Singapore

Singapore
Author: Michael D. Barr
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2018-12-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 178673527X

Singapore gained independence in 1965, a city-state in a world of nation-states. Yet its long and complex history reaches much farther back. Blending modernity and tradition, ideologies and ethnicities, a peculiar set of factors make Singapore what it is today. In this thematic study of the island nation, Michael D. Barr proposes a new approach to understand this development. From the pre-colonial period through to the modern day, he traces the idea, the politics and the geography of Singapore over five centuries of rich history. In doing so he rejects the official narrative of the so-called 'Singapore Story'. Drawing on in-depth archival work and oral histories, Singapore: A Modern History is a work both for students of the country's history and politics, but also for any reader seeking to engage with this enigmatic and vastly successful nation.

Lion City

Lion City
Author: Jeevan Vasagar
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2022-03-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1643139355

A compelling, illuminating and evocative history of Singapore—the world's most successful city-state. In 1965, Singapore's GDP per capita was on a par with Jordan. Now it has outstripped Japan. After the Second World War and a sudden rupture with newly formed Malaysia, Singapore found itself independent - and facing a crisis. It took the bloody-minded determination and vision of Lee Kuan Yew, its founding premier, to take a small island of diverse ethnic groups with a fragile economy and hostile neighbours and meld it into Asia's first globalised city. Lion City examines the different faces of Singaporean life - from education and health to art, politics and demographic challenges - and reveals how in just half a century, Lee forged a country with a buoyant economy and distinctive identity. It explores the darker side of how this was achieved too; through authoritarian control that led to it being dubbed 'Disneyland with the death penalty'. Jeevan Vasagar, former Singapore correspondent for the Financial Times, masterfully takes us through the intricate history, present and future of this unique diamond-shaped island one degree north of the equator, where new and old have remained connected. Lion City is a personal, insightful and definitive guide to the city, and how its extraordinary rise is shaping East Asia and the rest of the world.

A History of Modern Singapore, 1819-2005

A History of Modern Singapore, 1819-2005
Author: C.M. Turnbull
Publisher: NUS Press
Total Pages: 490
Release: 2009-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9971694301

When C.M. Turnbull's A History of Singapore, 1819-1975 appeared in 1977, it quickly achieved recognition as the definitive history of Singapore. A second edition published in 1989 brought the story up to the elections held in 1988. In this fully revised edition, rewritten to take into account recent scholarship on Singapore, the author has added a chapter on Goh Chok Tong's premiership (1990-2004) and the transition to a government headed by Lee Hsien Loong. The book now ends in 2005, when the Republic of Singapore celebrated its 40th anniversary as an independent nation. Major changes occurred in the 1990s as the generation of leaders that oversaw the transition from a colony to independence stepped aside in favour of a younger generation of leaders. Their task was to shape a course that sustained the economic growth and social stability achieved by their predecessors, and they would be tested towards the end of the decade when Southeast Asia experienced a severe financial crisis. Many modern studies on Singapore focus on current affairs or very recent events and pay a great deal of attention to Singapore's successful transition from the developing to the developed world. However, younger historians are increasingly interested in other aspects of the country's past, particularly social and cultural issues. A History of Modern Singapore, 1819-2005 provides a solid foundation and an overarching framework for this research, surveying Singapore's trajectory from a small British port to a major trading and financial hub within the British Empire and finally to the modern city state that Singapore became after gaining independence in 1965.

The Asian Modern

The Asian Modern
Author: C.J.W.-L. Wee
Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2007-10-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9789622098596

How does one comprehend the phenomenon of the modernization of an Asian society in a globalized East Asian context? With this opening question, the author proceeds to give an account of how the modernization processes for postcolonial societies in Asia, such as those of India, Malaysia, and Singapore, are fraught with collaborations and conflicts between different socio-political, historical, economic, and cultural agents. Such ambivalent dynamics contribute to what Wee argues as a 'revealing distortion' of the extant models of Western modernity, which is nonetheless rooted in the politics of worldwide capitalism. Wee's narrative refuses to accept the uncritical interpretation of the modernizing processes in Asia as liberation from the hegemony of Euro-American capitalism. But neither is Wee prepared to concede that all cultural initiatives in the postcolonial societies are, therefore, denied all power to devise alternative forms of expression in the face of this haunting presence. It is the persistent effort to see the many faces of modernization in Asia in their full complexity that sets this study apart. Readers will discover that what seems to be the modernization of a single geopolitical entity is inevitably linked to the dynamics of various agents in other locations at different times, which makes us reflect on the existence of the many 'distortions' in our societies.

The Management Of Success

The Management Of Success
Author: Kernial Singh Sandhu
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 1040
Release: 2019-06-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000303217

A collection of analytical reflections on how the island of Singapore has been transformed from a colony in a crumbling empire into a thriving, modern, secular, independent republic. These are the results of a five-year project by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

Intersections, Innovations, Institutions: A Reader In Singapore Modern Art

Intersections, Innovations, Institutions: A Reader In Singapore Modern Art
Author: Jeffrey Say
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 561
Release: 2022-09-29
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9811261210

Intersections, Innovations, Institutions: A Reader in Singapore Modern Art is the second of two volumes of readers which the editors had published on Singapore art. The first volume, Histories, Practices, Interventions: A Reader in Singapore Contemporary Art, was published in 2016. Like the first volume, Intersections, Innovations, Institutions brings together historically important writings but the scope is on modern artistic practices in Singapore from the 19th century to the 1980s. The aim of this book is to make these writings accessible for research and scholarship and for new histories and narratives to be constructed about the modern in Singapore art.Bundle set: A Reader in Singapore Modern and Contemporary ArtRelated Link(s)

