak Mandarin Campaign. For over two decades, it has aimed to encourage young Chinese Singaporeans to take up Mandarin and make it 'the language of the coffeeshop, of the hawker centre, of the shops.' 153 This campaign has antagonized the other ethnic groups because of its distinctive ethnic bias, and is seen by them as de-emphasizing the importance of their distinctive cultures, languages and values. Despite the government's commitment to ensuring the equality of the religions, languages, cultures and educational opportunities of all ethnic groups, the campaign has reinforced their feelings of powerlessness in a society where they are a minority. Some of the more paranoid claim a hidden agenda behind the government's posturing although Vasil attempts to justify the government's position by saying:

In the case of the Malays and the Indians, their culture, heritage and values had not come under any similar threat [ as the Chinese ] and therefore the government did not feel that they required any remedial action initiated by the government such as a Speak Malay Campaign or a Speak Tamil Campaign. 154

Feelings of alienation and a lack of security have however been the price for continuing the Speak Mandarin Campaign, and while bilingualism has succeeded in preserving the mother tongues of the Chinese, Malays and Indians, the campaign has partly hindered the growth of a truly plural Singaporean national identity.155 In the tenth year of the campaign the government still had to reassure the other ethnic groups that there was nothing to worry about and that the government felt equally strong about preserving the cultural values of all the ethnic groups:

The Speak Mandarin Campaign is not meant to make Singapore a more Chinese society at the expense of the Malays and Indians. It is meant to make dialect-speaking Chinese replace dialect with Mandarin. Malay and are fortunate that they do not face a problem of dialects as Chinese Singaporeans do.

152 Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 82. 153 Eddie C.Y. Kuo, "Mass Media and Language Planning: Singapore’s Speak Mandarin Campaign", Journal of Communication , 34.3, 1984, p. 26. 154 Vasil, 1995, p. 72. 155 J. S. T. Quah, 1990, p. 58.

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But the mother tongue and traditional values are as important to them as Mandarin is to the Chinese.

...Our desire to preserve traditional values is not confined to the Chinese community alone. It is good for the nation that Singaporeans of all races have a clear sense of where they have come from, and why they are here. Each community should take pride in its heritage, retain it and develop upon it. 156

In terms of progress, dialects are seen as barriers to modernization and mobility. As the People's Republic of China further widens its doors for social, economic and technological contacts, becoming fluent in Mandarin has been even more vital in regional countries wanting to be part of the its progress. Moreover, Mandarin carries no emotional connotations for most Singaporean Chinese and the government hopes that as Mandarin takes hold of the Chinese community, there would be fewer incidences of chauvinism among them.157 In the course of promoting the Speak Mandarin Campaign, the government has relied on catchy slogans such as 'Speak Less Dialect, More Mandarin', 'Make Mandarin a way of life,' and 'Mandarin is Chinese'. In the 1990s, they also co-opted well-known personalities to push the message across. 158 Up until 1992, romanized Chinese ( hanyu ) was standard practice for personal names, but dissatisfaction over differences between the child's and the father's surnames (which was normally in dialect) led to the policy's reversal. Media programmes on Chinese channels have to use Mandarin despite complaints from older Chinese who do not speak or understand it. The only concession seems to have been in the broadcast of news and Mandarin lessons in dialect on Rediffusion, a local commercial broadcasting station based on a subscribers' scheme.

The prime motivating factor behind the Speak Mandarin Campaign was the preponderance of over twelve different dialects within the Chinese community. Despite the push of Mandarin in the classrooms, it has yet to reach as far as the majority of Chinese homes nor has it become the main medium of communication between Chinese Singaporeans. It is, however, a popular vernacular for bridging the many different Chinese dialects, especially in the housing estates. Research compiled in early 1979 showed that dialects retained a strong hold on the community, and had the

156 Committee to Promote the Use of Mandarin, Speak Mandarin Campaign Launching Speeches, 1979-1989 , Singapore: , p. 72; cited in Vasil, 1995, p. 72-73. 157 Raj K. Vasil, Governing Singapore , Singapore: Eastern Universities Press, 1984, p. 106. 158 One of the best-known television personalities is Moses Lim. Apart from being fluent in both Mandarin and English (he is one of the few actors who regularly appear on both the English and Mandarin channels), he has also been building a high profile around the region. He is easily identifiable because of his rotund size, jovial manner, comedic talents and distinctly representing all that is Singaporean.

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situation continued without government intervention, it would have deteriorated to the extent of 'pidgin Hokkien becoming most common.' 159 Not only were the dialects considered divisive, they were also seen as being an obstacle to bilingualism. Mandarin is an effective symbol of Chinese cultural identity, and because it does not carry the emotional ties associated with dialects, it functions well as a carrier of core cultural values. Confucianism, being part of the core values, also received a boost. Confucian ethics were taught as part of Religious Knowledge classes in schools. Confucian scholars from Taiwan and America were specially invited to Singapore in 1982 to help establish the Confucian-oriented Institute of East Asian Philosophy. The resurgence of clan membership can also be attributed to this movement.

Blog-Central – Community-Building Outside the Square

In the 1990s there have been further evidence of social and educational policies aimed at consolidating national ideology, but they have not been without controversy. Because they focus on defining core values, it has been difficult to decide if they are universal values or Asian values. In a 1998 interview with Chris Patten, former Governor of Hong Kong, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew adamantly denies that the values being encouraged in Singapore are 'Asian Values'. In the same interview, , Minister of Information and the Arts insists that these values are the adaptation of universalistic values in a Singaporean context which creates a unique Singaporean identity. 160 Much of the preceding effort by Lee and the old guard leadership have, however, ensured that the issue of identity is never far from the surface of politics and social life in Singapore. The urge to survive is never far from the government's rhetoric: Singapore is a small nation without substantial natural resources, except that of the human variety. The rationalization was that planning for the future should fall into the hands of an enlightened and far-sighted government aware of the pitfalls that can be caused by racial divisions. Indeed, the race card has been used often as a kind of bogeyman to coerce the people into compliance with policies. The people are also similarly forewarned about the divisions that can be caused by religious diversity. While there may be strength in diversity and multiracialism, the fear is that without sanctioned control, the resulting pressures would

159 Vasil, 1995, p. 70; Speak Mandarin Campaign, p. 40.

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not only endanger nation-building and the nascent identity of Singaporeans, but also capsize Singaporean society.

However, with the growth of new media, and certainly the internet can no longer be discounted as a strong influence on social views, the Singapore government has also been finding it more difficult to patrol the views of Singaporeans who often frequent the internet. Statistics as recent as 2001 indicate that Singapore had the highest Internet penetration rate (32%) within the region. Neighbouring countries like Malaysia only had 8% while Hong Kong had the second highest rate at 16%. 161 Computer ownership in Singapore has also grown significantly. Statistics from the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) indicates that from 1988 to 2000, computer ownership grew from 11% to 66%. 162 While the government has authoritatively utilized the internet in a highly effective manner to promote their policies and desirable values, it has been less able to control those whose thoughts and ideas contravene the multiracial /multicultural ideals it has been promoting over the last 40 years. It is not apparent, however, that it would be in the government’s interests to be too strict in enforcing an internet code of conduct or to impose certain desirable social and cultural values on what is promoted by Singaporean websites. Instead, it has made a clear example of those who have obviously crossed acceptable social boundaries (such as the promotion of pornography or the deliberate denigration of other races – particularly in view of September 11).

The practice of blogging, for instance, has been a massive growth industry, not just for Singapore, but globally. It makes a useful example to show how community and citizenship in an online setting has coalesced, just not in a manner that the state might have expected.

Blogging, one of the many new types of computer-mediated communications (CMC) which have arisen in the wake of the internet revolution, has evolved from purely text-based webpages. It is a direct precursor of other earlier electronic communities that occupy cyberspace, such as usenets, email lists, bulletin board systems (BBS) and forums.

The term ‘weblog’ was fashioned by Jorn Borger on 17 December 1997, while

160 The Straits Times , 28 September 1998; Chris Pattenís East and West , BBC Television 1998. 161 Cited in James Gomez, Internet Politics: Surveillance and Intimidation in Singapore , Singapore: Think Centre, 2002, p. 2. 162 Figures were cited in Gomez, 2002, p. 13.

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the short form, ‘blog’, was first used by Peter Merholz. Since then, the word ‘blog’ has functioned both a noun and a verb, and has become common currency in real life. 163 Technorati, a self-styled authority on blogging and a real-time search engine which tracks over 33.3 million blogs (as of 5 April 2006), describes blogs as a

fluid, dynamic medium, more akin to a ‘conversation’ than to a library - which is how the Web has often been described in the past. With an increasing number of people reading, writing, and commenting on blogs, the way we use the Web is shifting in a fundamental way. Instead of being passive consumers of information, more and more Internet users are becoming active participants. Weblogs let everyone have a voice. 164

The Oxford defines ‘weblog’ as a ‘frequently updated web site consisting of personal observations excerpts from other sources, etc., typically run by a single person, and usually with hyperlinks to other sites; an online journal or diary.’ 165 There are in effect huge variations in the way blogs are used. The business world has, for instance, adopted in-house blogs, which are also used as record management tools as well as a well for creativity and discussion of projects under development. Externally, frequently updated personal web journals can also help small and large companies to promote their products and services. Since many blogs have the added function of allowing its readers to post comments, people are able to share ideas and information. The interactivity of the blog encourages both the blogger (owner of the blog) and their readers to respond to one another, leading to product evaluation and possible product improvements. It therefore becomes a threaded conversation which can span several time zones and many countries.

The Blog, the Blogger and the ‘Bloggee’

While blogs have been around since the late 1990s, it has been found that more than 60% of blogs on the internet were either inactive or had been abandoned. 166 One of the greatest myths of cyberspace was that anyone could be heard, that the marginalized voices would all of a sudden have a platform to voice their grievances, that the net would become a hub of communication and people would connect simultaneously. While there is some truth to these assumptions, the reach of the

163 Oxford English Dictionary (online version). 164 ‘Technorati: About Us’, available at http://www.technorati.com/about/, retrieved 5 April 2006. 165 Oxford English Dictionary (online version). 166 Bruce Deastyne, “BLOGS: The New Information Revolution?” The Information Management Journal , vo. 39.5, Sept/Oct 2005, p. 39.

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World Wide Web is still limited by economics, race and even gender. Many individual voices of the blogging community still struggle to be heard, particularly above the marketing giants who patrol the advertising dollars, getting their messages heard. Just as many probably do not deliberately seek an audience, and perhaps seek only an outlet for self-expression. However, the blog, and thus the blogger, is not without power.

The earliest blogs were initially established to share information, and the sites usually included a mixture of links, commentary and personal observations. Over time, various companies created blog-publishing tools with clever and appealing interfaces for subscribers. All of a sudden, a plethora of easy-to-use blogging sites such as Blogger, Metafilter, Blogspot and Livejournal mushroomed all over the internet. As a consequence, even the greenest of web users found that the ease of posting to their online journals meant that blogs could be updated several times a day, becoming a literal record of the blogger’s thoughts over a short period of time. Conversations between several bloggers could be carried on at the same time, either by cross-linking to someone else’s blog, or by posting comments at the end of each blog entry. Sometimes controversies would flare up, leading to the ‘flaming wars’ between bloggers, and before too long, the game of Chinese whispers, net-style, contributes to the creation of blog celebrities.

The blog has become more than just a reservoir for memories and information. It is by extension, as with email, usenet and forums, a community – one in which its inhabitants are bound together by common interests and strive to promote them, in the hope of building a greater sense of belonging. But by existing in cyberspace, and the term itself is problematic, it does not lend itself easily to the construction of a traditional sense of community. All kinds of dangers are signalled by the prefix ‘cyber-‘ for what it entails:

Cyberspace, as a virtual nonplace, made the internet so much more than a network of networks: it became a place in which things happened, in which users’ actions separated from their bodies, and in which local standards became impossible to determine. It thus frees users from their bodies and their locations. 167

To ‘cyber’ means to venture into a limitless space, or non-place, because it is vast, ever-evolving and lacks substantiality – it does not exist on a physical plane. As such,

167 Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Control and Freedom: Power and Paranoia in the Age of Fiber Optics , Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 2006.

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it would seem to clash with the intrinsic communal values of cohesion, belonging and membership. Yet ironically, the very non-place that characterizes cyberspace may be the very thing that appeals to bloggers, who might in reality live in an environment which limits their participation in everyday civic and political society.

To ‘cyber’ thus becomes an act of freedom, despite attempts by authorities to regulate it. Moreover, to ‘cyber’ on the internet is a very public negotiation of space. By the act of blogging, the words become part of the public domain, and can be charged as a political statement because it is in publicly accessible space. This in itself becomes a challenge for authorities who are used to control over public expression. Yet as a medium for building communities, cyberspace has proven to be practical, flexible and infinitely malleable. Geography is no longer a liability.

The notion of community imagined or otherwise, has always been at the forefront of the Singapore government’s agenda from the beginning of its history. Unifying concepts such as meritocracy, multiracialism and Asian Values have all been promoted to serve this aim. The community that the government imagines is one that would serve to differentiate it from its neighbours. This is however a physical community, proscribed by geography, space and political rights. Since the beginning of the twenty first century, however, the Singapore government has proven that it even intends to co-opt cyberspace and internet technologies as part of its national initiatives to set Singapore at the forefront of educational innovation and economic superiority. The launch of its Singapore 21 Report in 1997 earmarked the beginning of a slew of similar initiatives primed to build on a community for the new millennium. For example, Infocomm 21, IT in Education, and especially IT2000 all focus on utilizing information technology to further the quality of life at home, in schools and in the workplace. Civil servants, students, and in a large part, the population were co-opted into joining this burgeoning online community, rendering them ‘wired’. This is of course a gross generalization of the complexities involved in actually providing the means and the knowledge necessary to take part. Much work has already been done on how class, gender and race influence internet access. 168 The intent behind the Singapore 21 policies, however, are clear, but the online community which resulted from greater net access represents a more fluid understanding of membership and a less stringent set of criteria to fulfil.

168 Steven G. Jones (ed.), Cybersociety 2.0: Revisiting Computer-Mediated Communication and Community , Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Sage Publications, 1998; Lisa Nakamura, Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet , New York: Routledge, 2002.

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Blogging has its own set of membership criteria. Within blogging communities, there are macro and micro sub-communities, differentiated by the target audience and the aim of the blog. While all bloggers share the need to document their lives, sometimes to the minutiae, they provide opinions, commentary, as well as a record of events (as it pertains to them – giving rise sometimes to highly charged, passionate and articulate writing). Those who read and comment then contribute to the popularity of individual blogs, particularly through the practice of cross-referencing and cross- linking. The action of clicking on a link recommended by one blogger immediately opens up doorways to other, possibly new, information pathways. The ability of bloggers to share information is phenomenal; information is the currency that a blogging community exchanges. Sometimes blogging communities thrive purely on the swapping of information, where blogs are expressly set up to collect and organize dates and news as well as give insights, or attempt to troubleshoot specific problems. 169 The vast majority, however, tend to focus on recording the activities and events in one’s life, considered mundane by most people, and hence rarely attain a wide readership. Such blogs allow friends and family to keep up with a blogger’s life, particularly if they are separated by distance; these blogs could physically manifest as a public journal, as a photo album or even as downloadable podcasts. 170

These very characteristics which defines the blog is what makes it so convenient for marginalized classes to feel that it is a tool they can use to make their voices heard. The spread of blogging in the People’s Republic of China is a case in point. Since 2000, the Chinese government has established internet monitoring departments in more than 700 cities and provinces. 171 The so-called net police kept track of websites and emails for evidence of ‘heretical teachings or feudal superstitions’ and any information that might be considered ‘harmful to the dignity or interests of the state’. Internet service providers are required to pledge self- censorship. In 2003, the government was clearly worried enough to crackdown on websites and internet cafes; dozens of online commentators were also arrested. The government also maintains the ‘Great Firewall’ – which regulates the nine gateways connecting China to the greater global internet community, blocking off access to sites with undesirable content. The amount of effort relegated to patrolling the internet

169 Some of these sites include: www.slashdot.com , www.boingboing.net and a variety of corporate blogs such as http://spaces.msn.com/mailcall/ , http://googleblog.blogspot.com/ . 170 Podcast: one could almost describe this as being internet radio. It is a method of distributing multimedia files over the internet for playback on devices such as mobile devices and personal computers. 171 Xiao Qiang, “The ‘blog’ revolution sweeps across China”, New Scientist , 24 November 2004.

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points to a fear that without sufficient control, dissenting voices would be able to gain control of the hearts and minds of the masses – a realistic and somewhat ironic worry, given the communist government’s own reliance on propaganda and the power of words. The crackdown of websites and blogs (in January 2003, access to blogspot.com was cut) did little to dampen the spirits of those who had found a means to make their voices heard. Blogging had become an addictive past-time for many Chinese; by November 2004, it was estimated that there were more than 90 million Chinese wired up for the internet, while there were 5 million bloggers in China. 172 Internet cafes proliferated in both urban and rural areas, mainly as the result of the official push to improve the delivery of technology and the country’s economic competitiveness. However, the online Chinese forums are normally self-regulated to keep site content acceptable to the censors, so that topics such as human rights, Falun Gong, democracy and Taiwanese independence are carefully filtered from the main channels of communications. Blog hosting services have cropped up with ever increasing frequency in China, and it has been the smaller companies who have had the best chances of escaping the censors as they do not face the same pressures on large companies to self-regulate and self-censor. No matter how the government tries to purge the internet of politically sensitive forums and blogs, it has proven difficult to ensure that they remain closed. When the controversial Yitahutu was shut down in September 2004, those who protested against the closure were able to get their dissatisfaction across as blogs started taking up the issue; there were simply far too many blogs for the government to block. 173

More recently, the Iraq war has provided fertile ground for bloggers to put forth their views about the situation on the ground, their views on changes in American foreign policies and George W. Bush. One of the most famous of the bloggers from this period was a 29 year old Iraqi man, using the pseudonym of Salam Pax. 174 He began his blog secretly while under the regime of Saddam Hussein, thereby risking great danger to bring reports of the inexorable march towards war and the transformation of a city brought down by chaos and fear. The blog, entitled “Where is Raed?” was styled as a series of observations he was recording for his friend Raed who was in Jordan at the time. At the same time, it was an irreverent look at the

172 Erwin Lemuel Olivia, “Blogs provide means for social change in China – blogger”, Inq7.net , 24 April 2006, available at http://news.inq7.net/infotech/index.php?index=1&story_id=73600 , retrieved on 26 April 2006. 173 Xiao Qiang, 2004. 174 Salam Pax, http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/ , retrieved 13 May 2006. Excerpts from the blog have also been published in book format: Salam Pax, The Baghdad Blog , Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2003.

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dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, from the inside, and because it was written in an anonymous fashion, Salam Pax could do what many commentators could not. He could criticize, provide satirical political commentary and observe from ground zero. The idea of a global readership, and a ready audience ready to consume the pithy comments made by Salam Pax led to a kind of celebrity status that transcended continental and social boundaries; he was cross-linked by bloggers with equally or larger readerships; he’s been discussed by CNN, , and the Village Voice .175 Since the ousting of Saddam Hussein, Salam Pax’s profile has soared higher with his work as a journalist for The Guardian. In February 2005, Salam Pax filmed a series of reports (produced by Guardian Films and transmitted by the BBC's Newsnight) which won the Royal Television Society Award for Innovation.

The Satirical and the “Bo-Chup” 176

The characteristics which contributed to Salam Pax’s popularity and readability are the very same ones that bloggers in Singapore share. The irreverence demonstrated by the political commentary, for instance, is also evident in the way Mr Brown and Mr Miyagi approached politics in Singapore. 177 While they could not be openly critical about the political situation in Singapore, they have managed to poke fun at the “Silliporean” way of life and political merry-go-round. The lead up to the recent general election on 6 May 2006 highlighted just how edgy the government felt about the use of new technologies like the internet to foster political discussion and provide a new forum for election coverage that is not sanctioned by the state. Even after the elections, this issue remained at the forefront as the local news network, Channel News Asia, aired on 12 May 2006 a documentary analysing the role of the internet during the elections just passed. 178 Prior to the elections, for instance, the government had made a point of stressing that podcasts which contained “persistent political content” was illegal. 179 Senior Minister of State for Information,

175 See for example an article by Peter Maas, “Salam Pax is Real”, The New Yorker, 2 June, 2003, available at http://www.slate.com/id/2083847/ , retrieved on 15 June 2006. 176 The term “bo-chup” (Hokkien) means literally to “not care”. In this case, it is curiously appropriate in relation to the discussion on Xiaxue’s website, given her own attitude towards her right to free speech on the internet. 177 BrownTown, http://www.mrbrown.com , My Very Own Glob {Curiosa Felicitas}, http://miyagi.sg/ , 178 Kevin Lim, “Citizen journalism during the Singapore General Elections 2006”, 19 May 2006, available at http://theory.isthereason.com/?p=984 , retrieved on 15 June 2006. 179 Mr Brown, “Chengdu News Asia sez: Podcasting not allowed during elections”, 3 April 2006, available at http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2006/04/chengdu_news_as.html , retrieved 15 June 2006. This was a commentary on the original article by Hasnita A Majid, “Podcasting is not allowed during elections”, 3

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Communications and the Arts, Balaji Sadasivan, laid out clearly what was considered to be the ‘positive list’ accepted as psrt of election advertising, making specific references to CMCs:

There are also some well-known local blogs run by private individuals who have ventured into podcasting. The content of some of these podcasts can be quite entertaining. However, the streaming of explicit political content by individuals during the election period is prohibited under the Election Advertising Regulations. A similar prohibition would apply to the videocasting or video streaming of explicitly political content. 180

In the general scheme of things, political websites are expected to register with the Media Development Authority (MDA), as well as "individuals, groups, organisations and corporations engaged in providing any programme for the propagation, promotion or discussion of political or religious issues relating to Singapore on the World Wide Web through the Internet." 181

Because blogs are considered to be in the realm of the personal, the standard of written language skills vary. For fun, some blogs are written in dialect. 182 For the purpose of this research, the blogs which I have looked at predominantly are written in English (or even in the loosest sense of – a combination of English and words from the local dialects/languages). The range of topics covered is also very broad spectrum, and despite the government’s close scrutiny of the web and its prohibitions about blogging about the General Election, bloggers did discuss it, albeit with careful self-censorship. With the generous use of humour, however, Singaporean bloggers Mr Brown and Mr Miyagi were able to continue using their regular podcasts to stream skits and commentary on the election climate in Singapore. 183 Some amount of care had been taken in the form of regularly reiterated disclaimers that what listeners were about to hear were ‘persistently non-political’ podcasts – an obvious reference to Senior Minister Sadasivan’s parliamentary warnings earlier. By prefacing each of the podcasts in the election series with this proviso, it may have been an attempt to prevent themselves from being sued or be accused of being too political. It helped too that the pair’s previous podcasts were humorous and light-hearted in nature. Mr Brown’s own blog, while highlighting issues brought up in the official media, rarely

April 2006, available at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/201330/1/.html , retrieved on 15 June 2006. 180 Majid, 2006, http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/201330/1/.html . 181 Media Development Authority, “Internet Policies and Guidelines”, Singapore, available at http://www.mda.gov.sg/wms.www/devnpolicies.aspx?sid=161#5 , retrieved on 16 June 2006. 182 Wa Si Hokkien Lang , http://hokkienlang.blogsome.com 183 Mr Brown, http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/ ; Mr Miyagi, http://miyagi.sg/

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ventured into harsh criticism of these same issues, nor did he try to politicise them. In the same way, the podcasts sought to lighten any unintended offence. Moreover, as a group, Singaporeans are known to frequently poke fun at their government (sometimes referred to the ‘gahment’, to themselves as ‘Sillyporeans’, and where the People’s Action Party (PAP) has been heard to be described as the Pay And Pay government with respect to the charges and taxes being levied). It becomes therefore palatable criticism vis-à-vis laughter.

Of the Brown/Miyagi ‘persistently non-political’ podcasts, many refer to real life events which had taken place over the course of the general election campaign period. 184 For example, Worker Party member, James Gomez, was accused by Deputy Prime Minister Wan Kan Seng of stage-managing his nomination fracas. 185 Evidence released by the electoral board contained witness statements and, more crucially, closed circuit television footage, showed Gomez being caught lying about the submission of his nomination forms. He had claimed that he had submitted them when in fact he had not; he later claimed that due to the media attention he received at the nomination venue, he had forgotten to put the forms in. Behind this drama was most likely Gomez’s own involvement in exposing the hypocrisy inherent in the state’s apparent encouragement of a wired-nation and the increased amount of internet and physical surveillance by the state. Since the mid-1990s, Gomez has written on a variety of topics, being particularly prolific in the field of internet surveillance. In his book, Internet Politics: Surveillance and Intimidation in Singapore , he details the scope of the watchful state eye, especially in relation to the set up of the Think Centre (both a business entity and an online site which “aims to critically examine issues related to political development, democracy, rule of law, human rights and civil society”) and the publication of the first book by the organization. 186 In any event, it was not hard to draw the conclusion that somehow Gomez’s activities had alarmed the government, and moreover in an election year. In any case, the ensuing drama was crystallized in the podcast skits about a character named Jeff Lopez, a thinly veiled pseudonym, who

184 Mr Brown, podcasts, http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/podcast/index.html , retrieved 19 June 2006. 185 S. Ramesh, ‘Gomez stage-managed Elections Department episode: DPM Wong’, 2 May 2006, available at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/206143/1/.html , retrieved on 16 June 2006. 186 James Gomez, Internet Politics: Surveillance and Intimidation in Singapore , Singapore: Think Centre, 2002. The book I refer to is also by Gomez, Self-Censorship: Singapore’s Shame (Singapore, 1999). He has detailed how the government tracked those with divisive political opinions, using the very technology they have been trying to develop the wired state. See also the Think Centre’s website, which defines its aims (as quoted above in-text) and its activities, http://www.thinkcentre.org , retrieved on 15 June 2007. As much of Gomez’s experiences with state surveillance has been documented in his writings, it makes for frightening reading and shows that perhaps the caution demonstrated by many

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is similarly caught. 187 While lampooning the obviousness of such legerdemain, it also effectively satirized the notion of the state being omniscient; humour, it seems, was one way in which bloggers could afford to comment on the election. Other bloggers have commented on the effect of humour in the podcasts, and slyly allude to the implied political commentary:

However conservative your country’s politics is, humour is like the backdoor to . Mr Brown did so with his “Bak Chor Mee podcast” which poked fun at the demise of James Gomez from the Worker’s Party, who fumbled with his election forms. 188

The now famous ‘Bak Chor Mee’ podcast has become a metaphor for the Singapore condition: where the simple act of ordering a local favourite dish (an analogy to getting on with the ordinary things in life) becomes complicated by the paranoia that Big Brother is watching. 189 By extension, the vendor in the podcast points out apologies are not enough and is a direct reference, again, to James Gomez; it raises the question, however, that as Gomez himself was not a candidate of the ruling party, then did he become fair game to bloggers since the risk of being prosecuted became less? Certainly Gomez himself seemed powerless against the state. The day after the election, when he was on his way to take up a new position in Sweden, he was stopped by the police who were investigating a complaint of ‘criminal intimidation’ against him. 190 He was questioned several times, each for a period of several hours by the police; he was eventually released without charge but was instead given a ‘stern warning’ for his behaviour at the Election Board ‘as he had been cooperative and had not committed any criminal offences before’. 191

Singaporeans is not unfounded. 187 Mr Brown, “browncast: the persistently non-political podcast no. 5”, 29 April 2006, available at http://media.libsyn.com/media/mb/tmbs-060429-the_persistently_non-political_podcast_no5.mp3 , retrieved 19 June 2006. 188 Kevin Lim, “Stephen Colbert vs. Mr Brown: What’s the point of political satire?” 9 May 2006, available at http://theory.isthereason.com/?p=958 , retrieved on 16 June 2006. 189 bak chor mee : a local dish consisting of flat egg noodle (‘ mee pok ’) served with minced meat, pork slices, pork liver (‘ tur kwa ’), sliced mushrooms, meat balls, beansprouts, and a slice of lettuce. Pork liver is an ingredient that customers choose not to have added to their dish as it is a highly acquired taste. In the podcast, a customer orders a bowl of bak chor mee, but only reminds the vendor that he does not want pork liver after the dish has been prepared; the vendor then accuses the customer of not saying earlier, and threatens to pull out evidence from CCTV to prove that the customer is a liar. Mr Brown, “browncast: the persistently non-political podcast no. 6”, 1 May 2006, available at http://media.libsyn.com/media/mb/tmbs-060501-the_persistently_non-political_podcast_no6.mp3 , retrieved 19 June 2006. 190 Lee Ching Wern, “James Gomez under police investigation”, 8 May 2006, available at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/207142/1/.html , retrieved 9 July 2006. 191 Valerie Tan, “WP's Gomez let off with stern warning in run-in with Elections Dept”, 12 May 2006, available at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/207972/1/.html , retrieved 9 July 2006.

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The satirical nature of these podcasts highlights the irony of the nature of political competition in Singapore. In the third podcast (27 April), the political ambitions of the Lee family is spoofed in a short send up about the Greek gods on Olympus. 192 The analogy is clear: Lee Kuan Yew is clearly appellated as Zeus, while his son and current Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong is Apollo. The ‘pagan gods’ referred to are the Opposition, while Aries (god of war) and Hermes (messenger to the gods and humans, also the god of commerce) are thinly veiled PAP ministers. Olympus therefore becomes the divine (and thus spiritual right) abode from which the chose few would institute their rule. While the skit certainly made people laugh, it was also careful to imply that no offence was intended:

Yet another Persistently Non-Political Podcast (PNPP) GE bulletin, this is number 3.

Zeus announces Apollo's ascension to the throne at the next spring festival and asks the mortals of Ancient Greece for their support. A totally fictional educational podcast on Greek Mythology . [my italics]

This audio podcast does not contain "persistent political content" because that is prohibited during the election period under the Singapore's Election Advertising Regulations. Remember, prison got no broadband! 193

Many blogs do not aim to be as amusing in parody or even attempt to inform in an educational way which Mr Brown’s does. One of the most popular Singaporean blogs belongs to Wendy Cheng, who goes by the online moniker of Xiaxue (‘snow’ in Mandarin). The site has, over the last three years, won a number of online awards for being the ‘best Asian design’ blog (2005), ‘best Asian blog’ (2004), and ‘best Singaporean blog’ (2003). The hit count (number of visits to the site) up to 10 July numbered over six million, while in that one day her site can average over 12,000 visits. While Mr Brown’s blog has an urbane, slightly self-effacing manner to his writing, Xiaxue has relied on force of personality to communicate her views. She has not been one to shirk from controversy or her use of profanities. She has also been quite forward in flaunting her own charms:

I am Xiaxue, female, 21, absolutely delicious.

I am Xiaxue, a member of Mensa Singapore.

I am Xiaxue, morning star, bringer of light.

192 Mr Brown, “browncast: the persistently non-political podcast no. 3”, 27 April 2006, available at http://media.libsyn.com/media/mb/tmbs-060427-the_persistently_non-political_podcast_no3.mp3 , retrieved 19 June 2006. 193 Mr Brown, podcasts, http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/podcast/index.html , retrieved 19 June 2006.

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I am Xiaxue, and I know you love my quotes, because this is the 3rd time you are seeing this in your F5-punching marathon.

Self-promotion has been characteristic of her blog and her real-life persona. Xiaxue quite blatantly states:

I wrote for TNPS, Maxim, and SNAG magazine as a columnist. You can invite me to give talks or workshops about blogging, because someone killed the oldest blogger and Singapore Fashion Week made me the ultimate expert. I also do hosting, writing, and photoediting freelance. Do invite me to events as media, and if I like it I will blog it! Shower me with the latest products and invite me to the greatest parties!!

To date, she has done a number of photo shoots, interviews and media appearances: she even has a section on her blog detailing her appearances in the media, much like a scrapbook. 194 She claims that she is a full time blogger and derives her income solely from that. 195 More and more, Xiaxue has proven that she is willing to bluntly speak her mind about everyday happenings, in an unrestrained and uncompromising way. Profanities are not always the exception; she makes no apologies for saying what she does, claiming that her blog and the internet afford her the right to do so because it is an uncensored medium. Her entry for 6 July 2006 propounds in a very rant-like manner her view on her right to use the language she chooses to online, all the while making offensive remarks about domestic servants, parents, the elderly and lawyers. While her brand of blogging fervour has earned her many fans, it has also earned her a number of enemies. What is clear, however, is that there is a community of internet users who are very involved in the spectacle that is Xiaxue’s blog.

What draws the community together is that arguing for and against support for Xiaxue creates a sense of rapport between them. This manifests itself in the comment function that is prevalent in many blogs. Other bloggers who comment on Xiaxue on their own blogs generate comments from other readers, and so the commentary proliferates. The links inherent in such entries also sometimes provide a pathway back to the original Xiaxue post, thereby creating an almost historical map of who said what, when it was said, and so on. The only problem with this is that the process is hardly linear and requires some skill to reconstitute the development of the original controversy. Furthermore, the comments and responses from other bloggers and readers work in a lateral manner, going across a cross-section of the blogging

194 Xiaxue, “Xiaxue Media Centre”, available at http://www.xiaxue-media.blogspot.com/ , retrieved on 10 July 2006. 195 Xiaxue, “Xiaxue’s FAQs!” 26 September 2005, available at http://www.xiaxue-faqs.blogspot.com/ , retrieved on 10 July 2006.

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community, rather than a straight downward path from the current reader to a later reader. Multiple readings could be taking place and multiple responses could be generated. What this does is create a sense of connection between readers who might be online at the same time. In a thread of comments, for instance, replies could be almost instantaneous, and for every thread of commentary that is multiplied several times across the internet, it is easy to see how the community can grow as readers new to the controversy are drawn in.

A search of Xiaxue’s archives revealed very little about her political persuasion during the period of the 2006 General ; there were no references in her April and May 2006 archives about it. Instead, she has gained notoriety with an attempted hacking of her blog, as well as highly colourful and derogatory remarks about other races; she has also been accused of impersonating another blogger to tarnish their reputation. 196 Her has come under scrutiny by both the media and other bloggers. 197 An online petition was set up to ‘ban Wendy Cheng, of www.xiaxue.blogspot.com, from public places such as and for the public media to stop publicising her site’, in wake of her remarks linking foreign workers to the molestation of women in Orchard Road. 198 The media has labelled her xenophobic, but in the furore created by her original post on the 1 January 2006, she attempted to moderate the vociferousness of her initial view:

But stating that a lot of the foreign workers in Orchard are molesters IS NOT RACISM, IT IS FACT.

Facts that cannot be denied just because you are scared of being labelled a racist.

Realise that we practice discrimination every single day. We discriminate looks, education, intellect, dressing, and a lot more.

196 Liew Hanqing, “Celebrity Bloggers Strike Back”, The New Paper , 30 July 2005, available at http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,92315,00.html , retrieved 11 July 2006; Xialanxue, “Of Impersonators and a Certain Petition”, 11 January 2006, available at http://xialanxue.blogspot.com/2006/01/of-impersonators-and-certain-petition.html , retrieved on 6 July 2006. 197 Benjamin James Saram, “Avoid Sowing the Seeds of Hate”, Today Online , 16 January 2006, available at http://www.todayonline.com/articles/95394.asp , retrieved on 6 July 2006; Nakorius, “Flabbergasted and more shocking revelations...”, 6 January 2006, available at http://nakorius.blogspot.com/2006/01/flabbergasted-and-more-shocking.html , retrieved on 6 July 2006; F.A.G., “Banning of Wendy Cheng Or XiaXue”, 11 January 2006, available at http://wenular.blogspot.com/2006/01/banning-of-wendy-cheng-or-xiaxue.html , retrieved on 6 July 2006. 198 Xiaxue, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, Orchard Road”, 1 January 2006, available at http://xiaxue.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_xiaxue_archive.html, retrieved on 12 July 2006; Laurel Sim, “Ban on Wendy Cheng xiaxue.blogspot.com”, available at http://www.petitiononline.com/BanXX/petition.html , retrieved on 6 July 2006; “157 seek Orchard Rd ban for Xiaxue”, Today Online , 18 January 2006, available at http://www.todayonline.com/articles/95806.asp , retrieved on 12 July 2006.

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Modelling agencies do not employ the ugly (superifical); Mensa does not welcome people with low IQ (elitism), Platinum card owners do not allow the poor to join their ranks (elitism), SIA does not employ short girls (don't know what this is called) but Ikea alone is wrong in not employing in France to do deliveries?

Is it really ok to discriminate these other things and not race?

Food for thought. 199

As Saram points out, Xiaxue is incorrect on several claims she made, but more so, she believes racist views are comparable to corporate practices, and the reduction of the race debate to such simplistic terms is plainly worrying. 200

The backlash that followed this issue demonstrated just how cohesive the Singapore online community had become. There was recognition that social standards – in this case, that racism should not be tolerated – must be observed, even on the internet. The ideal of freedom of speech, or to be uncensored, for views to be unedited and unfiltered, remains as much an ideal on the internet as it is in the real world. The rules which bind a community together, the conventions and the practices, remain as much visible online as it does in physical communities. Clearly, participation in the forums, commenting on each other’s blogs, and the drama that ensues when one blogger contravenes a perceived boundary, are as much manifestations of belonging to a community, albeit a small one.

The language and syntax evident in blogs like Xiaxue’s also make it clear that the community is very Singaporean in nature. To belong to such a community assumes that one understands the discourse of the internet; a passport to the internet requires a basic level of computer literacy – the higher this is, the more dynamic one’s presence on the net. In 2005, there were 2,421,800 internet users in Singapore; in the same period, 74% of households have computer access, while 66% had internet connectivity. 201 The notion of an online civil society is not so far fetched. What cannot be discussed with as much fervour in real life is possible online. The level of critical commentary raised by Xiaxue’s and Mr Brown’s blogs varies from the truly simple (agreement or disagreement) to the irrational, offensive and to long, intelligent, well

199 Xiaxue, “Belated Xmas Photos”, 3 January 2006, available at http://xiaxue.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_xiaxue_archive.html , retrieved on 12 July 2006. 200 Saram, 2006. 201 “CIA – The World Fact Book – Singapore”, available at http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/sn.html , retrieved on 12 July 2006; Inforcomm Development Authority of Singapore, “Annual Survey on Infocomm Usage in Households and by Individuals for 2005”, available at http://www.ida.gov.sg/idaweb/factfigure/infopage.jsp?infopagecategory=&infopageid=I3760&versionid=1

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thought out replies. But such instinctual responses from the readers suggest that the issues are ones close to the heart of online Singaporeans, and the internet has been able to give them a forum to voice views that might not otherwise be heard. Moreover, there is no requirement from any overarching authority that one has to be ‘logical’ or ‘rational’ in order to post a comment or create a blog. The only censure would come from the community itself who reads and comments in return.

Unlike using the Speaker’s Corner in Hong Lim Park (which is severely limited to fulfilling several restrictions – registration with the police, a blanket prohibition on religious content, speeches being subject to national laws with respect to racial harmony), the internet’s ‘free’ space becomes personal space, where the lack of official barriers on the choice of words and a sense of anonymity becomes liberates voices which may have been disenfranchised and silenced by fear. The nature of blogs therefore to allow controversial subjects which have little room to be explored in traditional media to be explored in relative safety. Relative, because even the internet in Singapore is moderated and patrolled somewhat by the government. While Xiaxue may have gotten away with raising the issue of race in her own inimitable manner, others have not been so lucky; earlier in October 2005, a number of Singaporean bloggers were charged under the Act for posting racist remarks online. 202

The online community has however spilled into real life. Anonymity is not as easy to preserve in a small nation as Singapore, and while there are a few Singaporean bloggers who still keep a tight reign on their real identities, bloggers like Mr Brown, Mr Miyagi and Xiaxue have all participated in a live convention, Bloggers.SG 2005 (16 July 2005), where bloggers came together to meet one another, and to discuss issues relevant to bloggers today. There are now also Singaporean metablog, (for example, http://tomorrow.sg and http://singapore.metblogs.com) in which all bloggers can post items of interest to Singaporean, about Singapore, providing links and snippets to other blogs that they have found to be of interest. Tomorrow.sg was the first of its kind for the Singaporean blogging community and it has proven to be a popular website and given rise to a vibrant community who share what they find useful and interesting, as well as the bizarre and mind-boggling. It has a running list of top contributors for the last 30 days. Controversies have also dogged the site, due to some of the content that has been

, retrieved on 10 July 2006. 202 Vivian Yeo, “S’pore blogger jail for posting racist remarks”, ZDNet Asia , 8 October 2005, available at http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/internet/0,39044246,39275748,00.htm , retrieved on 12 July 2006.

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reposted, and from a glance at the comments and reactions, the discussions generated suggests a thriving community of bloggers who read each other’s pages and feel they have the freedom to voice their opinions. This has in effect been a move towards further realizing a Singaporean blogosphere. 203

Of Community Building and the Nation

The media has always been the foremost outlet for the propagation and promotion of the kind of ideals and values that the government has deemed necessary for the future of Singapore. Advertising campaigns, while nothing new in other countries, seem to be taken to a whole new level when considered in the context of the longevity of some of them. The control over which the state has over the usual media outlets means that it is with relative ease that they can direct how they want nation-building to proceed. The community which results from this is one which has been able to live in fairly harmonious manner. While there may have been some issues with sometimes draconian tactics to ensure compliance, it is also safe to say that Singapore has come a remarkable distance to be a prosperous and peaceful nation. It is evident, however, that there remain voices who might otherwise go against the grain, whether or not they feel that they are being unfairly treated by the state. The advent of the internet has provided a place where some may go to have their voices heard, although the audience can be a relatively small one. Yet in the case of popular bloggers, there is a potential for them to incite a much wider and rowdier response to their own opinions and therein the danger lies. For the time being, there is little that can be done, from the state’s point of view, to control opinions and views on the internet – they are unlikely to reach the level of control that is observed in China, for instance. Dangers to the government aside, it is also apparent that the Singaporean blogosphere is a community to be treated with respect. The fact that there is now a blogosphere, and there are bloggers who have become celebrities as a result of their activities online, mean that a small but growing community and possibly a sense of social cohesion has sprung up to make the Singapore blogging community feel more Singaporean and collective as a group. It might not quite be a nation online, but they are certainly feeling nationalistic. Indeed, it almost seems an extension of Anderson’s original thesis that the print presses led to the growth of

203 The term ‘blogosphere’ is one which has been coined in 1999 by Brad L. Graham as a joke; however, the term really took off in 2002 and has since be used to refer to a community of bloggers and

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literacy and civic-consciousness; the growth of the tech media has further extrapolated the communal-mindedness of communities which have mushroomed in the wake of the internet boom. Together with the continued promotion of shared values and multiracialism, as illustrated in the following chapter, a general civic-consciousness has not been difficult to build and maintain. Yet amidst all the campaigns to encourage nation-building, there is a strong emphasis on patriarchal control and where gender is sometimes subsumed by the rhetoric employed.

their blogs.

