Global City Futures by Natalie Oswin;
Author:Natalie Oswin;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 2019-10-15T00:00:00+00:00
Thus, while the local colonial administration agreed that balancing the sex ratio and facilitating family formation were in Singaporeâs best developmental interests, it held firm in its position that prostitution was a necessity in the colony long after the home colonial office insisted on the closure of brothels because it held particular views on the ânatureâ of the colonized population. It disagreed with the imposition of, as Sir Roland Braddell puts it in the quote above, âmoral enthusiasmsâ from elsewhere in large part because it faced what it characterized as the âcuriousâ cultural âtraitsâ of the colonized.
As the largest colonized group, the various ethnic groups composing Singaporeâs Chinese community were the subjects of considerable scrutiny by the colonial administration. As noted above, it held that âthe Asiatic regards prostitution and sex generally on a different plane to that of an European,â and paid much attention to the purported proclivity toward prostitution among the Chinese community as a whole, and toward polygamy among that communityâs wealthier members. The local colonial administration regarded these proclivities as inherent and thus, as Philippa Levine states, its position that prostitution ought to be regulated rather than outlawed âlooked âbackâ to âlocalâ culture rather than âforwardâ to modernityââ (1999, 38).18 With the abolition of âknownâ brothels, the implementation of measures to balance the sex ratio, and the new emphasis on family formation of the late colonial period, however, the colonial administration began to concertedly push the colonized communities forward. In other words, the institution of a new heteronormative social frame in the late colonial period was at once a project of sexual propriety and one of racial uplift. Crucially, the colonial administration was not alone in this project. It found allies among elites within the colonized communities, most notably the Straits Chinese.19
The term âStraits Chineseâ refers to persons of Chinese heritage who were born in the Straits Settlements. Many men from within this community of English-educated persons of a mercantile class were closely tied to the colonial administration as local informants. For instance, Straits Chinese men composed the Chinese Advisory Board that directly reported to the colonial office of the Chinese Protectorate, and their most well respected members sat on the Legislative Council as âunofficialsâ (i.e., nominated members of the colonized community who acted as consultants for the colonial administration). Their efforts to fit into the project of colonial modernity were duly rewarded with the admiration of the colonial administration. The following declaration of this admiration, made by C. W. Darbishire on the event of the retirement of Tan Jiak Kim from his âunofficialâ position on the Legislative Council, demonstrates its depth:
The Chinese community bulks very largely in the life of these Settlements, and we who are in daily touch with the Chinese cannot fail to realize how overwhelmingly the welfare of these Settlements depends upon their goodwill and upon a mutual understanding. This goodwill, this understanding, this confidence in British rule which we have here is unhesitatingly granted to us, and we recognize that it
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