Racial formation and mixed race identities in new zealand and singapore

BETWIXT, BETWEEN AND BEYOND: RACIAL FORMATION AND “MIXED RACE” IDENTITIES IN NEW ZEALAND AND SINGAPORE ZARINE LIA ROCHA (B.A., Canterbury; M.Sc., LSE) A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2013   i Acknowledgements I am very grateful to many people who have guided me over the past four years. Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisor, Daniel P.S. Goh, who gave me the space to carry out my project, and the guidance to finish it. Also at NUS, my PhD committee, Roxana Waterson and Eric Thompson, helped to shape my ideas and the direction my research would take. Alexius Pereira listened to my hesitant arguments in my first semester, and Maribeth Erb and Chua Beng Huat read and re-read my initial proposals. Thank you also to the departmental admin staff for answering my every question, and to NUS for my generous funding. Secondly, there is a long list of people who gave up their spare time to hear my ideas and give me advice. Thank you to Terence Gomez, for believing that I could a PhD. Thanks also to Kevin Binning (UCLA), Tahu Kukutai (Waikato), Rosemary Du Plessis (Canterbury), Mike Hill (Victoria), Manying Ip (Auckland) and Alberto Gomes (LaTrobe). Steven Riley from mixedracestudies.org provided an invaluable database, and much friendly encouragement. And for giving me a place to present my work, thanks to Vijay Devadas (Otago), and Trudie Cain, Ralph Bathurst and Paul Spoonley (Massey). I am indebted to the participants I interviewed for this research: the talented and unique group of people who shared their stories with me, talking about their lives and their experiences. I am also very grateful to those strangers who saw something they thought was important in my project, and help to promote it. And just as importantly, to those who helped out during my fieldwork, giving me places to stay and even office space: thank you to Caitriona Cameron and Ian McChesney, and Stewart and Siew Jessamine. On a personal note, thank you to my dojo, Shoshin Aikikai, and my friends at NUS and Four Trimesters, who have helped to keep me grounded. Finally, thank you to my family - my parents and my sister, whose purposefulness and grace inspired my research in the first place. And to Gabe and Leonard - I couldn’t have done this if it weren’t for you.   ii Table of Contents Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Table of contents iii Summary iv List of Tables vi List of Figures vii Chapter One: Introduction Chapter Two: Literature Review and Theoretical Background Chapter Three: Narratives of Racial Formation 30 Chapter Four: Racial Formations in New Zealand and Singapore 60 Chapter Five: The Personal in the Political 104 Chapter Six: Being and Belonging 148 Chapter Seven: Identity and Mixedness 208 Chapter Eight: Conclusion 247 List of References 267 Appendices Appendix 1: DERC Approval 316 Appendix 2: New Zealand Survey 317 Appendix 3: Singapore Survey 323 Appendix 4: Research Recruitment 329 Appendix 5: Phases of Dissemination 332 Appendix 6: Interview Guide 333 Appendix 7: Participant Information Sheet and Consent Form 334 Appendix 8: Transcription Confidentiality Agreement 337   iii Summary “Mixed race” identities are increasingly important for academics and policy makers around the world. In many multicultural societies, individuals of mixed ancestry are identifying outside of traditional racial categories, posing a challenge to systems of racial classification, and to sociological understandings of race. Singapore and New Zealand illustrate the complex relationship between state categorization and individual identities. Both countries are diverse, with high rates of intermarriage, and a legacy of colonial racial organization. However, New Zealand’s emphasis on voluntary, fluid ethnic identity and Singapore’s fixed four-race framework provide key points of contrast. Each represents the opposite end of the spectrum in addressing “mixed race”: multiple ethnic options have been recognized in New Zealand for several decades, while symbolic recognition is now being implemented in Singapore. This research explores histories of racial formation in New Zealand and Singapore, focusing on narratives of racial formation. The project examines two simultaneous processes: how individuals of mixed heritage negotiate identities within a racially structured framework, and why - how racial classification has affected this over time. Using a narrative lens, state-level narratives of racial formation are juxtaposed with individual narratives of identity. “Mixedness” is then approached from a different angle, moving away from classifications of identity, towards a characterization of narratives of reinforcement, accommodation, transcendence and subversion. Drawing on a series of 40 interviews, this research found similarities and differences across the two contexts. In Singapore, against a racialized framework with significant material consequences, top-down changes sought to symbolically acknowledge mixedness, without upsetting the multiracial balance. In New Zealand, state efforts to remove “race” from public discourse allow ethnicity to be understood more flexibly, yet this has not always translated easily to everyday life. For individuals in Singapore, narratives were shaped by a racialized background, as they located themselves within pervasive racial structures. In New Zealand, stories were positioned against a dual narrative of fluidity and racialization, reflected in narratives that embraced ambiguity while referring back to racialized categories.   