One of the most well studied aspects of Singapore’s history is the Chinese immigrant story, and the influence of the Chinese revolution. It overshadows the other, equally important, aspects which I’ve been talking about in the past few weeks, and is also used to create strong associations where only weak ones existed, or not at all. So instead of covering the really well-trodden ground, I’ve tried to focus on two important points this week: that Sun Yat Sen was a left-wing revolutionary socialist (the Chinese Communist Party reveres Sun for a reason!) and one of the progenitors of left-wing revolutionary socialism in Malaya; and that Chinese politics in Malaya in the 1920s was just as much about Malaya as it was about China, part of a process of transformation of Malaya’s Chinese into Chinese Malayans.
China’s response to the events and forces of the late 19th and early 20th century took the form of royalist, reformist, and revolutionary movements. The leaders of the latter two, Kang Youwei and Sun Yat Sen, came to Singapore to rally support and funding for their movements. They brought with them new ideas, built new structures and organisations, and left behind a changed political landscape. In this episode, PJ Thum explains how this combined with local demographic, economic, and social change; how it challenged the identity and beliefs of Malaya’s Chinese; how it interacted with local circumstances to begin transforming Malaya’s Chinese into Chinese Malayans, beginning Malayan nationalism among the Chinese; and how the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall in Balestier, Singapore, is actually a shrine to left-wing revolutionary socialism. Please send questions, comments, and feedback to thehistoryofsingapore@gmail.com or visit thehistoryofsingapore.com.