“Sports is Politics”: Swimming (and) Pools in Postcolonial Singapore

Almost immediately after Singapore’s independence in 1965, sports became an agent of social engineering in the creation of the new nation, and the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) government pragmatically used the institution of sports in its nation-building enterprise. Based on an analysis of the speeches and press statements of Singaporean bureaucrats and civil servants from the 1960s to the 1980s, this article investigates the ruling elite’s general perception of sports and regional sporting events, examining how such a perception influenced Singapore’s local governance and strategic thinking in foreign relations. Although scholars have pointed out that sports were prominent in the nationalistic discourses of Singapore and in the projection of Singapore’s international image, little about the history and development of individual sports in Singapore is known. The article argues that swimming was the premier sport of choice for Singapore’s ruling elite in its projects of building bodies and the nation after independence, manifested in the swimming pools that the nascent nation strove to build in the residential estates outside the “colonial stronghold” of the central town district.     

论新加坡民族国家创建的基础

新加坡民族国家的创建有着曲折的历程和独自的特色,这源于开埠后新加坡的社会发展特征.20世纪20年代以后,新加坡逐渐由移民社会向普通社会过渡,建立现代民族国家已成为其历史发展的内在要求.新加坡社会由三大族群构成,各族群在职业、文化、传统等方面有着很大的区别,族群关系复杂.因为商业与贸易的发展,到1900年时新加坡已经具备了现代化城市的多个特征,商业城市使新加坡社会具有较高的理性;英国的殖民统治给新加坡留下了法治精神、有限责任政府和文官制度等殖民遗产,使得新加坡具有"强国家"的潜质;地狭人多、经济模式单一、族群关系复杂,这些因素增加了新加坡民族国家创建的艰巨性.     

Exhibiting Cultures: Singapore’s Asian Civilisations Museum

Museums occupy many roles which are influenced by wider circumstances and changing conditions. This study deals with the case of Singapore’s Asian Civilisations Museum and the manner in which it is used to promote nation building in a multi‐ethnic and relatively newly independent state. In addition, it serves a political purpose and acts as an economic resource. The Asian Civilisations Museum illustrates some of the recent trends affecting the museum sector as a whole and also the particular challenges facing such institutions in a country like Singapore with its many distinctive qualities.     

Editorial-Heritage Challenges in the New Century

The paper considers the case of Raffles Hotel in Singapore which has been the subject of a conservation project with a significant element of redevelopment. The circumstances are discussed within the context of heritage tourism in colonial cities and changing approaches to conservation in Singapore. Built colonial heritage exhibits a symbolism which affects how it is presented and interpreted, serving as a tool for nation building and as a tourist attraction. Policies about conservation and use are influenced by these alternative and often contested meanings, while economic imperatives may demand that buildings generate revenue. Raffles Hotel illustrates the difficulties involved in managing and marketing colonial heritage and securing an acceptable balance between commercial and conservation objectives, with possibilities for confusion as a consequence of the combination of restoration, reconstruction and new building techniques employed.The case has a wider relevance which extends to other forms of built heritage around the world and highlights the dilemmas facing those making decisions about how to present the conserved past as a contemporary tourist space.     

Not everyone has ‘maids’: class differentials in the elusive quest for work-life balance

Work–life balance has come to the fore in Singapore as in other countries. Debates have focused on uneven gendered burdens. Less attention has been paid to the ways in which class matters in shaping outcomes for women. In this article, I argue that the work-care regime in Singapore is one that generates uneven consequences for women along class lines. The historical legacy of eugenics-influenced pronatalism, the pursuit of a corporation-centric development, the persistent reticence toward universal provisions and corresponding preference for ‘private’ solutions to care create a context in which women in low-income households have an especially hard time balancing wage work and familial responsibilities. The individualization and marketization of household needs, in Singapore and elsewhere, obscure the circumstances, needs, and well-being of women in lower class circumstances, and undermine the value of housework and care labor.     

