Chinese-Educated Intellectuals in Singapore: Marginality, Memory and Modernity

In: Asian journal of social science, Band 29, Heft 3, S. 495-519

Abstract

AbstractThis paper will first provide a historical and sociological overview of the "Chinese community" and the "Chinese-educated" in Singapore, after which I shall turn to the personal experience of marginalization on the part of older Chinese-educated intellectuals. I then focus on the social memory of Nanyang University as a means in which such marginalization is contested. In conclusion, I highlight the efforts of younger Chinese-educated intellectuals in responding to the condition of marginality by taking on contemporary issues, rather than by refighting old battles, in effect returning Chinese-language discourse to issues of modernity - this time set in a radically changed environment from that of earlier decades.