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Abstract
In combination with their strategy to recruit foreign talent, Singaporean state authorities have increasingly focused their attention on community integration schemes for Chinese professional newcomers. The government facilitated such integration with the creation of the Kowloon Club in 1990. The Kowloon Club is not only a government experiment that has been repeated three times since then, but also the only new migrant association that does not explicitly target Mainlanders. Through in-depth interviews with the Club’s leadership, I explore the ethnic adaptation of the Kowloon Club membership as it negotiates the evolving sense of Chineseness found in state designs and Singaporean society. Much like the emergence of the 1997 Hong Kongese identity, the Kowloon Club’s activities have shifted in strong reaction to the racialized category put forth by state authorities and embodied by Mainlander professionals in that the Club’s activities now symbolize and help patrol what Chineseness means as everyday performance in the city-state.
Acknowledgements
Thanks are also due to Judith Nagata and two anonymous reviewers of this journal for comments received on a previous version of this work. The views expressed should not be attributed to anyone other than the author.
Notes
1. Chua, “Being Chinese,” 240. In light of Beng Huat Chua’s argument, it is important to mention that speaking of ‘Chineseness’ in the context of Singapore has linguistic limitations in English, as it does not reflect the distinction between a China-centric definition and the local Huaren, as portrayed in Mandarin.
2. Chua, “Being Chinese,” 240–5, 248; Reid, “Escaping Burdens,” 285; and Rudolph, Reconstructing Identities, 9–12.
3. Gomes, “Xenophobia Online,” 31–2 and Kin, “Implications of Modern Education,” 246.
4. Montsion, “Talent Meets Mobility,” 470–3.
5. Liu, “New Migrants,” 291–316.
6. Gabriel, “Migrations of Chineseness,” 123.
7. Souchou, “Being Essentially Chinese,” 261.
8. Reid, “Escaping Burdens,” 285–8 and Yeoh, Contesting Space, 1–7.
9. Channel News Asia. “ICA to Develop Double-Barrelled Race Options.” Accessed May 31, 2013. http://news.xin.msn.com/en/singapore/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4548400; Chua, “Being Chinese,” 240; Reid, “Escaping Burdens,” 286; and Rudolph, Reconstructing Identities, 9–12. Still well anchored in its multiracial framework, recent changes to the system include a recognition of the Eurasian race as well as the possibility for Singaporeans to declare one primary and one secondary race.
10. Chua, “Being Chinese,” 248–9 and Gomes, “Xenophobia Online,” 22.
11. Cho, “Diasporic Citizenship,” 474; Knowles, “Seeing Race,” 519; and Wickberg, “Global Chinese Migrants,”178.
12. Ang, “No to Chineseness,” 227 and Chow, “Introduction,” 6–10.
13. Ang, “Not to Chineseness,” 224; Siu, “Ethnicity in Globalization,” 47; Wang, “Chinese History,” 202–3; and Wickberg, “Global Chinese Migrants,” 183.
14. Souchou, “Being Essentially Chinese,” 258.
15. Ang, “No to Chineseness,” 229–30; Bhattacharya, “Chinese Nationalism Reinforced,” 120; and Siu, “Ethnicity in Globalization,” 47.
16. Nyiri, Mobility and Cultural Authority, 54.
17. Reid, “Chineseness Unbound,” 199.
18. Kuah-Pearce, “Politics of Clan Associations,” 59 and Souchou, “Being Essentially Chinese,” 258–9.
19. Souchou, “Being Essentially Chinese,” 259.
20. Mauzy and Milne, Singapore Politics, 106–9; Pan, Encyclopedia of Overseas Chinese, 114; and Tan, “Change and Continuity,” 42–3.
21. Chow, “Between Colonizers,” 12–3; Wee and Wah, “Ethnicity and Capital,” 337; and Yeoh et al., “Introduction,” 210.
22. Bokhorst-Heng, “Language Ideological Debates,” 243–54; Chua and Yeo, “Singapore Cinema,” 123; Lau, “Nation-Building,” 225; Montsion, “Chinese Ethnicities,” 7–9; Pan, Encyclopedia of Overseas Chinese, 209; Tan, “Re-Engaging Chineseness, 754–5; and Teo, “Mandarinising Singapore,” 129–32.
23. Chua, “Being Chinese,” 246–7; Montsion, “Chinese Ethnicities,” 8–10; Souchou, “Being Essentially Chinese,” 257; and Yeoh and Tan, “Negotiating Cosmopolitanism,” 146–68.
24. Pan, Encyclopedia of Overseas Chinese, 213.
25. Kin, “Implications of Modern Education,” 229; Kopnina, “Cultural Hybrids,” 249–53; Kuah-Pearce, “Politics of Clan Assocations,” 57; Lau, “Nation-Building,” 224–9; and Suryadinata, Understanding the Ethnic Chinese, 21.
26. Kong and Yeoh, Politics of Landscapes, 30–46.
27. Stockwell, “Forging Malaysia and Singapore,” 213.
28. Chow, “Introduction,” 6.
29. Kin, “Implications of Modern Education,” 246.
30. Rahim, Singapore Dilemma, 128–33.
31. Abhijit, “How Many Indians, Chinese, Malays and People of Other Races in Singapore’s Total Population?” Pressrun.net (blog), Accessed June 1, 2013. http://www.pressrun.net/weblog/2010/07/how-many-indians-chinese-malays-and-people-from-other-races-in-singapores-total-population.html; Department of Statistics, “Population Trends 2012,” 3; and Gopalan Nair, “Singapore: State Sanctioned Racial Discrimination.” Singapore Dissident (blog). Accessed June 1, 2013. http://singaporedissident.blogspot.ca/2011/06/singapore-state-sanctioned-racial.html.
