Lim, Ivy Maria Mui Ling

The main theme of this thesis is that Chinese leadership in colonial Singapore is a delicate balance between the British colonial authorities and the interests of the dialect group. The focus, in this case, is on the Teochew community and the leadership provided by the Seah family for close to a century. It is suggested here that the reason why the Seah family faced increasingly serious challenges to their authority within the community is due to the fact that the members of the family appeared increasingly pro-British in their operation. This orientation and identification as Straits Chinese puts them at odds with the major part of the community which was pro-China, and largely immigrant. While the major challenger, Lim Nee Soon, was also a Straits Chinese, he was able to rely upon his ties and identification with Republican China to gain support from the immigrant Teochew merchants who had became an economic and social force to be reckoned with.

A sub-theme explores the question of a bang society in Singapore. Many scholars have posited that the Chinese community in colonial Singapore was segmented and segregated along dialect group fault lines. According to this framework, the Chinese community was divided into the various dialect groups and there was no interaction or co-operation across the bang boundaries. However, research and evidence suggests otherwise, as time and again, we see examples of Chinese merchants working together regardless of dialect origins for social welfare. Thus, while the existence of a bang society is conceded, it is argued that the bang society existed among the lower classes only, while the upper strata of wealthy merchants and towkays tended to co-operated for profit motive and purposes of social welfare. This thesis goes on to suggest another form of social differentiation-that of the Chinese and the Straits-born Chinese.

Singapore is host to an increasing number of foreign tertiary students, who also intend to work there upon graduating to serve a bond and/or for better career prospects. According to Chaos Theory of Careers (CTC), an individual’s career decision making and choices are not systematic, but are subject to change. Using twenty-six interviews with foreign graduates, this paper aimed to understand the role of unplanned events and complexity of influences accounted for in CTC in their first full-time job search in Singapore – an area that has hitherto lacked research attention. Findings indicated their job search decision-making and choices are not methodical, but are subject to change depending on how they perceive and respond to unplanned encounters and influences.

This chapter examines how the teaching and learning of history in Singapore have evolved since colonial times and throughout Singapore’s transformation into a modern, internationally connected, and cosmopolitan city-state. In the decades following the achievement of political independence in 1965, Singapore’s approach to history education has been carefully managed to meet the challenges and the shifting needs of a newly independent nation-state. National survival, economic imperatives, and social cohesiveness were overriding priorities. These foundational notions continue to wield significant influence in subsequent formulations of the history curriculum. Over the years, the dynamics of global change, concerns over economic functionality, and challenges to national cohesion have guided further iterations of the national history curriculum. These have subsequently led to changes in the way history education is conceived and how the subject is taught in the classroom. Since 2001, the introduction of disciplinary-focused aspects of historical study such as source-work methodology, inquiry-based learning, and concept-based teaching has transformed pedagogical and professional practice in many history classrooms in Singapore. By drawing on relevant scholarship and research in history education, the paper traces the evolution of history education in Singapore and highlights significant developments that have contributed to the way the subject is currently taught and learnt in schools.