ARI Working Paper Series

Since the 1970s, Singapore and Malaysia have witnessed a revival of interest in what is termed peranakan, baba or Straits Chinese culture and society. Definitions of what these terms mean and what specific ‘identities’ they refer to, however, continue to be contested. The aim of this essay is to address and throw new light on this question by investigating the thinking and activities of leading Straits Chinese in Singapore during a period often referred to as the ‘golden age’ of peranakan or baba cultural life.

Through an examination of the city’s function as a global entrepot, the first part of this discussion addresses the impact of diasporic networks of migration and commerce on identity formation and examines the ways in which local Chinese elites negotiated the arrival of newcomers. The second part of this essay focuses on Singapore’s function as an ideological emporium after 1870 and on the networks of information exchange and debate created by the Straits Chinese elite.

It argues that Straits Chinese leaders sought to construct a plural identity reconcilable with a modern ‘international’ age and reflecting their concern to maintain a dual cultural allegiance: both towards Britain and its global empire and towards a modernizing mainland China. In the process, certain Straits Chinese played a crucial and much neglected role as publicists in the diffusion of Confucian revival and, ultimately, overseas Chinese nationalism.