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Chapter Three  Multiculturalism and Meritocracy: Values to Live By

A New Beginning

In retrospect, there appears to be a demarcation between the way Lee Kuan Yew’s government and the second generation leaders have approached the task of nation-building in Singapore. Under Lee, there was great caution in the way social and political issues were dealt with in case they were construed as chauvinistic and this has not changed to a great degree. Western observers have therefore labelled the social and political atmosphere in Singapore as controlled, secretive and repressive. Where gender is not addressed, and social values are invoked, in a sense, women become the silent witness and patriarchal discourse prevails. The first part of this chapter therefore is illustrative of this silence; and when women are mentioned, even though they are included in the public face of the family unit, women remain subtracted from the overall image. The family unit is considered the cornerstone of the social communal order, yet women are frequently publicly absent; therefore, there is all the more reason to examine where women are in the parameters of the benevolent patriarchal discourse – to examine the space they occupy.

The geo-political situation Singapore found itself in during the early years of independence has improved to such a degree that today Singaporeans no longer need to worry excessively about survival in a predominantly Malay region. 204 Better education, higher standards of living, greater access to news and information through a less restrictive media has acclimatized modern Singaporeans to the fact that they are living in much better times than previous generations. Moreover, economic and social mobility have led them to be more conscious and vocal about the status quo. There have been more audible demands for change by the people, especially through the NMPs, parapolitical structures and ethnic associations. It would seem ironic that a

204 Singapore’s place within Southeast Asia is extremely sensitive to racial differences. It has weathered the Asian economic crisis of 1997-1998 remarkably well in contrast to its neighbours and hence feels that its superior economic position allows it to be less influenced by its geo-political position. In September and October 1998, however, the tensions created by the sacking, arrest and trial of former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has again swung the pendulum towards greater caution on the part of the Singapore government.

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government so used to having the final say over its generally meek and docile population - either because of fear, complacency or cautiousness - should suddenly find that government apparatus are being used to channel articulate calls for change. One of the reasons for this is the more relaxed and consultative political climate generated under Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.

Time and again Goh has stressed that his government would be a more consultative style of government than his predecessors but not because of any clash of ideological differences. Indeed, this has more likely been the result of the transformation of economic and social realities in Singapore. Incredible economic and infrastructural growth has contributed to individual prosperity and better ethnic relations although the government has started to grow concerned over economic disparities within and between ethnic groups. 205 In the case of ethnic relations, much must be attributed to the firmness of Lee’s leadership of the PAP and its promise to institutionalize multiracialism and meritocracy. These are the two founding principles that have driven Singapore to the position that it has today. They are also ideals which the new leadership is keen to maintain for they form the basis of the Asian values that have been articulated for nation-building purposes. The longer Goh remained in power, the more obvious that there was a significant difference in the way he and Lee attempted to Asianize Singapore. 206

Lee Kuan Yew’s government concentrated on implementing integrative policies to keep the different ethnic segments of Singapore society together and to foster a Singaporean identity: from the quota policies of the HDB, language and bilingual policies in education, to national service and mass propaganda. While some of these efforts have not been without controversy, they have gone a long way towards ensuring that many, especially those born there since 1965, see Singapore as their homeland and accord it with respect and loyalty it deserves. What Goh has attempted to do is to replicate much of the same feelings inherent in the concept of multiracialism, but along the lines of more abstract ideological value inculcation. Placing more emphasis on the reorientation of values has come about primarily

205 The effect of the 1997 economic crisis has yet to be fully revealed. Amidst retrenchment and the downsizing of salaries, it seems likely that disparities will continue to manifest themselves, if not actually widen. 206 Raj Vasil uses the term “Asianize” in the title of his book ( Asianizing Singapore: The PAP’s Management of Ethnicity , Singapore: Heinemann Asia, 1995). According to him, the PAP has been successful in the management of ethnicity in Singapore, especially with respect to mitigating the viciousness and savagery common in ethnic conflict. Although he admits that there is a great deal of Chinese influence in the direction the PAP has taken, the overall effort has been to seek an Asian rather than a Chinese cultural and value system to consolidate a Singaporean identity.

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because of an environment which is now suitable for more open debates about subjects once restricted or self-censored in the mass media. Ethnic integration too has fallen by the wayside. Integration into Singaporean society, and thus being identified as a Singaporean, is still desired but no longer at the expense of losing one’s cultural heritage. Vasil quotes a top-ranking leader of the government as saying in January 1994:

Not many people think of ethnic integration in Singapore. The Chinese want to remain Chinese, the Malays want to remain Malay and the Indians want to remain Indian. Who are the people in Singapore who want to be integrated, and into what? So in Singapore, the issue is not that of integration. The real question is how Singaporeans can be made to retain their distinctive identities, cultures and heritages as equals and showing understanding of each other. 207

The new leaders were therefore content to continue and improve on the policies introduced by the first generation leaders. Identification with a single, distinctive identity has been a very important guiding point. With greater openness to discuss what values and ideals constitute the Singapore identity, Goh encouraged public debate on national ideology and attempted to safeguard ethnic values and traditions within this framework.

This chapter will therefore explore the philosophical, cultural and ideological underpinnings of government policies, while looking at more recent methods of value reorientation. Firstly, I will delve into two of Singapore’s founding principles - multiracialism and meritocracy - and the debate over the east/west dichotomy. The value system encapsulated by such complicated concepts has frequently been rendered simplistically in black and white terms to better facilitate the development of a criteria of preferred qualities and values; for instance, in civic values education. It has become clear, however, that in holding to such an agenda, it has been easier for the state to push for its view of multiracialism and meritocracy; under these two discourses, it has also been easier to ‘manage’ ethnicity, race and identity. They have also been helpful in straightening out perceived grievances between the different race groups.

Yet as with most post-colonial societies, the preoccupation with a value system is directly a result of the fear of encroaching Westernization and its accompanying values. Thus the second part of this chapter will look at efforts in the late 1980s and

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1990s to shore up what Lee Kuan Yew and his colleagues had set in motion to cultivate a national identity and nation-building; that is, these efforts were to act as a ‘cultural’ ballast that would defend against the Western values deemed incompatible with Asian values. The legislation and policies put in place have tended to echo the kind of preferred value system derived from the east/west debate in Singapore. The Religious Knowledge Programme, Religious Harmony Bill and White Paper on Shared Values have, in this way, proposed attitudes and behaviour which were a culmination of the search for these values.

As the debates have raged on, it has become apparent that much of it is constructed along a patriarchal and Confucian discourse. Value-re-orientation has not specifically addressed the issue of gender, except perhaps through women as part of the family unit. As such, the third part of this chapter will discuss how value reorientation has affected women, principally through the family unit. For instance, how have women fared under the paternalistic aegis of the PAP? The PAP's primary concern has been nation-building, but it lacks a comprehensive development of gender-sensitive policy in decision-making processes. 208 Nation-building policies have been issued for the sake of collective consciousness, and where it has impacted on women, government rhetoric has essentially articulated concerns as an integral part of family sociology. I argue, however, that in some cases, efforts by the government to entrench Asian values in its national ideology have in fact gendered some policies to the extent that women have been consistently disadvantaged. Yet in the context of women’s magazines, the magazines appear to be an outlet for women to indicate what empowers and represses them, as well as provide a means through which they may feminize themselves against the masculinity epitomized by the state. These issues will be dealt with in the following chapter where a full discussion and analysis of local women’s magazines from different periods in Singapore’s past will demonstrate the kind of messages the magazines are sending out – messages which are oftentimes mixed signals due to the range of content usually available.

207 Quoted in Vasil, 1995, p. 102. 208 Soin, 1996, p. 207.

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Part 1: The Dichotomy Between East and West

Following in Lee Kuan Yew’s Footsteps: Multiracialism and Meritocracy

There are two major principles that continue to dominate the minds of Singapore leaders and the people: multiracialism and meritocracy. From the time the PAP was founded, the substantial number of Chinese people in the population did not mean that a Chinese state could be created in view of its geopolitical position in Southeast Asia. Instead, they sought to refute the “ideology of a mono-culture, mono- lingual and mono-racial people ruled by an authoritarian state.” 209 Vasil argues that as a founding principle

[multiracialism] had a special virtue that... did not necessarily have to be altered in the future... [and] from a public policy perspective, its broadbased nature was again a special asset as it made it possible for the founding principle to be adapted and reinterpreted periodically to meet the requirements of the changing ethnic and political realities of Singapore in the future. 210

The concept of multiracialism was to convey to the Malay states and Indonesia that Singapore would not be a third China, and to provide a dominant ideology to unite the different elements of Singaporean society. In the first instance, the PAP was perceived as less threatening in both the eyes of the minorities within Singapore and other ethnic groups in the surrounding regions. Promotion of multiracialism, indicated the PAP’s determination to be fair, just and reasonable. In the long run it justified Lee’s pragmatic philosophy, but satisfying racial concerns was critical in 1965 and remains so in the 1990s. Such an ideological framework also meant that minority groups had little opportunity to agitate on the grounds of unfair racial discrimination; rather, the intent was to encourage a greater sense of identification with Singapore.

Not only have Goh and current government leaders continued to promote multiracialism as a national principle, they have also come to see it as a useful asset in furthering social objectives and continuing the country’s spectacular economic growth and prosperity. Through community self-help groups like MENDAKI, CDAC and SINDA, the state has capitalized on the fact that each ethnic group has a desire to improve themselves and a strong ethnic identity that lends itself to setting up a government-sponsored organization to do so. Internationally, Singapore’s multiracial

209 K.C. Lee (Minister of State Culture), National Culture is a Multi-Racial Society , Singapore: Ministry of Culture, 1967, p. 1. 210 Vasil, 1995, pp. 26-27; Lai Ah Eng (1995, p.179) also has the same opinion.

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aspect has given it credibility when it comes to dealing with the region. A senior member of the government has said:

[Singapore’s multi-racial populace] gives us an easy understanding of a variety of peoples, those in East Asia through our Chinese, those in the South Asian sub-continent through our Indians and others, and those in the Malay world of Southeast Asia through our indigenous Malays. That understanding gives us special access to those regions... We can successfully and profitably deal with a variety of Asian peoples and build up mutually beneficial trade and other economic relationships with them. If we were all Chinese in Singapore, it would not have been that easy for Prime Minister Goh to lead the large group of Singaporeans that is India today to create a new era of close economic cooperation between Singapore and India. 211

Like multiracialism, meritocracy is another one of Singapore’s founding myths. It complements multiracialism by providing a structure whereby social mobility is dictated by hard work; ostensibly, no ethnic group has an unfair advantage over another. Citizenship could have arisen out of a shared “golden past” but in the case of Singapore, it was not appropriate. Meritocracy ensures therefore a future where all members of the nation could participate actively, fully and without the kinds of social divisions that marred Singapore’s early post-colonial history. Meritocracy would “articulate their [the PAP’s] conception of the nation.” 212 Economic success and hard work - two interrelated ethos - are implicit in the government’s elevation of meritocracy into a national creed; nation-building and loyalty to a state that has given its people prosperity is thus conveyed by the realization that economic success is independent of the colour of one’s skin, but relies on one’s skills and abilities. This has had the effect of depoliticizing ethnicity while enhancing the doctrine of equal rights.

The PAP has held onto meritocracy steadfastly despite calls for concessions from the Malay community. 213 Concessions are not to be confused with government support for ethnic self-help groups. In the latter case, the government sees no contradiction in giving financial aid to organizations such as MENDAKI and AMP. The privileges demanded by the Malays stem from evidence of past censuses which reveal how they are lagging educationally and economically behind the Chinese and the Indians. The growth of Individualism is a consequence of exam-oriented results, the importance of paper qualifications, the special treatment given to “scholar” civil

211 Quoted in Vasil, 1994, p. 152. 212 Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 31. 213 Anecdotally, there is also evidence that class differences also make a difference in the way meritocracy is perceived; it is however beyond the scope of this thesis to examine this.

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servants and government emphasis on rewarding the best and the brightest. 214 The The government’s refusal to accord special status to the Malays has been justified on the grounds that it would be harmful to them in the long term, impede economic progress, and be difficult to abolish once it becomes entrenched. 215

Nevertheless, the irony is that a meritocratic society inevitably contains the very elements that encourage future generations to be more self-involved and concerned with individual desires over communal needs. Regular exhortations by the government to be aware of egoistic individualism and other degenerative Western influences can be seen in this light. It is hoped that ethnic and cultural origins, once anchored firmly in the private sphere, will allow Singaporeans to remain focused on building a strong identity that would withstand battering from the West. Yet the supposed ideological equality expressed in multiracialism and meritocracy remains impure in practice. There are constant reminders that the Malays are discriminated against: few can be found in the top ranks of the civil service and the military. 216 In the private sector too there exists prejudice in employing Malays because of perceived laziness. The lighter the colour of one’s skin, the easier it is get along in society.

Ethnic Identification in Multiracialism

Multiracialism - not to be confused with multiculturalism - as a way of according equal status to all has developed into a highly sophisticated and integrated system of ideas that is invested with a great deal of structural and symbolic power. 217 The nature of the “multi-” in multiracialism has been institutionalized in the CMIO (Chinese, Malay, Indian and Other) classification. 218 Lai emphasizes that this too is open to adaptation

214 Each year, a number of top junior college students are awarded tertiary scholarships by the government. Unlike many countries where scholarship students are assessed on their financial background (for example, if they faced financial hardships, they have a better chance), government scholars in Singapore do not necessarily come from an impoverished background. On completion of their tertiary studies in prestigious (local and international) universities, almost all return to work for the government for part of the scholarship entails a bond of some sort. There are also many instances of scholars “buying” themselves out of such a bond by repaying the cost of scholarship. Government scholars are placed in prime positions in government ministries. In fact, their career paths have been mapped and they are essentially groomed for important roles in the governance of Singapore. This is further evidence of a technocratic elite perpetuating the conditions for its continuation. 215 Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 102. 216 Li, 1989, p. 109. 217 Lai, 1995, p. 178. 218 Sharon Siddique, “Singaporean Identity,” in Sandhu & Wheatley (eds), 1989, pp. 563-577. The classification is a legacy of colonial administration. Because colonial Singapore was essentially composed of migrants, the CMIO classification made it easier for the authorities to keep track of and administrate the settlement.

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and refinement in the face of change. 219 Like meritocracy, it has been called one of Singapore’s founding myths, and it certainly functions as a myth of nationhood. 220 Essentially CMIO multiracialism proposes four categories which underscores and orders diversity within Singapore. In doing so, it creates nationhood among people where there initially was little or none. The four categories are multiracialism, multiculturalism, multilingualism and multireligiousity. They recognize diversity but they also force differences between the ethnic communities so that they can be accommodated under predetermined labels. The category of race on Singaporean identity cards, for instance, accepts only CMIO labels. This has particularly piqued those who have been lumped together as “others”, such as Americans, Australians and those with Middle-Eastern origins (Arab Muslims).

Multiracialism has also become a useful cultural identity for . Successful image management has projected an international reflection of Singapore that is culturally vibrant, a place where tourists are able to indulge in the exotic East and yet at the same time feel safe and familiar in a safe, modern cosmopolitan city. Commodification of ethnicity, through the celebration of complementary cultural differences, substitutes the usual geography and landscape that generally appeals to tourists who visit Australia or the . 221 This very aspect, however, also leads to ethnic groupings being reinterpreted to fit the context of tourism. Official brochures and websites on the internet promoting Singapore as a tourist destination reinforce the impression of the CMIO classification, in effect blurring out the boundaries of dialect, regional and caste groups. The Singapore Tourist Promotion Board (STPB) hence defines significant parts of Singapore ethnically: shopping regions, places of worship, festivals and food. 222 When a Singaporean travels overseas, they are Singaporean, and the further away they travel, they are more singularly Singaporean. Hence while there remains one over-arching Singaporean communal identity that is evident from without, from within, the one community is fragmented into several. Yet within the state, differentiation between is both institutionalized and socialized; from the living environment, to education and legal

219 Lai, 1995, p. 179. 220 Geoffrey Benjamin, “The Cultural Logic of Singapore’s ‘Multiracialism’,” in Hassan Riaz (ed.), Singapore: Society in Transition , Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1976, pp. 116. 221 Lawrence Wai-Teng Leong, “Commodifying Ethnicity: State and Ethnic ”, in Michel Picard and Robert E. Wood (eds), Tourism, Ethnicity and the State in Asian and Pacific Societies , Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997, p. 83-85. 222 There are a number of shopping enclaves that are identified ethnically: Road (Indian), People’s Park and Chinatown (Chinese), Arab Street and Geylang Serai (Muslim and Malay). Religious shrines are similarly labelled but in reality may be used by other groups: (Malay, but also

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classification.

Commodifying ethnicity for tourism is fundamentally for marketability. 223 Peranakan culture, for instance has been reconstructed to meet the need for exotica in tourism. The , also known as the Straits Chinese, have long historical roots in Southeast Asia by virtue of their early settlement in the region (in the Straits Settlement of Singapore, and Penang), and consequently they do not have strong ties to China. They draw their ancestry from British, Portuguese, Chinese and Malay roots. In modern Singapore, they have been ignored as a distinct racial identity by the PAP’s social and economic policies. On their identity cards, they are categorized as Chinese although many are unable to speak or read Mandarin as Malay is their mother tongue. 224 Theirs is a hybrid culture; for example, their cuisines both integrate Malay and Chinese elements. While one can argue that under tourism the Peranakans have been able to find a way to celebrate their culture and defy being mislabelled in the CMIO classification, the state has imposed limits on how they can develop and what features to retain. 225

While equality is supposedly accorded no matter one’s race, religion or language, there is an assumption that any particular race would correspond to one culture, one language and one religion. Because multiracialism denotes division into races, it has significant implications for the kind of values, both communal and national, that the government has tried to inculcate. The value system that is considered most meaningful and appropriate is therefore derived from their racial status and religious affiliations. The Chinese would presumably subscribe to Confucian ethics, the Malays to Islamic values and the Indians to their traditional beliefs. The 1980s Religious Programme, implemented to reinforced supposedly core

attended by Indian Muslims) and St. Andrew’s Cathedral (“other” but draws in worshippers of various ethnicity). 223 Leong, 1997, p. 91. 224 It is ironic that the younger generation of Peranakan educated under the PAP’s bilingual education policy have had to learn Mandarin as it constitutes their mother tongue. At home, many do not speak it, preferring baba Malay (a mixture of Malay and Hokkien) or English. 225 A row of Peranakan houses at Emerald Hill escaped demolition in the beautification of Orchard Road as a tourist thoroughfare. Instead, much of it has been conserved and renovated to the standards of Peranakan style. Many of the ones that face Orchard Road have been pulled down, however, but the Urban Redevelopment Authorities has constructed new buildings that capture Peranakan architectural style. I lived there for a month while I was doing research in Singapore for this thesis. I noted that buildings near the junction of Orchard Road were extremely colourful and had been reconstructed to reflect the nostalgia of a bygone era. Some were for commercial purposes ( and pubs). Further up the slope where most of the residential properties were located, many had been renovated too, but at the owners’ expense. Despite being so close to a busy and crowded shopping district, as one walks further along Emerald Hill there is a sense of slipping into a quiet serenity that is the antithesis of the chaos surrounding Centrepoint (the closest shopping complex on Orchard Road). For

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ethnic values, acknowledged this, yet subsequently proved to the government how erroneous this supposition could be. It has not, however, stopped the government from further propagating Confucianism amongst the Chinese.

The government has thus far implemented multiracialism as both ideology and policy; because “the PAP government has been able to espouse [it] as an ideal and simultaneously operationalize it consistently... it has indeed become a structural feature of society”. 226 Policies are manifested in what Lai terms the “Rituals of Multiracialism”: national symbols, national service, mass propaganda and public housing. 227 Multiracialism has also led to a depoliticization of ethnicity. Because ethnicity is depoliticized, other subgroups are similarly treated; gender thus becomes subsumed to the point of non-existence. The lack of an effective ‘women’s voice’ in parliament as well as non-governmental organizations may well have led to gender becoming a non-issue in these rituals of multiracialism. In ostentatious displays of multiracialism, through festival and food for instance, women may be seen as participants and as being part of the community of colour and diversity. However, they are not singularly given due considerations for their differences and what they bring to multiracialism. Instead, the government raises the overarching framework of multiracialism to primarily prevent any ethnic group from pushing their interests at the expense of others and to the detriment of the state’s political and economic viability. Ethnic autonomy, and hence gender considerations within ethnic groups, is thus limited. 228

Depoliticization has also marginalized the cultural practices of the ethnic groups to the private domain. As with the case of tourism, traditional rituals, festivals and customs lack political significance and are of interest only because of their artistic and cultural values. In the various tourism promotional campaigns undertaken by the STPB, each ethnic group is clearly labelled and there is no overlapping. Their traditions and festivities are reduced to the merely colourful and interesting, of things to see, flavours to experience.

The challenge for the PAP has been to find a balance in actively supporting the cultural heritages (and by implication the inherently masculine value system) of each ethnic community without privileging one over another. It is in this area that the

a history of the area see Lee Kip Lin, Emerald Hill: The Story of a Street in Words and Pictures , Singapore: National Museum, 1984. 226 Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 95. 227 Lai, 1995, p. 180.

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government has run into public controversy. The Speak Mandarin Campaigns and the government’s frequent comments about the durability of certain Chinese/Confucian values illustrate how easily an appeal to one group can be construed as ethnic discrimination.

East and West: A Cultural Debate

The promotion of Confucianism by a predominantly Chinese leadership, especially by the Goh government, has worried the Malays in particular. From the state’s point of view, cultural affirmation serves only to address the greater and more pressing issue of negative Western values encroaching on positive Asian traditions. The approaches the government has taken to strengthen Singapore’s “cultural ballast” have followed a multiracial understanding of diversity, which has also endangered it as an ideology by concentrating mainly on the Chinese. This has furthermore undermined other policies that rely on the acceptance of multiracialism.

Cultural imperialism has long been an issue in emerging economies, especially those that depend greatly on foreign investment and are capitalist in nature. The price of economic success has been a rise in affluence, materialism, and by inference, selfish individualism. Hence Singapore continues to face the task of preventing certain divisive Western influences from undermining what fundamentally constitutes the core of multiracialism. For instance, the period of pragmatic economic consolidation in the 1970s instigated a search for a common core of shared values - something that would eventually act as armour against the degenerative effects of excessive individualism. There was little the government could do to prevent Western influences from creeping in if Singapore was to develop its economy. Popular cultural trends from the West is often rapidly replicated in Singapore, and to this day, young Singaporeans are quick to imitate and adapt fads and fashions culled from global trends, sometimes reconfigured in such a way to suit the local context. 229 Hence there are frequent comments (from the older generation in particular) that the younger generation of Singaporeans are too

228 Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 99; Vasil, 1995, p. 34. 229 A manifestation of this is the hybridity inherent in Singlish - a spoken tongue that includes words from Hokkien, Malay and English, incorporating slang and popular phrases. Popular English phraseology, often words that are used to describe fads and feelings, and relevant to particular generational groups, find themselves entrenched in this sometimes strange and quixotic language. The government has, however, been keen to distance themselves from it; for a long time the official television broadcasting stations were initially not allowed to incorporate Singlish in their drama presentations, but this rule has been relaxed slightly since the late 1990s.

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Americanized or Westernized in their manner of dress, speech and behaviour.

Manifestations of Western Influences

The drive to lessen the impact of Westernization on attitudes and behaviour can be attributed to the fear that Singaporeans might lose important parts of their respective cultures that are part of their unique identities; that is, a fear of deculturalization. Just as worrying is that Westernization could weaken ties within the Singaporean family unit, and between the people and the state. Social discipline has thus been firmly directed by the state towards concerns for the good of the community over that of a single person. The rise of individualism threatens this control as it means people would want to and can break from such bonds to satisfy personal desires. Tamney, however, refutes this perspective in the context of modernization:

Individualism is not egoism. The latter means being selfish, making one’s self more important than anyone else. Individualism is not a glorification of the self. Rather, it is expressed in a respect for each person including the self. 230

A distinction must therefore be made between how the PAP associates individualism with selfishness and the liberal philosophical view which does not undermine individual agency and moral responsibility. The government perceives the kind of individualism filtering in from the West as connoting negative characteristics, such as egoism and selfishness, which threatens the PAP’s nation-building practices where the welfare of the group is elevated above individual rights and freedoms.

The growing polarization between traditional communal identification and individualism, as well as the increasing recognition of gender paradigm at stake (with respect to economic, social and legal rights) within society at large, has not been the only result of Westernization, but it has provided the government leadership with the most tangible evidence yet of change in the traditional value system. Another effect has been the greater demand for time to devote to the home and to leisure activities, but the government has refused to shorten the working week from five and a half days to five days. 231 The government has pointed out that to do so would be to compromise

230 Joseph B. Tamney, The Struggle Over Singapore’s Soul: Western Modernization in Asian Culture , New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1996, p.11. 231 Tamney, 1996, p. 10. This refusal does not apply to those in the private sector, but depending on the sector, an increasing number of employers are willing to reduce the working week or change to a flexiplan.

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Singapore’s productivity and economic growth.

Materialism is also on the rise, and has been since the 1970s. Ho notes that as the economy grew during the 1970s, a value system developed in which a price was attributed to not only the person or object, but also to their potential and real value.

Increasingly, acquisitiveness has become the very soul of society, penetrating almost every aspect of social life and thought. Everything has a price attached to it, so much so that Singaporeans, especially during the 1970s when the economy grew by leaps and bounds, appeared to be fast developing a system of values according to which the worth or significance of any person, object or activity was calculated exclusively in terms of his or its potential or actual pecuniary value. It was the market value (an expression which was used with increasing frequency) of any person, his services or his goods in terms of dollars and cents which mattered most; and anything which was not reducible to such quantitative terms (for example love, courage, honour, sacrifice, integrity, selflessness, each with its irreducible qualitative wholeness) was largely ignored or at best regarded with mild contempt..... 232

Mentor Minister Lee Kuan Yew has stressed that economic prosperity requires hard work and social discipline, hence the course of action adopted by the government has been one which pragmatically strove for economic success without allowing non- government ideology, religion or cultural prejudices to stand in the way. 233

232 Ho Wing Meng, “Value Premises Underlying the Transformation of Singapore”, in Sandhu & Wheatley (eds), 1989, p. 678. 233 The Straits Times , 30 August 1996.

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Part 2: Value Re-Orientation in the Late 1980s and 1990s

The intrusion of the West into what is by its own definition an Asian society has resulted in the values of a cosmopolitan West coexisting, albeit uneasily, side by side with conservative traditional Asian ethics. All the while, the government persists in developing a set of what they claim to be intrinsically Asian values in order to combat the results of cultural imperialism and to prevent Singaporeans from becoming culturally rootless. The search for a national ideology is the embodiment of this search and has since evolved into “core values” by the end of the 1980s. Later the term “shared values” was decided on so that no ethnic group would feel marginalized. 234 President Wee Kim Wee’s address at the opening of the Seventh Parliament on 9 January 1989 showed the government’s belief that Singaporeans could well be on the verge of deculturalization:

Singapore is wide-open to external influences.... This openness has made us a cosmopolitan people, and put us in close touch with new ideas and technologies from abroad. But it has also exposed to alien lifestyles and values. Under this pressure, in less than a generation, attitudes and outlooks of Singaporeans, especially younger Singaporeans have shifted. Traditional Asian ideas of morality, duty and society which have sustained and guided us in the past are giving way to a more westernized, individualistic, and self-centred outlook on life.

...the speed and extent of the changes in Singapore society is worrying. We cannot tell what dangers lie ahead, as we rapidly grow more westernized. 235

Language as a vehicle for nation-building has long been applied by the PAP, but education in the English medium has had unexpected consequences as it is frequently cited as one of the causes of growing Westernization. Language remains, however, a vital aspect of the cultural-symbolic elements inherent in the creation of the nation for it is capable of defining collective identities and lifestyles. 236 Making Malay the national language during the early 1960s served to placate the Malays and showed that the PAP was sensitive to the needs of the Malay minority within Singapore; on a larger scale, it showed that they envisioned Singapore as part of the collective states of the Federation. After 1965 great care was maintained when education policies were formulated as the PAP had no desire to antagonize the non-Chinese, and it was only in 1987 that English became the first language of students and the sole medium of

234 Vasil, 1995, p. 79. 235 Vasil, 1995, p. 79.

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instruction. Bilingualism became entrenched in 1966 at primary school level and in 1969 for secondary school students but the Ministry of Education has claimed that the policy has not been “universally effective”. 237 To resolve this, it was suggested that students should be offered the opportunity to do only English if they could not cope with bilingualism. Later on, it was believed that the widespread use of English had ostensibly led to a more rapid spread of Western values, so the authorities decided to create another civic and moral education component to bolster traditional values, thus resulting in the Religious Knowledge Programme.

Religious Knowledge Education and the Practice of Confucian Values

The Religious Knowledge Programme was formulated to place emphasis on selective values deemed most useful to the shaping of the ideal Singaporean citizen. It lasted only a short period (1984-1989) before it was scrapped for a number of reasons. The programme consisted of a two-year course for upper secondary students and offered a choice of six units: Bible knowledge, Buddhist studies, Confucian ethics, Hindu studies, Islamic religious knowledge and Sikhism. Being wary of the potential for evangelization by eager teachers, the programme made a distinction between values clarification and values instruction. It served primarily in the latter function. Rather than as an avenue through which students could learn about the diversity of the various faiths, there was an in-built assumption that religious knowledge can be studied as a classroom subject much like physics or chemistry. The programme therefore meant that students had to accept politically approved values such as those taught in specially prepared textbooks. Prayers, meditation, preaching, worship and mass conversions were expressly prohibited. 238 In the aftermath of the “Marxist conspiracy” of May 1987, the government became more conscious of the potential of conversion and religious agitation in the classroom, and as a result, the Religious Knowledge Programme was abandoned. 239

236 Breton, 1984, p. 126. 237 Goh, K. S. et al. (1979), Report on the Ministry of Education 1978 . Singapore: Ministry of Education, p. 403 238 J.S.T. Quah, 1990, p. 54. 239 In the so-called Marxist Conspiracy of 1987, saw 22 young Roman Catholic Church and social activists and professionals detained, without trial, under the internal security law, accused of being members of a dangerous Marxist conspiracy who intended to subvert the PAP-ruled government by force, and replace it with a Marxist state.

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The government initially viewed the setting up of a moral education syllabus as a way of inoculating Singaporeans against the dreaded fear of over-exposure to western influences and it made clear that whatever was taught would be compatible with Singaporean society and would follow fluidly from the state’s ideology. Maintenance of the status quo and a logical extension of finding a set of values that would ensure the growth of a moral society meant that the government in fact homogenized religion by carefully selecting only the values and differences in the different faiths only if they complemented one another and were beneficial to the state. 240

Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Keng Swee (then Minister for Education) - as the master planners of the moral education programme - had pushed for a firm foundation of the values that would strengthen the Singaporean people against the negativity that was the offshoot of westernization. 241 Such moral grounding would also guarantee hard working citizens, who discharged their filial obligations faithfully, were responsible and patriotic. Moreover the religious ideologies were carefully selected to emphasize support for capitalism, tolerance of other states and compatibility with universalistic norms. The inclusion of Confucianism, for example, was perceived to be a counterbalance to the destabilizing effects of industrialization and capitalism: greed, materialism, hedonism and individualism. In many ways, Confucianism would seem to meet the criteria in the search for a national identity. Its positive work ethic is seen to be a solution of sorts to the influx of degenerating western values. Another principle that qualified Confucianism in the eyes of the government was its collective orientation. It has been argued that this is directly related to the ideology of pragmatism - in order to effectively mobilize the masses and thereby implement rational state-defined goals, a high level of social discipline is required. Hence the need for a collective identity. 242

Fostering a communal outlook meant greater ease for organizations like the CCCs, RCs and ethnic associations to work for mass mobilization and to participate in achieving pragmatic state goals. It becomes a self-affirming exercise in the event of securing these goals. The communal identity is seen as a counterbalance to the

240 Joseph B. Tamney, “Religion and the State in Singapore”, Journal of Church and State , 30, 1988, p. 127. 241 The Straits Times , 3 December 1982. 242 See Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 203; Chua Beng Huat, “Pragmatism of the People’s Action Party Government in Singapore”, Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science , 13.2, 1985, p. 36; Marion J. Levy, “Confucianism and Modernization”, Society , 29.4, 1992, pp. 15-18; M. Weber, Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology , Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978, p. 1156.

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unintended consequences of successfully achieving these goals - the achievement of economic success has a tendency to compel greater individualized needs in people. While it is at once a sign of personal success, it is also fragments the communal spirit. The moral principle of group before self would therefore balance the strain of giving in to the materialism and self-fulfilment which are a result of a pragmatic ideology geared towards economic development. Confucian ethics also promoted a humane and caring society in which all would be looked after. The old would have their place of respect, the infirm would be taken care of by family and social obligations, while the young grow up with the necessary traits to become responsible and caring adults. Under such ideal conditions, the welfare state would cease to exist, which was precisely what the government desires. The concept of communal identity was later detached from Confucianism and expanded in the White Paper on Shared Values as one of the five founding principles for the growth of Singaporean society. It was reduced to a core value that was common to all faiths and races, easily understood and translated into everyday lives.

Singapore’s success has moreover been explicitly linked in public discourse to the prevalence of Chinese values. Diligence, hard work and filial piety are attributes that were highly valued by Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Keng Swee. 243 In comparing the elitist view of Chinese cultural superiority with that of Malay inferiority, Goh inadvertently highlights the innate masculinity in such values:

In the ethos of Malay society, the unrelenting pursuit of an objective, like the accumulation of wealth, is not held in esteem. In fact it is condemned as inconsistent with gracious living on which they place much importance. The spectacle of the Chinaman working like a demon possessed and ruthlessly brushing aside any one or any obstacle that stands in his way is not one that arouses Malay admiration. And yet without this passion for wealth generating a fanatical determination to accumulate, is it possible for the Malays to achieve the economic success of the Chinese? 244

Singapore’s official cultural ideology is essentially masculine in nature, so women remain heavily burdened by the prescription of a patriarchal Chinese value system.

Indeed, women rarely fare well in Confucian-based societies. The government has been able to utilize Confucianism to encourage women to retain their traditional role of nurturer in the face of growing individualism, or more bluntly, their ambition to

243 The Straits Times , 4 February 1982; 20 December 1990; New York Times , 4 January 1987. 244 Goh Keng Swee, The Practices of Economic Growth , Singapore: Federal Publications, 1977, p. 45.

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succeed in the public sphere and to compete with men on an equal basis. Generally, women have been prevented from becoming the kind of strident liberal feminists associated with the West. 245 Instead, they have been co-opted into maintaining the patriarchal status quo at the expense of their own careers by the kind of policies which ensure that women’s primary roles remain as wives, mothers and carers. Their own individual drive for public recognition is regarded as secondary and as less important than men’s.

Although Confucius had little to say directly about women, his ethos was based on patriarchal hierarchy. Women and their position were therefore defined in relation to the male family members in their lives. Jasper notes:

One is struck by Confucius’ indifference towards women. He has nothing to say of conduct in matrimony, speaks disparagingly of women... and frequently remarks that nothing is so hard to handle as a woman. The atmosphere around him is distinctly masculine. 246

Confucian philosophy teaches that women must remain under male supervision: as an unmarried woman, she obeyed her father, as a wife her husband, and if widowed, her son. Black has pointed out that “when women are casually mentioned in [Confucian] texts, it is generally in terms of kinship or marriage ties”. 247

There is ample evidence to show that not only were women subordinate to men, they were legitimated only in familial roles and only had significance only as part of a family unit. As single women, there was some freedom for them to express their individuality through their choice of fashion, the magazines they read and in many cases, the kind of careers they might choose. Their roles as wives and daughters are however proscribed within family parameters and these roles were not individualized either. The virtue of subordination strengthens the fundamental aspect of Confucianism which was “to maintain the immutable harmony... and equilibrium underlying both the universe and human society.”248 As long as men and women abided by the order described in Confucian doctrine, all would be well. The PAP grew

245 Lenore Lyons-Lee, “The Limits of Feminist Intervention: AWARE and the PAP”, seminar paper presented at Asia Research Centre (ARC), Murdoch University, 24 April 1998. 246 Karl Jasper, Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus: The Paradigmatic Individuals , New York: Harvest Books, 1957, p. 47. 247 A.H. Black, “Gender and Cosmology in Chinese Correlative Thinking”, in C.W. Bynum, S. Harrell and P. Richman (eds), Gender and Religion: On the Complexity of Symbols , Boston, Beacon Press, 1986, p. 180. 248 Chung, Young-iab, “The Impact of Chinese Culture on Korea’s Economic Development”, in Tai Hung-chao (ed.), Confucianism and Economic Development: An Oriental Alternative? Washington: The Washington Institute Press, 1989, p. 153.

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enamoured of this philosophy as on the one hand, its focus on the family provided the government with a way to consolidate the building blocks of the nation. Vis-à-vis the family - considered the most vital and basic social unit - they could redirect loyalty to the state through pro-family policies. But at the same time, the economic conditions required that both men and women were useful members of the workforce, to contribute to building the economic foundation of the country. So while women were drawn into the nation-building process as a valuable source of labour, the state made use of Confucian prescriptions to ensure that they were also carrying out family responsibilities. In the 1970s and 1980s, many labour policies made it easier for women to join the workforce; concessions were made for maternity leave and there was greater parity in wages. While women may have benefited economically, their domestic burden of care (for the elderly and children) became so much greater as they struggle to heed the two contradictory pressures - to be a good wife and mother, and to contribute to Singapore’s well being. The rise in the number of domestic workers from Thailand, Bangladesh, the , India and Sri Lanka was a response to these pressures as families struggled to cope with care for the aged and the very young. Since the PAP remains anxious to keep Singapore from fragmenting racially it appears ironic that the government believes applying a highly racialized ideology such as Confucianism would be useful because it provides a systematic social structure that emphasizes harmony above all else.

The Failure of the Religious Knowledge Programme

The Religious Knowledge Programme lasted a mere six years before it was replaced with a more broad-based Civics/Moral Education Programme which dealt with “aspects of nation-building, an awareness of our shared values, and an appreciation of the beliefs and practices of the various religions and races in Singapore.” 249 It was abandoned as a compulsory subject for a number of reasons, not least because the Confucian ethics option did not become popular and therefore did not live up to the government’s expectations. Despite Confucianism embodying the very values that the government felt should be inculcated in Singaporean society, it was not unusual for it to be greeted warily by particular segments of society, especially the minority groups, religious groups, non-Chinese, and even by the Chinese themselves. Chinese Christians and Buddhists believed the encouragement of Confucianism is equal to the

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encouragement of a traditional, dogmatic Chinese cultural position that has no place in a modern multiracial society such as Singapore.

Lee Kuan Yew had expected Confucian ethics to be the preferred choice of most Chinese, but surprisingly it had only the third highest enrolment. The 1989 figures for student distribution showed that Buddhist studies topped the list at 44.37%, Bible knowledge at 21.37%, and Confucian ethics at 17.81%. As expected Islamic religious knowledge scored lower at 13.35%, Hindu studies at 2.74% and Sikh studies at 0.37%. 250 Yet the dominance given to Confucianism as the basis of Chinese values and culture is flawed. Lai protests that

At best, Confucianism is but one of several features of Singaporean Chineseness and, even so, is largely a folk-based rather than an elite-based version [as in dynastic China]. 251

From 1990 onwards it was taught as an optional subject outside school hours and has therefore receded into the background as a viable method of building up the correct national ideological bent in Singaporean students.

The success of Buddhist Studies has been attributed to the fact that it was an easier subject in which to score well. 252 Subsequently it attracted more students, especially those who wished to succeed academically in the competitive race for future career success. An academic study of religion, considered inessential to worldly success, would thus not be an appealing option. The education system has been so rigorously geared towards attaining high marks that it is undermining the government's efforts at accentuating moral values. Moreover, Buddhist studies were more popular because it is not mired in the stiff traditional dogma of Confucianism and is more widely influential internationally. Tamney has further underscored how Confucianism is incompatible with the very aspects that are vital to the economic well-being of Singapore: capitalism, materialism and affluence. 253 He has shown how the school textbooks for the programme failed to address and reconcile the values that were necessary to or were a result of the capitalist path Singapore has taken. The texts follow the approved state line and were strongly propagandistic. Consequently, they

249 The Straits Times , 7 October 1989. 250 The Straits Times , 21 March 1989. 251 Lai, 1995, p. 147. 252 Tamney, 1996, p. 36 253 Tamney, 1996, pp. 37-50.

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have been criticized as an attempt by the government to indoctrinate students to unquestioningly accept the basis of an authoritarian state. 254

The end of the Religious Knowledge Programme also coincided with government fears about rising religious consciousness impinging on concerns for social justice. The government also recognized that religious groups could undermine their control of culture by proposing alternatives. Because most students opted to study the religion of their parents or one associated with their ethnic background, the programme has also proved divisive by highlighting religious differences. Tamney has suggested three consequences resulting from the government’s use of religion as a value instructor: firstly, the state is the authority on what constitutes acceptable religion; secondly, existing religions have to conform to the state ideology, which includes the capitalist base of the economy, and racial and religious tolerance; finally, in seeking to prescribe shared values, it ends up standardizing religion and only allows differences to emerge if they complement each other or play an active role in securing leverage for the government. 255 As a result of the programme, religion was elevated to a level which the government had not intended, signifying cleavages rather than uniting society.

Religious Harmony Bill

The end of the Religious Knowledge Programme was not the end of the government’s intention to utilize religion as part of nation-building, but it indicated a turning point. Up until then, much of the nation-building initiatives had come directly from the leadership of Lee Kuan Yew, but as the 1980s came to a close, Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Goh Chok Tong became more prominent in advocating a set of shared values for Singaporeans to be enshrined in a mini-constitution. It was under his influence that a White Paper on Shared Values was drafted. Before that, however, was the Religious Harmony Bill - a restorative balm intended to placate the discontent resulting from the failed Religious Knowledge Programme.

The crisis created by the so-called Marxist conspiracy in May 1987, in which religion was supposedly used as a platform for political agitation, sharply nudged the

254 Eddie Kuo, Confucianism as Political Discourse in Singapore: The Case of an Incomplete Revitalization Programme , Working Paper no. 113, Singapore: National University of Singapore, Department of Sociology, 1992.

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government into greater awareness of the potentially destabilizing effects of religious revivalism and activism. Subsequently a series of reports were commissioned by the Ministry of Community Development (MCD) on religion and religious conversion. The October 1988 report, Religion and Religious Revivalism in Singapore , made some portent observations about the government’s role in religious education. Although the “state has tried hard to be neutral and impartial to all religions, the influence of the educational institution on religion has not been totally neutral”. 256 Because the Ministry of Education (MOE) was responsible for the introduction of religious education in schools, it meant the state had involved itself in religion. Believing that the introduction of religious knowledge could only have long term impact on the present and the future, the reports urged the government to institute a systematic study to assess the effect of the Religious Knowledge Programme on Singaporean society. Within a year, however, the government had decided to abandon it after receiving enough negative feedback from students, educational staff, parents, religious leaders, academics, grass root leaders and the public.

