(RE)CONSTRUCTING IDENTITIES: THE CASE OF CHINESE MUSLIMS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Multiculturalism in Singapore forms the basis of how its citizens are neatly categorized according to the four simplified racial categories — Chinese, Malay, Indian and Others (all other racial groups). Based on these categories, individuals are assumed to have one unchanging ethnic identity. Consequently, this has resulted in the essentialization of races through which racial groups are typically regarded as monolithic categories. This issue is further perpetuated by the problematic conflation of race and religion whereby the Chinese are often assumed as Buddhists or Taoists and the Malays as Muslims. While this may not pose problems to those who fit into one of the four categories, it presents various challenges to those who do not. These individuals include Chinese Muslims who find themselves caught in between such categories. In light of this, this thesis explores what it means to be a Chinese Muslim in Singapore and examines the negotiation and construction of ethnic identity amongst Chinese Muslims within a predominantly Malay-Muslim community. I also aim to examine how Chinese Muslims construct their identity as a religious minority vis-à-vis the majority Chinese ethnic group. Through this study, I hope to shed light on the other conceptions of what it means to be Chinese in Singapore and reconstruct the “common-sense” notions of Chineseness as often illustrated within the Singapore discourse.