Manoeuvring the middle ground: Social mobility and the renegotiation of gender and family obligations among Chinese Singaporeans

Abstract

The article examines Singaporeans' experiences of upward social mobility and how traditional gender roles within the family are renegotiated and reinterpreted in Singapore. When the former British colony gained independence in 1965 its post-colonial government embarked on an ambitious modernization programme, under which villages were demolished and residents relocated to new high-rise estates, farmland gave way to factories, the education system was reformed, and women entered the workforce. The transformation has been accompanied by a rapid upward social mobility, whereby Singaporeans born in the midst of the transformation, in the period 1960s – 1980s, lived remarkably different lives compared with preceding generations. The article is an ethnographic analysis of how Singaporean middle-class women and men, who have experienced rapid upward social mobility, handle and negotiate changing expectations regarding gender and intergenerational support. The analytical framework is constructed around the concepts of social mobility, modernity, and spaces of contestation and negotiation. The ethnographic data illuminate how traditional family values, such as filial piety, are contested and renegotiated. The data also show how social mobility intersects with other forms of mobility, such as the spatial movement involved in urbanization. Women entering the labour force have to spend their days away from home and can no longer fully attend to their elderly family members and/or young children. However, spatial movement in the sense of increased access to transportation and communication has also enabled members of extended families to maintain their ‘urban kinship network’ without having to live together.

Keywords:

• family obligations
• gender
• modernity
• Singapore
• social mobility

Notes

1 The transcriptions of the taped interviews have been lightly edited for readability.

2 The relation between modernity and postmodernity is a matter of dispute over whether postmodernity is just a continuation of modernity or a fundamentally new phase (Haferkamp & Smelser 1992).

3 Oxford Dictionaries http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/middle-ground?q=middle+ground (accessed October 2012).

4 The early villages in Singapore were often dominated by a particular ethnic group and the villagers’ ethnicity was reflected in the architectural style of their village (National Archives of Singapore 1993). However, since 1989 ethnic residential segregation has been counteracted through a quota system that limits the percentage of each ethnic group in public housing estates.

5 Bukit Brown Cemetery, established in the 19th century, contains the burials of many famous Chinese pioneers, but in 2011 the Land Transport Authority announced that a portion of the cemetery would be removed to make way for a new highway.

6 English was prescribed as the medium of instruction in all schools under the national education reform in 1979.

7 The quote is from the homepage of the Vertical Kampong initiative: http://www.verticalkampong.org (accessed 18 June 2013).