Yet by the time the MCD reports were being disseminated, the government had moved onto more generalized ground to prepare for an overt set of values that would constitute a national ideology. In order to prevent further religious fomentation, legislation to preserve religious harmony was initiated on 30 April 1989 by Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The last three months had already witnessed extensive public discussions on the MCD reports. Despite a report by The Straits Times that religious leaders had accepted such a proposal, it did not signify a unanimous acceptance of the law. 257 Some religious groups opposed it on the grounds that religion and politics could not be equivocally separated, nor should it be, for it would then suppress religion’s concerns about social justice.

Prohibitions in the final draft of the law that was passed included:

carrying out activities to promote a political cause... while, or under the guise of, propagating or practicing any religious belief...

carrying out subversive activities under the guise of propagating or practicing any religious belief...

255 Tamney, 1988, p. 127. 256 Eddie C.Y. Kuo, Jon S.T. Quah and Tong Chee Kion, Religion and Religious Revivalism in Singapore , Singapore: Ministry of Community Development, 1988, p. 38. 257 The Straits Times , 10 May 1989.

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exciting dissatisfaction against the President or Government. 258

The National Council of Churches, the Mufti of Singapore (Islamic religious leader) and the Catholic archbishop opposed the law because it could be used to “silence lawful dissent and legitimate criticism.” 259 The law was also seen as a means of controlling leftist religion, especially aspects that dealt with social justice and responsibility. The government downplayed these criticisms by saying that it would not misconstrue legitimate concerns for political agitation. 260 The legislation ultimately safeguarded the government from attacks by the religious communities; the law and home affairs minister has said that

it is a matter of grave concern that in Singapore, any priest - of whatever faith - should use his religious authority to work up feelings against judges, ministers and officials, and to evoke the divine power of damnation upon secular authorities.261

The Maintenance of Religious Harmony Bill was proposed in parliament on 28 December 1989 and passed on 10 November 1990 after ten months of debate and discussion. By circumscribing limits to religious sermonizing, the government proved that it had little compunction in maintaining strict control over what it considers appropriate or inappropriate values and ideas suitable for mass consumption.

White Paper on Shared Values

On the whole, a lot of thought and debate has gone into the final five principles that constitute the White Paper on Shared Values. In October 1988 DPM Goh Chok Tong proposed that a national ideology be adopted for future social and political stability, and in January 1989, DPM Lee Hsien Loong went one step further by elucidating his personal view on a national ideology which constituted four core values: community over self; upholding the family as the basic building block of society; resolving major issues through consensus instead of contention; stressing racial and religious tolerance and harmony. 262 A national ideology, according to Lee, is “a clear set of values, strongly held by Singaporeans” that is “the characteristic ethos and spirit

258 Quoted in Tamney, 1996, pp. 35-36. 259 The Straits Times , 11 January 1990. 260 Business Times , 21 September 1990. 261 The Straits Times , 7 October 1989. 262 Lee Hsien Loong, “The National Ideology: A Direction and Identity for Singapore”, speech given at Third Alumni International Singapore on 11 January 1989, Speeches , 13.1, 1989, pp. 26-38.

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of a people.” 263 His remarks, however, were prefaced by the warning of the great danger posed by of Westernization. As such, a national ideology should be capable of combating the negativity that arises from exposure to it; a national identity that drew together complementary values from the heritages of the different ethnic communities would be established. The introduction to the final version of the White Paper includes President Wee Kim Wee’s opening address to Parliament in January 1989; in one passage, great stress was laid on finding common values:

If we are not to lose our bearings, we should preserve the cultural heritage of each of our communities, and uphold certain common values which capture the essence of being a Singaporean...

We need to enshrine these fundamental ideas in a National Ideology. Such a formal statement will bond us together as Singaporeans, with our own distinct identity and destiny. We need to inculcate this National Ideology in all Singaporeans, especially the young. We will do so through moral education and by promoting the use of the mother tongue, by strengthening the teaching of values in schools, and through the mass media, especially the newspapers and television. 264

Much debate and discussion ensued from the initial announcement of this quest, and the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Bill was as much a by-product of this ideological search as for other political considerations. The core values described by DPM Lee and the President were further critiqued and analyzed when a respectable academic study group published In Search of Singapore’s National Values - an in depth look at the values, which included proposals for amendments. 265 The four core values were eventually expanded to five and were worded in broad terms to facilitate ease of understanding and acceptance by all ethnic communities. Quah, a contributor to the above-mentioned publication, urged that ethnic chauvinism not be mistakenly adopted with respect to Confucianism:

Given the universal importance of the family, care must be taken when highlighting this core value to ensure that the government is not perceived by the minority groups to be only promoting the Confucian model of the family as this will not be acceptable to the non-Chinese Singaporeans... The temptation to do so must be strenuously resisted otherwise this core value would cause a wedge not only between the Chinese and the non-Chinese, but also among Chinese Singaporeans themselves. Its utility as a

263 Lee, 1989, p. 29-30. 264 Government of Singapore, White Paper on Shared Values , Singapore, 2 January 1991, pp. 1-2. 265 Jon S.T. Quah (ed.), In Search of Singapore’s National Values , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1990.

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unifying factor among Singaporeans would thereby be diminished. 266

This warning is equally applicable to all the values, which are:

(a) nation before community, and society before self;

(b) family as the basic unit of society;

(c) regard and community support for the individual;

(d) consensus instead of contention; and

(e) racial and religious harmony.

To counteract fears of ethnic chauvinism, the White Paper explicitly states that no special preference would be given to the Confucian model of society. The Shared Values were for all, and Confucianism could only be drawn upon by the Chinese community “to elaborate the abstract Shared Values into concrete examples and vivid stories.” 267

The Shared Values are rigorously non-political and non-religious; they are essentially universal values that reach out to all Singaporeans. Although they are universal, DPM Lee has argued that these values are interpreted differently and applied in different proportions in Singapore. 268 Hence this unique permutation of approaches would make these values a special set of principles on which to build Singapore’s national identity. It all depends on cultural heritage:

We should therefore take a conservative view but not unquestioning approach: retain our own heritages, but examine them for values which need to be modified, and scrutinize foreign traditions for ideas which can be incorporated, but do so cautiously. Our roots are important. We should not be root- bound, but neither should we abandon our roots. They anchor us and will help us grow. 269

Theoretically, it seems a sound idea to actively promote values that are a feature of all ethnic communities for they are easily identifiable, each community identifies with them closely for they are intrinsic principles, and each of these values are natural counterpoints to the negativity posed by some aspects of Westernization.

266 Jon S.T. Quah, “Searching for Singapore’s National Values”, in Quah (ed.), 1990, p. 94. 267 White Paper on Shared Values , 1991, p. 40. 268 Lee, 1989 , pp. 35-36; Chris Patten’s East and West , (audiovisual), London: BBC Television, 1998.

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Ethnic organizations were expected to play a large role in maintaining such values. Clan associations in Singapore could

be used to preserve and promote traditional values among the young Chinese Singaporeans as part of the policy of putting up bulwarks – or “cultural ballast” – against excessive Westernization and individualism, which the leaders have perceived as an unhealthy development. [The Second Deputy Prime Minister] also drew attention to the importance of contacts with clan associations in other parts of the world for the purpose of economic co-operation. 270

The exhortation is to preserve cultural traditions in the face of Westernization. The call to the Chinese, Malay and Indian communities to continue to hold on to and reinforce Asian values is part of what the government refers to as establishing a “cultural ballast”. Government ministers also frequently used speeches to remind Singaporeans to protect the Asian value system. George Yeo, Minister for Information and the Arts, redefined the “New Asian” and reiterated firmly, “However much we may be influenced by the West, we will remain Asian to our very core because as Chinese, Indians and Malays, we are derived from civilizations with long historical memories and deep traditions.” 271 More importantly, Singaporeans “must never lose this sense of our past because it is a great source of spiritual strength in a crisis.” 272 Again the survival motif is used, and in this particular context it is all the more striking as Yeo made these comments at the official opening of St Gabriel’s Secondary School (21 August 1993). He used that occasion to remind the assembled that educational institutes like this one were now producing this “New Asian”. Despite attempts to entrench the quest for national values as a natural and logical endeavour, minority groups suspect that there is a covert agenda on the part of the government to slowly impose what are clearly Chinese values, especially via the promotion of Confucian ethics and the Speak Mandarin Campaign. Even within the Chinese community, feelings have been polarized for the English-speaking feel that their interests and position are being threatened by the search for a tradition-based value system. Although government rhetoric insists on preserving “the cultural heritage of each of our communities, and uphold certain common values which capture the essence of being Singaporean”, it has not lessened the feeling of unease. 273

269 Lee, 1989, p. 33. 270 Hill & Lian, 1995, p. 171. 271 George Yeo, “The New Asian and His Heritage”, Speeches , 17.4, 1993, p. 56. 272 Yeo, 1993, p. 58. 273 White Paper on Shared Values , 1991, p. 1.

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Critique of the Shared Values

Clammer provides an insightful analysis of how the Shared Values fit into Singapore’s political culture. Like Vasil, he identifies the existence of national ideologies in Indonesia and Malaysia as the context within which the values common to all the ethnic communities are defined. 274 He articulates the belief that the state sees social problems as a lack of a sufficiently strong cultural structure:

the government’s response to this [changing class structure], at least as it is enshrined in the Shared Values concept, has not been a sociological one trying to understand the implications of changing social stratification) but a culturalist one - to see the problem in terms of a lack of cultural values, not patterns or institutions, and to attempt to remedy the situation by reinforcing those values thought to be absent or insufficiently stressed. 275

Many Western nations have chosen instead to view social problems as a consequence of people’s inability to deal with class stratification resulting from economic development. In developed nations such as the Australia and the United States, the poor, unemployed, drug addicts and criminals are frequently portrayed as victims of a system that has failed them. Their cultural values are not questioned, except in the case of criminals; but even when the issue of values become prominent, there is little talk of changing the existing value system. Sympathy is often directed at these victims by a scandal-obsessed media. Social workers and others involved in helping the less well-off members of society frequently urge their to look at and address the roots of the problems, considered to be often socio-economic in origin, but they do not often find a cooperative authority. Instead, institutional means become the more popular solution, but are only temporary measures and do nothing to address the real, underlying causes.

Singapore, however, takes an alternative route by heavily stressing the lack of cultural values as the source of social problems. The flaw in this is that it disguises other possibilities that are equally valid. More importantly, by placing the blame squarely on the cultural sphere, the government lays the responsibility for change on each ethnic community. The deterioration or lack of traditional Asian values, and the

274 Clammer, John, “Deconstructing Values: the Establishment of a National Ideology and its Implications for Singapore’s Political Future”, in Garry Rodan (ed.), Singapore Changes Guard: Social, Political and Economic Directions in the 1990s , New York: St Martin’s Press, 1993, p. 36; Vasil, 1995, pp. 78-79. 275 Clammer, 1993, p. 36; Li, 1989, p. 172. Li has observed that with respect to the Malays “the stronger tendency has been to look for cultural explanations, and to state that cultural factors are the prior, real, or more fundamental problem.”

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resulting social problems is thereby located in both the civil and private spheres; the values and the quest for them are therefore effectively and politically defanged.

Value reorientation and propagation are viewed as things that have “a basically cultural bias”, but minorities have not been protesting too loudly, ostensibly because the moral values are traditionally and religiously important to them too. 276 This cultural bias stems from a belief that

a change in values will bring about corresponding changes in social practices - [which] is common in Singapore and is reflected in the PAP’s constant recourse to propaganda and exhortation as a means of creating or channelling social change and behaviour pattern... In terms of communication science this is naive, but at a deeper level it is ideologically interesting. It reflects... a basically Chinese cultural bias - something seen in endless forms throughout the Chinese-speaking world where there is a widely entrenched and touching belief that good advice sincerely proffered really must change people’s mind. 277

The Shared Values are therefore derived from this social context, but in deriving the White Paper, there is an undercurrent of fear within the older generation that the younger generation may not readily absorb the values which has made Singapore into what it is today without prompting from the state; that with growing numbers of young people looking towards the West as places of better living standards and incomes, the might fail to look towards their homeland as the place to build on. Because Singaporeans lack an origin myth that would otherwise provide the foundations for a national ideology, the PAP has had to revert to the concept of common cultural principles in a multiracial society to battle the destabilizing effects of Westernization.

Much of the tension inherent in the Shared Values comes from its direct attempt to counter excessive Westernization and individualism. The erosion of Asian, particularly Chinese, cultural values has been a source of worry for the government for a long time, and this is laid out clearly in the introduction by the President:

[O]penness has made us a cosmopolitan people, and put us in close touch with new ideas and technologies from abroad. But it has exposed us to alien lifestyles and values. Under this pressure, in less than a generation, attitudes and outlooks of Singaporeans, especially younger Singaporeans, have shifted. Traditional Asian ideas of morality, duty and society which have

276 Clammer, 1993, p. 37. 277 Clammer, 1993, p. 37. This is illustrated by the numerous campaigns in Singapore: for example, courtesy, graciousness, and appreciation of senior citizens. Such propaganda is also common in the PRC.

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sustained and guided us in the past are giving way to a more Westernise, individualistic, and self-centred outlook on life. 278

The Shared Values, however, do not offer any distinctive Asian characteristics that bolster faltering “Asian values”. Clammer has argued that the kinds of values proffered by the government for selective promotion are in fact universal. 279

There is also an erroneous assumption that only the West was capable of degeneracy, selfishness, egoistic individualism, greed and materialism, while Asian cultures encapsulate all that is worthwhile in civic, family, moral and spiritual values. Such generalizations gloss over the complexity involved in the socialization process of Singaporeans. The Western and Asian values portrayed are extremes and ideals respectively; moreover, there has been no attempt to conclusively define what Westernization and Asian cultures are. The sensitivity of the matter lies in the contradiction between the apparent historical and current multiracial composition of the population - which is not only Asian, but includes Europeans, Jews and Arabs as well - and the discourse employed by the government to mythologize Singapore as a country with a homogeneous “Asian culture”. The culture that has evolved in Singapore has a variety of Asian feature that are offset by many Western elements. While the White Paper acknowledges the multiracial basis of Singapore, it has tried to reduce and homogenize the most important guiding ethics into five simple ideas. Deculturalization is rendered through the reasonable-sounding discourse employed in the White Paper, lulling the suspicion that there might be a concealed agenda. Many terms in the White Paper remain undefined, nor is it clearly stated how the five concepts are to be implemented instrumentally. The government has instead constantly repeated that common and shared experiences are a sound basis for shared identity. A typical government reminder is illustrated by George Yeo, Minister for Information and the Arts, urging Singaporeans to preserve and strengthen their culture:

[W]e must strengthen our collective sense of being Singaporean whatever our ethnicity. This comes from laughing and crying together, from the sharing of happy and unhappy events. 280

The emphasis on the multiracial aspect of Singaporean society becomes a jarring warning that differences exist and will continue to, but at the same time, in engaging

278 White Paper on Shared Values , 1991, p. 1. 279 John Clammer, “Modernization and Cultural Values: The Paradoxes of Transition in Singapore”, in R.E. Vente, R.S. Bothal and R.M. Nakhooda (eds), Cultural Heritage Versus Technological Development , Singapore: Maruzen Asia, 1981, pp. 223-240. 280 George Yeo, “Preserving and Strengthening Singaporean Culture”, Speeches , 19.2, 1995, p. 50

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the existing discourse of multiracialism the government is inviting an acceptance of and pride in these differences as they are what make Singaporeans unique.

How genuine are the Shared Values as an attempt at nation-building? On the surface, it appears to be an oversimplification, but it does remind Singaporeans of the multiracial nature of their country. The government recognizes that Singapore’s diversity cannot be reduced to a single doctrine so it tries to unify only the common elements. The Shared Values themselves are only one manifestation of how politics penetrates everyday life in an effort to mould what amounts to state-defined social behaviour. The emergence of a bourgeoisie attracted to a lifestyle characterized by consumerism, materialism and demands for greater political freedom has impinged on the state’s awareness that they can no longer bulldoze ahead in order to fulfil national goals. The PAP is highly attuned to public emotions even though it may sometimes appear to be hard-headed, adamant and doctrinaire. Nation-building policies have pervaded Singaporean life to the extent that women are also singled out as being both victim and accomplice of the high-powered economic drive. The government has also had to become more sensitive and responsive when dealing with issues related to the welfare of women, marriage and the family because women have become an economically and politically empowered force that cannot be dismissed as the weaker sex.

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Part 3: Women and the State

Gendering the Family

In positing the family unit as the basic building block of society, the PAP has gendered the way the family is viewed in existing HDB, population and employment policies. Traditionally and economically, women have been the primary caregiver in the family, but in Singapore many women also work. In 1957, only 21.6% of women worked, but the figure rose to 29.5% in 1970, 44.3% in 1980 and 50.9% in mid- 1994. 281 In the past twenty years, the PAP has backtracked from its initial enthusiastic encouragement of women joining the labour force because the government has been alarmed at the rising number of unmarried graduate women and the increased number of small families among the middle and higher-middle classes. Nostalgia for the old days when large families and marriage were the norm for all women reappears frequently in the media and government discourse. This is not a recent phenomenon, but has gathered force since PM Lee admitted paternal distress in August 1983 over what he saw as “lopsided” reproductive patterns. 282

The onus has been put on women to maintain the traditional status quo. They continue to juggle the contradictions of being encouraged to join the workforce to increase Singapore's economic productivity, yet also having to be equally good wives and mothers at the same time. Their sympathetic, patient and caring nature should therefore predispose them to the role of caregiver.283 Because they are supposedly nurturers by nature and therefore more suited to the tasks involving the home and the creation of a conducive home environment, they are expected not only to care for their husbands and children, but they also have to assume the role of caregiver in multigenerational families. . In a society that has strong overtones of filial piety and moral responsibility they are expected to be babysitters for grandchildren or as carers for elderly parents. Although young children and grandparents are increasingly entrusted to foreign domestics, women remain responsible for the way they are taken care of. The government’s exclusive control over space, especially living environs for family interaction, is hence a tactic to ensure the perpetuation of the nuclear, extended

281 Arumainathan, P., Report on the Census of Population 1970 Singapore , vol. I and II, Singapore: Department of Statistics, 1973; Khoo, C.J., Census of Population 1980 Singapore: Release 4 - Economic Characteristics , Singapore: Department of Statistics, 1981; Government of Singapore, Report on the Labour Force Survey of Singapore , Singapore, 1994. 282 The Straits Times , 15 August 1983.

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nuclear or multinuclear family as defined by the authorities. 284 Few singles are financially capable of living on their own given the astronomical property prices. They may not own a government flat on their own unless they are over 35 years of age and even so, they are allowed to buy only resale flats. As a result, many singles continue to live in their natal homes until they marry, by which time they can apply for public housing. In a sense, they are considered morally incapable of independence; it is only through marriage and family that young people are deemed mature and grown into adulthood. The notion of establishing one’s family is therefore entwined with the concept of maturity.

Immediately after marriage, it is also likely that the wife would move into her in- laws’ home while waiting for her and her husband’s flat application to be approved. Understandably tensions often arise between her habits and attitudes, and her mother- in-law’s expectations. Women’s magazines have frequently exposed the kinds of prevailing contrasts between such generation gaps and offered counsel and comfort. Despite the lack of privacy and the greater potential for altercations between the generations, the government has always promoted the multigenerational family as the ideal family unit. Moreover, it conjures up the past to remind the people of what was traditional and therefore good, valuable and needful to preserve. What is missing in this misplaced nostalgia is the fact that colonial Singapore was not founded on such family structures and the corresponding ideals. As a colonial immigrant community, the men could not draw on the kinship and communal ties that existed in their homelands, whether they were Chinese or Indian. The Malay kinship system, on the other hand, was marked by a highly individualistic system. 285 One often forgotten fact in the naturalization of Malays as the indigenous race in Singapore is that many too were migrants from the Malay peninsula, Java and Bawean who arrived to work as servicemen, gardeners, drivers or employees of government boards. 286 Malay settlements, the kampongs , were largely inhabited by people without kinship ties to

283 Penelope Brown & L. Jordonova, “Oppressive Dichotomies: The Nature/Culture Debate”, in Elizabeth Whitelegg, et. al. (eds), The Changing Experiences of Women , Oxford: M. Robertson in association with the Open University, 1982, pp. 389-400. 284 The following definitions come from the HDB ( Profile of Residents Living in HDB Flats , Singapore: Research and Planning Department HDB, May 1995, p. 38): nuclear family - comprises of a married couple with or without children extended nuclear family - comprises of a nuclear family and one or more relatives who live with that family multinuclear family - comprises of two or more nuclear families 285 Li, 1989, p. 8. 286 Li, 1989, p. 95.

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one another, gathering together mainly for religious and community life. 287 The tradition of multigenerational families living together in historical Singapore, as espoused by the government, is a myth.

Family living patterns have changed since the early 1980s, with the percentage of nuclear families on the rise: from 85.6% in 1987 to 89.8% in 1993. Conversely, multigenerational families have declined from 14.4% to 10.2% in the same period. 288 The HDB has offered a number of application formats that encourage multigenerational living either in the same compound or in the same housing estate. One argument proffered by the government in favour of multigenerational households is that working parents have the added bonus of grandparents as carers for their children, thereby saving on professional childcare. Such mothers may well find a balance between home and career, but may also suffer from guilt in prioritizing their career ahead of childrearing. Women have been socialized to believe that temperamentally they are more suited to the role of nurturer. In accepting this, they become more entrenched in the contradictions imposed by the PAP.

Marriage as National Goal

The paternalism evident in the way the government treats women has been aptly described as “state fatherhood”. 289 When women’s sexuality becomes problematized as a current straining against the nation and nation-building, they are admonished much in the same way a fond but firm father would reform a recalcitrant daughter. This father-child relationship can be extrapolated further to encapsulate the concept of Singapore not as motherland - that being a term reserved for the original home country of each ethnic community - but as a young female child who is as yet incapable of making rational adult decisions; the role of the state is guidance at its most benign and a stern disciplinarian when the child steps out of line. The state therefore prides itself as the one responsible for the gains and improvements Singaporean women have made and this has been the standard position in many

287 Li, 1989, p. 96. Early Singapore kampongs have been confused with traditional rural Malayan kampongs which did have much stronger community ties. Li has essentially debunked this misconception. 288 HDB, Profile , May 1995, pp. 43-45; The Straits Times , 13 July 1995. 289 Geraldine Heng & Janadas Devan, “State Fatherhood: The Politics of Nationalism, Sexuality and Race in Singapore”, in “, in Aihwa Ong & Michael G. Peletz (eds), Bewitching Women, Pious Men: Gender and Body Politics in Southeast Asia , Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995, pp. 195- 215.

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analyses of Singaporean women to date. 290 Alternative analysis has utilized post- structuralist and Foucauldian concepts, which have been extremely stimulating in reshaping thinking about how women are repressed by the state’s narrative of crisis implicit in the controversy over marriage and population growth, as well as the social negotiation of male dominance in which stereotyped sex roles are the norm. 291 In the latter case, all is not irredeemable, for Singaporean women, like their counterparts in the West and other Eastern societies, have found outlets to empower themselves, or they negotiate a space, usually in the private sphere, where they can and do assert their sexuality and femininity.

It is this renegotiation that has caused the PAP great moments of anxiety because the end results do not conform to their view of the paternalistic state. The state has, in effect, lost control of women and their specific ability to reproduce. The state is afraid of the loss of its patrimony and, according to Heng and Devan, invokes the narrative of crisis to strengthen and ratify its legitimate concerns over the future of the nation. 292

One of the greatest crisis was introduced at the National Day Rally in August 1983, when PM Lee articulated what he and his colleagues perceived to be the greatest danger facing Singapore then; Singaporean mothers, he claimed, were endangering the nation by producing children in a “lopsided” way. 293 All of a sudden, women became the focal point for explaining why the birth-rate was not increasing the way the state wanted. In the 1970s, one of the consequences of rapid industrialization, better healthcare and education, increased living standards and growing prosperity, was sharp population growth. In 1970, over 63% of women had three or more children. By 1990, the raw figure was 46.1%. 294 The “lopsided” trend

290 AWARE, The Singapore Woman , Singapore: Association of Women for Action and Research, 1988; AWARE, The Ties That Bind: In Search of the Modern Singapore Family , Singapore: Association of Women for Action and Research, 1996; Stella R. Quah, Between Two Worlds: Modern Wives in a Traditional Setting , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1988; Stella R. Quah, Family in Singapore: Sociological Perspectives , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1994; Aline Wong & Leong Wai Kim (eds), A Woman’s Place: The Story of Singapore Women , Singapore: PAP Women’s Wing, 1993. 291 Purushotam, Nirmala, “Women and Knowledge/Power: Notes on the Singaporean Dilemma”, in Ban,Pakir & Tong (eds), 1992, pp. 320-361; Heng & Devan, 1995. 292 Heng & Devan, 1995, p. 196. 293 The Straits Times , 15 August 1983. Lee made the following statements in The Singapore Bulletin , September 1983: We must further amend our policies, and try to reshape our demographic configuration so that our better-educated women will have more children to be adequately represented in the next generation. Equal employment opportunities, yes, but we shouldn’t get our women into jobs where they cannot, at the same time, be mothers. You just can’t be doing a full-time heavy job like that of a doctor or engineer and run a home and bring up children. 294 S. Quah, 1994, pp. 77-78.

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observed by Lee was reinforced by the revelation in the 1980 census that women with low education and from low-income groups were consistently having more children than those with secondary and tertiary qualifications.

Although race was not explicitly mentioned as a correlation factor in these patterns, a survey of the census statistics showed that women with high fertility rates came mainly from the Malay and Indian communities. These rates showed another remarkable trend: the Chinese, then comprising 76% of the population, was shrinking at a frightening rate of 7% each generation. On the other hand, Malays and Indians were increasing by 4% and 1% respectively. To a predominantly Chinese leadership, who believed that the Chinese and their value system played a major role in Singapore's success, the end result was unthinkable. Heng and Devan says

[t]he threat of impending collapse in the social and economic order, for which an unruly, destabilizing and irresponsible feminine sexuality was held to account, was convertly located at the intersecting registers of class and race. 295

Economic collapse, the greatest fear of an developing capitalist economy, could therefore be the result of irresponsible biological reproductive patterns. It was not merely enough to curb population growth, it was imperative that reproductive behaviour be transformed through government intervention. 296

Economic incentives have gone a long way to alleviate the burden of having extra children since the mid-1980s, but by indicting women as the only party responsible for a dystopian future, their sexuality has been fused with notions of economic disaster, social disintegration, and the collapse of culture and the value system; that is, they are antithetical to nation-building, and therefore their unchecked sexuality must be harnessed to a regulating authority (PAP) to ensure the nation’s survival. 297 Heng and Devan have analogized this process as one in which human reproduction and women are perceived as machines that

295 Heng & Devan, 1995, p. 198. 296 The Singapore Family Planning and Population Board was established in 1966 to curb population growth, when its slogan was “Two is enough”. It was eventually closed in 1985 and replaced by the “New Population Policy”, launched by DPM Goh Chok Tong. Its catch-call was “Have three or more if you can afford it”; the government also offered fiscal incentives and tax rebates. 297 According to Heng & Devan (1995, pp. 197-198), men were not given prominence in this crisis is because Lee Kuan Yew’s analysis of statistics led him to believe that Singaporean women selected mates based on similar educational background. Women therefore had to change their behaviour to ensure national survival. One of the cartoon illustrations that pepper the SDU pamphlet (Social Development Unit (SDU), The Need for Social Development in Singapore , Singapore: Social Development Unit, 1991, p. 2) humorously depicts Singaporean men preferring spouses with lesser education than themselves. The caption reads: “Our men prefer to marry a girl with lesser education”.

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are predictable and orderly, blessedly convenient: malfunctioning ones can be adjusted, faulty components replaced, and the whole make to work again with a minimum of fuss. 298

However much the PAP might wish that this were so, many women have proved resistant to blandishments, nor do they wish to be controlled as automatons by a possessive state.

Lee’s observations of the population pattern caused him to paint a disastrous scenario:

If we continue to reproduce ourselves in this lopsided way, we will be unable to maintain our present standards. Levels of competence will decline. Our economy will falter, the administration will suffer, and the society will decline. For how can we avoid lowering performance when for every two graduates (with some exaggeration to make the point), in 25 years’ time there will be one graduate, and for every two uneducated workers, there will be three? 299

His message was blunt; as a firm believer in the genetic superiority inherited from intelligent, well-educated parents, Lee envisioned a future in which Singapore would be swamped by untalented and unintelligent beings. The lower and working classes were increasingly equated with an inferior genetic breed, and should procreation patterns continue as those in the 1980 census, Singapore was surely on the road to ruination. The human talent pool was the only thing Singapore could exploit for it had no other natural resources to fall back on for the future. The PAP therefore proposed several measures, few of which involved circumscribing the role of men. Instead, it appeared that women had to bear the brunt of adapting their biological processes for the sake of the nation. 300

As part of the agenda to dictate the direction of eugenics in Singapore, the state proposed several solutions, one of which was the Graduate Mother Policy. Because graduate women were considered the greatest culprits in the decline of superior genes, the government sought to provide incentives to entice them to marry and bear more children. They included tax breaks, medical insurance privileges and priority entrance for school-age children. Working class mothers, under a strict criteria to assess their eligibility on educational and income levels, were offered cash of $10,000 to restrict themselves to 2 children - providing they “volunteer” themselves for

298 Heng & Devan, 1995, pp. 198-199. 299 The Straits Times , 15 August 1983. 300 Heng & Devan, 1995, pp. 197-198.

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tubal ligation. Penalties, in the form of increased maternity fees in public hospitals for any third and subsequent children, were levied on these women. Such limitations and munificence was justified in a manner befitting the benevolence of a paternalistic government. Newspaper headlines included “Govt’s $10,000 Helping Hand for the Low Income Families”, while policies were rationalized as “nature is undemocratic”. 301 What was being shrouded by such altruistic language was that these social policies targeted the Malays as they were inevitably the ones on the lower rungs of the income and class scales.

The eventual failure of the Graduate Mother Policy is evidence of opposition to the government’s imposition of control over human reproduction. It also shows that the electorate is capable of indicating a level of dissatisfaction to which the government is responsive. It might well be self-interest that prompted a government back down after a swing of over 12% against them in an election a year after Lee made his infamous speech. 302 This dismal result was linked directly to the implementation of the Graduate Mother Policy not long before the election and subsequently it was scrapped in March 1985. It was nevertheless a rare act of capitulation on the part of the government, and one that not only had implications for the right of control over women’s bodies, but also highlights a necessary shift in the way the government has to deal with a shrinking “gene-pool”.

Having children, according to the government, was a patriotic duty. Like men who underwent two and a half years of national service, it was suggested by the Singapore Council of Women’s Organizations (SCWO) that women be required to bear children as their form of national service. 303 The irony they failed to grasp was that military national service takes place only for a short period in an early part of men’s lives, which is then augmented by a short annual stint of reservist training. For women, having and rearing a child is an ongoing process which extends beyond what Singaporean men endure in national service. The responsibility for one’s own flesh and blood entails greater, more personal and emotional anxieties. Nationalism has thus been sexualized by the very suggestion that women consider their bodies - more specifically, their wombs - as a device for nation-building. 304

301 The Sunday Monitor , 3 June 1984; The Straits Times , 18 August 1984. 302 Jon S.T. Quah, “The 1980s: A Review of Significant Political Developments”, in Chew & Lee, 1991, p. 386. In the 1984 General Election, two opposition members won seat when none had secured a seat in the previous four elections. The PAP had a majority of 75.5% of the votes in 1980, but the figure dropped dramatically to 62.9 in 1984. 303 The Straits Times , 17 August 1983; The Sunday Times , 21 August 1983. 304 Heng & Devan, 1995, p. 201.

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According to the Singapore government, before women can have children, they must first be encouraged to marry. If the continuation of the species was all that mattered, then surely well-educated single women should not be stigmatized for having children out of wedlock. Many single women desire children without marriage, while there are also many married women who do not wish for children. Under the kind of Confucian and patriarchal norms that the government functions, however, single parenthood has never been an option. The sanctity of marriage remains the very cornerstone of the family. Minimizing the importance of this concept in any way would therefore undermine the basis of Singapore society. Single women graduates were thus encourage to marry and not suffer the embarrassment of being “left on the shelf”; however the stigma and difficulty of obtaining a divorce might put educated women off the risk of marriage. This was especially highlighted when the government instituted the Great Marriage Debate and institutionalized matchmaking in the civil service.

The Great Marriage Debate

The national press and electronic media eagerly grasped the controversy aroused by Lee’s speech and the patterns found in the statistics by launching and encouraging the discussion on marriage. The so-called Great Marriage Debate was, from the very beginning, stage-managed by the government. By directing the public’s focus on marriage rather than on the politically volatile nuances of Lee’s eugenics biases and the need for women to take on childrearing as their primary role, a highly government-sensitive media managed to reduce the issue to one of altruistic social concern over a basic sacred institution. Trends in marriage statistics of the 1980s and 1990s, however, suggest that in the case of later marriages, education and race were often variables. 305 Reproduction rates were also similarly influenced. Women who were highly educated were more likely to remain single longer, and increasing numbers did not marry at all. Modernity, however, does not equate with a rejection of marriage; rather, singlehood among men and women is likely a symptom of higher expectations and hence their inability to meet a compatible partner. The lowest reproduction rates have been among the higher-educated Chinese.

305 S. Quah, 1994, p. 115.

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Through selective publication of readers’ letters, the English-language newspapers implied that most people merely wanted to help the PM with increasing Singapore’s talent pool to ensure the country’s survival. Few letters engaged in dissecting Lee’s sexism, at his expressed regret at giving women civil rights and jobs that may have compromised their biological imperatives. An excerpt of his speech read:

When we adopted these policies they were manifestly right, enlightened and the way forward to the future. With the advantage of blinding hindsight, educating everybody, yes, absolutely right. Equal employment opportunities, yes, but we shouldn’t get our women into jobs where they cannot, at the same time, be mothers... You just can’t be doing a full-time, heavy job like that of a doctor or engineer and run a home and bring up children... We must think deep and long on the profound changes we have unwittingly set off. 306

In the local media, the eugenicist slant was played down; the quest for talent was perceived as a farsighted strategy, while incentives and disincentives to promote greater reproduction among the higher-educated and a lower rate among the less well- off were justified in sociological terms of one segment of society helping another. Margaret Thomas, in a newspaper article applauding the government incentive to reduce the number of children in low-income families, writes persuasively:

Unless we break this low education large family cycle, we will have a small but significant minority of our people permanently trapped in a poverty subculture, whilst the rest of the population will move even further up the economic and social ladder. 307

The stress on concern for the less fortunate effectively disguised the intention to coerce fertility trends into resembling those envisioned by Lee.

A more radical solution suggested by Lee, but just as highly unpalatable, was polygamy; Lee had recommended it as a way of reversing the declining birth-rate, to deal with the increasing number of unmarried women and for nation-building. 308 Apart from publicly lamenting the decision to enshrine women’s suffrage and equal rights in law, he has deplored the passing of a family’s traditional right to enforce arranged marriages for their daughters. 309 Given the growth of women’s groups, non-feminist

306 The Straits Times , 15 August 1983. 307 The article is evocatively titled “Govt’s $10,000 Helping hand for Low Income Families”. The Sunday Monitor , 3 June 1984. 308 The Straits Times , 8 January 1987. It was reported he expressed his regrets in an interview published in The New York Times . 309 The Straits Times , 15 August 1983; The Sunday Times , 28 December 1986.

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and the awareness of how essential women are to the economy, it is unlikely women would welcome a return to such traditional norms. 310 Marriage as a personal goal remains a priority on many women’s list although the reasons for getting married mark a shift away from purely procreative choices. A small sample survey of married women in the mid-1980s revealed that companionship and love ranked ahead of having children, but when asked an open-ended question about the main reason for marriage (not necessarily women’s own reason for marriage), an overwhelming 72% believed it was for procreation. 311

Such subjective surveys do nothing to reassure the leadership when official census statistics do not support them. In a more recent 1994 survey, contradictions occur between how men and women’s roles are perceived in marriages. While three quarters of the married men and women surveyed saw men as the primary breadwinner and two thirds (mainly men and those from less educated backgrounds) agree that women should do more domestic chores than men, only one third believed in the traditional dictum of women having to obey their husbands. 312 Tradition and modernity thus coexist side by side, but not always amicably.

Government as Matchmaker

To supplement fiscal incentives and create more opportunities for singles to meet and socialize in spite of an increasingly hectic, demanding and stressful lifestyle where time is a premium, the government set up the Social Development Unit (SDU) within the Public Service Division of the Ministry of Finance in 1984. An official SDU pamphlet encapsulated the problem as such:

Singapore’s 1980 census showed too many unmarried women with tertiary education and too many unmarried men with a primary education. With more and more women entering university every year, the number of unmarried, educated women and unmarried, uneducated men will grow.

The problem will be even worse if better educated men continue the old tradition of marrying “down”. Besides leaving the graduate women unmarried, this also reduces the number of

310 See Koh Tai Ann, “There’s No Need to Regret Treating Women as Equals”, Commentary , 7.2/3. 1987, pp. 130-134. 311 Stella Quah, Between Two Worlds: Modern Wives in a Traditional Setting , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1988, p. 26. 312 The Straits Times Weekly Edition , 31 December 1994.

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single women available for the men who have only a primary education.

The government has decided to play a role in helping to change the cultural and social traditions that are causing this increase in the number of singles in our society. 313

Therefore the SDU’s purpose is to provide the chance for singles to meet romantically with those who are educational and class peers. As a government-sanctioned matchmaking service, the SDU had to contend with people’s natural aversion to further government interference in their lives; it was greeted with skepticism initially and was often dismissed as yet another government policy although a number of marriages have since resulted from the SDU’s efforts. 314 Its activities have expanded to the extent that it is now accepted as a useful way of socializing. The SDU initially recruited members through employers in the public sector, with private sector recruitment beginning in 1985; it also used to contact fresh university graduates directly. 315

The SDU has three main objectives:

(i) to increase the awareness of marriage among single graduates;

(ii) to provide opportunities for them to meet; and,

(iii) to orientate their attitude in the choice of marriage partners. 316

There is a wide range of activities to facilitate these goals: computer matchmaking, educational workshops, weekend trips, outdoor activities, self-improvement and hobby courses, sports and games, tours and social activities such as dinners, tea-dances and karaoke sessions. 317 SDU emphasizes that while choosing a life partner remains a personal matter, “men and women should widen their horizons and prioritize their expectations.” 318 That is, men should value intellectual capability in their search for Ms Right, but women should lower their expectations lest they end up with fewer chances of finding a husband. From the point of view of the government,

313 SDU, 1991, p. 3. The implication of such goals is that there would be little class movement if men and women do not marry up or down. It therefore assumes a static class system. 314 The SDU was once comically known as “Single, Desperate and Ugly”. 315 Letters were sent to all new graduates as part of the membership drive. 316 SDU, 1991, p. 11. 317 SDU, 1991, p. 13. 318 SDU, 1991, p. 15.

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[the SDU] can only be that of a catalyst, to start public thinking and discussion on the subject and to help young people as they consider the role of marriage in their lives. 319

In parliament, one leader justified government matchmaking in the following way:

Graduate women, particularly in our society, because of our cultural mores whereby they find they are reluctant to marry men who are not their educational superiors or at least at their own level, may require some assistance. I think we should help them. 320

The number of participants has risen from 1,395 in 1984 to 6,972 in 1988, while marriages between members increased from 91 in 1985 to 516 in 1988. 321 By 2002, 29,373 SDU members had married. 322

Official matchmakers like the SDU have also grown. Other parapolitical organizations were set up to cater to those from different educational backgrounds: the Social Development Section (SDS) was established by the People’s Association in 1985 to cater to non-graduates; and the Social Promotion Section (SPS) helped those with less than a secondary education. Within the SAF, there is the Family Services Unit that essentially functioned the same way while the Civil Service Sports and Recreation Club established the Social Interaction Unit (SIU) in 1987 to focus on “singles in the civil service with secondary education between the ages of 21 and 35”. 323 Even more significant is that there are now greater numbers of private commercial enterprises that specialize in matchmaking and socializing, and it has become more acceptable to join such social groups.

The government has also invested heavily in massive advertising campaigns that praise and romanticize marriage and family life. In the 1990s, underground walkways in the busiest shopping district and MRT stations were frequently full of hoardings and electric signboards repeatedly celebrating the joys of married life and parenthood. Women’s magazines are also susceptible to such advertisements. Indeed, a large proportion of women readers are precisely the target audience that the government hopes to reach. 324 The message is abundantly clear: the state is willing to involve itself in what it sees as a social problem to ensure that the legacy of post-

319 SDU, 1991, p. 15. 320 Singapore Parliamentary Debates , vol. 45, col. 266, 6 March 1985. 321 The Straits Times , 15 August 1988. 322 Social Development Unit, Annual Report , 2002, p. 5 323 The Straits Times , 3 August 1988. 324 These advertisements will be discussed in this context in the following chapter.

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independence Singapore is passed onto a new generation that similarly values the institution of marriage and who will thus be able to guarantee the long-term survival of the nation.

Because the problems of increasing single graduate women and lower fertility rates are placed almost solely on women - the physical responsibilities being something only they can take up, so incentives and penalties are mainly directed at them - the result has been a gendering of social policies. This has inevitably locked women into a discourse of male dominance over reproductive, economic and educational rights. The underlying assumption for women’s expected compliance to government policies is founded on the myth of “the gift”. 325 That is, the improvements in women’s status have largely come about because of the PAP’s largesse, commitment to nation-building and the cause of women’s rights.

The Women’s Charter

The gift itself is manifold. As early as 1959, the PAP set forth several promises to women in its election manifesto. They would safeguard and promote the rights of women; encourage women to enter politics and the administration; provide jobs for all women and a conducive working environment; and grant women equal rights in marriage and the family. The PAP was committed to organizing a united women’s movement, and in the early years had an active Women’s Affairs Bureau which later lapsed. One of the more significant gains made by Singaporean women, however, was the Women’s Charter.

The title itself is misleading for the charter deals mainly with marriage reform and divorce. It does not, for instance, guarantee women equal rights in the work place. The basis for the law was couched in these general terms:

Women who form nearly half of our population have an important part to play in our national construction. In the first instance in order to emancipate them from the bonds of feudalism and conservatism a monogamous marriage law will be passed. Such a law however, will not apply in those cases where there is a conflict with their religious beliefs. 326

325 Purushotam, 1992, pp. 321-328. 326 Singapore Legislative Assembly Debates , vol. 12, col. 469, 6 April 1960.

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Marriage was evidently linked with nation-building from as far back as when the PAP came to power although racial sensitivity was highlighted by special provisions for Muslim women who were predominantly Malay; they are partly governed by the charter, and mainly by the Administration of Muslim Law Act (AMLA). 327

Despite the innovations the law entailed at a time when not much of the population had such a modern outlook, it did not generate much controversy when it was implemented. Monogamy became the only legal form of marriage for non- Muslims. The charter also listed the methods of solemnization and registration of marriages, the rights and duties of husbands and wives, divorce, welfare of children and criminal offences against women and girls. Singapore’s divorce laws, for example, are biased towards women; only men are required to pay maintenance to their wives. Yet social stigma continues to be an issue for unmarried mothers and divorced women, many having to depend on charity if they do not have the means as there is little recourse to government agencies.

