Consuming Femininity: NationNation----sssstate,tate, 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 Australia 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 2 Abstract My research seeks to understand ways in which English-educated Chinese women in cosmopolitan Singapore 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 Her World 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 government-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. 3 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 Meritocracy: 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 5 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women Chapter Five How to Live Your Life ––– Women’s Magazines and the Generation of Meaning ............................................................................................ 158 5.1 Using English Language ........................................................................................................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 6 Consuming Femininity: Wendy Chew Nation-state, Gender and Singaporean Chinese Women 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 democracy. 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 politics. 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,