Managing the complexities of race: Eurasians, classification and mixed racial identities in Singapore

Abstract

This paper explores the structuring of Singapore’s race classification system, and how Eurasians fit into and work around the Chinese–Malay–Indian–Other (CMIO) framework in everyday life. Racial and ethnic identities and classifications play a prominent role in Singapore, a lingering legacy of colonial population management, and a quotidian part of life for Singaporeans of all backgrounds. Race in Singapore is not an abstract category for analysis, but a highly visible and externally categorised aspect of identity, with significant practical outcomes. The paper examines how Eurasians navigate racial identities over time, and what happens when the system overlooks complex identities. Drawing out how understandings of race, ethnicity and belonging inflect what it means to be Eurasian, this paper utilises a series of 30 life story interviews which illuminate how Eurasian has become a simultaneously mixed and singular form of ethnic identity. Issues of classification and mis-classification come to the fore, as well as the perception of a hierarchy of races which belong to the nation. The idea of an overarching national identity as ‘just Singaporean’ is also explored, looking at how individuals see the future of the CMIO system, and ways in which the country can move beyond race.