According to the charter, traditional practices such as polygamy and concubinage were outlawed, while the minimum age of marriage was set at 18 years old with parental consent and 21 years old without. According to Aline Wong, herself a vigorous women’s rights activist, the law did not take into consideration the cultural practices of the people. 328 The PAP had optimistically viewed the charter as a means of stamping out practices that denigrated and abused women, but it was also recognized that it was not enough; a wider socioeconomic and political context was also needed.

Of course, to depend only upon a law to get rid of these bad practices and customs is very difficult, because marriages in Singapore have not been put on a proper basis for years. It has taken a very long time to educate people to regard marriage in the proper light. 329

... the Bill alone will not stop a married man from keeping a mistress. What is more important is that our women would

327 The AMLA replaced the Muslims Ordinance in 1966. It is “an act relating to Muslims and to make provision for regulating Muslim religious affairs and to constitute a council to advise on matters relating to the Muslim ”. Muslim divorce cases, for example, go to the Shariah Court rather than the civil courts. Liew Geok Heok and Leong Chooi Peng, “Legal Status”, in Aline Wong and Leong Wai Kum (eds), Singapore Women: Three Decades of Change , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1993, pp. 264-266. 328 Aline Wong, Women in Modern Singapore , Singapore: University Education Press, 1975, p. 28. 329 K.M. Burns (Minister for Labour Law), Singapore Legislative Assembly Debates , vol. 12, col. 444, 6 April 1960.

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achieve the economic independence to make their lives secure; that is basic. 330

We agree that this Women’s Charter, like any other piece of legislation, gives only the protective framework. In itself, it cannot establish any new social codes of behaviour... This piece of legislation is only the beginning... the more urgent need is to arouse the consciousness of women in our society, so that they can more effectively stand up for their rights, and it is only women who can do so. 331

The “proper light”, however, is based on a modern attitude that was not evident in Singapore. The law was subsequently not well publicized, nor properly enforced; at that stage, there was no way to ensure that it was followed because disciplinary action seldom followed the offenders. The law has gradually become accepted, better understood and enforced as the impact of the West and modernization forced women to become aware of their rights. Yet it has also gained complexity.

Amendments to the Women’s Charter have refined the obligations owed to and emanating from women. The 1980 amendment to divorce expanded the grounds for such a petition, thereby liberalizing the dissolution of marriage. 332 In the same year, the issue of domestic violence gained recognition when Section 68 was modified to secure special relief for child or spouse from domestic violence or the threat of; but “violence” remains undefined in the Charter and has been restricted to physical violence. Stalking and other forms of psychological violence remain unlegislated.

In Other Legal Terms

Constitutionally, Singaporean women are considered equal before the law, as expressed in Article 12(1), but there is no explicit statement that protects men and women against sexual discrimination. Article 12(2) only authorizes that

Except as expressly authorized by this Constitution, there shall be no discrimination against the citizens of Singapore on the ground

330 Toh Chin Chye (Deputy Prime Minister), Singapore Legislative Assembly Debates , vol. 12, col. 470, 6 April 1960. 331 Goh Keng Swee (Minister of Finance), Singapore Legislative Assembly Debates , vol. 14, col. 1213, 22 March 1961. 332 The Women’s Charter , Section 100. The sole ground for divorce is proof of the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage but included five possible pieces of evidence: adultery of partner, and petitioner finds it intolerable to live with them; repeated unacceptable behaviour from respondent; desertion by respondent for at least two years; both partners having lived apart from four years and respondent agrees to divorce (divorce by mutual consent); and both partners having lived apart for four or more years.

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only of religion, race, descent or place of birth in any law or in the appointment to any office or employment under a public authority or in the administration of any law relating to the acquisition, holding or disposition of property or the establishing or carrying on of any trade, business, profession, vocation or employment. 333

As such, women can find themselves discriminated against in the employment regulations. Female civil servants, for instance, do not enjoy the same range of fringe benefits as men; working women cannot claim tax relief for their spouses - men, on the other hand, can claim spousal relief - because they are not considered the head of the household. The “head”, from the point of view of the government, is unequivocally male. Subsequently, children can only claim medical and dental benefits through their fathers; women can only use their benefits on themselves. Men are also given a higher starting salary commensurate with the years they have served national service to make their position more competitive with their female peers who have had a head start in their careers. As a sweetener for those who go through national service, men have been eligible for further tax relief of up to $1000 from 1993 onwards. 334

Maternity rights are much the same as in developed Western nations, with small variations between the public and the private sectors. According to the Employment Act - which applies to women earning below $1,500 a month - women are allowed four weeks leave before and eight weeks after the birth of a child, up to and including the second child. During this time, mothers receive their full salary, but associated medical expenses are provided only by the employers if previously agreed upon. 335 Employers are forbidden to terminate their services three months before or during confinement without sufficient cause, and women are protected from unlawful deprivation or reduction in benefits as stated in the contracts. Despite the government encouraging a higher birth rate among some segments of the population, it has steadfastly refused to extend these privileges to the third and subsequent children, nor allow for paternity leave. 336

333 Government of Singapore, Revised Edition of the Statutes of the Republic of Singapore , Article 12(2), 1985. 334 Liew Geok Heok and Leong Chooi Peng, “Legal Status”, in Aline Wong and Leong Wai Kum (eds), Singapore Women: Three Decades of Change , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1993, p. 277. Active reservists are entitled to $1000 while those who have served national service but are not active reservist members are allowed $500. 335 Revised Edition of the Statutes of the Republic of Singapore , 1985, Cap. 122; Liew & Leong, 1993, pp. 267-269. 336 Revised Edition of the Statutes of the Republic of Singapore , 1985, The Employment Act, Section 76(4). Women can therefore only claim tax rebates after having a child and if they give birth at an earlier age. Ostensibly they can claim back the equivalent of up to two months unpaid leave.

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The issue of paternity leave is a tendentious one. Although some companies allow such leave, it is not universal. A report from the Sub-Committee of the Singapore National Employers’ Federation on Fringe Benefits report suggested that the Ministry of Labour consider making the relevant changes in the Employment Act. 337 The burden, however, remains on mothers. As guardians of future Singaporeans, the state expects them to remain in primary control of the formative development of the young. Policies maintain the view that women are the nurturer in the parent-child relationship. Although women benefit from the Women’s Charter, they are not encouraged to be assertive, or to participate in the workforce as equal competitors to men. The dominant state view, rather, is that as much as possible should be done to safeguard and emphasize their “otherness” from men - their femaleness, reproductive abilities and supposed natural instinct for mothering - without compromising economic progress. Hence being gainfully employed is an attractive position for women - not to mention their significant contribution to the economy and their households - but marriage and motherhood are stressed as equally if not more important. At the same time, social status and expectations of the upwardly mobile encourage women to choose to choose high level professional work over marriage. The dilemma is to find the best way to combine the two, with a system that prioritizes marriage and motherhood ahead of career and ambition.

Negotiating Paternalism

The decision to continue treating women as not equal to men is justified in the dominant patriarchal context in which the government functions. Firstly, the Confucian value system, while no longer visibly propagated, still exerts a profound influence on the way women are viewed. The search for Asian values has inevitably homogenized the dualities between male and female. While the Shared Values are not explicitly gendered, the understanding is that women are not likely to assume a more equivalent role in important decision-making processes. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that further fragmentation of sacred institutions such as marriage and motherhood have resulted from increasing Western influences and greater economic progress. They have also received a battering from well-educated women resistant to the traditional ideals of womanly submission. Greater awareness of the global trends and how they have impinged on the lives of Singaporean women have led to the growth of women’s

337 NTUC News , 1 July 1990; quoted in Liew & Leong, 1993, p. 269.

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groups - which are explicitly not feminist - who have tried to raise the profile of women’s achievements and problems. The government-approved SCWO is an umbrella organization founded in 1952 and has remained a close ally of the PAP since. A number of other women’s groups also existed in the 1950s, mainly professional ones with membership from the elite class.

One organization which has had greatest impact in recent years is the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE). Formed in 1985, it does not call itself a feminist group nor does it use the words “feminist” or “feminism” in its public discourse. Its guiding logic is clearly delineated in its constitution that directs its members and the actions of the group not to engage in political activity. 338 This is not so much a choice as a demand placed on it and other registered organizations by the government to limit political involvement. For many within and outside AWARE, this is seen as hampering the lengths to which it can go to promote its goals. To some it is further evidence of the government’s authoritarian control.

By its very nature, however, AWARE and other socially-minded organizations cannot dissociate themselves from political issues completely, even when delimited by its self-prescribed and government-regulated boundaries. It refrains from underscoring the political nature inherent in the status of women in Singapore, and sees itself as mainly involved in research, discussion and support roles, where it can ideally educate people of both sexes of the obstacles created by gender discrimination. According to its constitution, it aims

(i) to promote the awareness and participation of women in all areas;

(ii) to promote the attainment of full equality; and,

(iii) to promote equal opportunities for women. 339

Lyons-Lee has pointed out that the word “promote” is non-political and less aggressive than “achieve”. 340 Furthermore, the term has been defined at its most passive level by many members of AWARE.

According to Lyons-Lee,

338 AWARE, Association of Women for Action and Research: Declaration and Constitution , Singapore: AWARE, 1990, p. 6. Clause 24e states, as part of the requirement for the registration of all organizations in Singapore, that AWARE will not engage “in any political activity or allow its funds and/or premises to be used for political purposes.”

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AWARE’s goal is not so much to address structural systems of inequality as to alleviate some of its effects. This understanding of class is supportive of the government’s own policy of meritocracy in which “welfare” organizations have a minimal role to play in helping the “less able”. It obscures AWARE’s structural location of privilege at the same time that it glosses over the significant class disparities between ethnic groups. 341

The group has been extremely active in both gathering information pertinent to Singapore women as well as disseminating it. It periodically puts out publications relating to women’s rights and holds frequent public activities for members and the public, such as exhibitions, films, forums, seminars and self-improvement courses. It also runs a phone-in helpline that counsels women, especially those in abused relationships.

The latter has helped it particularly to gain legitimacy amongst the public and policy makers. 342 AWARE has been perceived for a long time as an elitist group that did not represent the majority of Singaporean women because of its novel position as Singapore's first non-government, broad-based women’s group, and also because of its characterization as a middle-class organization. Occupational data of its membership reveals that it is predominantly so. Time constraints is one, but not the only reason for the lack of working class women in AWARE. 343 Language is also a barrier as most working class women do not have the strong English-language skills that appear to be a requirement to take part in many of AWARE’s activities. The concept of class implicit in the structural formation and discourse on Singaporean women within AWARE is such that it becomes associated with education level, employment, language and place of residence. 344 Ironically, the “HDB housewife” whom organizations like AWARE aim to help are working class women living in the “HDB heartland” and therefore their education level and language proficiency may become obstacles to successful communication.

AWARE has been able to lobby the government on the latter’s principle of meritocracy to address gender discrimination evident in Singaporean society. The issue of equal medical benefits for women civil servants continues to be a point of

339 AWARE, 1990, p. 1. 340 Lyons-Lee, 1998, p. 5. 341 Lyons-Lee, 1998, p. 17. 342 Garry Rodan, “Preserving the One-Party State in Contemporary Singapore”, in Ken Hewison, Richard Robison & Garry Rodan (eds), Southeast Asia in the 1990s: Authoritarianism, Democracy and Capitalism , St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1993, p. 94. 343 Lyons-Lee, 1998, p. 16. 344 Lyons-Lee, 1998, p. 17.

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contention between it and the government. The problem of unequivocally defining household heads lies in the government’s belief that men would “become superfluous and lose their sense of identity” if women were allowed to usurp their position vis-à-vis extending their medical benefits to their immediate family. 345 The responsibility of providing for the family and home is seen to be a male prerogative, but AWARE has called for greater acknowledgment of women’s contribution to the family and to society in general. Subsequently Goh has conceded that the head is whoever individual families wish to designate although the legislation remains unchanged. 346

AWARE has structured itself as a multiracial organization to reflect the make- up of Singaporean society and to justify its claim to speak on behalf of Singaporean women, but it is ostensibly the shared experiences of being female that drives the group. 347 Race is not a secondary consideration, merely a different one. Framed around the concept of respect for others and how individual women live according to their culture and religion, AWARE is thus able to negotiate its goals without antagonizing both the state - who habitually frowns on racial chauvinism - and ethnic communities. 348

The paternalism with which the government treats Singaporean society does not leave women with much room to argue for equality with men. Organizations like AWARE can only lobby for changes to alleviate certain pockets of unfairness, but cannot assure a change in attitude that would ultimately lead to the greater acceptance of women’s non-traditional life choices. Many policies adversely affect women to the extent that the dominant political discourse views women as mothers and wives while remaining productive members of the labour force. There is no doubt that women have gained economic freedoms, but they have to simultaneously deal with the state’s preference for a traditional (Confucian) value system. As the government insists on viewing women through the primacy of the family unit, it appears that women of ethnicities other than Chinese also find themselves prey to Confucian influences in policies that affect them.

345 Lyons-Lee, 1998, p. 18. 346 Lyons-Lee, 1998, p. 18. 347 Lyons-Lee, 1998, p. 14. 348 Lyons-Lee, 1998, pp. 9-10. With respect to Muslim women, AWARE is careful not to be seen as “influencing/educating” them. Their general needs are dealt with according to women as “workers”, “students” or “victims of violence”, but it is always careful not to be recognized as speaking of any particular ethnic group. As it is, activities for Muslim women are co-ordinated and run by Muslim members.

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Yet such imposition by the state contradicts sharply with the purchasing power that women today have to indulge in conspicuous consumption: frequent holidays and shopping for brand name products are easily within the reach of many single women, especially since many of them continue to live at home and do not need to expend as much on living expenses. This spending power is an indicator of how today’s women assert their independence. It is markedly different from bygone days when many women had to rely on the male head of the home for an allowance. From the 1960s onwards Singaporean women have increasingly proven that they are capable of competing with men in the economic sphere without losing their femininity - or their perceived feminine interests in beauty, hair and shopping. Indeed, women’s magazines since the 1960s show that looking good is of prime importance and is the very space where women express and formulate the codes of being feminine in Singapore. The kinds of issues and consumption promoted by the magazines, as the next chapter will show, establish a point of negotiation for women between their indispensability to state-sponsored patriarchal values and goals, and their need to affirm their own sexual identity.

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Chapter Four  Magazines in Singapore During the 1990s

Browse through any bookshop in Singapore and it is easy to see how much competition local magazines face from foreign magazines. As home to many expatriates, Singapore imports a wide number of magazines, in English and other languages. Magazines being imported do not escape the close government scrutiny to which local periodicals are subjected. In 1982 Cosmopolitan was banned because it was deemed to be promoting promiscuous values, and in the late 1980s, the Far Eastern Economic Review was also banned as one of its issues contained an article that was critical of the Singapore government. Later, in 1993, an issue of Marie Claire was pulled off the shelves for an article about casual sex.

My decision to examine Her World and Female is a deliberate one. Despite the abundance of magazines available, only a small handful are locally produced and edited. Among these are magazines that were initially established elsewhere, but now have a Singapore edition. Today, notable giants in the fashion publishing industry such as Vogue and Marie Claire have launched a Singapore edition, as well as set up Singapore publishing offices staffed mainly by locals. 349 While the situation varies, such magazines include local input ranging from the editorial staff to local models, photographers and journalists. Nevertheless, foreign articles, already having appeared in an overseas edition of the same or other magazines, find their way into the Singapore edition. In locally written articles, writing styles are different – using local colloquialisms and grammatical structures - but layouts bear a startling similarity to foreign magazines.

Historically, women’s magazines in Singapore over the last thirty years reflect both political and cultural changes. Singapore is a country whose government places a high priority on economic growth and despite its benevolent patriarchal style of government, the state does understand that economic growth and stability remain one of its key attractions for foreign investments. Thus rapid industrialization, rising education levels among women, changing social attitudes towards women’s employment, delayed marriage and declining fertility rates have contributed to the

349 Since 1994, there have been Singaporean versions of Elle and Cleo .

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advancement of the modern Singapore woman. Motherhood has been re-defined, and the career woman is no longer as tied to normative conventions as she used to be; there are more variations to how each role can be performed. Since the mid- 1970s, when industrialization started taking off, women with a secondary school education have increased their gross monthly wages from $282 to $931 in 1991; women with tertiary education increased their gross monthly wages from $603 to $1849 in the same period. 350 The fear that women are easily stereotyped into certain roles remains a very real one however, whether in Singapore or any where else in the world. Yet women have always been able to negotiate some sort of space to empower themselves; their spending power, as visible through the advertising in women’s magazines proves this. In the course of my analysis, it becomes apparent that women are able to bargain for a very public space to assert their identity even against the equally public negotiation of space for national identity. Some researchers in women’s studies in Singapore have noted that the historical analysis of change in women’s status has invariably been tied to economic policies, unlike some western studies which have primarily focused on gender or class relations, or in which economics have played a secondary role. 351 Singapore is also a country that has, from the beginning, striven towards some form of national ideology. This preoccupation with a national vision has further influenced many government cultural policies; it is an essential point to take into consideration when discussing any aspect of cultural life in Singapore.

My intention is to show how national ideology and the feminine discourse intersect; by looking at the content in the magazines, one can see just how a mass- market driven female mystique might be the avenue which the government considers complementary to their own push of a specific Singaporean female identity – one where marriage and family are all-important. The magazines themselves may not form identity – this has afterall been the focus of much intense debate on the extent to which the mass media is responsible for – but rather, it is more accurately a reflection of what the market wants. In the case of my analysis of several public service announcements from various government departments, I aim to show that the government on the whole want women – in this case the target group, that is, well- educated English-educated Chinese women – to subscribe to the discourse in which

350 Linda Low, Toh Mun Heng, Euston Quah and David Lee, “Economic Participation”, in Aline Wong and Leong Wai Kum (eds), Singapore Women: Three Decades of Change , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1993, p. 95 (see table 5). 351 Karim Wazir Jahan, “Research on Women in Southeast Asia: Current and Future Directions”, section on Singapore”, in Aruna Rao (ed.), Women’s Studies: Nairobi and Beyond , New York: The Feminist Press at The City University of New York, 1991, pp. 142-155.

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not only is the family of prime important but that they must remain productive members of Singapore society.

The images discussed – from the advertisements and from the images accompanying text – are not suggestive of identity formation. It would be too great a stretch to suggest that they conclusively lead women readers to think of themelves in the ways suggested by the pictures. Rather, one could say that many of the images offered in the public service announcements are a response to the perceived ‘problems’ and issues brought up by the government, and that the clever positioning of these advertisements in women’s magazines is based on an understanding of commercial demands by Singaporean women who want to be cosmopolitan, worldly, smart and stylish. In orther words, the target audience of these very advertisements are precisely the audience the government is concerned to reach – well-educated English speaking women (predominantly Chinese) who are leaving it later and later to marry and have children. The hope was that these images and text were persuasive enough to suggest that things should change, but of course, it was only part of the overall campaign to challenge the current decline in births amongst the higher educated demographic groups. It is not that the government created different advertisements for different target audiences. During the period of these advertising campaigns, these were the predominant images found not only in magazines, but also in tunnels, public billboards and television advertisements.

Women’s magazines tend to be accepted uncritically by most women as being written by women, for women and about women. That they address women’s issues and are targeted at a female audience, there is little doubt. Increasingly though, men are becoming more visible within these pages, whether as male models or as writers intending to give a more “balanced” view of gender relations. Outside the magazine, uninvolved with the production of signs and meanings within however, is a growing group of male readers who regard the images of and revelations about women as little more than titillation; there are also those who read or browse with interest, with the purpose of trying to comprehend women, their interests and their motives.

Singapore’s language policy promotes four official languages - English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil - so both local and imported magazines come in a variety of languages. It would be misleading, however, to assume that all are sold or promoted equally. The way magazines are distributed reflect the multicultural make- up of Singapore, both geographically and socially. Tamil and other Indian language

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magazines, for instance, would mostly be found in the area in and around Serangoon Road, commonly referred to as Little India, which has become a hub for many of those with South Asian backgrounds and tourists as it signifies an area of rich Indian cultural heritage. One of the most popular kinds of magazines are those featuring predominantly Indian entertainment news and gossip from Bollywood. 352 In the HDB heartland, where approximately 84% of Singaporeans live, there would be a good mixture of magazines in all different languages, but English and Chinese language magazines are the most common; and as Singapore comes to rely even more heavily on foreign domestic servants, some mamak stores and neighbourhood mini-marts might be found carrying Tagalog magazines and romance novels. 353 All around the island magazines can also be found being hawked by licensed news vendors who set up their umbrellas and table near strategic thoroughfares: by busy roads, at the entrances of the MRT stations, or next to bus-stops. More permanent structures have evolved over the years: a small newspaper/magazines/sweets kiosk has been incorporated into the design of new and renovated bus-stops.

In the central business district (CBD) and main shopping areas such as City Hall and Orchard Road, the display of magazines take on greater formality. The way potential buyers approach them is also significantly different from elsewhere. When buying from a vendor, kiosk or a neighbourhood store, there is no encouragement to stop and peruse at leisure; in fact, some shop-keepers would cast disapproving looks or go as far as to tell browsers off for not buying. The act of buying is injected with a sense of purpose and urgency. Magazines would be stacked neatly in a pile or overlapping one another, usually across a table. The sell-lines would be evident and it is by these that one would judge the content of the current issue. 354 Flipping through quickly might be the next step, but as these places often only carry the most popular titles, the buyers are usually regulars or are familiar enough with the magazines to know what it is they are purchasing, and often do not pause too long in the act of buying. When magazines are sold in bookstores, as is usually the case in the city

352 Bollywood is India’s equivalent of Hollywood although it is not an actual place; more films are produced annually here than anywhere else in the world. 353 The HDB heartland refers to densely populated high-rise housing estates dotted all over the island. All class and ethnic groups converge in sharing the amenities but living closely together, however, does not mean that all share a common group identity, nor a homogeneous culture. HDB InfoWeb, “About Us – A Brief Background – HDB’s Beginnings”, available at http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10296p.nsf/WPDis/About%20UsA%20Brief%20Background%20- %20HDB's%20Beginnings?OpenDocument&SubMenu=A_Brief_Background , retrieved on 19 July 2006. mamak stores: small store selling anything from food and drinks to hair cream and magazines, found in the void decks of an HDB block. 354 sell-lines: short, snappy and bold phrases on the covers of magazines promoting the content within; often of varying fonts and sizes, and frequently sensationalist in nature.

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area and in shopping complexes, magazines are normally displayed vertically, overlapping one another, on special racks. Magazines with a large circulation would be in a pile near or on the floor. Potential buyers, however, behave differently from the previous scenario. Firstly, there are a greater number of people who come in merely to browse than to buy. Although the management do not verbally admonish readers for leafing through, some stores might shrink-wrap magazines and books in a not-so- subtle attempt to curb this habit. It is quite common to see the magazines section of any bookstore filled with browsers on Saturdays and Sundays.

The opening of Borders Bookstore in mid-November 1997 at one of the busiest junctions along Orchard Road added a new dimension to the kinds of reading materials available in Singapore. Up until the early 1990s, there were three major bookstores selling magazines. MPH and sell English language books and magazines (with a small section on foreign language dictionaries), while Popular Bookstore styles itself as the bilingual (English-Chinese) bookshop. The entry of two American competitors, Tower Books - a subsidiary of the mammoth Tower Records - and Borders meant that Singaporeans eventually had an increasingly wider choice of magazines to select from. 355 It is not only mainstream publications that are on sale; lesser-known niche periodicals about guitars, transcendental thought, philosophy, opera and caricature are also available. Women’s magazines are further separated by interests: fashion, health, hair, beauty and handicrafts. Again, magazines are in English, chiefly from the US and UK. European language magazines are also sometimes sold in bookstores, but are harder to find, as there is too small a market to sustain it profitably.

Despite this great selection to choose from, exorbitant prices often force many buyers to simply browse. Foreign magazines can cost up to three or four times the original price. The delay between the time the magazines first come off the press in their home country and are sold, to their initial appearance in a Singapore bookstore is not as long as it used to be as most magazines are nowadays air-freighted. What is more crucial in the case of women’s magazines is the differences in climatic patterns. While North America and the UK are in the middle of winter in January, Singaporeans continue to swelter through the usual monsoon season. The passing of the four

355 Being American means that they have access to the wide variety of titles available on the huge US market. Moreover, they can afford to price their magazines a little less expensive than Times, Popular or MPH because they import in bulk and have their own warehouses overseas, and hence do not have to rely on foreign agents. Prices for some foreign magazines fluctuate from store to store depending on

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seasons is of great importance to the fashion doyennes of Paris, Milan, London and New York, but for most Singaporeans winter fashions are not as appealing. The argument that Singaporean women these days are more cosmopolitan, more savvy with the latest trends, and hence more interested in what foreign magazines say may well be true, but it also has to contend with the value of thrift, of wanting value for what they pay, especially in the case where the item provides only short-lived enjoyment and use. Thus in the mid-1990s, local magazines costing between SGD$3 to SGD$5.90 represented greater value for money. While there were many or just as many advertisements, Her World and Female were considered reasonably priced at SGD$4.50 and SGD$4.60 respectively because of their thickness and quality of print.

Foreign women’s magazines have a number of other factors working against them in Singapore. The character profiles and gossip about celebrities that are a staple of such magazines are often too localized for Singaporean women to identify with comfortably. Although most readers would be able to claims some familiarity with Hollywood gossip and news, profiles of successful non-Singaporeans would not as effectively touch Singaporean sentiments. Another element is that the kinds of products and services advertised are frequently unavailable in Singapore, or would only be released at a later date. The launch dates for new products vary from city to city, and what was slated to be released in a particular month might not reach Singapore up to twelve months later if at all, leaving readers feeling frustrated. Similarly, various items - from clothing to fashion accessories - are quoted in non- Singapore currency, and are to be found in places inaccessible to the majority of Singaporean women. By the time a fad or fashion does reach Singapore, the prices could easily have doubled. It is easy to keep up-to-date with the news, but it is another matter entirely to keep up with the trends. Local Singaporean women’s magazines do not have these problems as they are specifically tailored for the Singaporean market. Hence it would be equally as easy for them to be out of place in a London Underground newsagent or on an American news-stand.

A General Overview of Local Magazines

As in any country with a well-developed communications infrastructure, the magazines industry is a sophisticated network, often with any one publisher

the exchange currency, unlike local magazines which follow a standard retail price index. Tower Books,

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responsible for catering to various sectors of society. The boom in locally produced magazines in general, however, did not take off until the mid-1980s. Entertainment magazines such as the English and Chinese versions of RTV Times were always popular, and for a long time, Her World and Female were the only two affordable English language magazines for women on the market. Chinese women readers were luckier as they could rely on inexpensive publications from Hong Kong and Taiwan such as Jie-Mei (Sisters) and Funu (Women). Similarly, Malay readers similarly relied on magazines from Malaysia. The appearance of big name players from the US, Europe and Australia roused Singapore publishers from complacency, and forced them to pay attention to the way the market was being fragmented. Mid-1997 saw the revamping of Female , with a reduction in the size (it is now the same dimensions as Her World ), a softer textured cover and modified layouts. A new Chinese language women’s magazine was launched with much fanfare a few years earlier. Citta Bella , an Italian-sounding title intended to evoke European style and panache, set out to capture the imagination of Singaporean Chinese women. Formatted in the same layout as Her World and Female , its distinction is its bilingualism and attention to quality visuals, while its target are young Mandarin-speaking professional women. The advantage a local Chinese magazine has over its Hong Kong and Taiwanese rivals is that the form of Chinese used is not the Hong Kong/Cantonese or Taiwan-Mandarin varieties, but a unique blend of Singapore-Mandarin Chinese employing specific slang and grammar particular to Singapore.

The number of new magazines on the Singapore market over the last ten years is indicative of the growing complexity of the social clusters. Each magazine is produced with the objective of meeting some niche, some distinct groupings that did not exist with the same or better buying power as in the past. For instance, when it became obvious that Singapore faced a daunting limitation on its labour supply, the government started to encourage more women to join the workforce and remain there even after marriage. By 1971, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was openly urging women into the labour force: he believed that young women workers were “underutilized”. 356 By extension, it would seem therefore a patriotic duty to have a local labour force rather than one relying on foreign workers. Certainly, in the first half of the century the vast majority of women followed the circumscribed roles of wife and motherhood. For those who did work, it was almost mandatory to retire after marriage. By the 1990s, this was no longer the case. While there continues to exist a familial

however, closed down in the early part of 2000-2001.

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pressure on some women to give up their jobs after marriage or for motherhood, there is no longer the same stigma attached to working wives and mothers. The government prides itself on having advanced Singapore women’s status to a level comparable to the rest of the world. 357 Unanticipated side-effects of these positive shifts were changes in women’s priorities, with the desires to fulfill oneself through personal, non-domestic roles and achievements, and to gain satisfaction from their professions becoming more common; these working women became a powerful consumer force for they were quite capable of purchasing their own wants and needs. Between 1980 and 1990, there was a jump from 11.9% to 16.5% of the female population working in the professional and technical industries; in the administrative and managerial areas, there was a rise from 1.9% to 3.9% in the same period. Hence it can be seen that more women were increasing their earning power despite the fact that many women still earned significantly less than men. 358 As early as 1983, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew lamented that it was

too late for us to reverse our policies and have our women go back to their primary roles as mothers, the creators and protectors of the next generation. 359

In other words, more women were putting marriage and motherhood further into the future, and having fewer children than their predecessors. Amongst the Chinese, 38% of women married at age 25 or older according the 1990 census - a vast difference compared to the 1970 census figure of 19%. 360 In fact, women with tertiary education were increasingly unlikely to have no children: in 1980, 20.9% of married women had no children, while that figure climbed to 32.1% in 1990. 361 More women were spending additional time in the workforce before the onset of marriage and motherhood, hence contributing to burgeoning interest amongst women readers in business periodicals like World Executive Digest , while traditional women’s magazines devote more space to workplace issues, and provide financial and investment advice in order to compete for their share of that particular segment of the market. The content in women’s magazines have thus reflected these very trends, although whether they were at the forefront leading the change or merely reverberating the changes instigated by the

356 Wong, 1975, p. 31. 357 Singapore government and non-political organizational propaganda literature throughout the mid- 1980s and early 1990s stress this particular achievement. See publications from the Singapore Council of Women’s Organizations (SCWO) and Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE). 358 Low, Toh, Quah and Lee, 1993, p. 91 (see Table 3). 359 Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s National Day Address, The Straits Times , 9 August 1983. 360 Stella R. Quah, Family in Singapore: Sociological Perspectives , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1994, p. 58. The figures came from advance data released from selected 1990 census tables from the Department of Statistics.

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state is another matter for investigation. However, in providing the content which seemed to parallel the nation-building efforts being played out in the political arena, it was clear that magazines catering to women were changing with the times and that even a brief content analysis would be of great historical value in mapping out the changes and challenges to a certain sector of Singaporean women. Not only that, existing magazines have also experienced a growth in sheer page volume. As editors add more content, it seems they were being driven by adaptation to global trends, while on the other hand also attempting localization and combating the impact of overseas magazines flowing into the local market.

The changes in fertility patterns, too, have effected the magazines industry, for there is a growing awareness of a need for parenting publications. When the Prime Minister made the call in 1983 to rectify the “lop-sided” reproduction trends, it was because the reproduction rate had gone below replacement level - a serious situation in which Singapore faced a future with a large aging population. Although data show increases in live births, fluctuations indicate that it is premature to assume that the downward swing has been arrested as there is still a massive shortfall in the required number of births to reach steady population growth.362 Family units have become smaller, less a result of increased contraceptive use than the successful promotion of the benefits of fewer children and a change in the traditional preference for male offspring. 363 Fewer children means child-rearing is less hectic than in the days of large families; women at least did not have to look forward to endless rounds of pregnancy, childbearing, lactation followed by an indeterminate period of child-rearing during the prime years of their lives.

In the past, women primarily learnt their mothering skills through experience: in taking care of their own siblings, and later, their own children, becoming more skilful with each subsequent child; or they shared knowledge between family, friends and neighbours. Such informal means are still very much in evidence today, but modern parenting has another alternative: that is, to refer to parenting magazines rather than to depend on old-wives’ tales and folk remedies that have vague foundations in medical science. By availing themselves to the expert advice of paediatricians, nutritionists and other professionals, these magazines thus gain a voice of authority

361 Quah, 1993, p. 55 (see table 6). 362 Goh Chok Tong, “The Second Long March”, Singapore into the Nineties , Singapore: Information Division, Ministry of Communications and Information, 1986, p. 72 363 C.T. Chang, J.H. Ong and P.S.J. Chen, Culture and Fertility: The Case of Singapore , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asia Studies, 1980, pp. 77-78.

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and legitimacy. This is the niche in which that parenting magazines like Young Parents and Motherhood fit into. Whereas the latter tends to embrace all aspects of child-rearing, from pregnancy, the birth and confinement, right through to a child’s formative years, Young Parents was aimed more specifically at the socialization of a slightly older group of children. For example, it exhibits a greater concern about formal education in the belief that it is better to get started on the right track earlier than later: how to choose the best assessment books for a child, and helping pre- schoolers adjust to their first time in school. Both magazines focus on health and diet issues for children and mothers, with frequent articles on childhood illnesses, sections containing nutritious and creative recipes for mothers-to-be and children, as well as providing problem-solving pages where readers can write in with their queries.

It was only recently that men had a local magazine dedicated to them. Health, fitness, automobiles and sporting magazines had long been available as imports, but in December 1997 the first Singapore edition of FHM was launched. Though not strictly soft-core porn, it was marketed as “the best selling men’s magazine in the world”; it was supposed to be funny, sexy and useful; and

FHM will give you sexy women to drool over. If you think you have it made, FHM will teach you how to become more of a winner. We’ll give you a repertoire of party tricks, bawdy jokes and incredible stories to make you the life of the party. 364

FHM is an entirely new breed of men’s magazine in Singapore, falling somewhere between leisure, the glorification of masculinity, the “boys’ own” buddy system and the male appreciation of the female form. Claiming an average circulation of 30,000 and aimed at men between 19 and 35, it is sexist and it makes no apology for being so. 365 The images of women inside are easily exemplified by its cover and eight-page pictorial-interview feature on Terri Hatcher. 366 The sell-lines on the cover scream, “SUPERBABE. Terri Hatcher: Superman’s squeeze and Bond’s maid.” The woman in question sits with a come-hither look in her eyes against a fire-engine red background, yet her body language is coy. She wears a black lace-crocheted see-through tunic over sexy black undergarments. Inside, following the pictures of Hatcher, are seven more pages of pictures featuring famous women - famous at least for their chest measurements - in various stages of undress. On the seventh page there is a list of “The 100 Most Wanted Women in the World: Voted by the readers of FHM (UK)”,

364 FHM , January 1998, p. 10. 365 The Straits Times , weekly edition, 30 May 1998. 366 FHM , January 1998.

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which then goes on to encourage their newest readers to fill in a pre-printed coupon with their votes for “your sexiest women for 1998.”367 One thing certain is that these kinds of images would have been unthinkable in the early 1990s. The message from the very first issue is clear: sexuality directed at men, at its most overt without crossing the boundaries set by Singapore’s censorship body. The Singapore authorities have since shown no hesitation in banning FHM temporarily as it has considered FHM to be “contrary to public interest.” 368 Indeed, the majority of the images depicting women serve only to titillate and in June 1998 it was banned, ostensibly because of the sexually explicit nature of its articles, particularly one on sex aids. 369 Its licence to published was “revoked for carrying images associated with pornography” after the magazine’s management failed to heed two warning letters sent out by the Ministry of Information and the Arts (MITA). 370

Images of women in revealing clothing are not exclusive to men’s and women’s leisure magazines, although in either case the act of looking entails an entirely different set of assumptions; they are also to be found with alarming frequency in entertainment magazines. Local entertainment magazines not only provide gossipy news on international stars and Singapore’s home-grown talent, they have also become a platform where the hip and trendy can spot upcoming trends and fashions. A regular feature of M3 (Music Movies Monthly) magazine was David Brazil’s Night Eye, where his tongue-in-cheek descriptions of happenings in club land were accompanied by photographs of exotic dances and sexily dressed female clubbers. Brazil was an a long time Singapore-based expatriate journalist who wrote much on all forms of Western influences that have crept into Singapore, sometimes with great irreverence, and has a reputation for being a man-about-town. A similar section can also be found in the fortnightly entertainment magazine 8-Days , however, is more sedate. Published weekly by Caldecott Hill Publishing, it featured an eight-day television guide and while there was heavy local content, it also comprised a healthy dose of Hollywood. Its local entertainment news was incorporated in series of regular listings of current concerts, pub acts, theatres and exhibitions, as well as promotions of the week and newly opened eating places. It did not need to rely on

367 FHM , January 1998, p. 93. 368 Undesirable Publications Act, 1967 369 The Straits Times Weekly Edition , 30 May 1998. 370 The publisher has since lodged an appeal, saying that they “regret the decision taken by the ministry and is deeply sorry and remorseful that its licence has been revoked.” The magazine insists that it had been consciously working towards the guidelines set by MITA and “reiterated that illustrations and features that deal with sex are in line with what other local magazines ... feature.” FHM publisher, Agatha Koh, The Strats Times Weekly Edition , 30 May 1998.

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sexily dressed models and cover girls to maintain readership, although that is not to say that it these were not utilized to increase sales. As the only English language television guide that provided detailed synopsis of the major Hong Kong, Taiwanese and local Mandarin television serials currently running on the Chinese language television station - a major staple in Singaporeans television viewing diet - it had a much greater audience than any entertainment magazine, with the exception of its Chinese language equivalent, RTV Times .371 The articles and interviews, sometimes culled from overseas sources, were sanitized, tidied up or written to cultivate a less sensationalist, but no less chatty approach. While M3 and etc. catered to a hip late- teens and twenty-something crowd, and 8-Days being mass-based, a new monthly magazine, Lime , was created in 1995 to cash in on the “teenybopper’ crowd. Content- wise, it is rather scanty in comparison to other entertainment magazines on the market, but it was similar to the American Seventeen and the English Smash Hits as it featured posters of toothy male teen movie and music idols, one-on-one interviews and snatches of gossip.

Because the Singapore market was not particularly large, there was a lack of local journalists who specialized in more specific fields such as computers, sports, physical fitness, automobiles, photography, art, classical music, conservation, or architecture, hence the preponderance of readers relying on overseas magazines. 372 One notable exception was Kick , a monthly football magazine. 373 Football is a major and despite the small size of the island, there is a thriving national and regional league. Approximately 90% of the magazine dealt with different league clubs in Singapore, while the remainder covered league news overseas, mainly in Malaysia. In general though, the magazine reading public in Singapore had fragmented to a degree unheard of thirty years ago. The growth in the economy, the increase in literacy levels and changes in population patterns have all contributed to the shifting complexities of Singapore society, resulting in the formation of re-defined roles for people; whole groups of people, not considered significant as demographic figures have appeared as forces to be reckoned with. New groups include tertiary- educated young singles, the divorced, the non-working young with a disposable

371 In the 1990s, there are four local channels in Singapore, each with strict programming guidelines. TCS 5 is the English channel, while TCS 8 is Chinese. Prime 12 broadcasts Malay and Indian programs, while Premiere 12 shows documentaries and art-house films and classics in any of the four major languages. In 1993, 8-Days recorded an weekly circulation rate of 75,000 compared to RTV Times’ 131,000. Brian Jacobs (ed.), The Leo Burnett Worldwide Advertising and Media Fact Book , Chicago: Triumph Books, 1994, p. 110. 372 By 2000, however, this situation had changed, with more local specialist magazines appearing.

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income, young working women who put establishing a career ahead of marriage and family life and the nuclear family unit as opposed to the multi-generational family living in one home. A plethora of lifestyle options unavailable in the past have thus allowed new categories of magazines to spring up, a supply to meet a demand.

Women’s Magazines in Singapore

Of the local women’s magazines, there is a much to choose from and it is the most varied of all the different genres of magazines discussed so far. They can be divided into two main categories: those that have been developed and are published entirely by local companies, and those that are published in Singapore under existing foreign titles, usually by a local firm acting as a subsidiary of or jointly with a foreign firm. In the 1990s, only three titles fall into the first group: GO, Her World and Female . In the second category, it was only in the late 1980s and early 1990s that saw a dramatic rise in such titles: Cleo, Elle , Marie Claire , Vogue , and Women’s Weekly . All of these magazines promote themselves as the quintessential “Singapore Edition.” If at any time articles and gossip were shared between the Singapore and overseas issues of the same or different magazine, which was to be expected. It is common practice within the industry to reprint articles from different magazines that have such a copyright agreement. An article that originally appeared in the American edition of Redbook that is later printed in Her World fosters the impression amongst readers that magazines are in touch with social issues in an international context. In the case of issues easily identifiable to Singaporean women, like relationships and sex, it allowed them to feel less alienated, that there was a sisterhood that cut across racial lines in which to share the highs and lows of being a woman. On the other hand, local magazines do occasionally reprinted stories that were clearly non-Singaporean; the Singaporean edition of Marie Claire regularly featured tales of gender and social conflict in strife-torn countries such as Pakistan and Bosnia. While the condition of most Singaporean women did not approach the level of abject inequality portrayed in these stories, these articles evinced a sense of gravity in an otherwise light-hearted magazine genre. Furthermore, they evoked an outpouring of sympathy and outrage from its audience; however, it did not necessitate action on the part of women - just a

373 That is, English-rule football, also known as soccer in Australia.

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sense of bonding. Just as importantly, there was a conscious feeling of relief, that “thank goodness it doesn’t happen here in Singapore.” This seems to be a deliberately divisive tactic, that while serving to unite women emotionally, it also segregates the fortunate from the unfortunate.

Women’s magazines in Singapore can be divided into three major types, each aiming at a distinct, albeit overlapping audience. Firstly, there was the teen magazine, GO , published by Times Periodicals. It had a strong Singapore flavour, aiming at young women from the early teens to mid-twenties. Priced reasonably inexpensively at SGD$3, it followed other women’s magazines in terms of style, but the products featured were often targeted at women on a budget, especially young teens still at school and first-timers on the job market. Though their spending power could not compare with their parents or working siblings, Singapore’s youth can today boast of a higher disposable income. 374 For them, as with young people all over the world, trendiness was the epitome of good taste and savviness. Designer goods were drooled over, hankered after and imitated by countless teens, as this letter to the mail column shows:

I loved your HDB buys special last month. I picked up real bargains that resemble designer wear and was complimented on my good taste. You’ll forgive me if I didn’t credit you. Give us more! 375

One of GO’ s selling points was that in every issue it offers “mix and match” apparel spread flat against a plain background, not hung on a model. The layout was uncluttered, without distracting scenery in the background, and prices of each item were clearly labelled. These items were usually not designer labels and could easily be found in a department store or fashion (not designer) boutiques. Despite giving advice on the kinds of genuine designer fashions that could be emulated, the real things were still very much in evidence and conspicuous consumption became a major theme that was carried through in women’s magazines as young women readers graduated to more sophisticated magazines. The goods advertised in GO ranged from symbols of youthful freedom (Levi’s) and mid-range boutiques producing their own house labels (Sportsgirl, Fornari) to more upmarket internationally known brands like Shiseido, Calvin Klein and Armani. In a move that has proved more common

374 Chua Beng Huat and Tan Joo Ean, Singapore: New Configuration of a Socially Stratified Culture , Singapore: Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore, 1995, p. 24-27. See also The Sunday Times , 26 April 1998 about a survey carried out by Singapore Press Holdings on the buying powers of teenagers. 375 GO , November 1996, p. 10. The HDB estates are known for cheap mass-produced clothing based on the latest trends, but they are not often of the best quality.

