Patrolling Chineseness: Singapore’s Kowloon Club and the ethnic adaptation of Hong Kongese to Singaporean society

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Date

2015

Authors

Montsion, Jean Michel

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Taylor and Francis

Abstract

In combination with their strategy to recruit foreign talent, Singaporean state authorities have increasingly focused their attention on community integration schemes for Chinese professional newcomers. The government facilitated such integration with the creation of the Kowloon Club in 1990. The Kowloon Club is not only a government experiment that has been repeated three times since then, but also the only new migrant association that does not explicitly target Mainlanders. Through in-depth interviews with the Club’s leadership, I explore the ethnic adaptation of the Kowloon Club membership as it negotiates the evolving sense of Chineseness found in state designs and Singaporean society. Much like the emergence of the 1997 Hong Kongese identity, the Kowloon Club’s activities have shifted in strong reaction to the racialized category put forth by state authorities and embodied by Mainlander professionals in that the Club’s activities now symbolize and help patrol what Chineseness means as everyday performance in the city-state.

Description

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Asian Ethnicity in 2015, available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2014.966528.

Keywords

Singapore, Chineseness, New Migrant Association, Hong Kong

Citation

JM Montsion. 2015. Patrolling Chineseness: Singapore’s Kowloon Club and the Ethnic Adaptation of Hong Kongese to Singaporean Society. Asian Ethnicity 16(1): 92-109.