BEING ASIAN : IDENTITY AND SELF INTEREST

Abstract

This thesis is an attempt to understand how some Singaporeans come to perceive themselves as being 'Asian'. At a broader level, this study aims to gain a deeper insight into the relationship between culture and politics. Empirically, it is shown that there are people in the streets who subscribe to the 'Asian' identity. This is problematic. Charging that the State has utilised culture as an ideological lever to influence political worldviews, critics of the State will no doubt explain such people who identify themselves as 'Asians' have been ideologically influenced. Alternatively, the State can argue that an 'Asian' culture really exists. Such empirical evidence does not help us to understand this phenomenon as it makes the case for both sides. This thesis takes on a more agency-based approach towards the issue. To explain the fact that people who identify being Asians are 'ideologically influenced' is tautological and simplistic. This is for the simple reason that social actors are not passive beings but thinking, reactive individuals. Hence, this HT explains the phenomenon by analytically linking 'Asian-ness' to the self-conception of the individual at an ideational level, specifically looking at why the 'Asian' identity appeals to the individual amongst his other social identities. It will then proceed to demonstrate the rationalisation of ‘Asian-ness' at an 'operationalised' level in everyday life. The thrust of the argument is that such identification often benefits the actors in the first place. In the final analysis, this thesis will demonstrate the dialectical relationship between the 'micro' social actor and the 'macro' structure of the State. It will do so by examining the currency of adopting such ideological lever for the State. This thesis will conclude by drawing the wider implications for the State utilising the Culturalist approach.