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among long-established designers, Armani moved into the youth market by starting up a diffusion range, Armani Exchange (A/X). A diffusion line of apparel or accessories appears when a well-known designer or fashion leader branches out with a cheaper, mass-produced range of goods aimed at a younger market. Having already established a reputation via its more expensive designer collections, a diffusion range can cultivate loyal customers from amongst the younger generation, while staking out a share of the youth market. Shiseido has also invested similarly by the launching of Za, a youth-oriented range of cosmetics employing bold, energetic colours and design.

As readers of GO grew up and started working in earnest, their reading allegiance shifted to the second kind of magazines, the glossy sophisticates: Her World , Female , Cleo , Marie Claire , Elle or Vogue . It was reassuring for readers to see that the stylistic format of such magazines was easily recognizable for they are merely more worldly older sisters of GO . The layout in the glossy sophisticates was less jumbled, the pace less frenetic. It was almost as if young women’s frantic race to grow up, to use make-up, to get into a relationship was reinforced by the way text and image collide in GO . The overall impression in GO was that there are so many paths to follow, so much of life to experience when one is young, the irony being that as one grew older, the pace and interests in life (and thus magazines) usually became more stable and sedate, and where individual goals were less confusing. Or at the very least, priorities changed, and taste became more complicated and defined. Her World and Female will be discussed in much further detail later, but it is sufficient for the moment to look at the generic characteristics of this group of magazines. They targeted women broadly between the late teens to the late thirties, weaving their focus tightly around personal and sexual relationships, beauty, fashion, health and diet. Sometimes, like Marie Claire , there were token segments dwelling on a significant social/moral issue.

These magazines were divided into sections that herald the arrival of new beauty and health products, either in the form of advertorials or regular columns. Other regulars include travel, dining, cooking recipes, and recently released films and books. There were also advice pages for readers - dealing with relationship, sexual and medical problems. Interspersed throughout the magazines were longer articles, from two to six pages long, with visuals; some were celebrity profiles, but most were often written in the first person, employing the use of experts to lend credibility, and investigated subject matters of varying degrees. Such articles frequently resorted to a liberal sprinkling of personal experiences, either of the author’s, people whom the

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author knew, or had heard about. Topics ranged from social issues (abortion, domestic violence, rape, incest) and sexual advice (fetishes, sexual etiquette, orgasms) to medical problems close to women’s hearts (osteoporosis, breast cancer, vaginal infections). A sense of the personal pervaded all these articles, where the tone, attitude and content matter all suggested a close association with women’s concerns: the overt “us” and “you” referred to and the Asianized names, rather than non-cultural specific “Jane” or “Mary”, easily interpellated the Singaporean woman reader.

Glossy, dynamic and creative visuals, especially in the advertisements and fashion spreads, also set women’s magazines somewhat apart. The lush and evocative colours reinforced the value of the goods advertised and, more often than not, the kind of consumerism encouraged by well-known brand-name products that fill the magazine, page after page. If some were not well-known, they would soon be after appearing regularly enough in these women’s magazines. Fashion spreads used either exotic locales or dramatic lighting, and followed a set theme. Promotions were another major feature, in the form of competitions, free gifts - that were either attached to the magazine or required participants to enter a lucky draw - and discount cards. A supplement issue might also be bound with the regular monthly copy. Vogue Men was occasionally published to be sold expressly as a companion to Vogue and could not be purchased separately. Bridal, beauty, hair and jewellery supplements also accompanied women’s magazines once or twice a year.

The third kind of women’s magazines was a relatively new phenomenon in Singapore in the late 1990s: the mass-based, gossip magazine directed not just at career women, but equally or more so, at lower income, working or full-time mothers and housewives. At least, this has been the target group that Woman’s Weekly would be aiming at in Australia or New Zealand. Launched only in October 1997, it was the first one of this kind in this category. At SGD$2.80, it was something of a bargain for a glossy monthly magazine; but in comparison to the same magazine overseas, it is only half the thickness in content. The same kind of promotional gimmicks found in Her World or Cleo applied unequivocally; the premiere issue came with a free gift, but instead of a beauty product or something of similar narcissistic value, Women’s Weekly gave away a draw-string cloth bag for storing plastic shopping bags to be hung in the kitchen. The emphasis of the magazine was immediately directed at domesticity, signaling its departure from the self-involved, vanity and high-fashioned sense of other women’s magazines on the market.

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Content-wise, Women’s Weekly depended on a repertoire of stories specializing in local and foreign personalities, as well as “ordinary” people whose life stories follow what is know in the magazine industry as “triumph over tragedy” tales. 376 Such stories were recognizable by the recurrent theme of “ordinary” people, usually women, who survived their uphill battles with a wide variety of personal misfortunes. Similarly discernible were the family-style snapshots accompanying the text. The stories contrived to teach its readers to have faith in themselves, if not in some divine entity, and that hope and perseverance will eventually lead to success. Readers thus become aware of the pitfalls that occurred in “real” life, yet they could leave the story feeling smug that they did not have to struggle with such ill luck. But unlike the previous group of women’s magazines, it did not offer nor invite attempts to analyze or understand why things happened as they did. The only expert opinions solicited were for health and diet issues, and regular features such as horoscopes, cookery and personal advice columns. There was also a heftier weight placed on the home and family, including recipes, home-cleaning hints, gardening tips and interior decor suggestions. Such thematic issues were hardly at odds with pro-family government policies. In fact, such propensity was in line with the avowed marketing strategy nof the magazines: the magazine was to appeal particularly to women whose main priorities were their homes and families - namely, married women. They may very well be working women too, but they were also women looking for shortcuts in the cookery department, or wanted recommendations on how to get grease stains off linen. Sexuality was not a major issue in this magazine, though sex and relationships are accepted as a natural state of being; they were not, however, dissected and analyzed compulsively as in Her World , Female , Cleo or Elle .

376 Margery Ferguson, Forever Feminine: Women’s Magazines and the Cult of Femininity , London: Heinemann, 1983, p. 51; Janice Winship, Inside Women’s Magazines , London: Pandora Press, 1987, p. 70.

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Chapter Five  How to Live Your Life – Women’s Magazines and the Generation of Meaning

Publishing women’s magazines is a major industry all over the world and their status as popular culture belies their scholastic importance as vehicles for meaning production and as purveyors of social mores. What has been recognized by feminist scholars is the marginalization of women’s magazines in media, communication and cultural studies where it has been dismissed by critics for the trivialization of women’s lives and for failing to present a realistic picture of the way women live. 377 More recent has been the conscious effort to delineate the status of women’s magazines within the elastic boundaries of popular culture. This has been an important and significant contribution to an understanding of their ideological functions. Indeed, popular culture is a site of struggle where meanings are argued over, refined and redefined. It is an area where compromises and identities are formed, not only where capitalism, patriarchy, gender issues, feminism and postmodernism fight for dominance. Popular culture is not a hoax; it is not merely a way for commercial enterprises to sell “false consciousness” to the people. It is a place where alternate ideologies can function, sometimes even simultaneously. It is where discourse between the “what is” and “what can be” can mediate for space. More importantly, popular culture is the site where dominant ideologies can be subverted.

In women’s magazines, their dynamism is a particular attribute that makes them a convenient and effective force in disseminating the discourse of femininity and female identity. As a form of popular culture, it is frequently accepted indiscriminatingly by the majority. Even if aspects are questioned, magazines are easy to dismiss precisely because of their temporal nature. Unlike rare books or first- day stamp covers, women’s magazines are not coveted for their intrinsic or aesthetic value. Rather, it is what they offer here and now that is of greatest interest to its readers. They operate as a talking point, but for only as long as certain fashions and trends are in vogue. The issues and concerns in the magazines act as a focus for readers and editors alike. Similarly, this commonality extends between readers

377 Janice Winship, Inside Women’s Magazines , London: Pandora, 1987, pp. 7-8.

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whether or not they agree with what editors have sanctioned or vetoed. Identification between women is thus enforced firstly by the fact that other women are reading the same magazine; secondly, the issues at stake are of relevance to women; and thirdly, the editorial team is predominantly female. Unlike many executive leadership positions, male editors on the staff of women’s magazines are an exception rather than the norm. These three points serve to encourage reader confidence in and identification with the magazine as a commodity. It also enhances its ideological value as a means for women to share and identify with a unified concept of femininity.

My main concern is with the kind of meaning production generated by English language women’s magazines with respect to what is expected of Singaporean women (albeit those of a certain class) by the producers of the meaning, and how that relates by reflecting or is reflected in the historical context of Singapore’s struggle for social cohesion. The process of nation-building and defining a national identity is amply evidenced by the mechanisms discussed in a previous chapter. In this chapter I will look at how the cult of femininity inherent in Her World and Female interacts with Singapore's search for a national identity, vis-à-vis the issues raised by these English- language magazines and through examination of some of the more prevalent images within them. Nowhere is a prescription for desired femininity clearer than in women’s magazines. Their influence cannot be underestimated and magazines, as a site of struggle, provides for a better understanding of gender differences and the kinds of social attitudes expected in the ‘conventional’ sense. From a historical perspective, it is also an ideal construct through which to examine social and historical change. This chapter will therefore concentrate on content analysis, from covers to advertisements and feature articles, while pointing out any messages which come through that might validate or invalidate the nation-building ideals which were being played out in other arenas.

The 1960s and 1990s have been chosen as the two vantage points from which to examine the changes in women’s identity within the historical context. Random issues of Her World and Female were therefore taken from the years 1965-1969 and 1990-1996 for analysis in terms of its content and themes to see how they have historically changed. The late 1960s, being a period of momentous change for Singapore, offers a unique opportunity to evaluate how the struggle for nationhood impacted on the kinds of messages promoted among women. Nearly thirty years later, the 1990s represent a distant enough juncture from which to explore the results and continuation of identity formation; that is, it is not so distant as to alienate the

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current readers from knowledge of and even close hand experience of the national quest for survival, but far enough to view events more objectively. Her World , being the only magazine to exist during both periods, is featured prominently; a secondary title is Female , which has only been published in Singapore since 1975. Magazines aimed at Singaporean women have thus been present in Singapore for over thirty years. There have been special interest magazines, such as Lucky , which focused on dressmaking, but of late it has been the general kind, especially those known as “glossies”, which have proliferated. In the late 1980s and early 1990s there have been more locally-edited women’s magazines for the domestic market than over the previous two decades. Because of Singapore's shared history with the Malayan peninsula, many magazines distributed on one side of the straits eventually find themselves on the other side. To this day, Her World , Female , Wanita and Cleo are also published in Malaysia, sharing many articles, news and advertisements although tone and style are modulated accordingly. 378 Indeed it is a sign of the times that local magazines proliferate among countless other foreign titles.

Using English Language Magazines

The choice to use only English-language women’s magazines is deliberate because the growth of an English-speaking cohort of young women over time also parallels the steps Singapore was taking to mark its niche in the English-speaking world. The target group is therefore narrowed and is thus limited to well-educated English reading women, which as a group has grown as primary and secondary schooling became compulsory. It is therefore through this particular cohort of women which these magazines are examined. As noted before, English became the lingua franca, of business, of politics and international affairs; it was seen by the early PAP as the language of progress. 379 While much of Singapore remains adamantly

378 Frocks, Woks and Gossip , (audio-visual), Australia: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1997. At the opening of this documentary, the regional editor of Cleo (Singapore and Malaysia) is having an animated discussion with staff in Malaysia over the content of their special sealed “sex files” section in an upcoming issue. The concern here is that the Malaysian censorship board may not allow some of the material to pass through. By the end of the programme, the editorial team has practiced self- censorship and the modified “sex files” has been approved. 379 While it is debatable just how widely English is the lingua franca in the heartland of suburbia, it was and has been encouraged as the language of progress over time, except during the more recent period when there were occasionally vigorous campaigns to encourage fluency in spoken Mandarin in light of mainland China opening up its doors for international business and investment.

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multilingual, English has the tendency to cut across ethnicity and to a lesser extent, class ties. The English language women’s magazines Her World and Female were chosen because they have been established the longest on the local market and have always had high circulation figures while many other titles have come and gone in the past . Moreover, both maintain a high level of local input - from the use of local models, photographers and stylists, to local editorial staff and the commissioning of regionally-specific issues - and are thus most suitable sources for historical analysis. New women’s magazines in Chinese, Malay and Tamil are far and few in between although many new English titles from overseas have been introduced in Singapore.

One of the newer of these titles, Women’s Weekly , was only on the market since late 1997. It is an altogether new variety of magazine, not seen before in Singapore. When first released, It was very much a novelty and it heralded the further fragmentation of the market. For another, the multilingual nature of Singapore society again may have made it difficult for Women’s Weekly to attain, or taken it longer to achieve widespread popularity. Although the level of English competency has markedly improved since 1965, when bilingualism (inclusive of English) was made mandatory, the target group for such a magazine is still characterized by language diversity. In the British, Australian and New Zealand markets, where English is the national language, Women’s Weekly is, unsurprisingly, one of the best-selling women’s monthly magazines. The situation in Singapore is radically differently. Though English is openly accepted in Singapore as the language of science and commerce, and indeed, much of the younger generation has more than basic comprehension, it is important to take into account that a familiarity with the language does not translate into actual, constant and desired usage. Amongst the three main ethnic groups, the proclivity to use Mandarin (or one of many Chinese dialects), Malay or Tamil is strong. Many Singapore families continue to live in multi-generational and to a lesser degree, extended family structures where the older generations are more comfortable conversing in their mother tongues. Because of this, a mass-market magazine like Women’s Weekly cannot rely on tapping entirely into its traditional audience in Singapore, for these part-time working or stay-at-home mothers and housewives constantly socialize in an informal atmosphere that requires them to be conversant in ethnic tongues. Furthermore, these women do not have to rely on English magazines to serve their needs when they can and do turn to non-English sources of information. For instance, the greater emphasis on Mandarin in schools

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and in various advertising campaigns has resulted in greater Chinese language literacy.

The target audience for glossy sophisticates are another matter as altogether as these women are much more prone to new fads and trends. They are essentially women who have more than a passing knowledge of English, having gone through an educational system that stressed English as the first language. Most are aged between 18 and 50 years old, would likely have a career or are already in the professional workforce; if not, they would have at least worked for a number of years at some stage of their lives before the onset of motherhood. What is of significance is that these women come from culturally and ethnically disparate backgrounds, which would not be the case for the readership of Chinese, Malay or Tamil magazines. Such magazines would be culturally-loaded to the extent that its use of language excludes other ethnic groups: only Chinese women would read Chinese magazines, Malay women read Malay magazines, and Indian women, Indian magazines. English magazines are equally laden with cultural stereotypes and messages, but because of its use of a language that belongs to none of the major ethnic groups, it can claim a broad audience. In addition, they make a conscious attempt not to exclude ethnic groups though it is clear that some are privileged over others. The use of English in magazines thus functions as a uniting factor for women in the transmission of the latest fashion and beauty news. For them, reading in English is much easier to accomplish as they are likely to engage in its use throughout their working lives. Following Western fashions and news are in keeping with professional women’s, and Singapore’s, desire to keep themselves cosmopolitan and knowledgeable. The subliminal discourse on ethnicity, however, is debatable and remains one of the questions which will be addressed further.

The Cult of Femininity

One of the main ideological functions of women’s magazines is that they foster and maintain a cult of femininity. 380 The messages that are conveyed by the textual and visual codes vary from the 1960s to the 1990s, but the focus has always been on how women could improve themselves according to the conventions currently defining

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femininity. Many of these ideals were imposed or reinforced by the selective editorial voice, but the women’s magazines have also proven that they were capable of tapping into the pulse of women’s domestic, career and sexual needs. The point of view taken from the “woman’s angle” ensures the creation of an alternate social reality that is forever feminine and compliant with the market forces that drive the industry. 381

The changes in the women’s magazine publishing industry parallel much of the changes that have occurred in Singapore. Rather than historically chronicling what has happened over the last forty years, I propose to take an episodic approach to analyzing the progress of Her World and Female . Without denying that much has happened over the intervening decades, the restrictions of this thesis makes it more logical to take two distinct periods as points of comparisons, allowing for differences to become more pronounced and the degree of change more significant. Feminist scholarship has long acknowledged that women’s and girls’ magazines could be public sites for an intense struggle to define femininity, but in the case of Singapore women’s magazines, the discourse of femininity is predicated on Asian ideals which have been greatly influenced by Western notions. Moreover, because women’s identity is intrinsically bound up with how they perceive themselves as feminine, it comes into conflict with the masculine nature of the patriarchal state and the male-dominated structure of a heavily Confucian-influenced society. Alternatively, the state can subvert the feminine ideology to its own needs, as we shall see in the course of analyzing some of the advertisements. On an even more narrow level, there is also a clash between the differing forms of the feminine, such as motherhood versus career woman, or sex siren versus girl-next-door.

Partly because of Singapore’s success in emulating the surface characteristics of the West - its population predominantly speak or have knowledge of English, Western fashion is the norm, English-language films enjoy great success, and it has a popular culture that is influenced by the USA and UK - there is an assumption that many of the marketing strategies used in the Western media would suffice there too. Implicit in these strategies is the transfer of ways of looking and understanding the East. In as much as Orientalism has been responsible for restructuring and reordering the Orient in a manner that has been acceptable and hegemonically agreeable to the West, the very principles that order the West’s understanding of Southeast Asia as an

380 Ferguson, 1983, p. 184. 381 Ferguson, 1983, p. 185-186; Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique , New York: Dell Pub. Co, 1984.

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Oriental enclave continues to be regurgitated in the pages of Her World and Female ; advertisements are one of the prime conduits for Western influences. The way the exotic East is portray in the fashion spreads and advertisements is a direct nod to the ideological construction of how the West perceives Asia. The imposition of Western standards on beauty, the female form and behaviour, for instance, clearly has roots in the colonialization of Singapore by the British.

There is therefore a constant exchange of ideas over what constitutes femininity in Asia, as well as the various Western influences and concerns considered to be universal to all women. Indeed, Marjorie Ferguson’s thesis that ‘true’ feminine fulfilment and happiness are found through achieving the very tasks of being female set forth in the magazines remains the case too; it matters not the degree to which East and West have come to shape Singaporean femininity. 382

The First Appeal: Hailing the Reader

The relationship between the reader and her magazine borders on the kind of intimacy found between best friends; the magazine is mother confessor, older sister, fellow confidante and mischievous gal-pal all rolled into one. It is no mean feat to achieve all of this in something that has such a short shelf-life, and its success is related to its ability to interpellate the reader. Judith Williamson’s highly innovative and lucid discussion on the way advertisements produce meaning in Decoding Advertisements took her lead from Louis Althusser and Claude Levi-Strauss; she proceeded to explain the place of ideology in interpellating or “hailing” the reader. 383

All ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, by the functioning of the category of the subject... ideology “acts” or “functions” in such a way that it “recruits” subjects among the individuals (it recruits them all) or “transforms” the individuals into subjects (it transforms them all) by that very precise operation which I have called interpellation or hailing, and which can be imagined along the lines of the most commonplace everyday police (or other) hailing: “Hey, you there!”... Assuming that the theoretical scene I have imagined takes place in the street, the hailed individual will turn round. By this mere one- hundred-and-eighty degree physical conversion, he becomes a

382 Ferguson, 1983, p. 185. 383 Judith Williamson, Decoding Advertisements , London: Marion Boyars, 1994, p. 50.

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subject. Why? Because he has recognized that the hail was “really” addressed to him, and that “it was really him who was hailed” (and not someone else). 384

The same explanation can be extended to the way magazines in general address and maintain the reader’s attention.

The first step to gaining reader attention is by the magazine cover itself. The titles, Her World and Female , are immediately evocative; they connect directly with the concept of a “woman’s world” which is gendered and unambiguous despite its relatively broad limits. During the 1960s, Her World covers also featured the slogan, “The Malaysian Women’s Magazine” which was changed in late 1966 after Singapore had been forcibly ejected from the Malayan Federation. Identifying itself with Malaysia clearly underscored women’s national loyalties, which could have been entirely due to the magazine’s desire not to upset delicate political sensitivities. Nevertheless, it represents a bold reminder to Singaporean women that they were still part of Malaysia and should therefore think of themselves Malaysian women first and foremost. This is similarly reinforced in the cookery section where recipes came from the “Malaysian Kitchen”. It was a year after the forced independence of Singapore before the cover slogan acknowledged change; in October 1966, the slogan became “The National Women's Magazine” and the “Malaysian Kitchen” was no more although the cookery section remained a trusted staple. Indeed, the distinctive Southeast Asian dishes that were featured in the 1960s have today been replaced by a fusion of Eastern and Western cuisine, vegetarianism and fast-to-prepare food. The hybridity of fusion cooking can be construed in two ways: as partly embracing cosmopolitan culture, and as partly losing some aspects of a unique cultural identity. The introduction of restaurant reviews is another factor to consider in women’s ongoing emancipation from the kitchen. Eating out has long been the norm and hawkers’ centres are the life- blood of many housing estates, but the promotion of new and old eating places in magazines has lessened the onus on woman to be the main food preparer and thereby diminishing her role as primary producer in a very food-centric society.

In the 1990s there was no longer a direct appeal to national feelings on magazine covers. Compared to earlier times, Her World and Female magazine covers became inundated with sell-lines and the occasional free gift. The 1960s covers were characterized by the dominance of the model; in later covers, models had to compete

384 Louis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses” in Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays, New Left Books , 1971, pp. 123-173. Quoted in Williamson, 1994, p. 50.

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for space and were even overlapped on top of the title itself. The growth of competition in the market has contributed to the magazine covers becoming contested space; it is after all the first base from which each magazine competes for a reader who is ultimately a consumer also. While at its most basic level the cover functions to differentiate one magazine from another and thereby creating a distinctive marketing identity, a cursory glance suggests that it has been increasingly difficult to do so without active cognition of its title. Many sell-lines, for instance, rely on shock-value and unusual headlines to gain attention and are not a foolproof way of separating the women’s magazines. The cover of Her World December 1996 screams, partly in fluorescent pink, “My Boyfriend is Gay: Singapore's New Dating Hazard”. What is unusual about this is that homosexuality has always been marginalized and little talked about in Singapore society as well as in magazines. Moreover, the juxtapositioning of the heterosexual dating scene with likelihood of homosexuality in the male partner is intended to raise eyebrows, but also puts it into mainstream context by suggesting that, though new, it is one of many dating “hazards”. There are also other titillating morsels in other issues such as “Where Good Girls Go to be Bad” and “One Secret We Keep From Our Husbands”. Female has similarly offered readers “Talk Dirty: How do Men and Women Express Their Sexual Desires”, “Phone Sex: It’s Safe, It’s Sexy and It’s Just a Call Away” and “Are You a Bitch? Do Other Women Really Like You?” 385 The modern 1990s woman, no longer round-eyed with distress over the use of expletives in mainstream media, required only a quick perusal of the cover to identify what interested her.

The Face of Femininity

Ferguson argues that the cover photograph - the model - has a dual function; that is, to identify and to sell the magazine. 386 The model primarily functions to separate it from other magazines on the market although scantily-clad models could easily be mistaken for men’s magazines. 387 Identification of a magazine - that is, through a specific editorial and house style - relies on choosing the right model, one who can encapsulate the dreams and desires of its readers. The cover photograph

385 Ironically, the article on phone-sex is about Sydney. 386 Ferguson, 1978, p. 99.

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should therefore be “a decisive factor in establishing and maintaining a separate brand identity within the women’s media market place.” 388 This is why the model must embody the essential ingredients that make her an acceptable feminine icon to readers. The term “icon” is significant in that the spectacular fame (though some commentators argue that the phenomenon has peaked) of so-called supermodels has led to a predilection for “famous faces” on the covers, be they of international repute, or of the local-girl-made-good variety and home-grown favourites. Ideals of physical beauty have altered over time, and the growing complexity in methods of make-up application have further increased the distance between the generations, but each face on the cover is an iconographic testament to all that has been and is valued in womanhood. 389 Each of these faces represents the embodiment of all that is hip, hot and distinctly feminine.

While the gaze of the model has been frequently argued to be one that, though looking at women, ostensibly belongs to a man’s woman, it bolsters the idea that women’s main identification of herself is through their relationship with the opposite sex. 390 This has not changed noticeably between 1965 and 1996. The poses and expressions of the late 1960s models tended to be demure, decorous and coy but confident; in the 1990s, the female gaze is more sexualized, with an overt suggestion of availability. The attitude is more carefree and a distinct contrast to the workaholic 1980s; the padded power suit career girl was gradually phased out in the early years of the 1990s, to be replaced by softer, gentler, skinnier and non-threatening silhouettes. The 1990s models were demure, yet sexy and spoke with an open body language. In conjunction with the highly sexualized gaze, the aggressive and independent career woman of the previous generation has been swallowed up by the earthy, unafraid, in-touch-with-herself good-time girl of the 1990s. Nevertheless, all the images fed into the conventions and expectations of the age they came from.

387 It is not only “girlie” magazines, but also men’s special interest magazines such as sports, motorcycles, photography and tattoos which frequently feature sexy, voluptuous models. 388 Ferguson, 1978, p. 99. 389 Ferguson, 1978, p. 101. 390 Lorraine Gammon, & Margaret Marshment , “Introduction”, pp. 1-7, Shelagh Young, “Feminism and the Politics of Power: Whose Gaze is it Anyway?”, pp. 173-188 in Gammon & Marshment (eds), The Female Gaze: Women as Viewers of Popular Culture , London: Women’s Press, 1988; John Berger, Ways of Seeing , London: BBC, 1972, pp. 45-64; Annette Kuhn, The Power of the Image: Essays on the Representation of Sexuality , London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985; Laura Mulvey, Visual and Other Pleasures , London: Macmillan, 1989.

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Figure 6.1 Cover of Her World , September 1967.

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The backgrounds may have changed, but models past and present sell the same commodities: glamour and confidence. The contents of the magazines teach women how to achieve these looks, albeit in different ways. In figure 6.1, the model is “The Girl With a Yen for Travel”; one leg swings freely to reveal a generous split in her tight skirt, her arms are open, and she lifts her face away from the camera while looking longingly at some point in the distant horizon where she intends to fulfil her travel plans. The international focus is continued by the blurb inside the magazine, giving more intimate details about the model in question:

It’s pretty Australian-trained Kuala Lumpur secretary-model Ena Yap, photographed in carefree mood outside the Siamese Temple in Petaling Jaya. Ena (24) emphasises the “Thai look” here with this creation featuring a full-length brown batik sarong outfit topped by a blouse in brilliant red French Lace. The effect is completed with gold shoes, matching earrings and a special hairstyle. For more about Ena - and her clothes - see out colour feature on “The Girl With A Yen To Travel” on pages 77, 78 and 79. - Picture by Harold Teo. 391

As a secretary, Ena represents all working women and provides living proof that they too can achieve worldliness without the luxury of travelling to foreign countries. 392 Ena’s ensemble is composed of Asian and European elements while the backdrop, the Thai temple, suggests an Asian exoticness that is unlike the multiculturalism nature of Singapore. Moreover, being Australian-trained indicates that she, unlike many of her contemporaries, has ventured beyond her homeland. On both the cover and photograph accompanying the blurb, Ena strikes confident poses: one carefree and the other in stark contrast - formally. By implication, the modern woman, the one with a career (at least before marriage) can take on the glamour of worldly sophistication and unprecedented freedom of choice by replicating the style, fashion and poses struck by the cover girl. The covers therefore sell an attitude and a new way of living to its readers.

In the 1990s the cover girls were also a commodity, but the growing commercialization of the modelling industry means that every aspect of the model has the potential to sell a product - from the makeup that is used to produce the “natural”,

391 Her World , September 1967, p. 5. 392 Although Singapore and Malaysia are separated by a body of water and are essentially sovereign states, travelling between them does not have the same mystique as going “overseas” to Europe or even nearby Thailand. Because so many people have family ties in either country and there are many cultural similarities between them, it is not uncommon for Singaporeans and Malaysians to travel over the causeway a number of times a year. During major cultural celebrations such as Hari Raya Puasa, Chinese New Year and Deepavali the causeway is typically jammed with traffic both ways.

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youthful look to the couture fashions that drape the model’s thin, idealized body. Everything is for sale and could be purchased in downtown Orchard Road.

To emulate the sparkly party girl look on the Her World October 1995 cover, for instance, the blurb includes a highly detailed list of the cosmetics used. The photographer, stylist, hair and make-up artists are also named in this blatant acknowledgment of every woman’s secret (and not so secret) desire to copy the “model” look. “Natural beauty” is thus an oxymoron because the amount of work it takes to look “natural” defies the concept. It is not an easy task to recreate this look without the requisite skills hence women’s magazines provide regular columns on the newest ground-breaking developments to aid cosmetic application. There are step-by- step illustrated instructions on how best to apply the latest colours and sometimes professionals are even engaged to dispense advice and provide a make-over service for its readers. The techniques involved in making up the cover girl invariably utilizes trade secrets which ordinary women have little access to. The naming of the experts who contributed to creating the look is but a marketing ploy, designed to advertise their skills and the firms they represent.

Many cover girls in the 1990s lack the relatively stronger ethnic identity models of the 1960s appear to have. Their faces may be vaguely familiar, but only those admitted to the highly exclusive ranks of “supermodels” or other celebrities can evoke a greater response. The blurb gives little away to their identity, much less personality, but most tend to be local models. The stock of easily recognizable faces is limited although fresh faces are never hard to find. The current models are merely mannequins used to carry the discourses of beauty and sexuality, and consequently to sell the consumption they imply.

On the other hand, the cover girl of Her World October 1966 openly advocates other ideals. Pictured wearing a graduation gown and mortar board, and clutching what is apparently a graduation certificate, Ng Sook Ming may have been striking a model pose, but as a Bachelor of Science graduate from the University of Malaya, she is also proof of more than just a pretty face. She represents intelligence, independence and ambition. Though the image is unusual in comparison to others of that period, what is not is the attempt by the blurb to indicate the personality behind the face. Sometimes trite and always optimistic, a small slice of detail reveals the covergirl to be a woman like any other: with dreams, desires and hopes. With the acceptability of doing paid work outside the home, ambition and careers (in an

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adulterated form) were given a token nod. Indeed, this was the crux of the “new woman” and such cover girls were evidence that one could indulge in the glamour of modelling and earn a living in a more respectable job. Quite clearly, however, modelling was not the full-time job in question. It took over twenty years before modelling itself became a job like many others. This is one of the major differences between the two periods. The frequency of the same models on recent covers indicates that modelling is now perceived as a legitimate full-time job, or even a career, for many women. While it is not entirely free from the notoriety of drug use, prostitution and pummelling self-esteem among many models, the glamour of modelling remains a potent bait. Nevertheless, by exploiting them primarily as mannequins and using their faces as palettes for the latest cosmetic colours, they have been transformed into a blueprint for a superficial and external veneer of femininity; they are decontextualized and only their ethnicity suggests any, if little, cultural significance.

Subsuming Race

One consistent feature that has been maintained is the preference for Asian faces over Caucasians. The majority of cover girls have belonged to one or another of the ethnic groups in Singapore hence it would have been easy for women to identify with them on the basis of race. Over the decades many models have been Chinese and the background of those who were not have been harder to pinpoint. The predilection for fair-skinned models has blurred the line, and in the 1990s, ambiguity is furthered by using only the model’s first name. The effect is two-fold: to create a singular Singaporean identity and by implication, race no longer becomes a defining issue for women. It is womanhood that is of prime importance. It appears to have been a deliberate and evolving process. There have been fewer and fewer dark- skinned Malay and Indian models on the covers Her World and Female , while between the covers they sometimes exist as a token to Singapore's multiracialism or are more likely to be exploited for their commercial rather than cultural value.

The use of an Eurasian model who could alternately look vaguely Chinese or Malay is perhaps one of the more common techniques used to appeal to as wide a readership as possible. Yet it has less impact in defining a strong racial identity

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among Singaporean women. In an oblique fashion, women's magazines encourage identification with Singapore as a country coming to terms with a singular identity. Though it is highly unlikely that intermarriage would take place on a grand scale and thereby assimilate all the ethnic groups, the “new” face of Singapore could well belong to someone with Chinese/Malay/Indian/Caucasian ancestry. Ethnic enclaves remain strong and such models provide a seamless way to meld them together and function as a focal point for all women. Mixed-race marriages and children are not without the attendant tensions within society, but if the aspect of race can be subsumed in the magazines, the primary form of identification for women would be on the basis of their gender. This would no doubt be more convenient in the exploitation of the commercial purpose of the magazine; it becomes less complicated for the beauty industry to sell their versions of femininity without having to consider differences created by race distinctions.

The absence of dark-skinned ethnic women and the cultural roots they represent has been exacerbated over the years. Conversely, Western values conveyed by the magazines of the 1990s are usually embodied by fair-skinned models even then they sport a tan. The 1960s models were also fair, and some also featured a pan-Asian face which increased in frequency over the years. The cover girl of Her World August 1966 was Miss Singapore, Margaret Meel. Her distinctly Caucasian features - deep-set eyes and a high nose bridge - sets her apart from Chinese models and suggests some sort of European background, but her sarong kebaya situates her identity as a nonya , or a Peranakan Chinese woman. Eurasian and other mixed-race models were often used because they could take on more than one racial identity. The fashion spread in Her World March 1995 relies on similar models. It features a fashion spread on a soft, romantic style harking back to the 1940s and 1950s where the clothes themselves have a strong Western flavour: the twin-set, kelly bag and even the feather boa. The setting is, however, pure colonial Singapore, from the white bungalow style house to the highly polished dark brown teak furniture and tropical plants in the garden. The return to a nostalgic colonial Singapore does not require not the presence of Malays and Indians, and of the three models featured, only one is clearly Chinese. The imagery utilizes the discourse of the leisurely and luxurious lifestyle of colonial expatriates while the use of vaguely Western faces fosters the values this lifestyle implies.

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The Allure of the Orient: Mid-1960s

Many models in the past were Chinese, as is the case today, and Caucasian models are acknowledged quite clearly, but every now and then were acknowledgment of dark-skinned models, especially the Indian woman. They were, however, regarded in a class by themselves, set apart by their non-European and non-Chinese features; and being from a more conservative race probably prevented them from taking on modelling jobs, where exposure to the public – and male – gaze would be considered shocking. Subsequently the uniqueness of their attire and features become a cause for emphasizing their racial difference as well as femininity. Indian women in the fashion spreads of Her World August 1966 and September 1967 are dressed almost exclusively in saris. Wrapped snugly around the body, the sari accentuates the contours of the female body (figure 6.2). It is moreover a distinctly sensual and feminine attire worn almost solely by Indian women. The way it is worn is based on a time-honoured tradition of folds and wrapping, with one end draped seductively over one shoulder or worn like a shawl. Unlike the sarong kebaya , baju kurung and qi pao , it is not given much to modifications; usually only the texture and print design change.

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Figure 6.2 Fashion spread, Her World , September 1967.

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The fashion spread in Her World August 1966 alludes to “Oriental Allure”, but features all but one model in saris. The Orient is visually represented by things Indian, despite the copy:

The Orient has long held a spell of fascination over those who know it well and strangers, alike. Silk, pearls, ivory, spices, the fluttering, fluttering femininity of the saree, the grace of a sarong- clad maiden,... the Orient offers all these and more besides. Presented here is a collection of all things Oriental, with a dash of the West for good measure, and served up in the essentially alluring way of the East. 393

By not having Chinese and Malay women and artifacts clearly displayed, the fashion spread appears to place them outside the Orient. The images and text relegate Indian women to the “alluring way of the East” through the tradition of the fluttering femininity of the sari, the grace of the sarong-clad maiden”. They are further marginalized when the spread fails to properly name the lone Indian model. She is instead referred to as “the blue one” or with “long tresses and a traditional post for this girl” as she stands next to another model and reclines against the stuffed likeness of a Bengali tiger respectively.

Defined in this fashion, the “other” and the Orient are clearly segregated; if the Orient is represented by the traditional Indian woman, then the “other” must be the Occidental - which includes being Westernized, bold, brash and modern. Because the majority of Singaporean women are not Indian, then by implication they would belong to the “other” category, making them Westernized, bold, brash and modern. A fashion spread such as this restructures the way Singaporean women, including Indian women, think of the Orient. They may not see themselves as “Oriental”; instead, their Singaporean-ness has been carefully crafted through their acceptance of many Western influences and by the perception that it if one was modern and dressed accordingly, they are no longer part of the traditional (and therefore non-modern) Orient. Using images of the most traditional and conservative women in Singaporean society leads to differentiation and further enhances an understanding of how the Orient is constructed, but the irony is that by doing so, multiracialism in Singapore has come to take on the pale-skinned attributes and accompanying values of the West. In rejecting the part Chinese and Malays in geographically and culturally contributing to

393 Her World August 1966, pp. 37-38. This is a special colour section. During the 1960s, when the cost of colour printing remained prohibitive to have the entire magazine published in colour, only some pages (including the back and front covers) were printed in colour and were treated as special segments, a veritable treat for the readers’ eyes.

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the Western discourse of Orientalism, the magazines align themselves on the side of the aggressor in dominating, restructuring and having authority over the Orient.

Skin Exploitation: Mid-1990s

In the 1990s the absence of dark-skinned ethnic women illustrates how some are privileged over others. Her World August 1995 was a seminal issue because it celebrated the thirtieth birthday of the Republic of Singapore, yet of the three models featured on its cover (figure 6.3), only the Chinese is clearly represented. The model on the right is either Eurasian or Chinese, while the one on the left could be either Indian or Malay. Their features are generic enough to confuse the distinctions between the ethnic groups represented. Of greater significance in the context of complexion, the model on the left would be considered remarkably fair if she claimed Indian descent. Her fellow models are also relatively fair-skinned despite the golden glow set off by the contrast between their white dresses and burnt- background. Many covers since 1994 show a decided preference for pale-skinned models, and when a tan is in evidence, make-up and lighting are used to exaggerate the luminescence of the face.

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Figure 6.3 Cover of Her World , August 1995.

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An early attempt to define a new Singapore beauty similarly neglects dark- skinned women. Rather than engaging professional models to pose for the article, Her World sent a writer and photographer out into the “real world” to find women who embody the new ideals.

We don’t have the stunning beauty of the Argentinian woman. We don’t have the loose-limbed lushness of the Californian girl. We don’t have the milk and peaches complexion of the English rose. We don’t have the regal langour of the Indonesian beauty.

What we do have: an Esprit kind of good looks that’s natural, easy and wholesome. In the world beauty stakes, that will probably never win us the crown. But that’s all right - we don’t have to pretend to be something we’re not. 394

Youth is the main criteria as all the women pictured are aged between fourteen and twenty-three; the magazine acknowledges that these are the “teenagers and young 20s who’re changing our concept of what Singapore beauty is.” 395 These women are “their everyday selves”; they have “spunky, fresh looks, shiny hair, proud, straight backs.”

The Singapore girl is flat-chested? Not any more from what we’ve seen. Half of you swell out your teeshirts in an unmistakable way. If we stop at a traffic light we see you bounding across the street. 396

Singaporean women have also gained confidence, one that is “eye-catching” and allows them to dress daringly and for herself:

We walk tall, we’ve got a confidence that’s eye-catching. We dare to bare - in spaghetti straps, in off-the-shoulder tops, in shorts that we love to wear everywhere.

The bared skin is significant because it suggests we’re now more open-minded. It’s the same with the short hair that many of us seem to prefer. 397

Our clothes are pared down, uncluttered, clean. If there’s one image of the new beauty, she is wearing a snug tank top and a denim skirt. She loves simple shapes and no-fuss clothes. Our girls are dressing for comfort and the sun - not to make a grand impression on men or their friends. 398

394 Her World , October 1991, p. 94. 395 Her World , October 1991, p. 92. 396 Her World , October 1991, p. 94. 397 Her World , October 1991, p. 96. 398 Her World , October 1991, p. 98.

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The revealing of skin has thus become equated with a broadening of tolerance, presumably in comparison to Western standards. Being covered up thus indicates by reverse, the clinging to of old ways, of close-mindedness and the inability to move forward.

Of the twenty women pictured, fourteen are of Chinese ancestry and four of Malay descent. Only one, a fourteen year old student, appears to be of Indian extraction. All are either fair-skinned or sport a mid-tan. The ideal beauty is predicated on the fairness of skin. Having a tan, like in Western countries, indicates a healthy lifestyle which involves more sporting activities than the previous generation of women were used to, but it is not acquired to make a specific fashion statement. The article makes no mention of ethnic differences and it consequently homogenizes this “new Singaporean beauty”. Its description is generic enough to apply to any Singaporean woman. Moreover, its conscious use of the second person voice effectively embraces all Singaporean women, including the writer, photographer, staff at Her World and readers. The question that remains is, however, where are dark-skinned models?

Like their predecessors, they have appeared in a specialized context where the darkness of one’s skin is exploited to showcase a particular style, but rarely makes a political statement about ethnicity or race. The pictorial spread on disco fashions in Her World December 1995 is a case in point. The models here do not function to differentiate culture although differences in race is implied by the colour of their skin. The prime motivation instead is to preview the latest trend:

Disco-glam is back. Take a shine again to sequins, glitter dust, anything sparkly. What’s new: Action, colours and touchy-feely textures. I LOVE THE NIGHT LIFE! 399

Fashion being recycled is nothing new and the main ingredients of disco glamour - shine, glitter, flash and sparkles - are being updated by the magazine. The dark skin of the models contrast well with the lamé and sequined dresses, glittery make-up and sparkling jewellery. Skin colour has become part of the accessories to attain a specific look; even then, key areas of the face and body are highlighted by judicious application of cosmetics and innovative lighting to create glow and radiance, making the models fairer than they are.

This is similarly achieved in a fashion spread in Female October 1996. A long- limbed, tight black curly-haired dark-skinned model poses in the “Year-end must-

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haves”. 400 Again, the colour of her skin interacts favourably with the items she wears. An animal print ensemble brings out her latent wild nature - conjuring up the untamed wilderness of Africa, where the scorching sun would have turned the skin a deep brown. On another two pages, rich, velvety chocolate complements the model’s equally smooth brown skin. The animalistic/exotic creature metaphor is extended by the way the photographs are styled: sometimes the model is pushed up close against the wall as if cornered, and in another instance, a length of rope is knotted and looped around her neck as if she were some kind of captured animal. The overall effect is a statement on how her unusualness is transformed into a commodity which in turn is able to sell other much more tangible commodities; and by extension, the young woman herself becomes an item and is dehumanized.