上海会议产业国际竞争力评价的实证研究

本文研究国际会议产业竞争力评价指标体系的构建。本文通过问卷调查和专家意见对评价体系的各构成指标的重要性进行打分,运用因子分析法调整国际会议产业竞争力评价指标体系框架,并确定适用的评价指标体系。同时,通过对亚洲上海、新加坡、香港三大城市的实证研究以验证这一指标体系的适用性,指出上海目前在发展国际会议产业过程中还存在的差距。     

Archives and Heritage in Singapore: The Development of ‘Reflections at Bukit Chandu’, a World War II Interpretive Centre

On 15 February 2002 a new World War II interpretive centre was opened in Singapore. A colonial bungalow was redeveloped by the National Archives of Singapore to commemorate the Malay Regiment and particularly the officers and soldiers who made a heroic stand against Japanese forces in one of the last battles before the fall of Singapore. This centre, Reflections at Bukit Chandu, has significance in terms of local heritage development, public memory of war, national education initiatives, and also in relation to the changing role of archives in Singapore. This paper serves as an exploration of this heritage site and uses this as a starting point for considering public history in Singapore and importantly a new direction for the National Archives of Singapore, as it played the key role in developing this site.     

Remembering Lee Kuan Yew: politics,heritage and political heritage in Singapore

The paper discusses issues of political heritage and the commemoration of notable figures within the context of the small city state of Singapore, a former British colony which celebrated 50 years of full independence in 2015. Particular reference is made to Mr Lee Kuan Yew, hailed as the founding father of the modern republic, who also died that year. Heritage overall is shown to occupy an important place in official nation building efforts, including political heritage dominated by the narrative of the success of the government formed by the party created and led by Mr Lee. Approaches to remembering the man and his legacy are considered, focusing on debate about turning his home into a memorial and possibly a national monument. The case confirms the generally observed manner in which formal depictions of political heritage, encompassing stories of influential individuals, are inextricably tied to contemporary politics. It also reveals the particular challenges of heritage management in Singapore arising from its history and official endeavours to shape public and private memories.     

Is price most important? Healthcare tourism in Southeast Asia

ABSTRACT

Healthcare tourism is a general term for traveling to another country to seek healthcare services. It spread from Western countries to emerging Southeast Asian nations in the past decade because of a series of factors. Price is likely considered as one of the important factors among most healthcare tourism providers and politicians. However, healthcare tourists tend to consider more before making a decision. According to some early studies, healthcare quality, package, convenience, country, price, emotional value, and social value were frequently considered factors. To examine the role of these factors, this study proposes a structural model to investigate the relationship of the perceived value, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions of three Southeast Asian countries, namely Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. A sample of size 724 is collected at the Departure Hall of the Singapore Changi International Airport within a two-month period, using a systematic random sampling method, in which every third tourist who pass the surveyor is asked to fill in the questionnaire. All of the questionnaires handed out on a given day referred to the same country, and the three different countries are rotated on different days. All factors are significant and it is found that the two most important factors are functional value of healthcare quality and emotional value. Price is a significant but the least important factor. This indicates that cheaper price may be just a promotional gimmick or an obvious incentive, but it is not the main driving force for healthcare tourists to make their decisions. The results also provide empirical support that emphasis on perceived value of healthcare tourism may also translate into trust in the staff and other positive feelings. It is further found that the impact of perceived value on behavioral intentions is mediated by satisfaction for all three countries.     

Creative shifts and directions

The availability and “readiness” of culture as a mode of governmental control makes cultural policy a matter of great importance in any contemporary society. This is true not only in liberal democracies with established arts councils or cultural policies, it is also proactively pursued by a technologically advanced yet illiberal regime like Singapore, eager to position itself as the global “Renaissance City” of the twenty‐first century. What this “renaissance” model entails remains highly cryptic, not least because cultural terms and political markers are often elusive, but also because the very concept of “cultural policy” shifts along with the political and economic tides in Singapore. Drawing on a rarely cited essay by Raymond Williams, this article offers an historical look at cultural policy in Singapore – from its first articulation in 1978 to its present standing under the rubric of “creative industries” (2002). It considers some of the problems encountered and the societal changes made to accommodate Singapore’s new creative direction, all for the sake of ensuring Singapore’s continued economic dynamism. This article contends that cultural policy in Singapore now involves extracting creative energies – and economies – out of each loosely termed “creative worker” by heralding the economic potential of the arts, media, culture and the creative sectors, but concomitantly marking boundaries of political exchange. In this regard, culture in Singapore has become more than ever a site for governmentality and control.     

