6 - Singapore, Loyalty and Identity

Summary

In Song Ong Siang's One Hundred Years’ History of the Chinese in Singapore, the ambiguity of identity in the nineteenth century Baba (now more commonly called Peranakan) or Straits Chinese community as compared with the finely differentiated and multiple labels used by the newcomers from China was striking. But, as far as I can tell, both groups of Chinese experienced uncertainty when it came to more modern ideas of loyalty. There were questions like, how should they show loyalty to an emerging sense of nation in China as compared with local British authority? Which had priority? Could they put their cultural heritage, customs and practices and family priorities above the calls to support race-and-nation salvation? What should they do when different parties fighting for power in Republican China asked for their allegiance?

When I was invited to talk about identity and loyalty in Singapore, I knew that the National Library did not expect a lecture to do justice to a topic that would need volumes to cover. They wanted to draw attention to it and have someone open up a discussion on how it might be perceived today. I am content to do just that. For decades, I have struggled off and on with aspects of Chinese identity in China and among Chinese overseas. In 1985, I went beyond the safety of history to explore recent perspectives and hosted a conference at the Australian National University on “Changing identities of the Southeast Asian Chinese since World War II”. That made me even more aware how difficult it is to pin down the concept of identity in a world that was changing fast during the twentieth century.

Here I shall share with you some of my ideas about identity. It is foolhardy of me to do this in front of an audience of Singaporeans. I am conscious that I am not telling you anything new about this city-state but hope that you will find it interesting to hear my efforts to understand the subject. What is new for me is to try and connect identity with loyalty. I believe that identity precedes loyalty. It can clarify what one is to be loyal to.