In the US there is a market for magazines which are devoted to African- American women, where black is beautiful. In Singapore, the cultural ethos still strongly subscribes to an understanding of physical beauty that is underpinned by fair skin. Skin colour is seen as a status symbol; in the past, only wealthy women could afford to stay out of the sun. They did not have to till fields which peasant women could not neglect, thus withering their skin under the intense sun. White skin therefore denoted a luxury that only the wealthy could afford and it became a much lauded attribute in the matchmaking process. Dark skin was considered a sign of poverty and ill health. To this day pale skin is much more desirable and feminine than a tan in many Asian countries. That is why there are few dark-skinned Singaporean models to be found in Her World and Female ; they simply do not have the same selling power that their fairerskinned colleagues have.

Ethnicity through Dress

Magazines from the 1960s showed more evidence of the place of ethnic dress in women’s everyday lives. Apart from the sari, which has already been discussed in the context of defining the Orient, the sarong kebaya , baju kurung and qi pao were also visible features in these magazines, but the economic and social changes over the last forty years have altered the attitude of Singaporean women towards their own

399 Her World , December 1995, pp. 254-263. 400 Female , October 1996, pp. 122-129.

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traditional ethnic dress. Their style of dress has become more homogeneous and is visibly western in design. The emphasis on traditional dress as such has receded from the pages of recent magazines. As a secular state, Singaporean Muslim women are not compelled to wear their traditional baju kurung, nor do Indian women only have saris for choice. Taking on Western dress today does not stem from a desire to imitate the lifestyle and values of the West, but rather it has become a necessity in the search for convenience. Back in the 1960s the covergirls and fashion spreads focused attention on the traditional dress as a means of affirming one’s ethnic identity. Her World October 1962 cover depicts a young woman literally posing for photographers in the nonya style, dressed in a sarong kebaya - a traditional dress for Peranakan and upper-class Malay women. 401 Aspects of traditional costume were modified in keeping with the magazine’s modern image. As early as October 1962 Her World was promoting new versions of the sarong kebaya and qi pao. Major details such as the shape and distinctive collars, length and darts remained the same. Scarves, pleats, bows and fabric were updated for the “young sophisticate”. Even the new designs had names, such as “La Jeunnesse Singapura” and “Golden Dream”. 402

Indian and Malay women by and large still had a large number of traditional costumes in their wardrobes which were a staple in everyday wear. Younger Chinese women took to Western fashions faster although middle-aged Chinese women still wore the qi pao and samfoo. Modified or modernized versions of these fashions in the 1960s were an outgrowth of the Singaporean search for identity. Women had to remain comfortable with what they wore and some designs that today’s women would have no qualms in donning would have been far too daring or outlandish then. The main point is that while models in ethnic dress in Her World emphasized the cultural conditioning that women were accustomed to, the subversion is apparent in sartorial changes over time. The silhouette remains the same, as does the intrinsic racial identity of the model, and by extension the reader; but additional tucks, the expanse of cloth and increasing changes in the dress design suggest that women were ready to experiment, albeit cautiously, with their identity.403 The clothing worn by Her World

401 Peranakan: this group originally descended from early Chinese immigrants to the Malacca Straits. Many of them were traders and other seafarers who took brides from the local non-Muslim natives of the area as few Chinese women were not allowed to leave their homeland until the mid-19 th century. These men eventually adopted Malay customs in an effort to assimilate into the region. 402 Her World , October 1962, p. 5. 403 Women’s identity evolving through clothing is not a new phenomenon. See Jennifer Craik, The Face of Fashion: Cultural Studies in Fashion , London: Routledge, 1994; Finkelstein, Joanne, The Fashioned Self , Oxford: Polity, 1991; Myers, K., “Fashion ‘n’ Passion: A Working Paper”, in Angela McRobbie (ed.), Zootsuits and Secondhand Dresses: An Anthology of Fashions and Music, Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1988, pp. 189-197.

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September 1967 cover girl bore strong resemblance to the sarong kebaya while inside the same issue is a photo-spread of the latest in Indian saris. This was both a direct acknowledgement that Her World reached all Singaporean women and fashion, regardless of origin, was of interest to them too. It signalled clearly to many women that clothing went beyond utilitarianism. Whereas now that Western dress is the norm, putting on a traditional costume is more likely to constitute a religious or cultural statement. This varies between ethnic communities and between generations; for example, it is more common to see Malay women in the baju kurung and to a lesser extent, Indian women in saris and punjabi suits. Part of this can be attributed to the Islamic revivalism of the 1960s and the fact that Indians remain the most conservative ethnic groups in Singaporean society. 404 Traditional dress “ the exotic prints, intricate workmanship and lush fabrics “ is today more frequently seen during festivals and as eveningwear.

Slaves to Fashion

By the 1990s the outfits worn by the cover girls and models in the fashion spreads rarely featured traditional dress. With the globalization of Western fashion, it is little wonder that much has been devoted to the major American and European designers. Admittedly, the cost of couture is prohibitive for many, but there is no lessening in the desire to own a couture design, for its exclusivity and ostensible quality. While much of the appeal of modern Western clothing previewed in the 1960s magazines resulted as much from an ever present need to remain at the forefront of fashion, the common practice of having it cheaply tailored or made by oneself meant that most women were used to imitating high fashion.

Because the 1960s were still a period when off-the-rack clothes were rare, women then were unable to readily demonstrate their spending power via ready-made fashion. As mass production became widespread - there are countless factories powered by lowly-paid semi-skilled workers in Southeast Asia producing copies of the latest designer styles - purchasing fashion has become another outlet for women to express their femininity. The situation has reversed to the extent that dressmaking schools are a rare sight in Singapore today; in the past, making one’s own clothes was

404 Islamic schools have school uniforms based on traditional costumes.

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not unusual and was a highly marketable marriage skill. Not only would a woman be capable of dressing herself and her family fashionably, she could also save the family breadwinner (ostensibly the father) the expense of outfitting them all - which was both practical and thrifty. This in turn reinforces her identity as a primary producer, a wife and mother. Her ability to dress herself and her family was an ability that was invested with cultural and social values for it established her femininity and worth as a primary producer, wife and mother. By the 1990s, however, the position changed dramatically as women’s social roles broadened as they carved their right to have a professional career as well.

Because tailoring was a popular skill during the 1960s, seamstresses and tailors did a roaring trade, but did not have the instantaneous fashion gratification that today’s many department stores and boutiques seem to give. Tailored clothes are today considerably more expensive, while handmade clothes are moreover valued for the effort involved, especially in a world where it is infinitely less expensive to buy the season’s latest fashion from the local suburban fashion outlets; within six to twelve months they would no longer be so chic. 405 Today’s high-class boutiques offer the season’s latest original designer fashions, catering only to a small minority of regular shoppers. 406 Instead, many women shop at places which are considerably cheaper. In the housing estates, clothes are generally of lower quality but are considered a better and more practical alternative to splurging on designer labels. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, imitation products were all the rage, but periodic police crackdowns have ensured that they have all but disappeared. Other ways of getting the most up- to-date fashions is to shop at local department stores such as Metro and Tangs, or at local and foreign chain stores such as Giordano, U2, Fornari, Union Bay, Jessica and Episode. The quality of workmanship is generally much improved from what is sold in suburban stores, almost or as good as the original but without its costly price tag, which is again both practical and thrifty - two important bywords for Singaporeans. Thus in the 1990s Singaporean women were no longer merely the primary producers within the family; they were also important consumers in a society highly motivated by ostentatious consumption and through which they validate their femininity by using

405 In every housing estate there are many small clothing stalls in wet markets and central shopping areas. Most of them carry mass-produced fashions that are cheap imitations of more expensive items in upmarket department stores and city boutiques. Chain stores such as AA Fashion and This Fashion are two familiar names to be found there and in People’s Park, a massive shopping district located outside of high cost Orchard Road and which is also part of Singapore’s Chinatown. It is a complex maze of shops, many of which retail fashion for a fraction of the price found in the CBD. 406 Chua Beng Huat, Fashion Shopping: Programs, Stages and Audience , Working Paper no. 102, Singapore: Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore, 1990

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their purchasing power to array themselves in the latest clothing and accessories which idealize the feminine.

The evolution of women’s fashions towards more ‘modern’ designs is no doubt the consequence of the development of modernity in Singapore and Western influences that have flowed in as a result, but the predominance of western-style clothes and products featured in Her World and Female today does not suggest that values have been replaced. Singapore remains a distinctly Asian society, all the more an anomaly because it has taken on aggressively what appears to be Western modes of thinking and style, and a mass of contradictions fuelled by mass campaigns to ensure that people do not forget their roots. Above all, however, Singaporeans are a pragmatic lot - the retail fashion industry turns over millions of dollars annually in Singapore and it is unlikely that the government, in their ongoing search for a definable Singaporean identity, would impose one that required submission to overtly traditional ways of dressing and behaviour. Moreover, Singaporean women follow Western trends not for the accompanying values but the way of life it represents. If this means somehow taking on westernized attitudes, it is done so in an adaptive fashion within a unique Singaporean context. The ultimate Singaporean good-time girl, for example, takes on the guise of western decadence (through the way she dresses and behaves) to an extreme; the Sarong Party Girl - the ubiquitous SPG who is supposedly found hanging off the arm of an expatriate Caucasian - is identified invariably by her long black hair, bikini/sarong combination or other skimpy and revealing clothing such as mini-skirts and tight tops. Her “uniform” ensures that she exudes sexual availability and liberal mores. As such, she has become something of an urban legend. Books have been written about her and media space has been devoted to eulogize her existence. Her morals (or lack of) are constantly a point of contention; her prime aim is to snare a wealthy, but not necessarily good-looking, Caucasian husband. Her entire dress sense and demeanour is thus directed at this target. While many Singaporeans may criticize the SPG as a blot on the national landscape, they have also taken her to heart and claim her as something solely Singaporean. In Singapore, even the bad can be reinterpreted positively as long as there is something to quantify it as being unique to the region. 407

407 There are many examples of this habit. Two of the most obvious are the concept of kiasuism (the fear of losing out to others) and the unofficial but widespread use of Singlish (a combination of the English language, Chinese dialects and Malay).

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The Celebrity as Icon: Celebrity Covers and Endorsements

Celebrity endorsements are nothing new, but there is a growing awareness that it is sound thinking to utilize local faces for a global market. It is also not uncommon to feature well-known faces on the covers of magazines as a marketing ploy. Before her death, Princess Diana was a popular choice for many women’s magazines in the , Australia and New Zealand where there is reverence and admiration for British royalty. There are two main classes of celebrities who pose for covers and endorsements. Some are models who belong to the category of “supermodels” - women who are the top earners in their profession and whose fame supersedes their modelling career. The other group is composed of men and women who are of newsworthy value and who may have once modelled but are now famous for other achievements.

Many of the 1960s cover models had a full-time non-modelling job to return to after taking part in the make-believe world in front of the photographer’s lenses. By the 1990s the shelf life of a model had expanded beyond being merely a mannequin. Internationally, not only were many of them savvy business women, they could also sing and act. Cindy Crawford epitomized the new breed of savvy model- entrepreneurs. She was not only a highly-paid model of international repute, but had also acted the lead role in a mainstream Hollywood film, was a partner in a major business venture and has negotiated lucrative contracts to endorse products such as Revlon, MCM and Omega watches. Elle McPherson was another high profile figure in the modelling world who has gone beyond the conventionally short career span of most models. She remained “The Body” even after the birth of her first child and actively promoted her own range of hair-care products. In 1998, she became the face of Western Australian tourism abroad. The traditional boundary of age no longer prevents models from being more than a body and a face. The faces of past magazine covers were provided by young women in the first flush of youth and who were generally in their late teens or early twenties; while recent magazines continue to use youthful faces, they are not limited in the same way and the mean age of models has increased slightly. Furthermore, celebrity cover models are selected for their iconographic value and what they represent to the target audience, while age plays a lesser role. The sophisticated techniques in desktop publishing have also eased the burden of flawed photography. The raw result of a photograph is often unremittingly

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honest, but with the appropriate software programme, bad lighting, under-eye pouches, crinkly crow’s feet, unsightly wrinkles and other blemishes are easily rectified. Age is no longer a barrier so long as the signs of ageing can be manipulated by technology.

Few Singaporean models have succeeded overseas and of the handful who have, they are treated reverentially by local women’s magazines. 408 Well-known local models do not operate in the same league as Crawford and McPherson, but on the other hand, local identities and other success stories - particularly from the entertainment industry - are more able to capitalize on their fame and parlay it into higher visibility within magazines. Some of them are also former models who now enjoy a greater profile because as “famous” faces, magazines consider it quite a coup to feature them. Celebrity status often has the required impetus to sell products, as amply evidenced by the magnitude of celebrity endorsements everywhere.

Fame is not enough to ensure a spot as a cover model; being photogenic is also of prime importance. Beauty queens, singers and actors have been favourites from the 1960s. Miss Singapore ( Her World , October 1966) and Miss India ( Her World , October 1969) joined Filipina caberet star Lumen Cabanes ( Her World, October 1968) on the covers. Unsurprisingly, Lumen’s primary roles as housewife and mother are equally stressed, along with her singing abilities and trend-setting style. It is a constant reminder that women must always remember their procreative and nurturing functions. In the 1990s there was more home-grown talent to choose from, but as with regular models, it was their looks rather than their personality, which was given prominence. Not many western celebrities featured on covers in the 1990s, but they have included Anna Nicole Smith, one-time Playboy model and pin-up for Guess? clothing, later aspiring actress and widow of a multi-millionaire. Regional and local stars were more common, such as Asia’s MTV presenter Nadya Hutalong and Malaysian film star Deanna Yusoff. Among the local faces, much also depends on those who are the “flavour” of the month. For much of the 1990s, dominated as the “Queen of Caldecott Hill” - one of the most beloved and popular actresses in Singapore. 409 Having come from a humble background, this daughter of a pig farmer succeeded in what is perceived to be a typical rags-to-riches story. Yet her self- effacing modesty and girl-next-door unpretentiousness has endeared her to fans of all

408 Female , “HARN-ness This Beauty”, December 1996, pp. 120-121, 199. 409 Caldecott Hill is where the television and radio stations broadcast their signals.

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generations. Having her face on the cover of a women’s magazine is therefore usually a move guaranteed to ensure rapid sales.

Over the years, a number of actresses have appeared to challenge the current monarch but none have posed a threat as much as . Both are former models, are incredibly photogenic and share a talent for igniting the screen with their luminous beauty, but Fann has often lost out in the popularity stakes to Zoe. Her arrogance, prima-donna behaviour and thoughtless comments have often been cited as reasons for her inability to capture the heart of Singaporeans the way Zoe has. 410 Covers featuring stars capitalize on what Judith Williamson calls the referent system. The image of the star draws on external references associated with what they represent: Zoe - beautiful, down-to-earth, unpretentious and talented; Fann - beautiful, arrogant, tactless and less than inspired performances in a number of drama series. More importantly, both represent the glamour of the acting profession, the adulation of fans and perennial youth - aspects of which are reflected back onto the reputation of the magazines. The glamourous world Zoe and Fann symbolize - that is, sponsorship deals with designer houses, freebies, invitations to social events, the frequent occasions to dress up in the lastest fashions - is central to the ideological process of creating identification with the stars. Not only should fans and readers of the magazines alike want to emulate their success, they should also want to identify with the values and cultural capital each has. This accounts for the successful interpellation of the audience, although not all will be willing to take on the relationship to the cover model that is offered to them. For women, the base of this relationship will be predicated firstly on gender, and then on the referent system from which fore- knowledge of the stars is initially gathered.

Within the magazine, popular starlets are also used to advertise the consumption of fashion. Again, the external referent system is essential to understanding their appeal. Female October 1996 is an overt example of the way television glamour and fame can be co-opted to encourage consumption. The cover of this issue is something of a milestone for it is the first to feature a man. James Lye first came to attention as the co-host of an entertainment-news programme showcasing local, regional and international news. His sculpted physique has lent

410 Fann Wong was not allowed to forget her less than stellar beginnings. In the May 1999 issue of Cleo (Singapore edition, supplement), she might have headlined Cleo’s “18 Most Inspiring Young Singapore Women”, but readers were reminded of her notoriety for making insensitive comments about her colleagues. But since her 1996 suspension by TCS for holding two concurrent contracts, she has

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much to Singaporean women’s equivalent of the wet tee-shirt fantasy. 411 His profile edged higher when he appeared as the male lead in Singapore’s first English- language police drama - Triple Nine . His onscreen chemistry with female co-star Wong Li Lin ensured that he would long be typecast in the mould of the romantic hero. The Female cover was therefore daring in choosing him over the usual pretty female faces. Interestingly enough, the issue was a tribute only to the English language channel, and because Zoe and Fann were contracted almost exclusively to the Chinese channel, they were not even mentioned. In any case, the cover marked a trend within the magazine: the celebration of talent in the local television and media industry was also an occasion to highlight conspicuous consumption. Short blurbs acknowledged the designer wear (prices included) adorning many of the bodies while professional styling was also openly acknowledged. Former models were furthermore engaged to showcase the usual fashion spreads.

The photospread accompanying the feature article typecast the actors in the roles for which they are most familiar for: the Hunk, the Mummy’s Boys, the Babes, the Heavyweights, the Joker, the Nerd, the Buaya, the Spunky Girls, the Diva, the Mamas and the Papas, the Ah Cheks, and the Hosts. 412 They personify certain cultural traits that are universal, borrowed from the west or are specifically Singaporean. In the latter case, it becomes apparent that the identities, which are not necessarily positive attributes, are elevated to a standing that encourages national identification and which becomes an informal aspect of national identity. The quintessential hunk and nerd - epitomized by the way they are dressed to the expressions they sport - indicate the deep impact western notions of virility and intelligence have had. Yet the accompanying text sometimes undercuts these stereotypical ideas to suggest that Singaporean actors, while seemingly conforming to a recognizable mould, are “different”:

THE HUNK

The ultimate TCS pin-up boy for the oestrogen brigade, James Lye’s greatest asset is not his pumped-up pecs nor his chiselled cheekbones, but his friendly, down-to-earth demeanour.

visibly mellowed (p. 8). The circumstances of her suspension were highly controversial and for a while she disappeared from public view. 411 One of the photographs of James decidedly plays on this theme. 412 Two of these categories rely on specifically Singlish terms: buaya: lit . crocodile. A derogatory term given to a particularly lecherous man Ah Chek: lit . (Hokkien and Teochew dialects) uncle. A polite way of addressing an older man who is not a blood relative. Amongst blood relations, it refers to one’s father’s older brother.

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THE NERD

Geeky he looks but book-bound nerd he is not. In fact, Hossan only just about managed to “endure” his diploma course in engineering. The actor’s most under-rated talent is his singing.

THE SPUNKY GIRLS

Our updated version of charlie’s angels, Caldecott Hill-style. The three fresh faces owe their babeliciousness to ultra-basic Lux soap and Neutrogena moisturiser (Irin Gan), an oil-free diet (Michelle Goh) and lots of water (Jamie Lee).

In opposition to such recognizably Western characterization of those in the entertainment industry, Female incorporates three stock representations which have a distinct Asian, if not Singaporean flavour. The Buaya - a Malay word which traditionally means crocodile - is colloquially used to refer to a lecherous man. There is also a sombre and imposing photograph featuring the Patriarch - recalling the power enjoyed by male heads in traditional households. Finally, there are the Ah Cheks - literally meaning uncle - but also a customary Hokkien/Teochew term used to politely address older men in the same way “sir” is used in the Western world. Understanding the importance of these representations therefore depends on an external referent system, that is, one that defines and normalizes specifically Singaporean cultural identities. The buaya, while not a socially acceptable nor particularly likeable species, is treated as an idiosyncratic breed of Singaporean and is immediately claimed as such, becoming an anomaly that contributes to defining the Singaporean character. Similarly, the ah chek is a typically Singaporean breed: their favourite hangouts include the neighbourhood coffeeshops (also known as the kopitiam ), dressed casually in singlets or loose short-sleeved cotton shirts, untucked, and shorts. The photograph in the magazine pokes fun at the way ah cheks habitually trim their beards and moustaches with tweezers. 413 Like the Singaporean concept of “kiasuism” (the fear of losing out to others), local urban myths and media imagery have gone a long way in singling out particular representations and idealizing them as part of the Singaporean consciousness. Every Singaporean can identify these traits as localized phenomena although ironically they may not wish to identify too closely with them.

413 Another way of tweezing involves using the edges of two coins, a skill that requires great dexterity.

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Star Power in Product Endorsements

Those in the entertainment industry regularly sign deals to promote exclusive clothes and accessories. Famous faces have adorned advertisements ranging from GUESS? Clothing, Casio Baby-G watches and whitening toothpaste to weight-loss clinics and washing detergents. Advertising agencies are aware of the profit potential in linking a local star’s name to a product instead of using a generic western face. They also provide a referent system which functions within the existing cultural structure and normalizes the celebrity as an iconic representation. A Lux ad from the 1960s featuring a western actress, Joanna Pettet, exploits the desire of every woman to discover a soap which “keeps her skin soft and smooth.” 414 It employs the same advertising language that is use to this day; women’s beauty products are sought after for their mildness, gentleness and luxuriousness. Moreover, fairness of skin remains a highly desirable trait in many societies, so it does not seem incongruous to have a western woman promoting skincare to Singaporean and other non-western women. As the western model is considered an “other” by all women of the major ethnic groups in Singapore, she is thus much easier to accept as being representative of all women.

Nevertheless, the practice of using Asian celebrities to sell a product, particularly in official endorsements, had already begun by the mid-1960s. Hazeline Snow, a beauty cream long famous in the region, was endorsed by “London film star Lucille Soong.” Her almond-shaped eyes are sharply drawn in kohl, but again it is the clarity of her skin that is emphasized.

Why be envious of those beautiful skins? Use ‘Hazeline Snow’ – the famous cream chosen by so many lovely girls. See how it will cleanse and lighten your skin at all times, and form a perfect powder base. Be confident that sun and wind will not harm your skin once it’s protected by refreshing ‘Hazeline Snow’. 415

The preoccupation with fair skin in the copy is a precursor to the technologically advanced face creams of the 1990s which promise to whiten the skin. Shiseido, for example, is one of the major cosmetic companies involved in developing products which literally whitens the skin. Their range of Whitess skin-whitening products are extremely popular in Japan and other Asian countries where pale skin is a status

414 In the late 1990s a series of Dove soap advertisements in Australia and Singapore played on the same theme. The product claims to be made up of a quarter moisturizer to give it skin an extra softness.

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symbol and a sign of beauty. These products are not sold in markets that do not place such a high value on fair complexions. What this says about the diversity of a nation which actively promotes multiracialism is startling: that at the very least advertising companies and firms selling women’s products feed into what they perceive to be a popular desire to be the white ‘other’. While many Singaporean women may have naturally pale skin, much of the state’s propaganda promotes the image of a multi-skin toned population, so there is a great disjuncture between the reality of a multiethnic state and women who still see that having pale skin is the ideal. The implications of the negativity which ensues from privileging white skin colour over other hues suggests that women are constantly bombarded with images encouraging them to be something they are not. Those who are not privileged by their skin colour therefore get the message that they either have to transform themselves (with the help of the latest dermatological breakthroughs) or feel somehow lesser than those who can. Yet again, women readers are not united by the race which they belong to, but they are singled out for not being the race (vis-a-vis pale skin) they cannot be. In the 1990s, Hazeline continued to use Asian faces to promote its products. The models, however, were not “famous”, but were used repetitively in a series of advertisements to engender audience recognition. More representative of product endorsements by local stars were a series of advertisements for Kadus hair care (Fann Wong), Imedeen beauty supplements (Zoe Tay) and Woolite fabric detergent (). It is not only the face which is attached to the product. Ostensible sound bites from each celebrity is also included to lend authenticity and encouragement. Fann Wong says, “I use Kadus, shouldn’t you?” while Zoe Tay provides a glowing testimonial for Imedeen where the fine print indicates:

This is a true testimony of Zoe Tay. Copies of original testimony and dermascan results are available on file. Call 1800-736 2331. 416

Fame and their positions as icons of beauty and screen enable the products to capitalize on these women’s symbiotic relationships with their fans. Zoe appeals directly to “my friends and fans” to follow her lead in keeping skin youthful looking; Kadus hair products similarly depends on the weight of Fann’s fame to advertise themselves. As popular actresses, their skin and hair undergo rigorous and intense styling and changes which inevitably leads to problem skin and brittle hair.

415 Her World , October 1966. 416 Her World , September 1996.

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Fortunately, Zoe and Fann can by-pass such inconveniences by using (presumably) Imedeen and Kadus. The audience is therefore enfolded into the warm intimacy of the world inhabited by the stars and the security provided by these products. While foreign celebrities may function in the same way, they cannot achieve the same degree of name recognition. Only in the last decade has major international companies attempted to bridge the ethnic gap by using models from non-caucasian racial groups. Revlon has used Halle Berry as one of its few African-American celebrity faces to reach into the niche market of African-American women. Other Asian faces have also been featured, but they have had varying success in promoting products. Unless they have a certain degree of star power – a long-lasting appeal outside of any product they endorse – they will inevitably be less successful than local celebrity models who would themselves have little drawing power outside the region.

Values and Ideals in Advertising

Advertising has long been a successful medium through which government propaganda has been distributed. In women's magazines, it is no different. Most of the advertisements analyzed in this segment are related to some sort of government or quasi-government organizations. All deal in some way with the nature of women's identity in the context of national goals and values, such as how the prototype Singaporean female is created by public service announcements (PSA) and commercial advertisements. Such advertisements in women's magazines have to appeal specifically to the magazine's target audience and in some PSA and recruitment advertisements, the language and images used aim solely at women, their femininity and identity.

There are three discernible categories, in which there is an overlap between the first two. The first deals primarily with the concerns of national values and problems as enunciated by the government. The advertisements discussed are commissioned by the Ministry of Community Development (MCD)and the Singapore Air Force (SAF). The second looks at the ideal figure of Singaporean womanhood as epitomized by the SIA Girl. Ltd, the corporation which trademarks the SIA Girl, is a wholly-government owned, hence in that respect it also contributes to the prescription of national values. The third category is juxtaposed against the

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traditional understandings of Asian femininity and explores advertisements which demonstrate the liberal sexual mores and the greater social and career mobility enjoyed by modern Singaporean women.

National Concerns at Stake

Government-related PSAs can be read in the context of the authorities’ overriding concern regarding the moral welfare of the people. The aim is to promote shared values and to combat the negative trends at a national level. These goals are explicitly non-commercial in that they do not sell a cash-based commodity, but like profit-motivated enterprises, they attempt to sell an ideologically hegemonic lifestyle. In this case, it is a lifestyle which conforms to the needs of a Singapore looking to survive into the twenty-first century. The themes in these advertisements range from issues of family values to encouragement to young Singaporeans to marry and to have more than one child. The last two directly address Lee Kuan Yew’s worries about the changing demographics: people marrying older, many female graduates not marrying at all and smaller nuclear families among the intellectual elite, hence causing the birth- rate to fall below the replacement level.

From a general perspective, Lee has mentioned that he did not believe that there was a single Asian value system although he makes the point that it is possible to

extract only a few common principles, and in all of these civilisations, whether it’s Hindu, whether it’s Muslim in Pakistan, in India.... there is a great stress on responsibility for your family and they guard their womenfolk. 417

417 The Straits Times , 28 September 1998.

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Figure 6.4 Family values advertisement in Her World , December 1995.

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Indeed, the family, the responsibility to procreate and the patriarchal condescension rendered towards women remain enduring facets in the multitude of propaganda campaigns launched. The values associated with these concerns are perceived as encapsulating the moral values needed to mould and retain the nation’s identity. The Singapore Family Values advertisement (figure. 6.4) epitomizes many of the shared values laid down in the 1991 White Paper, in particular, family as the basic unit of society. 418 As in many societies with roots in Confucianism, the family is of prime importance and only the state (ruler) takes precedence. The thrust of these campaigns, however, is that it is also an intrinsic Asian value applicable to every ethnic group in Singapore. The five family “snapshots” indirectly satisfies the fifth shared value in that the advertisement strives not to alienate any of the major ethnic groups by representing at least three of them. Yet what is most glaring in this particular advertisement above is what is absent – namely, women. Men are featured in the roles of settling a child into bed, of passing down traditional values to the younger generation (see the images of father and two children on a couch, and one of a grandfatherly man holding a calligraphy brush and ostensibly passing pearls of wisdom to a grandson). The females who are featured come as a pair or as children: as part of a ‘balanced’ sibling pair in a family or as part of family unit, where the father takes the lead in educating the younger generation (refer to image below the text, “Love, Care & Concern”). The poster implies therefore that it is the prerogative and the right of the males therefore to be the ones who are capable of being independent in dispensing values and wisdom, as in images they are the ones who are portrayed as being able to do so, without the presence of an equal female.

The Singapore Family Values - love, care and concern, filial responsibility, mutual respect, commitment, and communication - are hardly unique to the family ideal. The impetus comes from the use of Singaporean faces and traditions to enhance context recognition. The image used to illustrate “communication”, for instance, depicts a young boy ostensibly learning the traditional art of Chinese calligraphy from his elder. Another example is the ethnic costumes worn by some of the models: punjabi suits for the Indian family, the qipao and cheongsam for the older Chinese couple.

The acknowledgement of different ethnic groups is significant because it validates the multiracial identity of Singapore as a nation. This is not always the case

418 Her World , December 1995.

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with other PSAs. The models used in the MCD campaigns to encourage marriage and children were mainly Chinese. 419 Although this rankles against the multiracial ideology, it is partly mitigated by audience recognition of the characters portrayed as this encourages a sense of continuity in the message conveyed by the advertisements, and close identification with the roles and situations depicted. The subtext in the photographs consequently attaches importance to adhering to traditional ideals as a means of combating social problems - traditional in this sense referring to a return to the nostalgia of the past which those in the present tend to view with somewhat misplaced romanticism.

In the series of advertisements entitled “Love Matters Most”, the gentle humour of a young husband serenading his heavily pregnant wife is an example of the kind of romanticism and spontaneity which seems at odds with the image of a bustling and highly-planned Singapore moving at a neck-breaking pace. 420 It is also at odds with the exhortation in the PSAs to anticipate and plan for marriage and family. Love, in this case, explicitly co-opts pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood. Moreover, the montage of photographs used in the magazine advertisements stereotypes the role women play in relationships and in life. In these images, wife is always in a passive pose: she waits for her husband to pick her up, listens while her husband sings to charm her, and looks on fondly as he prepares a nursery for their coming child. The man, on the other hand, is presented in dynamic mode: he drives to pick her up, sings to her, and is the avid handyman in anticipation of their new baby. All of this reinforces the sex-role stereotypes of male/dominant and female/submissive.

The copy has been specifically tailored to target a female audience:

When it comes to love and marriage, it's all too easy to spend our lives waiting for somebody who's just too good to be true to appear and whisk us off our feet. That's why it's so important to remember that it's not money or status that brings read happiness, but genuine, lasting, love and companionship, which will stay with us throughout the years. Qualities that don't cost a cent, and can

419 Some of these models have even achieved short-lived fame outside the advertisements. The pregnant wife in the Love Matters Most campaign became a familiar face in women’s magazines and featured several articles, while her “husband” launched an abortive singing career. 420 Female , October 1994.

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be found all around us - if we only care to look. Love Matters Most 421

The images speak directly to women, revealing a cliched romanticized vision of a knight, yet the text urges them to be rational and not take too long in selecting a partner. The overly saccharine images also mute the seriousness of the sociological and moral warfare being waged on public attitudes and perceptions. The contradictions in this advertisement thus make it difficult for the government’s aim increase the number of marriages to be properly achieved.

Race, however, is subsumed by the government’s more pressing gender concerns based on the fear that marriage would never eventuate for an increasing number of well-educated women. Love in a conservative society like Singapore, however, is not the kind of overwhelming passionate and blind love portrayed in love songs and Hollywood. The love the government wants couples to develop is one in which responsibility and understanding play major roles. The Confucian texts in the Religious Knowledge syllabus had, for instance, emphasized that love occurs “in totally unselfish care and admiration between people”, and having children was a blessing. 422 Love, it would appear, can be methodically developed, and “falling in love”, while romantic and desirable among the young, is far too unpredictable and unsettling when future generations are in doubt.

The PSAs are also not above utilizing women’s fears against them. In such cases, the onus is placed on women to rectify the situation and thus be the one to change. The copy in Love Matters Most reminded women that “it’s not money or status that brings real happiness”, and confronts the fear that they might be “left on the shelf”. It urges women not to be too materialistic and to lower their expectations in looking for a mate. This is intended to battle the materialist tendencies that come with modernization and greater access to education. The government had already openly acknowledged that “young adults today put their careers, leisure, and personal interests above marriage and parenthood”. 423 Because this dominant ideology prizes material success and achievements above family and children, the government

421 Female , October 1994. 422 CDIS, Confucian Ethics Textbook. Secondary Four , Singapore: Educational Publications Bureau, 1985, p. 123. 423 Singapore Government, The Next Lap , Singapore: Singapore Government, 1991, p. 21. The Love Matters Most advertisement was created later and the one which I looked at was in the October 1994 issue of Female .

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considers PSAs an essential component to balance out the negative effects of modernization.

Women are told thus told in other advertisements that having children is also a pressing issue.

Brothers and sisters are fun. Ask any kid. That’s why it’s so important to start your family when you’re still young. Because while you’re busy building your career, or saving for your dream home, Mother Nature just won’t wait. The older you get, the more difficult it can be to conceive. You may find pregnancy a whole lot tougher. And the risk of something going wrong increases.

It takes time to plan and conceive a healthy, happy family. Don’t let time run out on you.

Don’t wait too long to start your family.

The fear here is the biological clock. Given the greater number of working women in Singapore today, it is not surprising that more women are having their first child at a later age. Again, there is a sharp reminder that materialism (“building your career and saving for your dream home”) should not obscure the female ability to procreate; but the more drastic scenario presented is the well-documented evidence of increased risks for late pregnancies. The “you” in this advertisement is distinctly removed from the all-inclusive “we” in the Love Matters Most advertisement; this time, it appears that a benevolent, patriarchal state that is gently reprimanding women. All of this places the sole responsibility on women to plan and conceive a healthy family.

Where are the men in this? There are no equivalent advertisements directed at men in any medium. Instead, responsibility and guilt are entirely transferred onto women. According to the advertisement, women can assuage their guilt by ensuring that they have more than one child. By implication, they would contribute to the development of happy, well-adjusted children, and by extension, have the ideal family; the caption accompanying the text shows one child exclaiming to another that it must be awful to be in a one-child family. Having brothers and sisters would supposedly counteract alienation and facilitate acceptance among their peers. Having more than one child would also ostensibly alleviate the guilt associated with being a “career” woman. Motherhood and childbirth are still seen as the natural prerogatives for

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women, and in answering their biological imperative, women would be seen as fulfilling the female function and satisfying the national task required to increase the talent pool. Similarly, having a child would justify the “dream home”. After all, what mother would not want to create the best environment for a growing child? Materialism and paper achievements are thus vindicated. Such assumptions are based on the notion that all women have the so-called maternal instinct, and that is the principal mistake made by the PSAs.

In Defence of the Motherland

The kind of traditional behaviour the government expects of women is jarring when compared with SAF recruitment advertisements. In a sense, they are also PSAs as the aim to ensure recruitment can be interpreted as a public and national service. Images of femininity are used to temper the masculine nature of national defence and the armed forces. While the PSAs discussed above dealt with traditional values and parallels role stereotypes, the SAF advertisements use glamour and adventure to sell a career to women - one which is worldly and the antithesis to submissiveness. They attempt to replicate the prestige of serving in the SAF which is evident in generic advertisements for national defence. The SAF recruitment advertisements in Female and Her World were part of a wider campaign that was visually captivating. 424 The uniting factors include the use of the colour blue and the slogans, but each of the advertisements featured in women’s magazines looked specifically at one element or benefit of joining the SAF, such as gender equality, professionalism, glamour, nationalism and patriotism.

The language of the advertisements attempts to entice potential female recruits, but there is a mental gap between the “we” and “you” used in the advertisements to refer respectively to the SAF and Singaporean women. The SAF is essentially an institution that is a non-traditional avenue of employment for women and one which has often alienated them in the past. These advertisements, however, presents the SAF as being an enlightened employer offering women the opportunity for sexual equality (figure. 6.5). Since being female is hardly something that women can change, issues and symbols of femininity are instead co-opted into the recruitment

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process. Rather than concentrating on women’s weaknesses, for example, the SAF is shown to provide the chance for women to challenge male-dominated preserves. The strong competitive tone urges women to take on “assignments where you’re expected to perform as well – as your male counterparts – if not better” (figure. 6.5). Moreover, in trying to level potential sexual discrimination, the emphasis in the recruitment criteria is on merit, despite the less politically correct focus femininity as an overt gender difference; for instance, a recruit could become a “Lady Officer”, rather than a gender- neutral “Officer”. Merit is, according to the SAF, judged “solely on your ability, talent and on-the-job performance” (figure. 6.5), thereby strengthening the non- discriminatory approach.

424 Again, the mediums included magazines, newspapers, hoardings, billboards and television.

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Figure 6.5 SAF advertisement in Her World , March 1993.

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Figure 6.6 SAF advertisement in Her World , September 1996.

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Leadership qualities and a commanding presence are also part of the training regime so as to teach women recruits to “shoulder responsibility and manage people effectively in each and every situation.” Discipline and high moral standards, a determination “to serve with pride, honour and integrity” are also part of the package the advertisements sell. Such characteristics are those expected of the armed forces and in applying them also to female members further highlights the government’s stand on equality in the SAF at least. The visual layout, on the other hand, seems incongruous because the feminized images do not agree with the strength, discipline and leadership qualities stressed in the copy. In advertisement in figure. 6.6 relies on the idea of being fashionable to show that the SAF is not a bastion of masculinity, yet the classic catwalk pose of the mannequins only reinforce the underlying feeling that women in the SAF are part of a fashion show. In this context, the clothing allowance is to assure that women do not lose their physical charms when they join.

In another SAF advertisement, the outline of a woman’s stiletto is seen against the ubiquitous blue background. Again, it is a highly feminine image and one that is even more inappropriate for the nature of the work expected in the SAF – how many SAF pilots wear high heels in the cockpit? Its effectiveness is in the double entendre apparent in the line: “The best women deserve to be lifted even higher.”

Feminine symbols are used to temper the rough, rugged, rigorous image of national defence, and even though in some respects there are worryingly contradictory messages being sent out, the advertisements make an important contribution in that the SAF promises meritocratic selection and equality of treatment. The draw for potential recruits, however, appear to be the benefits - clothing allowance, fringe benefits, leadership skills, respect and prestige – and in the words of one advertisement, for a “chance to alter the [gender] balance.” 425

425 An example of the text from one Singapore Air Force recruitment advertisement ( Female , March 1993): We live in a male-dominated world. Here’s your chance to alter the balance. Since the dawn of the industrial age, women have worked in the shadow of their male counterparts. Which is why it’s increasingly refreshing to step into a profession that emphasizes leadership over all else. As a Lady Officer in the Air Force, you’ll be judged solely on your ability, talent and on-the-job performance. You’ll received extensive training in your area of specialty and be given assignments where you’re expected to perform as well as your male counterparts – if not better. ‘Brains’ are therefore a ‘must’. As are personal initiative and self-motivation. If you possess these attributes, and are prepared to go the distance with us, things could really look your way in the Air Force.

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A Sweet Ideal – The SIA Girl

The Asian female in Singaporean women’s magazines maintains a high profile; there are numerous number of feature articles and advice columns advising women of how to be the Singaporean man’s perfect partner. In advertising, no ideal has more impact than the SIA Girl does. The recruitment advertisements created for SIA encapsulate both national identity and women’s identity. They rely on a wider referent system for an understanding of the legend of SIA – what SIA is and its standing in the world of international travel. It is one of the most popular airlines in the world, praised for its service, safety record and pioneering technology. Those who see the advertisements learn by association selective traits about Singapore the nation. Generic SIA promotional advertisements feature the SIA Girl prominently; she is a marketing ploy to persuade customers to use Singapore International Airlines when travelling and to make Singapore a top holiday destination. Having won awards as proof of its success, the appeal of the SIA advertisements lies in the timeless allure of the gentle, smiling kebaya -clad maiden who epitomizes Singapore. The soft focus used in so many of the television advertisements and the dreamy, romantic quality of locations filmed further add to the ageless, unchanging concept of femininity, which clashes with the constantly changing landscape and demographics of Singapore.

Understanding the appeal of becoming an SIA air stewardess is predicated on the status SIA has internationally. This pride in SIA and the Singapore Girl converts to pride in one’s country and in being Singaporean. The Singapore Girl is the embodiment of a variety of national values because she is one of the most well- defined and visible symbols to Singaporeans and foreigners alike. The multiracial composition of Singapore is moreover reflected by the ethnic mix of the SIA team of air stewardess, and the success of the SIA represents the kind of perseverance and work ethic the government urges Singaporeans to emulate so that the country would thrive.

To find out about the careers we have in store for you, call Air Force Recruitment at 277 6352-7. You need to be between 16½ and 25 (graduates, not more than 27 years old), and possess either ‘A’ Levels, a Polytechnic Diploma or University Degree. We’re waiting to hear from you.

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The SIA Girl as a representation of Singaporean women is a more complex issue. Within government ideology, working women are essential to the economic well-being of the country so women are encouraged to join the workforce. The SIA Girl is, however, is feminized to the extent that even though she is ostensibly a working woman, her capacity is in the service sector, which in the patriarchal Confucian model is similar to delegating women a level subservient to men. Because of the prestige in being an SIA air stewardess - not only does she look good and is acceptably feminine - the stereotype presented by the recruitment advertisements have a strong grip on the imagination. Recruits would have to subscribe to the values promoted by the advertisements, such as certain physical requirements: “slim and attractive with a good complexion and a warm personality.” 426 The insistence on acceptable physical looks, from a corporate point of view, logically supposes that an attractive staff creates a better impression on clients and customers; but the alternative interpretation is that a pretty face and a good body is required to be representative of Singapore. Moreover, as this is a profession in which the unavoidable process of ageing eventually curtails the ambitions of the Singapore Girl, it suggests that youth is a highly valued premium. It does not specify in the recruitment advertisements that applicants should be single however; the assumption is that youth is more important than marital status. The physical image thus impinges on the way Singapore is identified, and similarly, it contributes to the way Singaporean women in particular define their social selves and national awareness. Ultimately, it inhibits the development of a gender-neutral national identity amongst Singaporeans in general; for women, it is an obstacle to the development of a gender identity that is not limited by physical attributes.

The recruitment advertisements seek a Singapore Girl - not a Woman - implying that youth, freshness, vitality and innocence are highly prized. 427 This symbol of Singaporean femininity comes across as submissive, compassionate, fond of children, friendly, gentle, and possessing a fragile, luminous beauty. It is an appealingly romantic image, a timeless icon seemingly impervious to change, and the idealized vision of Singaporean womanhood; and as long as this image remains sacrosanct, it will be difficult to change public perception and expectations of Singaporean women.

426 This line appears in all the SIA recruitment advertisements I looked at. Her World , September 1992; Female , March 1995; Female November 1996. 427 For example, the headlines of a couple of advertisements begin “A girl like you could....”