iv The four narrative characterizations illustrated the diversity of stories within each context, yet highlighted certain patterns. Narratives of transcendence were present in both countries, illustrating how historical racialization can be rejected. Narratives of accommodation were more common in New Zealand, as the dissonance between public and private understandings of mixedness was less stark. Narratives of reinforcement were more frequently seen in Singapore, mirroring colonial/post-colonial projects of racial formation in which personal stories were located. Narratives of subversion were present in both countries, but were more common in New Zealand, where subversion required less conscious effort. Overall, this research drew out how identity can diverge from official classification, as individuals worked to navigate difference at an everyday level. State acknowledgements of mixedness served to highlight the continued dissonance between fluid identities and fixed racial categories, as well as the unique balance of racialized choice and constraint in Singapore and in New Zealand. Personal narratives revealed the creative ways in which people crossed boundaries, and the everyday negotiations between classification, heritage, and experience in living mixed identities.   v List of Tables Table 3.1: Narrative Characterizations 39 Table 5.1: Interview Participants   106 vi List of Figures Figure 5.1: Singapore 2010 Census Question 104 Figure 5.2: New Zealand 2006 Census Question 105   vii Chapter One: Introduction Background The rise of “mixed race” identities has been the subject of growing academic and political interest over the past two decades, particularly in the American and British contexts. In multicultural societies, increasing numbers of individuals of mixed ancestry are opting to identify outside of traditionally defined racial categories, challenging systems of racial classification and sociological understandings of “race”. The concept of racial mixing has a long and varied history across different contexts, from historical pathologies to more recent celebrations of mixedness. However, whether seen as inherently transgressive or progressive, racialized boundary crossing is still commonly perceived as different, and potentially threatening to established social structures. As a result, attempts to recognize or assert mixed identities have frequently been met with resistance and resentment. “Mixed race” is not easy to define, encompassing aspects of ancestry, identity, culture and classification. Highlighting the fluidity of identities, feelings of mixedness not necessarily fit neatly with mixed heritage: an individual of mixed parentage may not identify as mixed, privately or publically. Neither can mixedness be generalized as a type of experience akin to an ethnic or racial group, as the commonality of mixedness is based on difference and dislocation, rather than sameness and positioning (Song 2012). Nevertheless, the changing meanings of “mixed race” across time provide key insights into the sociological concepts of race and ethnicity, and how these relate to personal experiences of identity and belonging. Within increasingly multicultural and mixed populations, identities which transcend racial boundaries reveal the weaknesses of classification structures, and the blurred edges of ethnic and racial groups in the face of dynamic social change (Parker and Song 2001). Drawing on these issues, this dissertation explores “mixed race” identities in Singapore and New Zealand, as two multicultural yet structurally divergent societies. The project looks at individuals of mixed Chinese and European parentage, a population (but not necessarily a cohesive group) present in both countries, with experiences reflecting power dynamics and sociohistorical   implications within either society. This focus fills a gap in the literature: while there is a growing body of work emerging in the North American and British contexts, understandings and experiences of “mixed race” across different contexts have not been explored in significant depth (see Edwards et al. 2012). While much previous work has explored the fluid and situational nature of identity, and the diversity of ways to be mixed, this study illustrates how these concepts and findings are applicable to or divergent from two structurally very different societies. New Zealand and Singapore provide important contrast cases in this respect: both in comparison with each other, and as compared to the histories of racial formation and the contemporary realities of mixed identities in the US and the UK. To better understand “mixed race” at micro and macro levels in these under-studied comparative contexts, the structural and experiential manifestations of (mixed) race are placed at the centre of analysis, through a novel application of racial formation theory (Omi and Winant 1986, 1994). This framework underpins an investigation into why ancestrally similar “mixed race” identities are understood differently, and how racial projects of mixedness (the everyday personal and institutional negotiations around mixed race) differ across contexts. It also explores whether “mixed race” identities undermine the validity of racial categories, or merely create a new racialized category for belonging. This project understands “mixed race” as a socially constructed category, drawing on the equally constructed category of “race”1. It is, however, a category that has real and lasting effects and meanings for the lives of individuals and the trajectories of societies. Though a narrative understanding of identity and racial formation, I seek to better capture this complexity. This research looks at “mixedness” from a fresh angle, moving away from classification of forms of mixed identity, towards a new characterization of mixed narratives (drawing on Somers 1994). Characterizing narratives approaches identity as complex, variable and fluid, rather than static and able to be classified. Tracing threads of racial formation, the research juxtaposes state-level narratives of racial formation with individual narratives of identity creation, development and maintenance. This project examines two                                                                                                                 Although “race” is understood as a social construction rather than a biological reality, for clarity, scare quotes will henceforth not be used.     322 Appendix 3: Singapore Survey   323   324   325   326   327   328 Appendix 4: Research Recruitment   329   330   331 Appendix 5: Phases of Dissemination Dates Phase (10-16 Jan) Phase (17-24 Jan) Phase (Jan - Feb) Phase (Feb - Mar) Follow up (Jan Apr) Singapore Emails sent to 22 personal contacts and academic/professional colleagues for forwarding; Emails sent to contacts at NUS, SMU and NTU for dissemination; Online groups contacted (Singapore Eurasian). New Zealand Emails sent to 20 personal contacts and academic/professional colleagues for forwarding; Relevant online groups contacted (New Zealand Eurasian Invasian). International forums and websites contacted for wider publicity: mixedasians.com, reavolution.proboards.com, eurasiannation.proboards.com, racialicious.com, mix-d.org. Emails and posters sent to Emails and posters sent to community groups for community groups for dissemination: dissemination: the American Club, The New Zealand Chinese American Women’s Association, Association, the New Zealand China the American Association, the Friendship Society (both the Australia-New Zealand headquarters and regional Association, the Alliance branches), the Auckland Chinese Française, the Goethe Institute, Community Centre, the Asia New Shoshin Aikido Club, the Eurasian Zealand Foundation; the New Association; Zealand Asian Studies Society. Emails sent to journalists at The Emails sent to journalists at the New Straits Times for publicity; Zealand Herald and TVNZ for Posters displayed at academic publicity. institutions (2 at SMU, 15 at NUS, at NTU, at Ngee Ann Polytech). Classified advertisements placed in Classified advertisements placed in local newspapers: The Straits local newspapers: The Otago Daily Times. Times, the New Zealand Herald. Short articles run in local newspapers: The Otago Daily Times, the North Shore Times, the Aucklander. Advertisements run in local Emails and posters sent to academic newsletters (the Eurasian institutions, students’ unions and Association). government departments for dissemination43: Auckland University, Auckland University of Technology, Canterbury University, Victoria University, Waikato University, Massey University, Otago University; The Office of Ethnic Affairs. Advertisements run in local newsletters (The NZCA, the Migrant News, the New Zealand Asian Studies Society) Instances of non-response Instances of non-response followed followed up by email and up by email and telephone one week telephone one week after first after first contact contact                                                                                                                 This date is significantly later than the Singapore case, as the New Zealand academic term commenced on the 22nd February 2011. 43   332 Appendix 6: Interview Guide Welcome, thanks and overview/introduction Questions 1) Tell me about yourself. Tell me about your family. Draw a family tree, show photos How did your parents meet? Tell me about your grandparents and extended family. 2) What was it like growing up in your family? How you see yourself within your family? Were/are you close to your parents? Do you have siblings? Do you think your experiences were very different? What are your favourite memories of growing up? 3) Where did you grow up? What was that like for you? Where did you go to school? What was school like for you? What kinds of things were important to you as a child? What did you like to do? 4) Tell me about your friends. What kind of groups were you involved with – school, sport, hobbies, religious? When did you first become aware that not everyone has parents from different backgrounds? What kind of groups are you involved in now? Hobbies, sports, educational, online? 