This essay attempts to achieve a re-examination of the British role in the move to expel the People's Action Party of Singapore from the Socialist International in 1976. It seeks to contextualise the dispute between t... more abstractThis essay attempts to achieve a re-examination of the British role in the move to expel the People's Action Party of Singapore from the Socialist International in 1976. It seeks to contextualise the dispute between the PAP and the British Labour Party in 1976 within a wider (and larger) discourse of Labour concern for perceived violations of civil rights in Singapore and a growing sense of disillusionment within the Singapore government towards the British for what was seen as an increasingly irresponsible direction in foreign policy. It therefore highlights the difficulties faced by Her Majesty's Government in coming to terms with both the Labour Party and the Singapore government, and in so doing offers a clarifying revision of existing narratives in Singapore history that have for too long been content with inaccuracies in terms of how the British role in all of this has been portrayed.

Labour history, Singapore History, History of the British Labour Party, British Labour Party, Lee Kuan Yew, and 2 more

Location: http://dx.doi.org/10.3828/lhr.2015.3

More Info: 80:1 (2015), pp. 63-90.

Journal Name: Labour History Review

Publication Date: Apr 2015

This paper seeks to take a closer look at the relative motivations of the Overseas Chinese students from Malaya and Singapore who chose to seek out higher education in China during the 1950s. With the benefit of the 2... more abstractThis paper seeks to take a closer look at the relative motivations of the Overseas Chinese students from Malaya and Singapore who chose to seek out higher education in China during the 1950s. With the benefit of the 2012-2013 releases at the National Archives of the United Kingdom of the FCO 141: Colonial Administration Records (Migrated Files), evidence can be found to construct a specific case-study of six young female qiaosheng who attempted unsuccessfully to go to China in 1951. With a close-study of this case study and analysis of its implications, this paper demonstrates the inherent dichotomy between the concerns of the qiaosheng over Chinese education opportunities and facilities in Malaya and Singapore, and the colonial governments’ fixation instead on pre-existing assumptions of Overseas Chinese susceptibility to propaganda and patriotic appeals from New China. This divergence between the expressed motivations of these qiaosheng themselves and the mainstream of colonial thought suggests therefore, that in the end, analyses of the qiaosheng by the colonial establishment were coloured by policy and perspectives that had already underestimated the nuances and influence of the broader local concern over the prospects and provisions for the future of Chinese education in Singapore and Malaya.

Chinese Studies, History of Education, Modern Chinese History, Overseas Chinese, Singapore History, and 4 more

More Info: 2:2 (Winter 2013), pp. 1-20.

Publisher: ISSN: 2224-2716

Journal Name: Quarterly Journal of Chinese Studies

In this paper we explore the possibilities of harnessing the imaginative qualities of Graphic Design as part of the historian's craft. In so doing we argue for a re-think of conventionalism(s) regarding the nature and... more abstractIn this paper we explore the possibilities of harnessing the imaginative qualities of Graphic Design as part of the historian's craft. In so doing we argue for a re-think of conventionalism(s) regarding the nature and function of Design, suggesting further that when Design is represented in roles beyond just problem-solving, it can open up new avenues of discussion, thought and critique. In this particular instance we use a certain facet of Singapore history—the actual declaration of independence in August 1963—as a case study to explore (just) how Design contributes to the historian's engagement with (and indeed, contribution to) discourse.

Historiography, Graphic Design, Interdisciplinary History, Singapore History, and Singapore Graphic Design

More Info: Co-authored with Randy Yeo

Journal Name: The Design Society Journal (#06)

Publication Date: Mar 2013

This paper is an attempt to contribute to the Military History of Singapore through a deliberate and focused critique of the existing historiography of a specific event in Singapore’s martial past—namely, the refusal ... more abstractThis paper is an attempt to contribute to the Military History of Singapore through a deliberate and focused critique of the existing historiography of a specific event in Singapore’s martial past—namely, the refusal of the Malay States Guides regiment to obey their deployment orders in 1914. It demonstrates the sweeping historical inaccuracies of existing historical narratives through the critical analysis of existing and available primary evidence, further explaining the prominence of such narratives in the light of British imperial rationalisations that allowed, if not enabled, such narratives to assume a position of accuracy in historical discourse. In so doing, this paper asserts an especial epistemological importance in terms of its implications on the practice of ‘subaltern’ histories, arguing that its imputed subalternity demonstrates one way of answering the historical problem of essentialism in ‘subaltern’ histories.