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Dealing with AIDs, Health and Sexual Awareness

One of the greatest changes in attitudes in women’s magazines from the 1960s is the ready way in which issues of sexual health are tackled. This change can be attributed to the liberalization of sexual mores and the loosening of traditional conservatism in the wake of greater exposure to western influences. It is also the ruslt of a better understanding of disease and disease control. Education through the media, such as the PSAs, are one of the ways of reaching out and informing the public, hence the proliferation of mass campaigns. A more open atmosphere has meant too that it is slightly easier to approach what would have once been taboo subjects.

The breast cancer PSA in Her World October 1996 illustrates how the increased awareness of one killer disease has prompted action from the authorities. The breast, while a very sensual organ, is also a symbol of femininity, and for many women who lose a breast to cancer, it can also be very damaging to their self-worth and sense of who they are. The clinical approach taken in the advertisement, while providing simple instructions, desensitizes the sexual nature of the breast and transforms it into a health issue that is relevant to all women. The use of line drawings also mutes the sensuality of the breast. Performing a breast self-examination therefore can be a step towards preserving women’s femininity.

Fear of diseases like breast cancer has meant that once forbidden issues are now being discussed in the open. Educating and informing the public as a means to fighting misconceptions and further spread of diseases are more important than moral sensibilities. In women’s magazines, such PSAs work together with feature articles utlizing real-life and first-person accounts that also give expert opinions from doctors and health-care specialists.

AIDS is another modern contagion that worries the government. Despite the social conservatism regarding premarital sex and multiple sex partners, PSAs have been challenging in dealing with the relationship between casual sex and AIDS. There is an explicit acknowledgement by the government that indiscriminate sex is one of the main causes for infection. By extension, the reference to casual sex recognizes too

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that women’s libidos do not always conform to social expectations; and like men, they are just as prone to having casual and unprotected sex. This is indeed something that is a radical departure from the strict social ethos that pervades Singaporean society.

The slogan is direct and uncompromising: AIDS. BE SAFE. NOT SORRY. In one advertisement, the image of an oversized, unused condom dominates the page, and while its shock value eventually decreases, it is meant to ensnare the reader’s attention and direct it to the accompanying message. 428 The semi-naked couple involved in a tight embrace in another advertisement functions in the same way; note also the words “casual” sex imprinted as close as possible to the genitalia, which is both suggestive and provocative. 429 The clinch therefore represents lust, not love. While these advertisements have appeared in the same form in a variety of other mediums and hence are directed at men as much as at women, it also reflects a change in expectations. As assertive, modern women, the female readers of women’s magazines are being urged to take their own sexuality in their own hands and to insist on protected sex in the battle against AIDS.

The introduction of the female condom - Femidom - attracted a mini- controversy when it was first introduced, but it also signalled another means through which women could reclaim their sexuality and sex life. In the 1960s, the most intimate feminine products were the deoderant and the sanitary pad. Even so, the advertising for the latter was always couched in coy language and few illustrations appeared, unlike today. By the 1990s, with the acknowledgement that unmarried women do have sex - there are numerous articles in women’s magazines on how to heighten sexual arousal - contraception is also being openly discussed in advertisements, albeit in fairly vague terms as the Femidom advertisement shows.

The sexually active woman has replaced the sexually conservative woman of the past. Women in the 1960s were understood in terms of wives and mothers, and even if they were single, marriage was always on the agenda. The sexual woman, however, is not the replacement for the wife and mother; instead, she is an additional facet of womanhood. Sexuality, such as exploring the sexual desires, fantasies and ways to improve one’s sex life, was never discussed in such explicit terms as in modern magazines, while relationships with men were defined within marriage or with a view to marriage. Casual sex was certainly not hinted at and any reference to sex,

428 Her World , February 1995. 429 Her World , October 1994.

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within marriage, was done obliquely. Much has changed, and women's magazines show that they have kept up with the change in attitudes. The sell-lines reflect the acceptance that women have sexual intercourse outside marriage; they also appear to encourage greater sexual experimentation.

Casual sex is inevitably a by-product of women having more opportunities in the workplace, to socialize and to be duly influenced by greater exposure to foreign attitudes and trends. While these opportunities certainly afford women greater control over their lives, their sexuality remains under the jurisdiction of the authorities. The government views casual sex and promiscuity as problems that need to be dealt with, not only because they relate to pressing health issues, but also because they challenge the patriarchal ideology that pervades Singaporean society and the political infrastructure. Contraceptives, such as Femidom, thus serve to give women back control of their bodies. The name itself - the female condom - suggests too the taking on of the male symbol of sexual control over procreation. Ironically, contraceptives for women diminish the responsibility for marriage as sex without the fear of falling pregnant allows women more freedom to experiment and to be sexually adventurous. Easy access to contraception has not enhanced the image of marriage as a sacred duty because it has taken away the constraints that have kept women bound to expectations. Contraceptives therefore appear to condone sexual activity outside marriage and this contradicts the aims behind the government’s PSAs.

Moving On

It has become more apparent, and perhaps inevitable, that women’s magazines in Singapore continue to follow the publishing trends being set by industrialized western societies. The ‘glossies’ continue to get glossier, each one trying to outdo each other. Since the market for such magazines have significantly opened up since the late 1990s, there is now more and more competition for a shrinking market share. Her World and Female now not only have to compete with local editions of Harper’s Bazaar , Vogue , Women’s Weekly , Cosmo and Cleo , but a new local competitor arrived in 2004 and has exceeded expectations by the way it has filled its subscriber base. Simply Her (launched November 2004) in a recent recruitment campaign in June/July 2006 managed to add another 21,000 subscribers

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to its pre-existing 1,000 members. 430 This was considered nothing less than a landmark for Singaporean women’s magazines, although it might have been the inducements of reduced costs and free offers which attracted many of the female subscribers in the first place. Women’s magazines are by no means a passing popular cultural phenomenon, as the proliferation of titles illustrate. Because it is able to reinvent itself over time and with relevance to the social and cultural dynamics of the society from which it draws its readership, it will survive so long as its bottom line – its financial viability – is satisfied. Yet it must abide by the strict media laws of the a patriarchal state, and Singapore is well-known for keeping its pulse on what is published, as the following, concluding chapter shows.

430 “SPH Magazines Launches New Women's Lifestyle Title - Simply Her”, 4 October 2004, available at http://www.sph.com.sg/news/archive/press_041007_001.html , retrieved on 10 August 2006; Jean Loo, “Simply Her adds 21,000 subscribers in six-week blitz”, 11 July 2006, available at http://ir.asia1.com.sg/sph/news/20060711_001.html , retrieved on 10 August 2006.

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Chapter Six

 Conclusion - (Re)Constructing Perceptions

A significant proportion of Singapore’s current communication laws and protocols were derived from its colonial legacy. What has been developed with the PAP at the helm has been a series of safeguards which bolster the notion that struggle and crisis management are never far from the surface of civil society. In attempting to determine a concept of shared values amongst the disparate segments of Singapore, principles regulating the conduct of the media guarantee that the government or one of its affiliated bodies continues to keep a watchful and discouraging eye over incendiary and subversive factions. As such, the media is heavily influenced by the government and censorship has been used as a justifiable tool for patriarchal social control. 431 In the words of a former press chief-editor, “The ability of the local press to do a better job depends on the environment the government allows or encourages in Singapore.” 432

The government has long believed that the mass media is a tool that is to be manipulated, with themselves as the ultimate craftsmen. Jek Yuen Thong, former Minister for Culture, called it a “double-edged weapon” - in the wrong hands, it would be a powerful mechanism that could interfere with the country’s stability and overturn social harmony, yet with careful direction it could also serve as a unifying force, to act as part of the building blocks in nation-building. 433 It is with this view in mind that the extensive regulation of the mass media is justified by the Singapore government; they can thus weed out the seditious and disruptive elements that threaten Singapore, as well as utilize the multi-faceted capabilities of the mass media to define and promote national ideology, patriarchal values, loyalty and harmony. Contradictions between the catch cry of press freedom and government control is ostensibly minimized though never thoroughly erased. At one extreme, in the US, the First Amendment guarantees

431 The Singapore Government’s strict control over the media has been roundly criticized internationally by journalists and other observers, but it is not an area which I choose to go into in detail for my thesis for only a comprehensive and separate investigation of the various arguments can do it justice. For an in-depth study, see David Birch, Singapore Media: Communication Strategies and Practices , Asia Paper 1, Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1993. 432 The Straits Times , 27 July 1985. 433 The Mirror , 20 September 1971.

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the rights of journalists and editors to publish what they choose, creating in effect a large body of people able to reflect or inflect pubic opinion by dint of words. They are frequently in a position to counter the authorities by swaying public opinion, thereby acting as a limited conscience for law-makers, community leaders and corporate interests.

Singapore exhibits alarming tendencies to control many aspects of what western journalists take for granted. Freedom of speech, from the point of Lee Kuan Yew, is not a concept that is universal and certainly is not without limitations. 434 Fundamentally, official discourse reduces the need for discipline within the mass media to the need to be wary of social concerns, especially race issues; for example, Tan and Soh maintain that

The libertarian press is incompatible with Singapore where deep racial, religious and cultural faultlines are inherent in her social structure. Racial harmony is the cornerstone of Singapore’s stability, economic progress and prosperity, and the Government spares no efforts in maintaining the harmony among the nation’s diverse mix of Chinese (75% of the population), Malays (15%), and Indians and other minority groups. 435

Is this explanation sufficient? In the beginning of the 1960s, as communal dissension was mounting, there was clearly a need to dampen the vigour of the press in case they further inflamed the fragile accord between the various races. The 1950 Maria Hertogh riots had already proved how volatile race relations could be. Not only did the custody case of Dutch teenager, Maria Hertogh, involve Malays, Eurasians and Europeans, it also drew in the religious conflict between Islam and Christianity when the Malay press stirred emotions by imputing that the dispute was religious in nature. 436 S. Rajaratnam, one of the first-wave PAP leaders and a former journalist himself, made no apologies for government intervention in the press:

If a newspaper indulges in tactics which might incite communal hatred or race riots, we will intervene. In fact, during the last one year, we have had occasion to ring up the Press and ask for their co-operation to keep certain unpleasant stories out of the Press... when we think that the interest of a country as a whole is involved, then, to that extent, we are quite prepared

434 Lee Kuan Yew, at a January 1962 speech given at the University of Law Society, quoted in Peter Chen and Eddie C.Y. Kuo, Mass Media and Communication Patterns in Singapore , Singapore: Asian Mass Communication Research and Information Centre, 1978, p. 42. 435 Tan Yew Soon & Soh Yew Peng, The Development of Singapore’s Modern Media Industry , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1994, p. 46. Tan is the Second Assistant Director, Media Relations in MITA while Soh is a lecturer in the Department of Communications at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore. Their work is promoted on the blurb as a “textbook” for media students. 436 Maria Hertogh was baptized a Roman Catholic, but was subsequently brought up as a Muslim by her adopted parents. In the interim, while her case was being decided, she was left in the care of a convent for a time.

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to modify the absolute freedom, which nobody accepts, not even in Britain. To that extent... we do concede that we do interfere with the Press. 437

In retrospect, Rajaratnam’s worries were well-founded as more riots erupted throughout the 1960s. The PAP’s incursion into Federation politics resulted in building resentment among the MCA and Malay extremists in UMNO (United Malays National Organization), who interpreted this move as an attempt to unite the Chinese against the Malays. Subsequently, a “hatred campaign” took root through speeches and the press aimed at weakening the PAP’s ideological base, disillusioning their Malay supporters and sabotaging their attempts to gain a wider political foothold. Exacerbated by Indonesia’s racial campaigning, it was a potent brew that finally brought about two major race riots in July and September 1964. When the Malayans sparked their own race riots in 1969, tension also spilled onto Singapore.

Such widespread racial violence has not reappeared since, but the government is ever vigilant, constantly mindful that undercurrents, local or from abroad, can degenerate into bloodshed. Is the government being over-cautious? It has been nearly three decades since the last race riot, but Tan and Soh lists three recent near- misses:

(i) 1984: Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was murdered by her Sikh bodyguards. In Singapore, there was a fear that within the area most densely populated by people of Indian descent (Serangoon Road) the Tamils might take matters into their own hands against the Sikhs;

(ii) 1990: a palpable tension was discernible between the Muslims and the Chinese throughout the duration of the Gulf War. Muslims were suspected of being sympathetic towards Saddam Hussein and Iraq, an Islamic country; and

(iii) 1993: The Straits Times refrained from publishing photographs of Hindu extremists attacking and destroy an ancient mosque in India for fear that it would incite Singapore Muslims to violence. 438

In each of these cases, as with previous instances of communal clashes, the emphasis is on the potential for conflict caused by events occurring outside Singapore in places where one or more of the racial groups in Singapore have ancestral, religious or historical ties. Unlike other former colonial states, the indigenous culture has been

437 S. Rajaratnam, Singapore Legislative Assembly Debates , vol. 14, 1960-61, Col. 547-548. 438 Tan & Soh, 1994, p. 47.

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overwhelmed by the waves of Chinese, Indian and Indonesian migrants who arrived in Singapore in search of their fortunes, not to mention the cultural and class prejudices embodied and disseminated by the colonial administrators. The British colonial rulers, by following the dictum of “indirect rule”, further fuelled the situation by allowing political orientations and national loyalties directed at the migrants’ home countries to flourish. 439 Under colonialism, Singapore did not command undivided patriotism or loyalty, and it was only with the onset of self-government that conscious efforts were made to forge a singular Singaporean national identity. Nevertheless, the bonds between a Singaporean Chinese, Malay and Indian and their ancestral homelands, though increasingly more nebulous with subsequent generations, appear to be instantaneously rekindled whenever major racial or religious strife occur in China, India or any Islamic country where religion is still a hotbed of discontent. The language used to officially justify the environment of impending crisis patently instils and sustains a mood of anxiety. The sociologist, John Clammer, maintains

that the “crisis mentality” is deliberate and forms part of the ideological system in Singapore. It reflects again the essential concern for order - the belief that social transition is a period of vulnerability: the people need preparation and instruction for their new roles in a new society and they should accept this preparation as necessary without too much questioning. 440

While the overt rhetoric employed promotes and reminds Singaporeans of nation- building, the government also seeks to undermine complacency. Brigadier-General Lee Hsien Loong, Minister for Trade and Industry, Second Minister for Defence affirmed in 1988 that

In race, we come up against deep, atavistic human instincts which will take generations to overcome. Racial emotions can still be whipped up and passions inflamed by irresponsible rabble rousing. Once blood has been shed, many years of nation-building and patient strengthening of inter- racial trust and understanding will come to naught.441

The year before, speaking at an international conference, he insisted that

439 As the Chinese revolutionary movement gained momentum at the turn of the century, different cultural loyalties fragmented Chinese identity, and Straits-born Chinese found themselves forced to consider sometimes contradictory allegiances to China, Britain and Singapore. For the China-born, a great deal of propaganda was directed at them, first from the Kuomintang as it established its hold on Nationalist China, and later from Communist China. Up until 1929, the Straits administration did not strictly suppress nationalistic tendencies, but once Sir Cecil Clementi became governor, the situation changed radically. His measures to suppress anti-colonial activities aroused a great deal of racial resentment. See Turnbull, 1989, pp. 129-134. 440 John Clammer, “Modernization and Cultural Values: The Paradoxes of Transition in Singapore”, in R.S. Bathal & R.M. Nakhooda (eds), Cultural Heritage Versus Technological Development - Challenges to Education , Hong Kong: Maruzen Asia, 1981, pp. 231-232. 441 Ministry of Communications and Information, March 1988, p. 97.

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because the Singapore Government has been unwavering in pursuing multiracial policies and firm in taking action against chauvinist 442 agitators, since 1969 all races have lived together in peace and harmony. But that does not mean that we can now afford to ignore racial sensitivities. 443

Thus in the face of such unequivocal vision, the government has firm views on how the press, especially foreign press, should operate:

We do not want such foreign journals to take sides on domestic political issues, whether to increase their circulation in Singapore, or to campaign for a particular outcome they prefer. The foreign press has no part to play in what should be a purely domestic political process. ....[I]f a foreign newspaper publishes biased one-sided reports and distorts its facts, and the Government is unable to complete it to acknowledge errors in its coverage, it can guild up unchallenged a skewed view of reality which will sway opinions and shape events in Singapore ...when a newspaper becomes involved in domestic politics, the Government will move to curb it.

The reason Singapore is so concerned about foreign press incolvement in domestic politics is that we have seen how the media may bring in undesirable values, how newspapers can b e used to carry out covert subversion, and how inflammatory reporting can lead to racial riots. 444

The same kind of concern about domestic issues pervades the 1990s: in the incident with The Satanic Verses , Brigadier-General George Yeo reinforced the government’s worries:

... we do worry a lot about religion, race and language. These are deep faultlines in our social structure and if we are not careful, our society can break up. When Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses was published, we knew right away that it had to be banned. I do not think till today many Westerners quite understand what the whole hubbub was about. 445

From the point of view of the government, there is simply not enough ground for Singaporeans to relax their vigilance against threats to their harmonious and peaceful home; the government will not let them forget how close the state of emergency is. Michael Hill points out that the survival motif so characteristic of the immediate post-independence decade is still apparent, but that its intensity has been “weakened within a generation of citizens which has not experienced the bitter

442 The word “chauvinist” has been used frequently Lee Kuan Yew and the government to attack extremist factions who champion the causes of specific racial communities. 443 Lee Hsien Loong, “When the Press Misinforms”, speech delivered at the Fortieth World Congress of Newspaper Publishers in Helsinki, 26 May 1987, Singapore: Information Division, Ministry of Communications and Information, 1987, p.10. 444 Lee, 1987, p. 6-7. 445 Singapore Government Press Release, 18 November 1991.

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struggles of the 1950s and 1960s”. 446 The government apparatus, however, has refined the subtle mechanism used to activate the discourses involved in assembling a discernible national ideology; they have done so via a wider structural network of control, part of which is media control. Thomas Bellows aptly calls it the “state-of- siege philosophy”. 447 Accountability in the media and self-censorship is thus not merely to keep the mass media in check but also to maintain the status quo; and if change is to be had, it is to be initiated by and for the government in aid of furthering nation-building and the fostering of a group identity that is defined as singularly “Singaporean” amongst the different races living within Singapore. The government’s long-term position on the mass media has changed little from what Lee Kuan Yew envisaged in 1971:

The mass media can help to present Singapore’s problems simply and clearly and then explain how if they [Singaporeans] support certain programmes and policies these problems can be solved. More important, we want the mass media to reinforce, not undermine, the cultural values and social attitudes being inculcated in our schools and universities. 448

Compliance effectively transforms the mass media into a sympathetic ear and loudspeaker for government policies. It lacks the critical lodestone that many western journalists desire most in their profession and drastically reduces leverage against the policies. The space to challenge and critique the government is limited and fraught with incipient dangers. 449 Controversy ensued when Catherine Lim, a locally popular short-story writer, voiced her frustrations in the national press regarding what she perceived as the government’s isolation from the people and the personal stylistic differences between the current and former prime ministers. 450 Such politicized articulations are unusual for two reasons. Lim is a highly respected writer of short stories and novellas - which are usually conventional and are also full of morally conservative motifs. 451 Though she has engaged in subtle social commentary, it was

446 Hill & Lian, 1995, pp. 10-11. 447 Thomas Bellows, The People’s Action Party of Singapore: Emergence of a Dominant Party System , New Haven, Conn.: University Southeast Asia Studies, 1970, p. 113. 448 Speech by the Prime Minister at the International Press Institute General Assembly, “Role of the Mass Media in Singapore”. The Mirror , 14 June 1971. 449 Chua Beng Huat, Culture, Multiracialism and National Identity in Singapore , Working Paper no. 125, Singapore: Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore, 1995, pp. 23-29. Chua cites several instances of how people responded to the multi-racial policies of the Government in a culturally specific way As responses become increasingly individualistic, the Government has also become more defensive. 450 “The Great Affective Divide”, The Straits Times , 3 September 1994. “One Government, Two Systems”, The Straits Times , 20 November 1994. 451 Lim, however, has proven that her work can generate controversy in itself. Her novel, The Bondmaid , tracing the forbidden love between a young servant girl and the young master of a wealthy Chinese family, could initially find no publisher. It may have been a result of her involvement with political issues or the sexually charged thematic issues in the novel. In either case, she was eventually

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usually bound within the conventions of the story. Critical political commentaries, however, seemed entirely out of sync in a woman frequently seen in public attired in a qipao .452 It was also unusual in the sense that Lim represents an exclusive artistic and intellectual circle of individuals who did not normally participate in direct criticism of the government and yet was able to encapsulate public sentiments against it. According to Chua,

Outside the artistic space, livelihood dependence either on licenses to practice or on contract work with state agencies reduce the space for professionals to respond publicly to state activities. Among these most highly educated individuals, privatization often intensifies alienation not only from the highly centralized state but also from the “self” because absence of opportunity to partake in public debates makes the illusion of citizenship - that one’s existence as a citizen should matter to the larger picture of the nation - painful to bear. Under such conditions, allegiance to the state is perhaps one of pragmatic convenience. When it can no longer be borne, some will begin to seek a public voice in the press. 453

The relevance of citizenship then becomes a tendentious issue. At best, the concrete traits required to properly delineate citizenship are grounded in externalized specifics such as prolonged residency in a country, the possession of a passport and the sharing of certain inalienable constitutional rights. Yet the nature of “citizenship” so desired by Lim and other similarly minded Singaporeans extends far beyond the exercising of civil, political, social and economic rights. In a relatively young nation like Singapore, the question of what constitutes citizenship in highly personalized terms is endemic. Ironically, the individual’s notion of citizenship, entailing “allegiance to the state” is more akin to the national ideology that the government has been trying so hard to embed within the community. Both seek meaningful input into a concept that involves the nurturance of spiritual values and identification with the homeland that is Singapore. The government has put great faith in a national ideology that cherishes shared values amongst all the people of Singapore. Yet there are those who often write to the press and online media resources bemoaning the lack of soul in the Singapore character and the illusion of citizenship in Singapore, and who seek space for a purposeful, uninhibited, and hopefully fruitful, dialogue. Incongruity lies in the fact that the government simply will not allow a forum over which they do not have significant control over; and despite the seemingly never-ending vistas of the online

forced to publish it herself in 1995. It had a remarkably successful run, and was eventually reissued by a commercial publisher in 1997. 452 The qipao is the traditional female attire for Chinese women. In Singapore, however, it is more commonly known as the cheongsam (Cantonese dialect), which means a different thing altogether to mainland Chinese; there the cheongsam is the male attire. 453 Chua, 1995, p. 26.

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world, even the state has tried to impose restrictions on online mediums such as blogging and pod-casting – as Chapter 2 has shown.

The government’s control over the media is by no means totalitarian, but it does have alarmingly draconian tendencies. Lim’s forays into political commentary elicited an oft-repeated government exhortation that opposition to the government and to the PAP would and should only take place on a legitimate platform - join a and be responsible (and hence be legally liable) for one’s own words. The implication of this injunction is that unless one is formally entrenched in the political process, the media is off-limits to highly personal censures against the authorities. The press is by no means so deeply entwined in this duplicity. It has admittedly tried its best to maintain objectivity and provide a medium through which different groups and individuals can communicate their points-of-view. The publication of Lim’s essays is evidence of that. Nevertheless, there is a strong sense of collusion in view of the fact that editors and government ministers frequently discuss national matters over lunch - an effective milieu through which political leaders can exert pressure on wayward factions in the press. 454 Surprisingly enough, past and present editors of The Straits Times reflect different views on how the media should function. Cheong Yip Seng, a former editor, stressed that the informal lunch meets were useful in making journalists “more aware of basic facts covering politics and other issues [as well as] feel the nuances and textures of political development.” 455 To him, the government was the ultimate authority and the press, though “in a position to take the government to task, [should] accept that the government is elected by the people and it’s our duty to reflect the government policy.” 456 The subsequent editor, Leslie Fong, on the other hand does not believe in the press being “the tool of any one political party.” Equally so, it

should not pander to the tribal instincts of any one community, at the expense of multi-racial harmony and national unity, even if, by virtue of the language in which it publishes or broadcasts, it caters largely to that particular community. 457

Another Singaporean journalist and art editor of The Straits Times has said much the same. Cherian George stated in a convention conference in 1998 at the University of California, Berkeley that

454 Birch, 1993, p. 18. 455 Ivan Lim, “The Practice of Journalism in Singapore”, The Journalist , April-July, 1989, p. 5. 456 Lim, 1989, p. 5. 457 Leslie Fong, “The Role if Singapore Press in the Next Lap”, The Straits Times , 1 November 1991.

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the PAP power is hegemonic power, in the Gramscian sense: it is a perfect blend of coercion and consent. .... Whatever you call it, the inescapable truth is that Singapore's newspapers are, at least in part, willing partners, of the state...

Therefore, unlike most other authoritarian regimes, the PAP did not suppress the press in order to cover up corruption or hide its mistakes. It did so out of a sincere belief that the press as an institution had a narrow and short-term view of the public interest, and that it could obstruct good government. 458

These editors clearly saw that the state had the national interests at heart – and the newspapers, in return, aimed for stability either through following the government ruling on policy issues or the maintenance of racial harmony.

In the Context of Women’s Magazines

The considerations involved in determining what is press-worthy and what is taboo or needs to be treated diplomatically means that the mass media treads a wary line between journalistic fervour - a need to make an impressionable mark on its reading public - and uninvited incursions by the state. While it is the newspapers and current affairs periodicals that have borne the brunt of official reprimands, women’s magazines have faced their share of crossing the boundaries. The politics of journalism in the serious press is replicated, though not completely, in the leisure publications, of which women’s magazines are a part. The former’s concerns permeate women’s magazines less as political and national issues but are constituted instead as personal, sexual and social matters. The emphasis in women’s magazines is on the personal and social spheres, a gendered, (mostly) non-cultural specific entreaty to identify simultaneously as an individual and as a member of a special, if not exclusive, circle. Understanding of how the serious press operates in the general climate allows one to see how the women’s magazines industry may also be restrained as both are publishing concerns and thus function under the auspices of the same authority.

On the whole, the mass media in Singapore is not conducive to overt displays of heavily politicized individualism. The government will not tolerate attempts to

458 Cherian George, “Newspapers: Freedom from the Press”, conference paper presented at the Conference on The Limits of Control: Media and Technology in China, Hong Kong and Singapore , Graduate School of Journalism, North Gate Hall, University of California, Berkeley, on April 2-3, 1998, available at http://www.singapore-window.org/80402cg.htm , retrieved on 10 August 2006.

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undermine its hegemony, which is why subtle and ostensibly non-political stands are more effective at subverting its communitarian and national ideologies as they are less likely to be blocked by the government. Women’s magazines, in accentuating the cult of femininity, self and sexual fulfilment, set out to challenge patriarchal and family- centric assumptions, in particular the right of women to have a voice. In the context of Singapore, such magazines become a record of social history – by showing how the concerns of women have changed between the 1960s and the 1990s. Women’s magazines like Her World and Female are a reflection of the trends in popular culture and the inexorable march of globalization.

There is little likelihood of opposition being stirred from within the pages of women’s magazines to challenge Singapore’s patriarchal bases of power, either political or economic. Challenging ideological thinking, however, may be a different story. In the ideological arena, there is greater scope for maneuverability between the ruler and the ruled. While the government continues to impose social, cultural and educational policies in tandem with ongoing public campaigns to inculcate desired traits in the ideal Singaporean identity, there are covert and tangible offensives aimed at dislodging government efforts. For instance, economic prosperity and thus the growing consumption so heavily encouraged by these glossy women’s magazines has further intensified the PAP’s dread of “Westernization” - an euphemism for the way traditional Asian values have been undermined by influences from the West: popular culture, fashion, rock music, Hollywood films, consumerism. In fact, through the younger generation’s embrace of such iconography, Singaporeans are witnessing and experiencing, sometimes uncomfortably, a reassessment of their ideological priorities. But perhaps it is not Westernization which young Singaporeans are at risk of, but “Globalization” in both cultural and economic senses.. Increased global connectivity, integration and interdependence of nations have ensured that whatever trend or process is initiated in one place, it will be transferred to another. Yet the irony is that while so-called dangerous Western influences might upset the balance and force the younger generation to take on habits and a way of life considered anathema to the ‘traditional values’ of Singapore, globalization might instead result in a standardization of lifestyle due to the overlapping of trends worldwide. This could endanger the diversity of the brand of multiculturalism articulated by the PAP. As such, at the risk of being overly cautious, laws regulating the mass media thus have to be aware of changing cultural, racial and social limits. Boundaries have to be defined with enough flexibility that no matter how social mores may change as a result of the expropriation

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of Western ideological knowledge and money, or the spillover effects of globalization, the government can keep potentially anti-racial emotions and social dissatisfaction from spilling over and yet retain a recognizably ‘Asian’ aura. In a globalized world, gender issues therefore also need to be treated with greater sensitivity, given that in a globalized state, patriarchal values do not sit gently.

For young women in particular, magazines like Her World and Female are leading the race in deftly providing access to the globalized world, manifested in mass consumption - attainable for some, and make-believe for many others, but equally influential on all. In these alternative scenarios, women’s identities are not necessarily circumscribed by their position in the nation-state, but they can empower themselves vis-à-vis one another. That the entire process can be illusionary at this stage is irrelevant, for illusions can provide real impetus for real action. Thus women’s magazines can serve as the high ground on which ideological differences can be disputed. The space for dissension exists, however, as the government has a powerful communications infrastructure in place, ideally situated to conflict, contradict and deflect the magazines’ version of what is and what can be; after all, the state has a heavy hand in determining the kinds of values and behaviour they believe to be desirable in Singapore while the magazines are patently not motivated by such concerns. Commercial success is their bottom-line. Moreover, the impact images in women’s magazines have on their audience remains a contentious issue– the strength and duration of their effects are not easily measurable. The relationship between the images and the audience are much more complex and mediated.

In the two forms of popular media used for primary analysis in this thesis, the issue of race visibility manifests themselves quite differently. In women’s magazines, race has become less of a definer of difference (except in very positive instances, such as how one can make the most of one’s most salient features). Magazines from the 1960s for instance made a concerted effort to reach its audiences of different racial characteristics; evidence of this comes from advertisements which specifically use female models from various clearly defined ethnicities and fashion spreads featuring models in ethnic costumes. Magazines from the 1990s has less of an emphasis on race; instead, there is a greater focus on womanhood as the unifying factor – note the use of models who could well belong to any of the major ethnicities in Singapore. Indeed, the message is that if one is female, and therefore interested in what the magazines offer, one need not be segregated from others of the ‘sisterhood’ by something such as skin colour. The images in such magazines are as much a

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product on sale as a way of life and an ideology. In this case, race is deliberately obscured by the nature of the medium, one in which commercialism is the way of life, and trends dictate the images produced.

Blogging, on the other hand, does not place any emphasis on race per se. Rather, there is no direct need to define one’s race – the medium does not require it, whereas in the case of magazines, it is inevitable that through images race becomes a signifier. In blog user, to identify their race is entirely by choice. So instead, the issue of race (whether is it used as an identity marker, or it arises as a topic to be discussed) becomes one of many tools used by the blogger to self-reflect and to hold meaningful dialogue with the rest of the blogsphere.

By looking at women’s magazines and blogging, my thesis has clearly identified two ‘spaces’ where women have made their mark or can use to make their presence felt – one as a consumer of the messages and products put out by the content of the magazines, the other as both a consumer and user of cyberspace to absorb the thoughts of others and possibly then to extrapolate them and share their own ideas. In doing so, they prove that there is indeed a space for them to claim which is not entirely proscribed by family, home, children and devotion to the patriarchal rule of the state.

Certainly my research gives rise to interesting questions about the nature of the patriarchal state and Asian values in Singapore, especially in light of the subsequent new leadership of Goh Chok Tong, and now Lee Hsien Loong. It also raises questions about the nature of citizenship in the technological age: just by using the example of blogging, it is feasible to imagine that geographical boundaries one day will no longer be an issue for a community to remain ‘in touch’ with one another when the world is wirelessly connected. Pipe-dream or reality closing in? Would the concept of national identity as defined by scholars such as Anthony Smith become a reality in online communities? Certainly in parts of developed countries, online connectivity has led to the creation of various sub-cultures and sub-communities. Further research on the internet as a global community is already being undertaken by many scholars. 459 The issue of citizenship in the modern age is one that would benefit from greater research, and one that I am interested in pursuing in the future if the

459 For some examples, see footnote 146. Also, Wendy Harcourt (ed.), Women@Internet: Creating New Cultures in Cyberspace , London: Zed Books, 1999.

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opportunity arises. Because of the relative anonymity of the internet, blogging can greatly diminish the gender issue, or reformulate it. Blogging is very much the tool of the masses.

The aim of my thesis has been to discover the kind of worlds shaped in women’s magazines and how they compare with official announcements on the role of women in Singapore society; an in-depth content analysis, juxtaposed against public service announcements of the sort preferred by the government has shown that. The thesis has also illustrated how such magazines contribute to the current discourse of national identity so prevalent in post-colonial Singapore. It has also investigated the kinds of values and ethos promoted by the magazines, in particular how text and images have assisted in shaping women’s self-identity. Because Singapore is a post- colonial state, the discourse that exists or is manufactured as part of the nation- building process must be explicitly delineated to demonstrate the historicity of firstly, gender and gender issues in Singapore; secondly, the creation of self-hood and identity, as well as community – whether by civil or casual means; thirdly, the pervasive patriarchal rhetoric; and fourthly, the growth of women’s magazines in Singapore. As Chapter Two has amply demonstrated, the state took an early hand in identity-formation and racial unity, until words like “racial harmony” and “multiracialism” became common usage.

The controlled social and political environment that resulted in the kind of community created by the nation-building process and its patriarchal sub-text has meant too that control is also sometimes asserted over women’s reproductive rights, their economic bargaining power, and the double burden they are often forced to endure. Community-building outside the square, as in the case of blogging, shows that it is quite possible to create an alternative to the Singaporean community perceived by the state: a community that is more loosely defined, and whose borders are becoming increasingly global. In any case, blogging on the internet has shown that women can have just as much power to state their views and be as proactive as they choose. Gender is not a barrier to internet access, whereas economic power is more likely a hurdle. The ability to create and maintain a blog is therefore gender- neutral, but like any medium for voicing one’s opinions, there is equal likelihood of backlash from the reading public.

My thesis has therefore been able to examine some of the historical changes in women’s roles in Singapore by using the less conventional means of analysing

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women’s magazines. . By comparative analysis, as well as taking into consideration the globalization and thus popularization of new media such as internet blogging, my thesis has explored the ways in which women have been able to find identification markers outside of the generally accepted state discourses. It is not difficult to see that as consumers of magazines, women follow what is reflected in such sources of information. And equally so, the exposition of the magazine contents in previous chapters has been key to understanding that the magazines themselves are merely tools used to reflect trends set by others: that is, magazines rarely create trends, but instead mirror what is being made famous by designers, the catwalk, the cosmetics industry and celebrities. For all that is said of magazines being arbiters of style, it is clear that they are paid to do so and their agenda is fused with several multi-million dollar industries aimed at women as consumers. As such, magazines take what already exists and parlay it onto their pages for their readers to consume. Singaporean women’s magazines like Her World and Female have gone further by encouraging particular social trends as manifested in the public service announcement style advertisements place by the government and in feature articles where social phenomena are treated as issues to be tackled. I argue however that the majority of their women-centred content can be used as a counterpoint to the very socialist and communal messages being sent out by these PSAs. In an industry where the most important (and expensive) advertisements are placed at the front of the magazine, PSAs are more frequently found in the last third section where it would not necessarily conflict with the glamour of the industry advertisements.

In some ways, blogs can be said to do much the same and be used as a counterpoint to government concerns. As a more recent manifestation of contested space, blogs have proven to be as a conflicted space between the Singapore government and its users, be they male, female, teens or adults. The conflict arises from the state’s desire to see Singapore become a ‘wired’ nation, with sophisticated technology being available to the masses; yet at the same time, there is a real concern that the internet can be misused. Moreover, there is ultimately the issue of social control – and as some of the blogs examined above have shown, it is not always possible to regulate all the content despite widespread surveillance. Yet blogging can be all about taking back control, especially when the internet has become more easily accessible in recent times. The blogosphere is turning into a space where Singaporean women need not worry about being too politically correct or conform to the conventional view of what women should be.

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It would be fair to say that women’s magazines and blogging have been used as ways for women to bolster their self worth, although it can also be argued that some highly idealized and unhealthy images of women are presented. As this thesis has however shown, the kinds of messages produced by the magazines have not always followed the Confucian model of society which the government has been keen to uphold. By consuming the messages about what constitutes femininity in women’s magazines, and having the choice of being able to voice their opinions on new media such as the internet, women are not always following the state discourses. They do not need to feel constrained within their double burdens. They are active consumers of style and fashion, and ultimately, living in Singapore is about choices. Singaporean women have indeed come a long way, as the magazines have shown, and it would appear that by harnessing cyberspace, new opportunities are emerging for their self expression.

