ABSTRACT

In this article, I chronologically trace my lived experiences as a woman of color, growing up in multicultural Singapore. Exploring these moments while considering the racial politics embedded within institutionalized multiculturalism serves as an evocative illustration of the challenges and nuances of navigating multi-ethnicity in Singapore. These vignettes though personal, reveal the ways in which my multi-ethnic background manifests in different experiences, varying according to the ethnicity I openly identify with. Simultaneously, I unpack the double burden of being multi-ethnic in Chinese-majority Singapore—from identity-crises and the inescapability of phenotype. Often in these vignettes, I am silent, and respond only in thought. These thoughts however are lent a voice, in this auto-ethnographic text, liberating me from the silences that often characterize my position as a minority. These described moments also are revelatory of the hegemonic ideologies that are socially integrated and communicated insidiously albeit subtly, and their hierarchizing effects on ethnicity.

摘要

在本文中，我按时间顺序追溯了自己在多元文化新加坡长大的有色女人的生活经历。在考虑这些时刻的同时，考虑到制度化的多元文化主义中所蕴含的种族政治，可以令人回味地说明在新加坡发展多元种族所面临的挑战和细微差别。这些小插曲虽然是个人的，但它们揭示了我多种族背景在不同经历中表现出来的方式，这些方式随我公开认同的种族而异。同时，我摆脱了身份认同危机和表型不可避免的双重负担，在华裔占多数的新加坡成为多族裔。通常在这些小插曲中，我保持沉默，只在思想中回应。但是，这些思想在这种自动民族志文本中发出了声音，使我从沉默中解放出来，沉默通常代表了我作为少数群体的地位。这些描述的时刻也揭示了霸权意识形态（尽管巧妙地潜移默化地进行了社会整合和交流）及其对种族的等级影响。