In his novel: SEASONS OF DARKNESS
(Published 1993)the Author says:
Singapore has been transformed into a Sino Society
Many disagreed/chided Author Wilfred Hamilton-Shimmen for what they claimed was his: erroneous, inaccurate imagination... Because, they said: Singapore is multi-racial...
BUT THE AUTHOR SAYS THIS IS A FALLACY
What KIND of multiraciality does Singapore have?
Is it one where the overwhelming majority tolerates OTHERS so long as the OTHERS accept status quo put in-place by the overwhelming MAJORITY...?
Today no one (local-born, expatriate or newcomer), questions, asks otherwise, or even realises this island-republic was anything other than what the Author contends it has become.
Because it is fiat acompli:
Singapore is now transformed into a Chinese-island which practises olden Chinese cultural traits brought in by early Chinese immigrants but which traits today, no longer are practised in mainland China...
There are too Golden Opportunities solely for Singapore-born ethnic-Chinese, also for ethnic-Chinese from mainland China, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, United States, United Kingdom and Europe.
Singapore has become fairy-godmotherland for ethnic-Chinese from abroad. Here their wildest dreams can come True !!! An ethnic-Chinese from abroad, (in Singapore) can become a movie/TV star, TV personality, Deejay, Journalist, etc., etc. WHEREAS, in their own countries they would not stand a ghost of a chance...nor even dream of making it in showbiz! (They DON'T even NEED TO SPEAK THE Mandarin 'Mother-Tongue' because there will be arrangements (special classes) where they can learn!!!). [Would they still be acceptable if they spoke the other Mother-Tongues: Malay, Tamil or Singapore's bastardised pidgen singlish ???].
In Singapore-produced English language films,
again, it is ethnic-Chinese who are the actors!!! And ethnic-Chinese from around
the region and beyond flock here to 'make it'.
What happened???.
What is in store for the Eurasian, Malay, Indian, Pakistani Singapore-borns??? Wouldn't they too be important COGS OF SINGAPORE"S CULTURAL LANDSCAPE??? Where, except in Singapore, that a bastardised pidgen-english is DECKED in officially-approved RECOGNITION and acclaimed an acceptable FORM...?
Would China or India or even Britain accept poor ungrammatical and poor-in-syntax of their respective languages, written or spoken ???
The current history of Singapore, widely-told, has not only been given an inaccurate Sino Slant, it also contains overwhelmingly inaccurate history about the so-called early ancient Chinese-influence and the dramatic role Chinese newcomers to early-British Singapore up to the Japanese Occupation of Singapore in World War Two played...
What is the actual truth?
Before pre-British history
Singapore first was Malay (and was Malay when Muslim Ming admiral Cheng Ho visited
Hindu Parameswara in Malacca in the 1400s). From 1511 it was Portuguese, then
Dutch, finally British in 1819. In early Singapore (British) beginnings, this
island was under British Penang's jurisdiction. British Penang, Malacca and
Singapore were governed by the British Supreme Government at Calcutta.*
Early pre-British Singapore
ONLY HAD some 100 Orang Laut or Sea People indigenous. Early British Singapore-arrivals
in 1819 (since its founding) were:
From Malacca: Malacca-born Malays, Portuguese-Descendants, (who had over 300 years' experience of civil service in Portuguese & Dutch administrations), Baba/Nynonya Chinese-Malay mixed (peranakans) and Hindu Indian-Malay mixed (peranakans).
From India: Indian sepoys from Calcutta & Madras, as well as India-born Portuguese, British, Dutch, and Portuguese/Dutch/British Eurasians.
From Java & Sumatra: European Dutch and The Malays-born Dutch, Dutch Eurasians and the indigenous Melayu, Javanese, Sumatrans, Bawaenese, etc., etc.
From Indochina: Indochina-born French, French Eurasians, Vietnamese, Cambodians,etc.
From China: Male Chinese** (who were all coolies)
All these people came to abandoned, practically-deserted Singapore (which had been sacked and laid waste by the Hindu Majapahit of Java in the 13th century) .
Early British Singapore:
Trade-flow was Indiawards and included trade in The Malays (mainland and archipelagic
southeast Asia). European adventurers were British, Dutch, French as well as
old hands Portuguese (since olden times). The Portuguese were very much wanted
for their familiariaty and knowledge not only of India and The Malays but also
because they had Macau in Canton as their colony, where other Europeans (who
had no opportunity to set up base in China) had the unique opportunity to learn
about China at free port Macau.
The 1819s:
The early Chinese to newly-colonised Singapore were all males and were smuggled
from China via Portuguese Macau by unscrupulous traders, mainly Chinese, as
well as shady Europeans out for an easy buck. Formosa (Taiwan today) was a Japanese
colony since early 1800s which was named the Japanese: Taihoku (which reads
Taiwan in Chinese script). The early China-born Chinese, desperate, penniless,
fled to Singapore to escape poverty, imperial tyrannical demands and Chinese
warlords. They came in slave-like bondage to shippers who brought them out,
discharging them ashore in pigs'-baskets. These early Chinese of newly-British-colonised
Singapore were keen to make good...before returning to China, hopefully prosperous...
But what we have now is a re-telling of this history which hides truth by romanticising the past with an officially-approved version that pleases Chinese sensibilities,leaving out what actually was before, and how much Others had contributed.
It begs the QUESTION:
IS SINGAPORE REALITY
synonymous with Alice Through The LOOKING GLASS ?
Within Singapore everything makes sense, it appears absurd when one is
without.
* (Seasons of Darkness circa: 1993:
On 21st October 1943 the (Japanese) Domei Agency reported that a 'Provisional
Government of Free India' had been formed at Singapore, with (Subhas Chandra)
Bose as its political and military head...
** Anecdotal History of Singapore circa 1837:
Up to this time no Chinese woman had ever come to Singapore from China.......(Chinese
males in Singapore, if they married, did so with local-born Malay women, if
at all. Ethnic-Chinese, (some rose to prominence),at this period, were married
to Malay women, and were born of Malay mothers.