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If you look like me, I'll talk to you: a preliminary study of ethnic identity and inter‐ethnic interaction among women in Singapore

If you look like me, I'll talk to you: a preliminary study of ethnic identity and... In Singapore, government policy is for equal but separate development of the four major ethnic groups—Chinese, Malay, Indian and other. In this study, I attempt to gain some preliminary views of how strongly women identify with their own ethnic group and how freely they are prepared to interact with people from other ethnic groups in non‐work‐related situations. I confine my study to females for two reasons. One is that traditional ethnic dress is common among females in Singapore but much rarer among men, and this makes a strong non‐verbal statement of identity. The second reason is to avoid differences between males and females, which I did not wish to pursue within the limits of this exploratory study. The findings of my pilot investigation indicate that intra‐ethnic spontaneous interaction is more likely to occur among women who display a strong national identity. Moreover, younger women, who were exposed during their school years to the government's recent drive to nurture ethnic and cultural differences, are less open to inter‐ethnic interaction than are women in their 30s and older, who grew up when the government drive was towards creating one common national identity for the people of Singapore. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Asian Ethnicity Taylor & Francis

If you look like me, I'll talk to you: a preliminary study of ethnic identity and inter‐ethnic interaction among women in Singapore

Goby, Valerie
Asian Ethnicity , Volume 5 (2): 10 – Jun 1, 2004
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If you look like me, I'll talk to you: a preliminary study of ethnic identity and inter‐ethnic interaction among women in Singapore

Abstract

In Singapore, government policy is for equal but separate development of the four major ethnic groups—Chinese, Malay, Indian and other. In this study, I attempt to gain some preliminary views of how strongly women identify with their own ethnic group and how freely they are prepared to interact with people from other ethnic groups in non‐work‐related situations. I confine my study to females for two reasons. One is that traditional ethnic dress is common among females in...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN
1469-2953
eISSN
1463-1369
DOI
10.1080/1463136042000221906
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

In Singapore, government policy is for equal but separate development of the four major ethnic groups—Chinese, Malay, Indian and other. In this study, I attempt to gain some preliminary views of how strongly women identify with their own ethnic group and how freely they are prepared to interact with people from other ethnic groups in non‐work‐related situations. I confine my study to females for two reasons. One is that traditional ethnic dress is common among females in Singapore but much rarer among men, and this makes a strong non‐verbal statement of identity. The second reason is to avoid differences between males and females, which I did not wish to pursue within the limits of this exploratory study. The findings of my pilot investigation indicate that intra‐ethnic spontaneous interaction is more likely to occur among women who display a strong national identity. Moreover, younger women, who were exposed during their school years to the government's recent drive to nurture ethnic and cultural differences, are less open to inter‐ethnic interaction than are women in their 30s and older, who grew up when the government drive was towards creating one common national identity for the people of Singapore.

Journal

Asian Ethnicity – Taylor & Francis

Published: Jun 1, 2004

Keywords: ethnic identity; inter‐ethnic interaction; women; ethnic relations; Singapore

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