ABSTRACT

In Singapore, a strict policy of male conscription or national service (hereafter, NS) that transforms boys into men is carefully calibrated to maintain support from the civilian sector. I argue that, in the widely acclaimed Ah Boys to Men film series directed by Jack Neo, cinematic scripts of military masculinities are inflected by class and ethnicity. While Neo’s film series does not depart from the realities of everyday multiculturalism in Singapore as celebratory, the film is a rhetorical resource of the patriarchal state, albeit one that lacks finesse, which prepares teenage males for their indelible rites of passage into manhood. The film represents the symbolic power of the state in communicating the necessity of conscription as a proving ground of masculinity. In counteracting rhetorical fears of training fatalities and injuries to disarm questions about the relevance of male conscription, the state is careful not to undermine its militarised ambitions. Instead, it deploys curious narratives of masculinised sacrifice to propagate ideological control of the citizenry.

摘要

在新加坡，将男孩变成男人的严格的男性征兵或国民服役政策（以下简称 NS）经过仔细校准，以保持民间部门的支持。我认为，在广受好评的Ah Boys to Men 中由 Jack Neo 执导的电影系列，军事男子气概的电影剧本受到阶级和种族的影响。虽然尼奥的电影系列并没有脱离新加坡日常多元文化的现实作为庆祝，但这部电影是父权国家的修辞资源，尽管缺乏技巧，它为十几岁的男性为他们不可磨灭的成年礼做准备。这部电影代表了国家在传达作为男子气概试验场的征兵必要性方面的象征性力量。为了消除有关男性征兵相关性问题的培训死亡和受伤的修辞恐惧，国家小心翼翼地不破坏其军事野心。相反，它采用了男性化牺牲的奇怪叙述来传播对公民的意识形态控制。