5) How would you describe who you are today? What is important to you now? How you think your background has influenced you? Has the way you felt about yourself and your background change over time? What influenced this? 6) How you think you fit in, in Singapore/New Zealand What does it mean to belong somewhere? Where you feel you belong? (family, friends, community, city, country) 7) What does the idea of race/ethnicity mean to you? Do you think labels are important? What does race mean to you? Ethnicity? Heritage? How you describe yourself in terms of race/ethnicity/heritage? Do you think you describe yourself differently to how other people describe you? Conclusion and thanks Token of appreciation   333 Appendix 7: Participant Information Sheet and Consent Form   334   335   336 Appendix 8: Transcription Confidentiality Agreement     337 [...]... individuals of mixed Chinese/European descent in Singapore and New Zealand?   5 • How have historical processes of (mixed) racial formation in Singapore and New Zealand resulted in the present-day systems of racial understandings and classification? How are these narratives and boundaries maintained and transgressed? • How do individuals of mixed descent experience and narrate their personal racial and gendered... prominent in many countries The contexts of New Zealand and Singapore, as explored in this work, provide ideal comparisons to understand the linkages between individual mixed identities and “multiraciality” at the group level, as well the motivations behind and impacts of official recognition Such recognition has occurred for over two decades in New Zealand, and is only just beginning in Singapore In. .. theoretical and methodological framework is then presented in Chapter Three, focusing on the new contribution of narratives of racial formation in connecting macro and micro levels of analysis Chapter Four traces the treads of racialization and mixed race across New Zealand and Singapore, comparing and contrasting colonial and post-colonial narratives of race, identity and belonging Moving on to personal... reinforce and even disconnect (Brunsma 2005; Rockquemore et al 2009) My research begins with two in- depth historical studies of race and mixed race in New Zealand and Singapore, as the background for the personal narratives of forty individuals of mixed Chinese and European descent These narratives illustrate different meanings of race, heritage, mixedness and belonging at macro and micro levels, and. .. meanings become institutionalized and bounded, and, conversely, that institutionalized racial meanings and boundaries are challenged and destabilized (Winant 2000b:186) Reconceptualizing racial formation through intersectionality, narrative and mixedness Parallel to this careful understanding of race, racial formation theory highlights the intersections and overlaps between race and gender at individual... structures in continuous and reciprocal ways The performance and understanding of the racial self” is intertwined with the construction and maintenance of collective understandings of race, and the hierarchies and classifications which underpin the state framework of action (King and DaCosta 1996:231) These linkages are intrinsic (and often unnoticed), but also represent sites of instability and conflict,... racial identities either disrupting, maintaining, or even reinforcing the status quo In Singapore, individual narratives of mixedness or “raceless” identities subvert the openly racial narrative of the national four -race framework Such identities are symbolically recognized through the recent inclusion of double-barrelled races, but do not meaningfully disrupt the categories In New Zealand, individual... individual and structural levels: the ways in which race is gendered and gender is racialized (Omi and Winant 1994:68) This occurs both experientially and institutionally, as gender- and race- based reflexive understandings shape the ways in which individual and collective identities are produced and transformed Processes of racial formation illuminate the ways in which race is inextricably linked to... Zealand and Singapore illustrate opposite ends of the spectrum in how mixed race has been addressed in the past: New Zealand s emphasis on voluntary and fluid ethnic   4 identity and Singapore s fixed four -race framework provide key points of comparison to other national contexts By looking at individuals of mixed Chinese and European descent in these two countries, important issues around race, ... categories are constraining and inaccurate, as well as the power of the social construction of race to permeate individual and social understandings of identity (Morning 2011; Ropp 1997) The diversity of mixed race formations draws out this intertwining between the social, political, historical and biological, stressing the simultaneous fluidity and fixity of both mixed and “singular” racial identities Recognition . descent in Singapore and New Zealand? ! 6 • How have historical processes of (mixed) racial formation in Singapore and New Zealand resulted in the present-day systems of racial understandings and. research begins with two in- depth historical studies of race and mixed race in New Zealand and Singapore, as the background for the personal narratives of forty individuals of mixed Chinese and European. of racial formation in New Zealand and Singapore, focusing on narratives of racial formation. The project examines two simultaneous processes: how individuals of mixed heritage negotiate identities