Race and Multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore This book explores race and multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore from a range of different disciplinary perspectives, showing how race and multicultural- ism are represented, how multiculturalism works out in practice and how attitudes towards race and multiculturalism – and multicultural practices – have developed over time. Going beyond existing studies – which concentrate on the politics and public aspects of multiculturalism – this book burrows deeper into the cultural under- pinnings of multicultural politics; relating the subject to the theoretical angles of cultural studies and post-colonial theory and discussing a range of empirical examples (drawn from extensive original research, covering diverse practices such as films, weblogs, music subcultures, art, policy discourse, textbooks, novels, poetry) which demonstrate overall how the identity politics of race and intercultural interaction are being shaped today. It concentrates on two key Asian countries particularly noted for their rela- tively successful record in managing ethnic differences, at a time when many fast-developing Asian countries increasingly have to come to terms with cultural pluralism and migrant diversity. Daniel P.S. Goh is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the National University of Singapore. Matilda Gabrielpillai is Assistant Professor in Literature at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Philip Holden is Associate Professor of English Literature at the National University of Singapore. His latest book is Autobiography and Decolonization: Modernity, Masculinity, and the Nation-State (2008). Gaik Cheng Khoo is a Lecturer in Gender, Sexuality and Culture at the Australian National University. She recently published Reclaiming Adat: Contemporary Malaysian Film and Literature (2006). Routledge Malaysian Studies Series Published in association with Malaysian Social Science Association (MSSA) Series Editors: Mohammed Hazim Shah, University of Malaya, Shamsul A.B., University Kebangsaan Malaysia, Terence Gomez, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, Geneva The Routledge Malaysian Studies Series publishes high-quality scholarship that provides important new contributions to knowledge on Malaysia. It also signals research that spans comparative studies, involving the Malaysian experience with that of other nations. This series, initiated by the Malaysian Social Science Association (MSSA) to promote study of contemporary and historical issues in Malaysia, and designed to respond to the growing need to publish important research, also serves as a forum for debate on key issues in Malaysian society. As an academic series, it will be used to generate new theoretical debates in the social sciences and on processes of change in this society. The Routledge Malaysian Studies Series will cover a broad range of subjects including history, politics, economics, sociology, international relations, geogra- phy, business, education, religion, literature, culture and ethnicity. The series will encourage work adopting an interdisciplinary approach. 1 The State of Malaysia 4 Health Care in Malaysia Ethnicity, equity and reform The dynamics of provision, financ- Edited by Edmund Terence ing and access Gomez Edited by Chee Heng Leng and Simon Barraclough 2 Feminism and the Women’s Movement in Malaysia 5 Politics in Malaysia An unsung (r)evolution The Malay dimension Cecilia Ng, Maznah Mohamad and Edited by Edmund Terence tan beng hui Gomez 3 Governments and Markets in 6 Privatization in Malaysia East Asia Regulation, rent-seeking and policy The politics of economic crises failure Jungug Choi Jeff Tan 7 The State, Development and 8 Race and Multiculturalism in Identity in Multi-Ethnic Societies Malaysia and Singapore Ethnicity, equity and the nation Edited by Daniel P.S. Goh, Matilda Edited by Nicholas Tarling and Gabrielpillai, Philip Holden and Edmund Terence Gomez Gaik Cheng Khoo Frontispiece: Wong Hoy Cheong, Marriage of a rubber tapper to a girl dressed as the Virgin Mary in a school play (from the ‘Migrants’ series), 1994. Race and Multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore Edited by Daniel P.S. Goh, Matilda Gabrielpillai, Philip Holden and Gaik Cheng Khoo First published 2009 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. © 2009 selection and editorial matter, Daniel P.S. Goh, Matilda Gabrielpillai, Philip Holden and Gaik Cheng Khoo; individual chapters, the contributors. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Race and multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore / edited by Daniel P.S. Goh ... [et al.]. p. cm. — (Routledge Malaysian studies series) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Malaysia—Race relations. 2. Singapore—Race relations. 3. Cultural pluralism—Malaysia. 4. Cultural pluralism—Singapore. 5. Multiculturalism—Malaysia. 6. Multiculturalism—Singapore. I. Goh, Daniel P.S. DS595.R316 2009 305.89009595—dc22 2008047463 ISBN 0-203-87817-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 10: 0-415-48225-9 (hbk) ISBN 10: 0-203-87817-5 (ebk) ISBN 13: 978-0-415-48225-7 (hbk) ISBN 13: 978-0-203-87817-0 (ebk) Contents List of illustrations ix List of contributors x Preface xi List of abbreviations xiii Introduction: postcoloniality, race and multiculturalism 1 DANIEL P.S. GOH AND PHILIP HOLDEN PART I Postcolony and cosmopolis 17 1 A literary history of race: reading Singapore literature in English in an historical frame 19 PHILIP HOLDEN 2 Malaysian history textbooks and the discourse of ketuanan Melayu 36 HELEN TING 3 Eyes turned towards China: postcolonial mimicry, transcultural elitism and Singapore Chineseness 53 DANIEL P.S. GOH 4 Pick and mix for a global city: race and cosmopolitanism in Singapore 70 ANGELIA POON viii Contents 5 Makkal Sakthi: the Hindraf effect, race and postcolonial democracy in Malaysia 86 VIJAY DEVADAS PART II Representing race, performing multiculturalism 105 6 Reading the films of independent filmmaker Yasmin Ahmad: cosmopolitanism, Sufi Islam and Malay subjectivity 107 GAIK CHENG KHOO 7 Racial stereotypes in Singapore films: commercial value and critical possibilities 124 KENNETH PAUL TAN 8 The Singapore Indian woman: a symptom in the quest for Chinese identity 141 MATILDA GABRIELPILLAI 9 Deghettoizing subcultures: the multicultural evolution of Mat Rock in Singapore 157 KELLY FU SU YIN AND LIEW KAI KHIUN 10 Bhangra and the reconstruction of ‘Punjabi-ness’ in multiracial Singapore 173 CHARANPAL S. BAL 11 The art of race: rethinking Malaysian identity through the art of Wong Hoy Cheong 191 MICHELLE ANTOINETTE Conclusion: toward a critical multiculturalism 213 DANIEL P.S. GOH Bibliography 219 Index 236 Illustrations Figures FP Wong Hoy Cheong, Marriage of a rubber tapper to a girl dressed as the Virgin Mary in a school play (from the ‘Migrants’ series), 1994 iv 11.1 Wong Hoy Cheong, In Search of Faraway Places (from the ‘Migrants’ series), 1996 195 11.2 Wong Hoy Cheong, Some dreamt of Malaya, some dreamt of Great Britain (from the ‘Migrants’ series), 1994 198 11.3 Wong Hoy Cheong, Aspirations of the working class (from the ‘Migrants’ series), 1994 201 11.4 Wong Hoy Cheong, Text Tiles (installation view), 2000 204 11.5 Wong Hoy Cheong, Text Tiles (tile detail), 2000 205 11.6 Wong Hoy Cheong, Non-Indigenous Skins, 1998–2000 208 11.7 Wong Hoy Cheong, Indigenous Skins, 1999 209 Table 7.1 Racial stereotypes: four ideal-types 133 Contributors Michelle Antoinette is a researcher and lecturer in modern and contemporary Asian art, currently based at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. Charanpal S. Bal is a Master of Social Sciences (Sociology) graduate from the National University of Singapore. Vijay Devadas is Senior Lecturer of Media, Film and Communication at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Kelly Fu Su Yin is a doctoral student at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Matilda Gabrielpillai is Assistant Professor of English Literature at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Daniel P.S. Goh is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the National University of Singapore. Philip Holden is Associate Professor in English Language and Literature at the National University of Singapore. Gaik Cheng Khoo is Lecturer of Gender, Sexuality and Culture at the School of Humanities, Australian National University. Liew Kai Khiun is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. Angelia Poon is Assistant Professor of Literature at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Kenneth Paul Tan is Associate Professor and Assistant