Singapore Stories: Language, Class, and the Chinese of Singapore, 1945-2000
Ernest Koh
New York: Cambria Press, 2010
ISBN: 9781604976779

This book examines the socioeconomic effects of English literacy among the Chinese of Singapore between 1945 and 2000. Through the use of oral history, it demonstrates how English literacy as a life chance has played a key role in shaping the class structures that exist among the Chinese in Singapore today.

Taking on the perspective of ordinary Chinese Singaporeans, this book bridges a considerable gap in the existing literature by providing a historical account that surveys the experiences of everyday life in Singapore through reminiscences provided by the citizenry. In doing so, it presents an account that more accurately reflects the nation’s nuanced past through defining eras in Singapore’s post-war history.

The history of Singapore has been widely conflated with the history of its economic success. From its heyday as a nexus of trade during the imperial era to the modern city state that boasts high living standards for most of its citizens, the history of Singapore is commonly viewed through the lens of the ruling elite. Published in two volumes in 1998 and 2000, Lee Kuan Yew’s memoirs The Singapore Story epitomizes this top-down definitive narrative of the nation’s past. The history of post-war Singapore has largely been reduced to a series of decisions made by the nation’s leaders. Few existing studies explore the role and experiences of the ordinary person in Singapore’s postwar history. There are none that do this through ethnography, oral history, and collective biography.