史料、方法、理论——谈马新中文源流“华人研究”主体的建立

从史学的视角为切入点,通过史料、方法、理论三个层面对马新中文源流“华人学”主体性建构可能性的探讨,得出结论,由于在研究方法和理论上的严重不足和匮乏,马新“华人学”的未来,只有在史料的发掘和解读的基础上,方能进一步发展自身的方法和理论。     

分层融合视角下族群融合的弥合机制研究——以新加坡华族为例

在“沙拉碗”式融合理念下,新加坡华族内部存在的诸多融合裂痕,也使华族新成员面临融合困境。论文借鉴分层融合理论中的弥合思路,分析了新加坡社会中的制度性、组织性及互惠网络弥合机制及成效,总结了新加坡华族新移民的融合模式,探讨了其中政府政策与社会接纳间的关系以及亚文化的形成。     

Generative spaces of gender and feminist geography in Singapore: entanglements of the personal and political

Abstract

While geographers’ work in Southeast Asia has yet to engage substantively with theoretical developments in gender/feminist studies generated by Anglo-American academic centers, we argue that Singapore has proven to be somewhat of an exception. Focusing on the National University of Singapore, this article discusses how the development of gender and feminist geography in Singapore has benefitted from being able to engage with international debates in feminism through the country’s and NUS’ internationalization efforts, and working in the English language. Using the notion of generative spaces, we highlight first, the importance of using our teaching to engage in feminist activism to encourage feminist change in the classroom, as well as within our immediate communities and further afield; and second, the nascent yet significant contributions of feminist geographers based in Singapore to feminist theorization from and about the Global South.     

Exploiting Sino-US Geostrategic Competition: The View from Seoul and Singapore

The mainstream literature on weak status quo states’ diplomacy tends to identify their regional security roles in terms of dealing with non-traditional security issues. This article argues that such a limited approach is not sufficient to explain the current security dynamics in the Asia-Pacific. This article reviews the literature on weak status quo states’ influence on regional order. It then identifies a security environment in which they are more likely to exert some impact on maintaining and building a regional order. After contextualising these discussions in the Asia-Pacific setting, the article examines the experience of South Korea and Singapore as secondary powers in the East Asian region. Although both countries enjoy high levels of security cooperation with the US, both have also been able to exercise a certain amount of influence in advancing their own geostrategic interests amidst the growing Sino-US geostrategic competition. Yet their exploitation of Sino-US geostrategic competition is neither a simple balancing strategy against China nor a simple bandwagoning with the US, since both South Korea and Singapore have been increasing bilateral and multilateral security cooperation with China.     

Port cities and hinterlands: A comparative study of Singapore and Calcutta

This paper analyses the evolution of Singapore and Calcutta from colonial port cities to a post-colonial city-state and a city within a state, respectively. It will examine how the historical trajectories of these cities were determined and complicated by their maritime character and evolving relations with their respective hinterlands. Singapore had a fluid (literally and metaphorically) hinterland and its economic, social and cultural orientations were defined by the maritime trade that it conducted and the networks that were developed as a result of its commercial activities. The modern state of Singapore, which embraces the world as its ‘hinterland’, remains in essence a port city – subjected to global flows, multi-cultural influences and fully integrated with and dependent on regional and global commercial networks. Calcutta's position as port city, too, grew out of empire and imperial trade, but unlike Singapore, it had a clearly defined and dominant hinterland – Bengal. Its identity as a Bengali city is therefore unmistakable and it clearly shares in the strengths and weaknesses of its immediate social, economic and political hinterland, especially in its post-colonial incarnation, when it shifted from being an imperial city to a regional city.     