War Memory and the Making of Modern Malaysia and Singapore

War Memory and the Making of Modern Malaysia and Singapore
Author: Karl Hack
Publisher: NUS Press
Total Pages: 478
Release: 2012-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9971695995

Singapore fell to Japan on 15 February 1942. Within days, the Japanese had massacred thousands of Chinese civilians, and taken prisoner more than 100,000 British, Australian and Indian soldiers. A resistance movement formed in Malaya's jungle-covered mountains, but the vast majority could do little other than resign themselves to life under Japanese rule. The Occupation would last three and a half years, until the return of the British in September 1945. How is this period remembered? And how have individuals, communities, and states shaped and reshaped memories in the postwar era? The book response to these questions, presenting answers that use the words of Chinese, Malays, Indians, Eurasians, British and Australians who personally experienced the war years. The authors guide readers through many forms of memory: from the soaring pillars of Singapore's Civilian War Memorial, to traditional Chinese cemeteries in Malaysia; and from families left bereft by Japanese massacres, to the young women who flocked to the Japanese-sponsored Indian National Army, dreaming of a march on Delhi. This volume provides a forum for previously marginalized and self-censored voices, using the stories they relate to reflect on the nature of conflict and memory. They also offer a deeper understanding of the searing transit from wartime occupation to post-war decolonization and the moulding of postcolonial states and identities.

Singapore and Asia - Celebrating Globalisation and an Emerging Post-Modern Asian Civilisation

Singapore and Asia - Celebrating Globalisation and an Emerging Post-Modern Asian Civilisation
Author: Thiow Kong Ti
Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2014-04-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1482890011

Singapore and Asia- Celebrating Globalisation and an Emerging Post-modern Asian Civilisation TK Ti and Edward SE Ti This book examines the history of the global economy and how cultural values have empowered the rapid emergence of Singapore and East Asia. A review of the major world civilizations recounts Western hegemony since the 16th century. With legacies from Classical Mediterranean, Islamic Abbasid and Christian scholasticism, Western civilization created the modern world, pushing the borders of techno-science, rule of law, democracy and human rights. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the greatest impact of global modernization has been in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong Singapore and China. These East Asian countries all share a Confucian heritage of hard work ethics, thrift, love of learning and respect for benign authority. Although democracy has had a lukewarm reception, there has been whole-hearted embrace of techno-science and the globalized economy. Singapore, a miniscule island state fighting for survival following its expulsion from Malaysia in 1965, showcases how uninterrupted innovative governance and modernization has created an efficient, livable and global port-city, top financial center and host to the worlds largest conglomerate of Multinational Corporations. There is expectation that current research investment would transform Singapore into a mature knowledge economy. In addition to Singapores openness and welcome of global talents and workers, committed governance has achieved rule of law, control of crime and corruption, meritocracy in political and public appointments, trade union support, and racial and religious harmony. Social support, which continues to be enhanced, is not by way of hand-outs but as subsidies in education, healthcare, and home ownership. In the 1970s and 1980s, Asian values was proposed to be driving the emergence of Japan and the Asian tigers. With the current awesome rise of China challenging the world order, it seems prudent to resume the conversation.

Churchill and the Lion City

Churchill and the Lion City
Author: Brian Farrell
Publisher: NUS Press
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2011-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9971695650

British imperialism helped shaped the modern world order. This same imperialism created modern Singapore, controlling its colonial development and influencing its post-colonial orientation. Winston Churchill was British imperialism's most significant twentieth century statesman. He never visited Singapore, but his story and that of the city-state are deeply intertwined. Singapore became a symbol of British imperial power in Asia to Churchill, while Singaporeans came to see him as symbolizing that power. The fall of Singapore to Japanese conquest in 1942 was a low point in Churchill's war leadership, one he forever labeled by calling it 'the worst disaster in British military history.' It was also a tragedy for Singapore, ushering in three years of harsh military occupation. But the interplay between these three historical forces, Churchill, Empire, and Singapore, extended well beyond this dramatic conjuncture. The Last Lion and the Lion City provides a critical examination of that longer interplay through an analysis of Churchill's understanding of empire, his perceptions of Singapore and its imperial role, his direction of affairs regarding Singapore and the Empire, his influence on the subsequent relationship between Britain and Singapore.

The Binding Tie

The Binding Tie
Author: Kristina Göransson
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2009-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 082486462X

Since gaining independence in 1965, Singapore has become the most trade-intensive economy in the world and the richest country in Southeast Asia. This transformation has been accompanied by the emergence of a deep generational divide. More complex than simple disparities of education or changes in income and consumption patterns, this growing gulf encompasses language, religion, and social memory. The Binding Tie explores how expectations and obligations between generations are being challenged, reworked, and reaffirmed in the face of far-reaching societal change. The family remains a pivotal feature of Singaporean society and the primary unit of support. The author focuses on the middle generation, caught between elderly parents who grew up speaking dialect and their own children who speak English and Mandarin. In analyzing the forces that bind these generations together, she deploys the idea of an intergenerational "contract," which serves as a metaphor for customary obligations and expectations. She convincingly examines the many different levels at which the contract operates within Singaporean families and offers striking examples of the meaningful ways in which intergenerational support and transactions are performed, resisted, and renegotiated. Her rich material, drawn from ethnographic fieldwork among middle-class Chinese, provides insights into the complex interplay of fragmenting and integrating forces. The Binding Tie makes a critical contribution to the study of intergenerational relations in modern, rapidly changing societies and conveys a vivid and nuanced picture of the challenges Singaporean families face in today’s hypermodern world. It will be of interest to researchers and students in a range of fields, including anthropology, sociology, Asian studies, demography, development studies, and family studies.