MARRIAGE AND MODERNITY: CHINESE MARRIAGE REFORM IN COLONIAL SINGAPORE

Abstract

Numerous scholars have examined Chinese marriages in Singapore in both the legal and sociological spheres. However, they have either been focused on legal proceedings and judgments, or anthropological studies of Chinese marriage customs and rituals. This thesis contributes to the literature of Chinese marriages in Singapore from the beginning of the twentieth century to the Women’s Charter in 1961, which represented the end of customary Chinese marriage and the beginning of compulsory registration of marriages. This thesis examines what legitimised Chinese marriages for different groups in society, and how this criteria changed over time. It also studies how changes in China and ideas of modernisation influenced evolving conceptions of marriage in Singapore, and thus changed the criteria of validity as well. The British were concerned with Chinese marriages only because of legal disputes; their definition of marriage was influenced by British sentiments and did not incorporate Chinese customs. The general social opinions of Chinese marriage were dictated by the Straits Chinese and the Chinese community; they were influenced by ideas of modernisation, and were compelled to reinvent the idea of marriage and marriage customs to fit the times.