新加坡构建和谐社会的几点成功经验

新加坡之所以能够在全国范围内成功构建和谐社会,主要得益于他们牢牢抓住了如下几个重要的环节:始终把民族和睦作为构建和谐社会的文化基础,把防微杜渐作为构建和谐社会的制度保证,把奖优济困作为构建和谐社会的政策导向,把保护环境作为构建和谐社会的外在动因,从而保证了国家经济的持续发展和社会的文明和谐。新加坡在构建和谐社会方面的许多做法和经验,值得我们去认真研究和思考。     

商学教育与新加坡华人经济的近代化转型

论文以第二次世界大战前新加坡华人社会中的商学教育活动为例,梳理商学教育的发展状况,并探讨了近代海外华人经济的近代化转型问题。研究显示:在近代欧美商业冲击与中国民族主义影响下,商学教育在新加坡华人社会悄然兴起,逐渐改变传统华商家族式或学徒制的商业知识传递模式。以中小学和补习学校为主的学校商学教育与以报刊杂志、国货展览会等形式进行的社会商学教育,成为第二次世界大战前新加坡华人社会商学教育的主要新形态。商学教育不仅是当地华校新式教育发展的重要内容,也是当地华人经济近代化转型的重要组成部分。     

America's Role in the Five Power Defence Arrangements: Anglo-American Power Transition in South-East Asia, 1967–1971

Prior to 1971, Britain played a key role in the security of Malaysia and Singapore, especially during the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960) and Konfrontasi (1963–1966). Britain's military withdrawal from the east of Suez beginning from 1968 not only became a catalyst for post-colonial development of Malaysia and Singapore, but also pushed them towards America's security umbrella. Negotiations to replace the Anglo-Malaysian Defence Agreement with a new defence arrangement were fraught with pussyfooting on the part of British, Australian and New Zealand leaders. The Malaysian and Singapore defence ministers were divided and contributed to further foot dragging. By the time the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) were signed by the five nations in November 1971, collective defence among the signatories had devolved to mere consultation. By analysing the obstacles encountered during the negotiations and American influence on the shape of the FPDA, this paper demonstrates that a power transition that had been set in motion after Second World War was completed by 1971 when British strategic influence in South-East Asia gave way to American dominance.     

环南海区域跨境航空网络空间结构演化

本研究收集2000、2010、2018年环南海区域各国家/地区间国际机场的跨境客运、货运航线和航班数目,探究近20年该区域跨境航空客运和货运网络的整体结构与空间格局演化特征,并综合客运和货运网络分析枢纽机场体系演化。研究发现：①该区域跨境航空网络的整体结构具有覆盖范围扩大、“小世界”效应明显和“无标度”特征显著的特点,但客、货运网络的演化存在差异。②该区域跨境航空客运网络具有明显的轴—辐组织结构特征,并呈现“多核心化”的演化趋势,而货运网络中以香港、新加坡为枢纽的轴—辐组织结构与局部性的“点—点”航空货运联系并存,尚未形成全局性的轴—辐组织结构。③该区域的区域客、货运枢纽机场发展呈现综合化、专业化趋势,香港（HKG）和新加坡（SIN）长期以来保持优势地位。     

Disguised anti-colonialism: Protest against the White Australia Policy in Malaya and Singapore, 1947–1962

A manifestation of the anti-colonialist sentiment in Malaya and Singapore during the post-war period of decolonisation was the vociferous protest against the White Australia Policy. Australia's restrictive immigration policy was seen as an offensive colour bar, similar to the various racial restrictions that British authorities placed on their colonial subjects, which symbolised white dominance. By protesting against the White Australia Policy, the colonial subjects of the British in Malaya and Singapore were indirectly attacking white colonial rule in Southeast Asia. Antagonism towards the White Australia Policy became less vocal as Malaya and Singapore proceeded towards self-government and independence, when many of the colonial colour bars were removed. However, low-key resentment against what was seen as a symbol of white colonialism still persisted in relations with Australia.