32. Kong and Yeoh, Politics of Landscapes, 32–6.
33. Kuah-Pearce, “Politics of Clan Associations,” 61.
34. See note 5 above.
35. Interview with Bella, 27 February 2008.
36. Kuah-Pearce and Hu-Dehart, “Chinese Diaspora,” 14–20 and Rahman and Kiong, “Integration Policy in Singapore.”
37. Stockwell, “Forging Malaysia and Singapore,” 212.
38. Chua, “Being Chinese,” 248–9.
39. Suryadinata, Understanding the Ethnic Chinese, 21.
40. Sinn, “Xin Xi Guxiang,” 375–6 and Wah and Wee, “Ethnicity and Capital,” 330.
41. Interview with Matt, 20 February 2008.
42. Ibid.
43. Bhattacharya, “Chinese Nationalism Reinforced,” 124; Lan, “Negotiating Boundaries,” 709; and Wickberg, “Global Chinese Migrants,” 183.
44. Bun, “Family Affair,” 195 and Interview with Bella, 27 February 2008.
45. Interview with Matt, 20 February 2008.
46. Kowloon Club. “About Us.” Accessed 31 May 2013. http://www.kowloonclub.org.sg/about_us.html.
47. Kowloon Club. “Activities.” Accessed 31 May 2013. http://www.kowloonclub.org.sg/activities.html.
48. Participant observation at Kowloon Club Annual Gala Dinner, 2 March 2008.
49. Interview with Brock, 15 March 2008 and Participant observation at Kowloon Club Annual Gala Dinner, 2 March 2008.
50. Interview with Matt, 20 March 2008.
51. Interview with Matt, 20 February 2008.
52. Montsion, “Everyday International Relations,” 938–9 and Ng, “Migrant Women,” 105–6. In the context of Singapore, study mamas refer to mothers moving to the city-state to support their child’s studies. These children are being recruited as part of Singapore’s emphasis on international education to meet its labour needs.
53. Interview with Harry, 8 March 2008 and Interview with Matt, 20 March 2008.
54. Interview with Bella, 27 February 2008.
55. Lan, “Negotiating Boundaries,” 711.
56. Interview with Brock, 15 March 2008.
57. Interview with Matt, 20 March 2008.
58. Interview with Brock, 15 March 2008.
59. Lin, “Hong Kong and Globalization,” 71; Lo, “Look Who's Talking,” 168; and Wong, “Going Back,” 157.
60. Participant observation at Kowloon Club Annual Gala Dinner, 2 March 2008.
61. Interview with Matt, 20 March 2008.
62. Lan, “Negotiating Boundaries,” 713–4.
63. Interview with Matt, 20 March 2008.
64. Lan, “Negotiating Boundaries,” 714–5; Lau, “Context, Agency,” 601; and Wong, “Going Back,” 154–7.
65. Interview with Oscar, 17 March 2008.
66. Chua, “Being Chinese,” 248–9; Gomes, “Xenophobia Online,” 22; and Lan, “Negotiating Boundaries,” 710.
67. Interview with Matt, 20 March 2008.
68. Interview with Oscar, 17 March 2008.
69. Chow, “Between Colonizers,” 158; Lan, “Negotiating Boundaries,” 710; and Lin, “Hong Kong and Globalization,” 71.
70. Lo, “Look Who’s Talking,” 168 and Wong, “Going Back,” 154.
71. Bhattacharya, “Chinese Nationalism Reinforced,” 124 and Wickberg, “Global Chinese Migrants,” 193.
72. Interview with Matt, 20 February 2008.
73. Interview with Matt, 20 March 2008.
74. Interview with Matt, 20 February 2008.
75. Lau, “Context, Agency,” 601 and Wong, “Going Back,” 157.
76. Interview with Matt, 20 March 2008.
77. Ibid.
78. Souchou, “Being Essentially Chinese,” 529.
79. Interview with Matt, 20 March 2008.
80. Lan, “Negotiating Boundaries,” 720 and Lo, “Look Who’s Talking,” 168.
81. Chang, “Hong Kong Viscera,” 385.
82. Ibid., 384–8.
83. Chow, “Me and the Dragon,” 550.
84. Chan, “Food, Memories,” 207; Chow and de Kloet, “Blowing the China Wind,” 59; Enri, “Who Needs Strangers,” 79–83; and Wong, “Going Back,” 147–54.
85. Chow, “Between Colonizers,” 13.
86. Interview with Matt, 20 March 2008.
87. See note 19 above.
88. Kong and Yeoh, Politics of Landscapes, 210–1.
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Notes on contributors
Jean Michel Montsion
Jean Michel Montsion is an assistant professor of International Studies at Glendon College, York University in Toronto, Canada. His research focuses on the intersection between ethnicity, mobility and community politics in gateway cities. He has published in Citizenship Studies, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Ethnic and Racial Studies and Pacific Affairs.