Back Cover Front Cover Inside Front Cover Inside Back Cover Cover photo credits: Chinatown, 1920, Lim Choo Sye Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore Gotong royong procession, Mrs. J. A. Bennett Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. Remittance letter by Liu Shi Zhao, Ref no 040002230, courtesy of the Koh Seow Chuan collection, National Library, Singapore. Chinese family in postwar Singapore, Ministry of Information and the Arts Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore Interest groups meeting the BMA, David Ng Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. Nanyang University, Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. acsep: knowledge for good i ACSEP The Asia Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy (ACSEP) is an academic research centre at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School, staffed by an international multidisciplinary research team. Formally established in April 2011, the Centre has embraced a geographic focus spanning 34 nations and special administrative regions across Asia. ACSEP aims to advance understanding and the impactful practice of social entrepreneurship and philanthropy in Asia through research and education. Its working papers are authored by academia and in-house researchers, who provide thought leadership and offer insights into key issues and concerns confronting socially driven organisations. Asia Centre for Social Entrepreneurship & Philanthropy (ACSEP), NUS Business School BIZ2 Building, #05-13 1 Business Link, Singapore 117592 Tel : +65 6516 5277 E-mail : [email protected] https://bschool.nus.edu.sg/acsep ii About the Author Yu-lin Ooi Yu-lin Ooi is Senior Research Consultant with the Asia Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy (ACSEP), documenting the journey of philanthropy in Singapore’s social history. In this paper she examines the evolution of giving in the grassroots community of Singapore in three consecutive periods in Singapore social history. These are firstly, the prewar era, when many in Singapore practiced giving in traditional ways (1919-1942), the second period is the Japanese Occupation of Singapore (1942-1945), and the final period is the era leading to nationhood (1945-1959). This paper was largely written using primary data from new interviews and translations of previously unexamined sources, such as remittance letters and oral histories. Yu-lin has a multi-disciplinary background, and works with written, visual, verbal and spatial data. Past work includes documentaries, exhibitions, and publications on Peranakan life. She studied History at the National University of Singapore, Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, and Media at Boston and Stanford Universities. Yu-lin has a particular interest in rediscovering the forgotten worlds of women in Singapore’s past, and with ACSEP has published “The Emergence of Chinese Women Philanthropists in Singapore, 1900-1945: The Sisterhoods of the Sor Hei,” and “Philanthropy in Transition: An Exploratory Study of Asian Women and Philanthropy in Singapore , 1900-1945.” Email: [email protected] iii Acknowledgements This paper could not have been written without the help of an extremely talented and insightful team of researchers. I would like to thank my excellent research team in the National University of Singapore - Chan Jia Hao, Bella Choo Su Leng, Bernice Yap Bei Yi, and Muhammad Firdaus BM Saharudin. Their work in three languages was key to interpreting long-buried documentation on grassroots giving. Special thanks also to Dr Frank Roeland Hubers here at ACSEP. I also gratefully acknowledge the work of Miss Ng Sin Yue, historian and Chinese scholar, who did a wonderful job not only of intrepreting the letters of Liu Shi Zhao from the original papers but also of providing understanding as to the historical context within which these letters were written. Her contribution as Cantonese translator during interviews was also invaluable. I would like to thank my extraordinary interviewees: “Mrs Chan,” and Mr Chan Peng Kwong, who shared their recollections with us, and also Ms Faris Tan, who made the interviews possible. Lastly, I owe June Hoo a great debt for her clarity and insight as my editor. ISBN: 978-981-11-9955-4 (e-book) ISBN: 978-981-11-9954-7 (paperback/softcover) © 2019 Yu-lin Ooi iv Executive Summary Aims of this Study fragmented and made up of a multiplicity of ethnic groups, just arriving from their original This paper is a first study of giving by ordinary homelands and bringing with them their people or the grassroots community in Singapore discrete cultures, world views, languages from 1919-1959. As there is a big gap in knowledge and beliefs. Thus there were highly varied about the lives of most people during this period, expressions of giving in Singapore throughout we set out to find answers to these questions: this period. • Who were some of Singapore’s grassroots 2. The period studied encompasses three givers? distinct, highly formative eras in Singapore’s • How did they give? Was it in money, or in social history; each recorded progress in the kind? journey of giving. • What were their motivations for giving? The three periods are: 1. 1919-1942: The prewar years. Challenges This was when migrants arrived in the largest numbers and remained The subjects of this study left behind few records. ethnically divided. As they settled Data from the prewar era is particularly lacking as down, they occasionally extended help the population was mobile, transient, and often across ethnic boundaries in response to illiterate. However we can still find their footprints major local disasters. Social obligations in caches of remittance letters, oral histories and dominated giving in kind and remittances, news reports of the day. with traditional practices and mindsets prevalent. Our main challenge 100 years later is to understand Singapore between 1919-1959 – not just to 2. 1942-1945: The Japanese Occupation. reconstruct literal living conditions, but also to learn This saw giving in extremis. Giving now more about these early settlers; most of whom crossed ethnic boundaries, with actions were new to the colony and brought with them ranging from providing a cup of water to different world views. Thus we tried to identify what the endangering of oneself for others. influenced them most, what were their obligations, and what value they placed on giving. 3. 1945-1959: Postwar reconstruction and the birth of nationhood. The result is a reconstruction of just some of the This period was a time of choice, when better-remembered expressions of giving. While those who survived the war decided this is only a partial retelling of the story, we hope it to leave or stay on in Singapore. The can pave the way to further studies. latter pulled together to rebuild the little island they now called “home.” The sense of “us” that emerged during the Understanding the Context: Japanese Occupation was beginning to Three Major Factors Influenced Giving crystallise into a national identity. Between 1919 And 1959 3. Giving over these three periods underwent 1. Giving was highly varied, mirroring the continual transformation and iteration. immense cultural and ethnic diversity of the Giving in money or kind by these early population. settlers often followed the traditional forms Unlike the people in today’s Singapore, the they knew, but as they put down roots, the population during our study period was population settled, and families were born, v we see adaptations creeping in - through life obligation to sustain the entire group’s well- in modernity, urban living, proximity to other being. This allowed the cycle of life to carry giving models. All pervasive was the influence of on. the British - from school syllabuses to the right to advocacy and the concept of each person Examples of such systems recreated with non- having rights. kin in Singapore include: ο Patriarchal-lineage derived systems like Key Findings clans, guilds, and associations ο Community collaboration via codes 1. Giving was a major part of life in Singapore’s such as Gotong Royong grassroots community before the Japanese ο Baweanese Pondok, a construct of fictive Occupation. This was based on traditional kinship based in common housing. Asian giving constructs, with philanthropy a subset of this. 3. Giving was inextricably linked with a A key finding of this data search over fifty person’s identity, interpreted through a years has uncovered the fact that giving was a framework of relationships. dominant feature of life in prewar Singapore, Using Marcel Mauss’ (1925) definition, we but it was not philanthropic, but obligatory. As suggest most of Singapore’s first migrants such we suggest that in the big picture, giving considered their primary identity to be “social has always been present in traditional Asian persons.” This meant they had an inalienable society, while philanthropy would come later, position and identity determined by the kinship as those with less income gained more savings. system to which they belonged. One would hold this identity from birth to death and it was 2. Giving and obligation were intertwined one’s position within the whole kinship group in prewar Asian grassroots society, with e.g., “eldest son.” Implicit as responsibilities “socially-obligated giving” dominating. This in these roles were codified obligations to occurred when kinship was the primary give and receive towards others in the kinship relational framework of life. group. Such obligations