224 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

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Hanrahan, Gene Z., The Communist Struggle in Malaya , rev. edn., Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1971 Hartley, John, The Politics of Pictures: The Creation of the Public in the Age of Popular Media , London: Routledge, 1992 Hermes, Joke, Reading Women’s Magazines , Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995 Heyzer, N., Working Women in Southeast Asia , Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1986 Hill, Michael & Lian Kwen Fee, The Politics of Nation-building and Citizenship in Singapore , London: Routledge, 1995 Jasper, Karl, Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus: The Paradigmatic Individuals , New York: Harvest Books, 1957 Jhally, Sut, The Codes of Advertising , London: Frances Pinter, 1987 Johnson, Lesley and Justine Lloyd, Sentenced to Everyday Life: Feminism and the Housewife , Oxford; New York: Berg, 2004 Josey, Alex, Lee Kuan Yew , Singapore: Donald Moore for Asia Pacific Press, 1968 Karim, Wazir-Jahan, ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ in Developing Southeast Asia , Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1995 Kassim, I., Problems of Elite Cohesion , Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1974 Kau, Ah Keng & Charles Yang, Values and Lifestyles of Singaporeans: A Marketing Perspective , Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1991 Kellner, Douglas, Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity and Politics between the Modern and the Postmodern , London: Routledge, 1995 Krause, L., A.T. Koh & Lee Tsao Yuen, The Singapore Economy , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1987 Kuhn, Annette, The Power of the Image: Essays on the Representation of Sexuality , London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985 Kuo, Eddie C.Y., Jon S.T. Quah & Tong Chee Kiong, Religion and Religious Revivalism in Singapore , Singapore: Ministry of Community Development, 1988 Lai Ah Eng, Meanings of Multirethnicity: A Case-Study of Ethnicity and Ethnic Relations in Singapore , Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995 Lee, Kip Lin, Emerald Hill: The Story of a Street in Words and Pictures , Singapore: National Museum, 1984 Leeming, E. Janice & Cynthia F. Tripp, Segmenting the Women’s Market , Chicago: Probus Publishing Co., 1994

233 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

Leiss, William. Stephen Kline & Sut Jhally, Social Communication in Advertising: Persons, Products and Images of Well-being , New York: Routledge, 1990 Lewis, Reina, Gendering Orientalism: Race, Femininity and Representation , London: Routledge, 1996 Li, Tania, Malays in Singapore: Culture, Economy and Ideology , Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1989 Lindesay, Vane, The Way We Were: Australian popular magazines 1856 to 1969 , Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1983 Lodge, George & Ezra Vogel, Ideology and National Competitiveness: An Analysis of Nine Countries , Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1987 Low, G.T., Successful Women in Singapore: Issues, Problems and Challenges , EPB Publishers, 1993 Lunt, Peter & Sonia Livingstone, Mass Consumption and Personal Identity , Buckingham, Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1992 Macdonald, Myra, Representing Women: Myths of Femininity in the Popular Media , London: E. Arnold, 1995 Machado, John, Creating Desire , New York: Sympress Books, 1996 Marchand, Roland, Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920-1940 , Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985 Marshall, T.H., Class , Citizenship and Social Development , Westport: Greenwood Press, 1973 Mattelart, Michele, Women, Media, Crisis: Femininity and Disorder , London: Comedia, 1986 McCracken, Ellen, Decoding Women’s Magazines: From Mademoiselle to Ms., London: Macmillan, 1993 Miller, David, On Nationality , Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995. Miller, Harry, Menace in Malaya , London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., 1954 Millum, Trevor, Images of Women , London: Chatto & Windus, 1975 Modleski, Tania, Loving With a Vengeance: Mass Produced Fantasies for Women , New York: Metheun, 1984 Modleski, Tania, Studies in Entertainment: Critical Approaches to Mass Culture , Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986 Moog, Carol, “ Are they selling her lips?” Advertising and Identity , N.Y.: Morrow, 1990 Mulvey, Laura, Visual and Other Pleasures , London: Macmillan, 1989 Myrdal, Alva, Women’s Two Roles: Home and Work , London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1968

234 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

Nakamura, Lisa, Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity and Identity on the Internet , New York: Routlege, 2002 Nelson, Carol, Women’s Market Handbook , Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1994 O’Barr, William M., Culture and the Ad: Exploring Themes of Otherness in the World of Advertising , Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1994 Oldfield, Adrian, Citizenship and Community: Civic Republicanism and the Modern World , London: Routledge, 1990 Oudshoorn, Nelly, Beyond the Natural Body: An Archaeology of Sex Hormones , New York: Routledge, 1994 Pateman, Carole, The Sexual Contract , Cambridge: Polity Press, 1988 Pax, Salam, The Baghdad Blog , Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2003 Phang, Andrew Boon Leong, The Development of Singapore Law: Historical and Sociological Perspectives , Singapore: Butterworths, 1990 Quah, Stella R., Between Two Worlds: Modern Wives in a Traditional Setting , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1988 Quah, Stella R., Family in Singapore: Sociological Perspectives , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1994 Radner, Hilary, Shopping Around: Feminine Culture and the Pursuit of Pleasure , New York: Routledge 1995 Radway, Janice A., Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy and Popular Literature , London: Verso, 1987 Root, Jane, Pictures of Women: Sexuality , London: Pandora Press, 1984 Said, Edward, Orientalism , London: Penguin, 1995 Saleff, Janet, State and Family in Singapore: Restructuring an Industrial Society , Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987 Schnapper, Dominique, Community of Citizens: On the Modern Idea of Nationality , New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1998 Schudson, Michael, Advertising, the Uneasy Persuasion: Its Dubious Impact on American Society , N.Y.: Basic Books, 1984 Scott, Rosemary, The Female Consumer , Associated Business Programmes, 1976 Sharpe, Sue, “ Just Like a Girl”: How Girls Learn to be Women , London: Penguin, 1976 Smith, Anthony, National Identities , London: Penguin Books, 1991 Smith, Anthony, Nations and Nationalism in a Global Era , Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995

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Sopiee, Mohamed Noordin, From Malayan Union to Singapore Separation: Political Unification in the Malayan Union, 1945-1965 , Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit University Malaya, 1974 Storey, John, An Introductory Guide to Cultural Theory and Popular Culture , Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1993 Stratton, Jon, The Desirable Body: Cultural Fetishism and the Erotics of Consumption , Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1996 Strinati, Dominic, An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture , London: Routledge, 1995 Tolson, Andrew, The Limits of Masculinity , London: Tavistock, 1977 Tamney, Joseph B., The Struggle Over Singapore’s Soul: Western Modernization in Asian Culture , New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1996 Tan, Yew Soon and Soh Yew Peng, The Development of Singapore’s Modern Media Industry , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1994 Tinkler, Penny, Constructing Girlhood: Popular Magazines for Girls Growing up in England, 1920-1950 , London: Taylor & Francis, 1995 Tomlinson, John, Cultural Imperialism , Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1991 Tremewan, Christopher, The Political Economy of Social Control in Singapore , New York: St Martin’s Press, 1994 Tuchman, Gaye, Making News: As Study in the Construction of Reality , New York: Free Press, 1978 Turnbull, C.M., A History of Singapore, 1819-1988 , Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1989 Turner, Bryan S., The Body and Society , London: Sage, 1996 Vasil, Raj K., Asianising Singapore: The PAP’s Management of Ethnicity , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1995 Vasil, Raj K., Governing Singapore , Singapore: Eastern Universities Press, 1984 Weber, M., Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology , Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978 Wee, Serene K.L, Uses of Mass Media in Mass Campaigns , Singapore: University of Singapore Press, 1977 Vogel, Ursula & Michael Moran, The Frontiers of Citizenship , Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1991 White, Cynthia L., Women’s Magazines, 1693-1968 , London: Michael Joseph, 1970 Williamson, Judith, Consuming Passions: The Dynamics of Popular Culture, London: Marion Boyars, 1986

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Williamson, Judith, Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising , London: Marion Boyars, 1978 Wilson, H.E., Social Engineering in Singapore , Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1978 Winship, Janice, Inside Women’s Magazines , London: Pandora Press, 1987 Wolf, Naomi, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women , London: Vintage, 1991 Wong, A. & J. Salaff, Women’s Work: Factory, Family and Social Class in an Industrialising Order , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1982 Wong, Aline, Women in Modern Singapore , Singapore: University Education Press, 1975 Zhang, X. (transl. Guan Libing), Singapore Women at the Helm , Singapore: Asiapac Books, 1996

Audio-Visual

Chris Patten’s East and West , (audiovisual), London: BBC Television, 1998. Creation of Womanhood , (audiovisual) Singapore: Ngee Ann Polytechinc, 1985 Frocks, Woks and Gossip , (audiovisual), Australia: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1997 Fatal Reaction: Singapore , (audiovisual), The : Lagestee Films B.V., 1996

Monographs, Manuscripts, Conference and Working Papers

Benjamin, Geoffrey, The Unseen Presence: A Theory of Nation-State and its Mystifications , Working Paper no. 91, Singapore: Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore, 1988 Betts, R., Multiracialism, Meritocracy and the Malays of Singapore , unpublished PhD thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1975 Birch, David, Singapore Media: Communication Strategies and Practices, Asia Paper 1, Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1993 Butcher, Helen, Rosalind Coward, et. al., Images of Women in the Media , Women’s Series no. 31, CCCS, University of Birmingham, 1974

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Chew, Sock Foon, Ethnicity and Nationality in Singapore , (Monographs in International Studies, SEA Series, no. 78), ed. James L. Cobben, Ohio: Harper & Row, 1987 Chua, Beng Huat & Tan Joo Ean, Singapore: New Configuration of a Socially Stratified Culture , Working Paper no. 127, Singapore: Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore, 1995 Chua, Beng Huat, Culture, Multiracialism and National Identity in Singapore , Working Paper no. 125, Singapore: Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore, 1995 Chua, Beng Huat, Fashion Shopping: Programs, Stages and Audience , Working Paper no. 102, Singapore: Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore, 1990 Consumers’ Association of Penang (Malaysia), Abuse of Women in the Media , Penang: Consumer's Association of Penang, 1982 George, Cherian, “Newspapers: Freedom from the Press”, conference paper presented at the Conference on The Limits of Control: Media and Technology in China, Hong Kong and Singapore , Graduate School of Journalism, North Gate Hall, University of California, Berkeley, on April 2-3, 1998, available at http://www.singapore-window.org/80402cg.htm , retrieved on 10 August 2006 Heidt, Erhard U., Mass Media, Cultural Tradition and National Identity , Fort Lauderdale: Verlag Breitenbach, 1987 Hudson, Chris, “Romancing Singapore: Economies of Love in a Shrinking Population”, in Asia Examined: Proceedings of the 15 th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia , Canberra, 2004. Lim, Dayna Minn, A Critique of Singapore’s Public Housing Policies in Relation to the Family , unpublished honours dissertation, Perth, WA: University of Western Australia, 1997 Loy, Jackson D.E., "The Residents' Committee in Singapore: An Exploratory Study", academic exercise, submitted in partial fulfilment of the B.Soc.Sc. (Hons) degree, Department of Sociology: National University of Singapore, 1980 Lyons-Lee, Lenore, “The Limits of Feminist Intervention: AWARE and the PAP”, seminar paper presented at Asia Research Centre (ARC), Murdoch University, 24 April 1998 Mortimer, Marilyn, The Role Portrayed for Women in Malaysian Magazines, B.A. Thesis, Perth, WA: Murdoch University, 1979

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Paul, E.C., Obstacles to Democratization in Singapore , Working Paper no. 78, Monash University: Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, 1992 Purushotam, Nirmala, Disciplining Differences: Race in Singapore , Working Paper no. 126, Singapore: National University of Singapore, Department of Sociology, 1991 Saad, Ibrahim, Competing Identities in a Plural Society , Occasional Paper no. 63, Singapore: ISEAS, 1980 Winship, Janice, Advertising in Women’s Magazines, 1956-74 , Birmingham: Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham, 1980 Wong, Kokkeong, Political Economy of Media and Culture in Peripheral Singapore: A Theory of Controlled Commodification , PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts, 1991 Zhang, Xin Xiang, Education as a Vehicle of Social Stratificational Change: the Case of Singapore , Working Paper no. 118, Singapore: Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore, 1993

Journal and Newspaper Articles

Ang, Ien & Jon Stratton, “The Singapore Way of Multiculturalism: Western Concepts/Asian Cultures”, Sojourn: Social Issues in Southeast Asia , 10.1, 1995, pp. 65-89 Barr, Michael D., Michael D. Barr, “The Charade of Meritocracy”, Far Eastern Economic Review , 169.8, Oct 2006, p. 18 Barr, Michael D., “Beyond Technocracy: the Culture of Elite Governance in Lee Hsien Loong’s Singapore”, Asian Studies Review , 30, March 2006, pp. 1-17 Barr, Michael D., “Assimilation as Multiracialism: the Case of Singapore’s Malays”, Asian Ethnicity , 6.3, Oct 2005, pp. 161-182 Barr, Michael D., “Lee Kwan Yew and the ‘Asian Values’ Debate”, Asian Studies Review , 24.3, September 2000, pp. 309-334. Barr, Michael D., “Lee Kwan Yew: Race, Culture and Genes”, Journal of Contemporary Asia , 29.2, 1999, pp. 145-166. Blumer, Herbert, “Fashion: From Class Differentiation to Collective Selection”, Sociological Quarterly , 10.3, 1969, pp. 275-291

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Breton, R., “The Production and Allocation of Symbolic Resources: an Analysis of the Linguistic and Ethnocultural Fields in Canada”, Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology , 21.2, 1984, pp. 123-14 Cheng, Siok Hwa, “Recent Trends in Female Labour Force Participation in Singapore”, Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science , 8.1, 1980, pp. 20-39 Chu, Yee-Ling and Wong Man-Yee, “Asia Media Project – Singapore”, Journalism and Media Studies Centre Journal , 2000, available at http://jmsc.hku.hk/students/jmscjournal/critical/elainandmargaret.htm , retrieved 1 February 2006 Chua, Beng Huat, “Pragmatism of the PAP Government in Singapore: A Critical Assessment”, Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science , 13.2, 1985, pp. 29-48 Chua, Beng Huat, “Race Relations and Public Housing Policy in Singapore”, Journal of Architectural and Planning Research , 8.4, 1991, p. 343-354. Chua, Beng Huat, “Re-Opening Ideological Discussion in Singapore: A New Theoretical Discussion”, Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science , 11.2, 1983, pp. 31-45 Chun, Allen, “Discourses of Identity in the Changing Spaces of Public Culture in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore”, Theory, Culture and Society , 13.1, 1996, pp. 51-75 Coclanis, Peter A., “Twice as Less, Lah: Language, Logic and Economic Development”, Sojourn: Social Issues in Southeast Asia , 8.2, 1993, pp. 315-327 Craik, Jennifer, “‘I Must Put My Face On’: Making Up, the Body and Marking Out the Feminine”, Cultural Studies , 3.1, 1989, pp. 1-24 Dearstyne, Bruce W., “BLOGS: The New Information Revolution?” The Information Management Journal , vo. 39.5, Sept/Oct 2005, pp. 38-44. Doughan, David, “Periodicals By, For, and About Women in Britain”, Women’s Studies International Forum , 10.3, 1987, pp. 261-73 Enders-Dragaesser, Uta, “Women’s Identity and Development Within a Paradoxical Reality”, Women’s Studies International Forum , 11.6, 1988, pp. 583-590 Frazer, Elizabeth, “Teenage Girls Reading Jackie ”, Media, Culture and Society , 9, 1987, pp. 407-25 Freedman, Maurice, “Immigrants and Associations: Chinese in Nineteenth Century Singapore”, Comparative Studies in Society and History , 3.1, 1960, pp. 25- 48

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George, Cherian, “The Press and the City”, Commentary , 10, 1992, pp. 105-112 Goldberg, Suzanne, “Mixed Messages: Public Policy and Women in Singapore”, Commentary , 7.2, 1987, pp. 25-37 Griffin, Michael, K. Viswanath & Dona Schwartz, “Gender Advertising in the US and India: Exploring Cultural Stereotypes”, Media, Culture and Society , 16.3, 1994, pp. 487-507 Hong, Lysa & Jimmy Yap, “The Past in Singapore’s Present”, Commentary , 11.1, 1993, pp. 31-38 Hussin, Zochri Wan, “Socio-Economic Problems of Malays in Singapore”, Sojourn: Social Issues in Southeast Asia , 2.2, 1987, pp. 178-208 Jaddon, Liliane & Jon Williams, “A Theoretical Contribution to the Struggle Against the Dominant Representations of Women”, Media, Culture and Society , 3, 1981, pp. 105-124 Karim, Wazir-Jahan, “Gender Studies in Southeast Asia”, Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science , 21.1, 1993, pp.98-113 Koh, Hock Seng, “The Publishing Industry of Singapore”, Singapore Book World , 16.1, 1985, pp. 1-5 Koh, Tai Ann, “Who’s Managing the Home?” Commentary , 7.2, 1987, pp. 130-136 Koo, Kok Kee, “The Publishing Industry in Singapore”, Singapore Book World , 16.1, 1985, pp. 6-10 Kuo, Eddie C.Y., “Mass Media and Language Planning: Singapore’s Speak Mandarin Campaign”, Journal of Communication , 34.3, 1984 Kuo, Eddie C.Y., “Multilingualism and Mass Media Communication in Singapore”, Asian Survey , 18.10, 1978, pp. 1067-1083 Kuo, Eddie C.Y., “The Promotion of Confucian Ethics in Singapore: a Sociological Analysis”, Commentary , 7, 1989, pp. 24-25 Kwok, Kian Woon, “ Ideology in Singapore: a Textual Investivation”, Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science , 11.2, 1983, pp. 70-80 Lee, Ching Wern, “James Gomez under police investigation”, 8 May 2006, available at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/207142/ 1/.html , retrieved 9 July 2006Lee, Gek Ling, “Acts of Identity in Singapore”, Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science , 17.1, 1989, pp. 127-154 Leiss, William, “The Icons of the Market Place”, Theory, Culture and Society , Special Issue on Consumer Culture, 1.3, 1983, pp. 10-21 Liew, Hanqing, “Celebrity Bloggers Strike Back”, The New Paper , 30 July 2005, available at

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242 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

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Book Chapters

245 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

Althusser, Louis, “Ideological State Apparatuses”, in Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays , New Left Books, 1971, pp. 123-173 Barrett, M., “Feminism and the Definition of Cultural Politics”, in Rosalind Brunt & Caroline Rowan (eds), Feminism, Culture and Politics , London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1987, pp. 37-58 Bartkey, Sandra, “Foucault, Femininity and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power”, in Irene Diamond & Lee Quinby (eds), Feminism and Foucault , Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1988, pp. 61-86 Baym, Nancy, “The Emergence of Online Community”, in Steven G. Jones (ed.), Cybersociety 2.0: Revisiting Computer-Mediated Communication and Society , Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1998, pp. 35-68 Bedlington, Stanley S., “Ethnicity and the Armed Forces in Singapore”, in DeWitt C. Ellinwood & Cynthia H.E. Enloe (eds), Ethnicity and the Military in Asia , New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1981, pp. 242-266 Benjamin, Geoffrey, “The Cultural Logic of Singapore’s ‘Multiracialism’”, in Hassan Riaz (ed.), Singapore: Society in Transition , Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1976, pp. 115-133 Birch, David, “Staging Crises: media and citizenship”, in Garry Rodan (ed.), Singapore Changes Guard: Social, Political and Economic Directions in the 1990s , New York: St Martin’s Press, 1993, pp. 72-83 Black, A.H., “ Gender and Cosmology in Chinese Correlative Thinking”, in C.W. Bynum, S. Harrell & P. Richman (eds), Gender and Religion: On the Complexity of Symbols , Boston, Beacon Press, 1986, pp. 166-195 Bowlby, Rachel, “Soft Sell: Marketing Rhetoric in Feminist Criticism”, in Victoria de Grazia & Ellen Furlough (eds), The Sex of Things: Gender and Comsumption in Historical Perspective , Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996, pp. 381-388 Brown, David, “The Corporatist Management of Ethnicity in Contemporary Singapore”, in Garry Rodan (ed.), Singapore Changes Guard: Social, Political and Economic Directions in the 1990s , New York: St Martin’s Press, 1993, pp. 16-33 Brown, Penelope & L. Jordonova, “Oppressive Dichotomies: The Nature/Culture Debate”, in Elizabeth Whitelegg, et. al. (eds), The Changing Experiences of Women , Oxford: M. Robertson in association with the Open University, 1982, pp. 389-400

246 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

Brunt, Rosalind, “‘An Immense Verbosity’: Permissive Sexual Advice in the 1970s”, in Rosalind Brunt & Caroline Rowan (eds) Feminism, Culture and Politics , London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1982, pp. 143-169 Chan, Heng Chee & Hans-Deiter Evers, “National Identity and Nation-building in Southeast Asia,’ in Peter S.J. Chen & Hans-Dieter Evers (eds), Studies in ASEAN Sociology , Singapore: Chopmen, 1978, pp. 117-129 Chan, Heng Chee, “ Political Developments, 1965-1979”, in Ernest C.T. Chew & Edwin Lee (eds), A History of Singapore , Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. 157-181 Chang, Chen Tung, “The Changing Socio-Demographic Profile”, in Hassan Riaz (ed.), Singapore: Society in Transition , Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1976, pp. 271-289 Chen, Ai Yen, “The Mass Media”, in Ernest C.T. Chew & Edwin Lee (eds), A History of Singapore , Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. 288-311 Cheng, Siok Hwa, “Economic Change and Industrialization”, in Ernest C.T. Chew & Edwin Lee (eds), A History of Singapore , Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. 182-215 Chew, Earnest C.T.,“The Singapore National Identity: Its Historical Evolution and Emergence”, in Earnest C.T. Chew & Edwin Lee (eds), A History of Singapore , Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. 357-368 Chew, Seen Kong, “Bilingualism and National Identity: a Singapore Case Study”, in A.E. Afendras & Eddie C.Y. Kuo (eds), Language and Society in Singapore , Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1980, pp. 233-253 Chiew, Seen Kong, “Ethnicity and National Integration: The Evolution of a Multi-ethnic Society”, in Peter S.J. Chen (ed.), Singapore Development Policies and Trends , Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983, pp. 29-64 Chew, Seen Kong, “National Integration: The Case of Singapore”, in Peter S.J. Chen & Hans-Dieter Evers (eds), Studies in ASEAN Sociology , Singapore: Chopmen, 1978, pp.130-146 Chua Beng Huat, “The Business of Living in Singapore”, in Kernial Singh Sandhu & Paul Wheatley (eds), Management of Success: The Moulding of Modern Singapore , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989, pp. 1003-1021 Chua, Beng Huat, “Shopping for Women’s Fashion in Singapore”, in Rob Shields (ed.), Lifestyle Shopping , London: Routledge, 1992, pp. 114-135

247 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

Chui, Kwei-Chiang, “Political Attitudes and Organizations, c.1900-1941”, in Ernest C.T. Chew & Edwin Lee (eds), A History of Singapore , Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. 66-114 Chung, Young-iab, “The Impact of Chinese Culture on Korea’s Economic Development”, in Tai Hung-chao (ed.), Confucianism and Economic Development: An Oriental Alternative? Washington: The Washington Institute Press, 1989, pp. 149-165 Clammer, John, “Deconstructing Values: the Establishment of a National Ideology and its Implications for Singapore’s Political Future”, in Garry Rodan (ed.), Singapore Changes Guard: Social, Political and Economic Directions in the 1990s , New York: St Martin’s Press, 1993, pp. 34-51 Clammer, John, “Modernization and Cultural Values: The Paradoxes of Transition in Singapore”, in R.E. Vente, R.S. Bothal & R.M. Nakhooda (eds), Cultural Heritage Versus Technological Development , Singapore: Maruzen Asia, 1981, pp. 223-240 Coward, Rosalind, “Sexual Liberation of the Family”, in Rosemary Betterton (ed.), Looking On: Images of Femininity in the Visual Arts and Media , London: Pandora Press, 1987, pp. Duffy, Margaret, “Body of Evidence: Studying Women and Advertising”, in Luigi & Alessandra Manca(eds), Gender and Utopia in Advertising: a Critical Reader , Lisle, IL.: Procopian Press, 1994, pp. 7-30 Faulder, Carolyn, “Advertising”, in Josephine King & Mary Stott (eds), Is This Your Life? Images of Women in the Media , London: Virago, 1977, pp. 37-64 Faulder, Carolyn, “Women’s Magazines”, in Josephine King & Mary Stott (eds), Is This Your Life? Images of Women in the Media , London: Virago, 1977, pp. 173-194 Ferguson, Marjorie, “Imagery and Ideology: The Cover Photographs of Traditional Magazines”, in Gaye Tuchman, Arlene Kaplan Daniels & James Benet (eds), Hearth and Home: Images of Women in the Mass Media , New York: Oxford University, 1978, pp. 97-115 Firat, A. Fuat, “Gender and Consumption: Transcending the Feminine”, in Janeen Arnold Costa (ed.) Gender Issues and Consumer Behavior , California: Sage Publications, 1994, pp. 205-228 Frith, Katherine Toland, “ Advertising and Mother Nature,’ in Angharad N. Valdivia (ed.), Feminism, Multiculturalism and the Media: Global Diversities , Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1995, pp. 185-196

248 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

Goh, Keng Swee, “National Service and Defence Policy”, in Towards Tomorrow: Essays on Development and Social Transformation in Singapore , Singapore: National Trades Union Congress, 1973 Gopinathan, S., “Education”, in Ernest C.T. Chew & Edwin Lee (eds), A History of Singapore , Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. 268-287 Gopinathan, S., “Towards a National Educational System”, in Hassan Riaz (ed.), Singapore: Society in Transition , Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1976, pp. 67-83 Hall, Stuart, “Encoding/Decoding”, in Stuart Hall (ed.), Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in Cultural Studies, 1972- 1979 , London: Hutchinson, 1980, pp. 128-138 Heng, Geraldine & Janadas Devan, “State Fatherhood: The Politics of Nationalism, Sexuality and Race in Singapore”, in “, in Aihwa Ong & Michael G. Peletz (eds), Bewitching Women, Pious Men: Gender and Body Politics in Southeast Asia , Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995, pp. 195- 215. Heng, Geraldine, “"A Great Way to Fly": Nationalism, the State, and the Varieties of Third-World Feminism”, in M. Jacqui Alexander and Chandra Talpade Mohanty (eds), Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures , New York: Routledge, pp. 30-45. Ho, Wing Meng, “Value Premises Underlying the Transformation of Singapore”, in Kernial Singh Sandhu & Paul Wheatley (eds), Management of Success: The Moulding of Modern Singapore , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989, pp. 671-691 Hudson, Barbara, “Femininity and Adolescence”, in Angela McRobbie & Mica Nava (eds), Gender and Generation . London: Macmillan, 1984, pp. 31-53 Inglis, Christine, “The Feminization of the Teaching Profession in Singapore”, in Lenore Manderson (ed.), Women’s Work and Women’s Roles: Economics and Everyday Life in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, Canberra: ANU, 1983, pp. 217-238 Jones, Steven G., “Information, Internet and Community: Notes Toward and Understanding of Community in the Information Age”, in Steven G. Jones (ed.), Cybersociety 2.0: Revisiting Computer-Mediated Communication and Society , Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1998, pp. 1-34 Karim, Wazir-Jahan, “Research on Women in Southeast Asia: Current and Future Directions”, section on Singapore”, in Aruna Rao (ed.), Women’s Studies

249 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

International: Nairobi and Beyond , New York: The Feminist Press at The City University of New York, 1991, pp. 142-155 Kellner, Douglas, “Popular Culture and the Construction of Postmodern Identity”, in Scott Lash & Jonathan Friedman (eds), Modernity and Identity , Oxford: Blackwell, 1992, pp. 141-177 Koh, Tai Ann, “Culture and the Arts”, in Kernial Singh Sandhu & Paul Wheatley (eds), Management of Success: The Moulding of Modern Singapore , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989, pp. 710-748 Kuo, Eddie C.Y., “Communication Policy and National Development”, in Peter S.J. Chen (ed.), Singapore Development Policies and Trends , Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983, pp. 268-282 Kuo, Eddie C.Y., “The Sociolinguistic Situation in Singapore: Unity in Diversity”, in A.E. Afendras & Eddie C.Y. Kuo (eds), Language and Society in Singapore , Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1980, pp. 39-62 Lau, Teik Soon, “Singapore in South-East Asia”, in Ernest C.T. Chew & Edwin Lee (eds), A History of Singapore , Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. 371-384 Lee, Edwin, “Community, Family and Household”, in Ernest C.T. Chew & Edwin Lee (eds), A History of Singapore , Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. 242-267 Lee, Janet, “Care to Join me in an Upwardly Mobile Tango? Postmodernism and the ‘New Woman’”, in Lorraine Gammon & Margaret Marshment (eds), The Female Gaze: Women as Viewers of Popular Culture , London: Women’s Press, 1988, pp. 166-172 Leong, Lawrence Wai-Teng, “Commodifying Ethnicity: State and Ethnic Tourism in Singapore”, in Michel Picard & Robert E. Wood (eds), Tourism, Ethnicity and the State in Asian and Pacific Societies , Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997, pp. 71-98 Leung, Lisa, “Fashioning (Western) Sexuality for Sale: The Case of Sex and Fashion Articles in Cosmopolitan, Hong Kong”, in Women and Market Societies , pp. 96-113 Liew, Geok Heok & Leong Chooi Peng, "Legal Status", in Aline Wong & Leong Wai Kum (eds), Singapore Women: Three Decades of Change , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1993, pp. 252-283

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Lim, Boon Tiong, “The Economics of Population Policy”, in Ban Kah Choon, Anne Pakir, Tong Chee Kiong (eds), Imagining Singapore , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1992, pp. 163-186 Lim, Ivan, “The Singapore Press and the Fourth Estate”, in Abdul Razak (ed.), Press Laws and Systems in ASEAN States , Jakarta: The Confederation of ASEAN Journalists Association, 1985, pp. 101-118 Lim, Linda Y.C., “Social Welfare”, in Kernial Singh Sandhu & Paul Wheatley (eds), Management of Success: The Moulding of Modern Singapore , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989, pp. 171-197 Lopate, Carol, “ Jackie !” in Gaye Tuchman, Arlene Kaplan Daniels & James Benet (eds), Hearth and Home: Images of Women in the Mass Media , New York: Oxford University, 1978, pp. 130-140 Low, Linda, Toh Mun Heng, Euston Quah and David Lee, “Economic Participation”, in in Aline Wong and Leong Wai Kum (eds), Singapore Women: Three Decades of Change , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1993, pp. 86-124 Margolin, Jean-Louis, “Foreign Models in Singapore’s development and the ideology of a Singaporean model”, in Garry Rodan (ed.), Singapore Changes Guard: Social, Political and Economic Directions in the 1990s , New York: St Martin’s Press, 1993, pp. 84-98 Martin, Mary C. & Patricia F. Kennedy, “The Measurement of Social Comparison to Advertising Models: A Gender Gap Revealed,’ in Janeen Arnold Costa (ed.) Gender Issues and Consumer Behavior , California: Sage Publications, 1994, pp. 104-124 McRobbie, Angela, “ Jackie : An Ideology of Adolescent Femininity”, in Bernard Waites, Tony Bennet & Graham Martin (eds) Popular Culture: Past and Present - A Reader, London , Croom Helm in association with the Open University Press, 1982, pp. 263-283 McRobbie, Angela, “ More ! New Sexualities in Girls’ and Women’s Magazines”, in McRobbie, Angela (ed.), Back to Reality? Social Experience and Cultural Studies , Manchester University Press, 1997, pp. 191-209 McRobbie, Angela, “Working Class Girls and the Culture of Femininity”, in Women’s Studies Group, Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham, Women Take Issue: Aspects of Women’s Subordination , London: Hutchinson, 1978, pp. 96-108

251 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

Moeran, Brian & Lise Skov, “Japanese Advertising Nature: Ecology, Fashion, Women and Art”, in Ole Brunn & Arne Kalland (eds), Asian Perceptions of Nature: a Critical Approach , Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1995, pp. 215-242 Mutalib, Hussin, “Singapore’s Quest for a National Identity: The Triumphs and Trials of Government Policies”, in Ban Kah Choon, Anne Pakir & Tong Chee Kiong (eds), Imagining Singapore , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1992, pp. 69-96 Myers, K., “Fashion ‘n’ Passion: A Working Paper”, in Angela McRobbie (ed.), Zootsuits and Secondhand Dresses: An Anthology of Fashions and Music, Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1988, pp. 189-197 Myers, K., “Understanding Advertisers”, in Howard Davis & Paul Walton (eds), Language, Image, Media , Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983, pp. 205-225 Ong, Aihwa, “State Versus Islam: Malay Families, Women’s Bodies, and the Body Politic in Malaysia”, in Aihwa Ong & Michael G. Peletz (eds), Bewitching Women, Pious Men: Gender and Body Politics in Southeast Asia , Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995, pp. 159-194 Ong, Jin Hui, “Community Security”, in Kernial Singh Sandhu & Paul Wheatley (eds), Management of Success: The Moulding of Modern Singapore , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989, pp. 928-948 Pang, Eng Fong, “Growth, Equity and Race”, in Hassan Riaz (ed.), Singapore: Society in Transition , Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1976, pp. 326-338 Pakir, Ann, “English-knowing Bilingualism in Singapore”, in Ban Kah Choon, Anne Pakir & Tong Chee Kiong (eds), Imagining Singapore , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1992, pp. 234-262 Pateman, T., “How is Understanding an Advertisement Possible?” in Howard Davis & Paul Walton (eds), Language, Image, Media , Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983, pp. 187-204 Peiss, Kathy, “Making Up, Making Over: Cosmetics, Consumer Culture and Women’s Identity”, in Victoria de Grazia & Ellen Furlough (eds), The Sex of Things: Gender and Consumption in Historical Perspective , Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996, pp. 311-336 Perkins, T.E., “Rethinking Stereotypes”, in Michele Barrett, Philip Corrigan, Annette Kuhn & Janet Wolff (eds), Ideology and Cultural Production , New York: St. Martin's Press, 1979, pp. 135-159 Phillips, Barbara E., “Magazine Heroines: Is Ms . Just Another Member of the Family Circle ?” in Gaye Tuchman, Arlene Kaplan Daniels & James Benet (eds),

252 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women

Hearth and Home: Images of Women in the Mass Media , New York: Oxford University, 1978, pp. 116-129 Pollock, Griselda, “What’s Wrong with Images of Women?” in Rosemary Betterton (ed.), Looking On: Images of Femininity in the Visual Arts and Media , London: Pandora Press, 1987, pp. 41-48 Pugh, Cedric, “The Political Economy of Public Housing”, in Kernial Singh Sandhu & Paul Wheatley (eds), Management of Success: The Moulding of Modern Singapore , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989, p. 833- 859 Purushotam, Nirmala, “Language and Linguistic Policies”, in Kernial Singh Sandhu & Paul Wheatley (eds), Management of Success: The Moulding of Modern Singapore , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989, pp. 503- 522 Purushotam, Nirmala, “Women and Knowledge/Power: Notes on the Singaporean Dilemma”, in Ban Kah Choon, Anne Pakir & Tong Chee Kiong (eds), Imagining Singapore , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1992, pp. 320- 361 Quah, Jon S.T. & Stella R. Quah, “The Limits of Government Intervention”, in Kernial Singh Sandhu & Paul Wheatley (eds), Management of Success: The Moulding of Modern Singapore , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989, pp. 102-127 Quah, Jon S.T., “Government Policies and Nation-Building”, in Jon S.T. Quah (ed.), In Search of Singapore’s National Values , Singapore, The Institute of Policy Studies: Times Academic Press, 1990a, pp. 45-65 Quah, Jon S.T., “Searching for Singapore’s National Values”, in Jon S.T. Quah (ed.), In Search of Singapore’s National Values , Singapore, The Institute of Policy Studies: Times Academic Press, 1990b, pp. 91-105 Quah, Stella, “Marriage and Family” in Aline Wong and Leong Wai Kum (eds), Singapore Women: Three Decades of Change , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1993, p. 20-85 Rajaratnam, S., “Asian Values and Modernization”, in Seah Chee Meow (ed.), Asian Values and Modernization , Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1977, pp. 95-100 Reiger, Hans Christoph, “The Quality of Life in Singapore”, in Kernial Singh Sandhu & Paul Wheatley (eds), Management of Success: The Moulding of Modern

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Singapore , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989, pp. 1022-1045 Riaz, Hassan, “Symptom and Syndrome of a Developmental Process”, in Hassan Riaz (ed.), Singapore: Society in Transition , Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1976, pp. 339-347 Rodan, Garry, “Class Transformation and Political Tensions in Singapore’s Development”, in Richard Robison & David S.G. Goodman (eds), The New Rich in Asia: Mobile Phones, McDonalds and Middle-Class Revolution , London: Routledge, 1996, pp. 19-48 Rodan, Garry, “The Growth of Singapore’s Middle Class and its Political Significance”, in Garry Rodan (ed.), Singapore Changes Guard: Social, Political and Economic Directions in the 1990s , New York: St Martin’s Press, 1993, pp. 52-71 Rodan, Garry, "Preserving the One-Party State in Contemporary Singapore", in Ken Hewison, Richard Robison & Garry Rodan (eds), Southeast Asia in the 1990s: Authoritarianism, Democracy and Capitalism , St. Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1993, pp. 77-108 Seah, Chee Meow, “Parapolitical Institutions”, in Jon S.T. Quah, Chan Heng Chee & Seah Chee Meow (eds), Government and Politics of Singapore , Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1985, pp. 173-194 Siddique, Sharon, “Singaporean Identity”, in Kernial Singh Sandhu & Paul Wheatley (eds), Management of Success: The Moulding of Modern Singapore , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989, pp. 563-577 Soin, Kanwaljit, “National Policies: Their Impact on Women and the Family”, in AWARE, The Ties That Bind: In Search of the Modern Singapore Family , Singapore: Association of Women for Action and Research, 1996, p. 190- 208 Sonnet, Esther & Imelda Whelehan, “‘Freedom From’ or ‘Freedom To’... ? Contemporary Identities in Women's Magazines” in Mary Maynard & June Purvis (eds), (Hetero)Sexual Politics , London: Taylor & Francis, 1995, pp. 81-94 Suryadinata, L., “National Ideology and Nation-Building in Multi-Ethnic States: Lessons from Other Countries”, in Jon S.T. Quah (ed.), In Search of Singapore’s National Values , Singapore, The Institute of Policy Studies: Times Academic Press, 1990

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Tay, Mary W.J., “Language as a Mirror of Traditionalism and Modernization”, in Yong Mun Cheong (ed.), Asian Traditions and Modernization: Perspectives for Singapore , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1992, pp. 102-135 Tham, Seong Chee, “The Perception and Practice of Education”, in Kernial Singh Sandhu & Paul Wheatley (eds), Management of Success: The Moulding of Modern Singapore , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989, pp. 477-502 Thumboo, Edwin, “Self-Images: Contexts for Transformation”, in Kernial Singh Sandhu & Paul Wheatley (eds), Management of Success: The Moulding of Modern Singapore , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989, pp. 749- 768 Tong, Chee Kiong & Ann Pakir, “The Making of National Culture in Singapore”, in Edwin Thumboo (ed.), Cultures in Asean and the Twentiethy Century , Singapore: Unipress for NUS, 1996, pp. 174-218 Treneman, Ann, “Cashing in on the Curse: Advertising and the Menstrual Taboo”, in Lorraine Gammon & Margaret Marshment (eds), The Female Gaze: Women as Viewers of Popular Culture , London: Women’s Press, 1988, pp. 153-165 Ungar, Esta S., 'Law and Memory, de jure to de facto: Confucianization and its Implications for Family and Property in ' in Barry Hooker (ed.), Law and the Chinese in Southeast Asia , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2002, pp 65-94 Valdivia, Angharad N., “Feminist Media Studies in a Global Setting: Beyond Binary Contradictions and into Multicultural Spectrums”, in Angharad N. Valdivia (ed.), Feminism, Multiculturalism and the Media: Global Diversities , Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1995, pp. 7-29 Venkatesh, Alladi, “Gender Identity in the Indian Context: A Sociocultural Construction of the Female Consumer,’ in Janeen Arnold Costa (ed.) Gender Issues and Consumer Behavior , California: Sage Publications, 1994, pp. 41-62 Walkerdine, Valerie, “Some Day My Prince Will Come: Young Girls and the Preparation for Adolescent Sexuality”, in Angela McRobbie & Mica Nava (eds), Gender and Generation . London: Macmillan, 1984, pp. 162-184 Williamson, Judith, “Women is an Island: Femininity and Colonialization”, in Tania Modleski (ed.) Studies in Entertainment: Critical Approaches to Mass Culture , Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986, pp. 99-118

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Wilmot, W.E., “The Emergence of Nationalism”, in Kernial Singh Sandhu & Paul Wheatley (eds), Management of Success: The Moulding of Modern Singapore , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989, pp. 578- 598 Winship, Janice, “‘A Girl Needs to get Street-Wise’: Magazines for the 1980s”, in Rosemary Betterton (ed.), Looking On: Images of Femininity in the Visual Arts and Media , London: Pandora Press, 1987, pp. 127-141 Winship, Janice, “A Woman’s World: Woman - An Ideology of Femininity”, in Women’s Studies Group, Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham, Women Take Issue: Aspects of Women’s Subordination , London: Hutchinson, 1978, pp. 133-154 Winship, Janice, “Sexuality for Sale”, in Stuart Hall (ed.), Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in Cultural Studies, 1972- 1979 , London: Hutchinson, 1980, pp. 217-223 Wong, Aline K., “Women as a Minority Group”, in Hassan Riaz (ed.), Singapore: Society in Transition , Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1976, pp. 290-314 Yeo, Kim Wah & Albert Lau, “From Colonialism to Independence, 1945-1965”, in Ernest C.T. Chew & Edwin Lee (eds), A History of Singapore , Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. 117-153 Yong, Mun Cheong, “Singapore: The City State in History”, in Ban Kah Choon, Anne Pakir & Tong Chee Kiong (eds), Imagining Singapore , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1992, pp. 26-45 Yong, Mun Cheong, “Some Thoughts on Modernization and Race Relations in the of Singapore”, in Yong, Mun Cheong (ed.), Asian Tradition and Modernization: Perspectives from Singapore , Singapore: Times Academic Press for the Centre of Advanced Studies, 1992, pp. 56-77 Young, Shelagh, “Feminism and the Politics of Power: Whose Gaze is it Anyway?”, in Lorraine Gammon & Margaret Marshment (eds), The Female Gaze: Women as Viewers of Popular Culture , London: Women’s Press, 1988, pp. 173-188

Edited Books

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Allen, Sandra, Lee Sanders & Jan Wallis (eds), Conditions of Illusion: Papers from the Women’s Movement , Leeds: Feminist Books, 1974 Appadurai, Arjun (ed.), The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986 Baehr, Helen (ed.), Women and Media , Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1980 Ban, Kah Choon, Anne Pakir & Tong Chee Kiong (eds), Imagining Singapore , Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1992 Bennett, Tony, Colin Mercer & Janet Woollacott (eds), Popular Culture and Social Relations , Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1986 Betterton, Rosemary (ed.), Looking On: Images of Femininity in the Visual Arts and Media , London: Pandora Press, 1987 Braga-Blake M. & A Ebert-Oehlers (eds), Singapore Eurasians: Memories and Hopes , Singapore: Times Publishers for the Eurasian Association, 1991 Brunn, Ole, & Arne Kalland (eds), Asian Perceptions of Nature: a Critical Approach , Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1995. Chen, Peter S.J. & Hans Dieter Evers (eds), Studies in ASEAN Sociology: Urban Society and Social Change , Singapore: Chopmen Enterprises, 1978 Chew, Ernest C.T. & Edwin Lee (eds), A History of Singapore , Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1991 Christian, Barbara & Robert Snowden (eds), Patterns and Perceptions of Menstruation: a WHO International Collaborative Study , London: Croom Helm, 1983 Costa, Janeen Arnold (ed.), Gender Issues and Consumer Behavior , California: Sage Publications, 1994 Curran, James, Michael Gurevitch & Janet Woollacott (eds), Mass Communication and Society , Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1977 Davis, Howard & Paul Walton (eds), Language, Image, Media , Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983 De Cunha, Derek (ed.), Debating Singapore: Reflective Essays , Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1994 Evers, Hans Dieter (ed.), Modernization in South-East Asia , London: Oxford University Press, 1992 Evers, Hans Dieter (ed.), Sociology of South-East Asia: Readings on Social Change and Development , Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1980 Gaines, Jane & Charlotte Herzog (eds), Fabrications: Costume and the Female Body , New York: Routledge, 1990

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Gammon, Lorraine & Margaret Marshment (eds), The Female Gaze: Women as Viewers of Popular Culture , London: Women’s Press, 1988 Grazia, Victoria de & Ellen Furlough (eds), The Sex of Things: Gender and Comsumption in Historical Perspective , Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996 Gurevitch, Michael, Tony Bennett, James Curran & Janet Woollacott (eds), Culture, Society and the Media , London: Metheun, 1982 Hall, Stuart (ed.), Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in Cultural Studies, 1972- 1979 , London: Hutchinson, 1980 Harcourt, Wendy (ed.), Women@Internet: Creating New Cultures in Cyberspace, London: Zed Books, 1999 Hassan, Riaz (ed.), Singapore: Society in Transition , Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1976 Hefner, Robert W. (ed.), The Politics of Multiculturalism: Pluralism and Citizenship in Malaysia , Singapore and Indonesia, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 2001 Hewison, Kevin, Richard Robison & Garry Rodan (eds), Southeast Asia in the 1990s: Authoritarianism, Democracy and Capitalism , St Leonards, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 1993 Hosking, Geoffrey & George Schopflin (eds), Myths and Nationhood, New York: Routledge, 1997 Jacobs, Brian (ed.), The Leo Burnett Worldwide Advertising and Media Fact Book , Chicago: Triumph Books, 1994 Jaschok, M. & S. Miers (eds), Women and Chinese Patriarchy: Submission, Servitude and Escape , London: Hong Kong University Press, 1994 Jones, Steven G. (ed.), Cybersociety 2.0: Revisiting Computer-Mediated Communication and Society , Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1998 King, Josephine & Mary Stott (eds), Is this Your Life? Images of Women in the Media , London: Virago, 1977 Kuo, E. & A. Wong (eds), The Contemporary Family in Singapore , Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1979 Manca, Luigi & Alessandra (eds), Gender and Utopia in Advertising: a Critical Reader, Lisle, IL.: Procopian Press, 1994 McRobbie, Angela & Mica Nava (eds), Gender and Generation . London: Macmillan, 1984

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 Appendices

Appendix A Labour Force Participation Rate

YEAR TOTAL MALE FEMALE 1970 Census 55.3 81.2 28.2 1973 58.3 80.3 35.5 1974 57.7 78.4 37.1 1975 57.3 79.3 34.9 1976 57.6 78.5 36.4 1977 58.5 78.7 37.9 1978 60.0 79.8 40.1 1979 61.4 80.7 41.9 1980 Census 63.2 81.5 44.3 1981 63.0 81.1 44.8 1982 63.4 81.5 45.2 1983 63.8 81.6 45.7 1984 63.4 81.2 45.8 1985 62.2 79.9 44.9 1986 62.3 79.4 45.6 1987 62.7 78.6 47.0 1988 62.9 78.5 47.8 1989 63.1 78.6 48.4 1990 Census 63.2 77.5 48.8 1991 63.7 79.4 48.0 1992 63.9 79.4 48.6 1993 63.4 78.8 48.0 1994 63.8 79.2 48.6 1995 GHS 61.9 77.2 46.8 1996 64.1 78.7 49.9

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1997 63.7 78.2 49.5 1998 63.1 77.4 49.4 1999 64.1 77.8 50.7 2000 Census 63.2 76.6 50.2 2001 64.4 77.7 51.6 2002 63.6 77.2 50.6 2003 63.2 76.1 50.9 2004 63.3 75.7 51.3 2005 GHS 63.0 74.4 52.0 2006 65.0 76.2 54.3

Statistics taken from Singapore Department of Statistics, Accessed on 15 June 2007, http://www.singstat.gov.sg/keystats/hist/labour.html

Appendix B Important Government Campaigns

The Singaporean government has instituted numerous public education campaigns to encourage its citizens to be behave in a polite and hygienic manner. Campaigns have touched on the topics of spitting, littering, flushing public toilets, courtesy, keeping fit, teenage smoking, chewing gum and speaking Mandarin instead of dialects. Many campaigns have now become annual events. Some of the major campaigns relevant to my research, sometimes identified by their slogans, are listed below.

National Family Planning Campaign: “Stop at Two” (1966) – aimed at slowing down population growth Speak Mandarin Campaign (1979) National Family Planning Campaign: “Have three or more if you can afford to” (mid-1980s) – aimed at increasing population growth National Ideals and Identity Programme (1987) Courtesy Campaign (1993) Speak Good English Movement (2000)

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Singapore’s OK (2003) – personal and environmental hygiene at the outbreak of the SARS (Severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic

263