British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), Modern Indian History, Subaltern Studies, Singapore History, and Colonial Singapore

Publication Date: Dec 2011

Publication Name: The Military History Digital Journal (Historia Militar Revista Digital)

This paper is a study of the vacillations in Overseas Chinese policy (or, qiaowu) in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) during the Great Leap Forward’s (GLF) early years in 1957-1959. This paper argues that the PRC’... more abstractThis paper is a study of the vacillations in Overseas Chinese policy (or, qiaowu) in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) during the Great Leap Forward’s (GLF) early years in 1957-1959. This paper argues that the PRC’s Overseas Chinese policies during the early GLF can be divided between three moments, which in themselves represent the key turning points in the discourse, development and—ultimately—determination of Overseas Chinese policy in the PRC at that time. Examining each of these three moments in turn, this paper offers a critical analysis of the ways in which Overseas Chinese policy (and policymakers) unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate with, before ultimately conforming to, the radicalisation of Chinese politics consequent to Chairman Mao Zedong’s pushing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ever leftwards after 1957. With the benefit of a wide variety of historical evidence (both published and archival), this paper is able to identify the precise processes by which Overseas Chinese policy moved away from its traditional function as an exercise in political economy, and became increasingly subordinate to the larger agenda of the GLF, and the ideological conformity of Mao Zedong Thought.

Cold War, Modern Chinese History, Overseas Chinese, Mao Zedong, and Chinese Communist Party

Location: 2016 GWU/UCSB/LSE Graduate Student Conference on the Cold War

Conference End Date: Apr 24, 2016

Conference Start Date: Apr 21, 2016

With the benefit of previously unused or unavailable archival evidence—especially from the archives of the colonial internal security apparatus—this paper offers new research findings on two specific historical questi... more abstractWith the benefit of previously unused or unavailable archival evidence—especially from the archives of the colonial internal security apparatus—this paper offers new research findings on two specific historical questions related to Tan Kah Kee. The first question is to do with the circumstances underlying his departure from Singapore in 1950; and the second is to do with the (recent) revisionist argument that Tan Kah Kee tried to escape from China in 1954 and 1957. With the benefit of archival evidence, this paper offers a very clear answer to both questions. Firstly, and contrary to conventional narratives, the archival evidence is unequivocal in demonstrating that Tan was not forced out of Singapore, but chose instead to return to New China. Secondly, and contrary to the revisionism of the 'New Biography of Tan Kah Kee', Singapore Special Branch documents (now held in the archives of the Internal Security Department) raise serious doubts about the veracity of claims that Tan had tried—and failed—to escape from a radicalising China in the later 1950s.

Singapore, Modern Chinese History, Overseas Chinese, and Tan Kah Kee

Location: The 6th International Conference of Institutes & Libraries for Chinese Overseas Studies: ‘Overseas Chinese in Contemporary Asia’ (Huaqiao University, Xiamen)

Conference End Date: Oct 18, 2015

Conference Start Date: Oct 15, 2015

This paper is an attempt to argue for a re-centring of the historical discourse on the bases and development of Overseas Chinese policy (qiaowu) in the early years of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), 1948-1952. T... more abstractThis paper is an attempt to argue for a re-centring of the historical discourse on the bases and development of Overseas Chinese policy (qiaowu) in the early years of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), 1948-1952. This paper argues that qiaowu was and should be chiefly understood, first and foremost, as political economy. Historiography on qiaowu has tended towards divergence, more than anything else, in terms of explaining its driving forces. Mainstream Chinese historiography—both that emanating from official Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sources and from Chinese historians—has tended to interpret qiaowu as an exercise in state-sponsored benevolence towards a patriotic diaspora. Western interpretations on the other hand, range from Cold War orthodoxy characterising the CCP’s qiaowu as state-led exploitation, to an ineffective ‘muddling through,’ to assessments of ‘national interest’ vis-à-vis the Overseas Chinese, and—more recently—to more specific ideas of the economic utility of the Overseas Chinese and qiaowu. This paper, while in broad agreement with the idea of the primacy of economics in understanding qiaowu, argues that the interpretation must go in even further to consider also the dynamics, discourse and development of qiaowu in the PRC. This paper will first show that economics was indeed the primary reason for the united front and the democratic coalition government for the PRC in 1949—which were the precise means, by which the Overseas Chinese were included in New China. But moving further, this paper also shows that qiaowu thereafter took a strong position at the heart of strategic economic perspectives at the highest echelons of PRC government, and it necessitated political structures and policies—even if ideologically counter-intuitive—to achieve those very priorities.

Modern Chinese History, Overseas Chinese, Chinese Communist Party, and Political Economy and History

Location: ‘Economic encounters in the age of ideology: New research on the role of Foreign Trade during the Cold War (1949-1991)’, LSE IDEAS, London School of Economics & Political Science

Conference End Date: May 8, 2015

Conference Start Date: May 7, 2015