October 4, 2019

On 1 October, the final day of the two-day Singapore Bicentennial Conference, University Professor Wang Gungwu (NUS Department of History) delivered a session on the divergences between Singapore and Hong Kong – despite their similar histories as British colonies.

Prof Wang argued that Singapore has since been successful in forging a national identity after a history of two separations (the first with the British empire, the second with Malaysia); on the other hand, Hong Kong, has instead always maintained deep historical connections to and reliance on China. He notes that even while Hong Kong was a British colony in 1840, China had always remained actively involved in its affairs – even more so after Great Britain’s departure. Such close connections have made it hard for Hong Kong to forge its own identity, as shown by the recent weeks of prolonged protests against what started out as anger over China’s extradition bill.

While Singapore’s history of separations has helped the city-state to establish comfortable relations with distant nations, Prof Wang underscores its difficulties in forming closer relationships with its neighbours. He believes that rethinking Singapore’s history of connections and separations is imperative for Singapore to balance between establishing stronger ties regionally, while still continuing to maintain relations with its distant connections.

Read the full article here.