TRAVEL, LANGUAGE AND NATIONAL IDENTITY AMONG YOUNG SINGAPOREANS

Abstract

Young Singaporeans have, on occasions what they have travelled to their 'ancestral homelands', experiences that bring forth perceptions of difference between themselves and the people who live in their ancestral homelands'. It is therefore the aim of this study to find out how, having been socialized into their respective ethnic identities and a broader national identity, such experiences enhance or weaken their sense of national identity in relation to their ethnic identities. Since language is regarded as an important emblem of group identity, how language becomes a contentious issue in the formation of a Singaporean national identity also examined. Qualitative data was obtained through in-depth, probing interviews with fifteen key informants between the ages of eighteen and twenty-eight (young adults born after 1965) who have travelled to their 'ancestral homelands'. The findings indicate that the wide me of English and the diversity of languages have become die de facto symbols of a Singaporean national identity. However, because the 'mother tongue' is also regarded as a powerful symbol of ethnic identity, die visits to the 'ancestral homeland' have also led to differential reinforcement of national identities. This is the result of the state's uneven success in the homogenization of the different ethnic groups, u well u power disparities between die different 'mother tongues'.