Heart 3 and 'wing', nation and diaspora: Gendered discourses in Singapore's régionalisation process

Abstract

In this article the authors offer an analysis of Singapore's state-vaunted 'go-regional' polity as a case study to illustrate the argument that not only are the 'nation-state' and 'diaspora' structurally interdependent and embedded in the discursive ame of each other, but also that the way they interlock is shaped by particular gender ideologies and relations. In the same way as the state articulates nationalism by appealing to men and women as gendered subjects, the appropriation of transnational space as part of the régionalisation drive semes to extend and elaborate 'genderic modes of discourse'. Beyond state discourse, the authors examine individual and family strategies in straddling the gap between 'nation' and 'diaspora', between being at 'home' and 'away'. In arguing that the 'go-regional' polity is a pervasively masculine construction, the authors give specific attention to the way gender divisions of labour are transnationalised and further entrenched, the gendering of diasporic workplaces, and the construction ofwomen-in-diaspora as 'moral wives'. The arguments are grounded mainly in research material garnered om in-depth interviews with Singaporean economic migrants (and non-migrants) to China. © 1999 Taylor & Francis Ltd.