Singapore Stories: Language, Class, and the Chinese of Singapore, ...

Among the Straits-born Chinese, the inability to converse fluently in the Chinese languages rendered them highly visible. Instead, they spoke Malay and, increasingly, English as well, which resulted in the cultural ostracising of the Straits Chinese by the new migrants. Fiercely protective of “their” language use, the peranakan reacted to the referral to the Straits-born Chinese in a derogatory manner by the new migrants ²⁵ by adjudging themselves to be the idealised Chinese of the future—ethnic Chinese who read “much admired” Western literature and had the ability to converse fluently with the administrators of the Straits Settlements. ²⁶ Due to their literacy in English, many peranakan were able to secure employment in European offices as cashiers and clerks. ²⁷ The privileged among the Straits Chinese were able to transform their advantage of having an English education into “social mobility, a move which weakened their links with the Malay and Malay culture on the one hand and strengthened their identification with Great Britain on the other”, ²⁸ so much so that in 1900, a group of peranakan founded the Straits Chinese British Association and pledged themselves to the British Crown as the “King’s Chinese”. ²⁹

This form of colonised patriotism did not go unnoticed by the British administration, nor did it go unrewarded. The colonial regime had an interest in nurturing the loyalty of the colonised, particularly a community potentially as “useful” as the Straits Chinese. Thus, in the eyes of the British, the peranakan established themselves as the ideal ethnic and linguistic combination by marrying the highly desirable “Chinese traits” of being industrious and highly productive with “modern” skills such as English literacy and arithmetic. ³⁰

The British administration also tended to view the peranakan as a “necessarily” stable element of the population. A large majority of the population, in particular the migrant Chinese, saw their principal loyalties elsewhere. ³¹ Singapore was merely a place of work, where one could hopefully make a decent living and save up for marriage and family life back “home”. ³² In the midst of this population with detached loyalties, the Straits Chinese offered a welcome permanence, for in the running of empire, there were countless low-ranking administrative posts to be filled.