{"id":27193,"date":"2020-11-24T09:00:11","date_gmt":"2020-11-24T01:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/?p=27193"},"modified":"2020-11-23T14:09:18","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T06:09:18","slug":"against-the-grain-rejecting-ethnicity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2020\/11\/24\/against-the-grain-rejecting-ethnicity\/","title":{"rendered":"Against The Grain: Rejecting Ethnicity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo: iStock\/Oqba<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Are Southeast Asian states truly multicultural societies? Not according to Professor Syed Farid Alatas (NUS Sociology and Malay Studies). In \u2018Against The Grain: Rejecting Ethnicity\u2019 in The Edge Malaysia<\/em>, Prof Alatas discusses how Southeast Asia\u2019s colonial past has shaped its ethnic relations.<\/p>\n

Prof Alatas lays out the arbitrary nature of racial categories, through which colonial masters divided Southeast Asian societies. Using presumed biological or genetic differences, the colonials favoured so-called \u2018hardworking\u2019 races over \u2018lazy\u2019 ones in order to develop economic trade. These racist ideologies prevail in contemporary policies such as Singapore\u2019s Chinese-Malay-Indian-Others (CMIO) categorisation. Such categories perpetuate racial and ethnic divisions by reinforcing racial stereotypes and the false premise of racial superiority. Comparisons between races and ethnicities create dominant cultures where the beliefs and practices of one culture are deemed superior and thus favoured over those of other cultures.<\/p>\n

By recognising prevailing racism, Prof Alatas rejects Singapore\u2019s and Malaysia\u2019s claims to be multicultural societies. The ethnic groups that coexist in these countries do not fulfil multiculturalism\u2019s other key characteristics, which are commingling and interchanging practices between cultures. Ethnic groups in these nations merely tolerate other ethnic groups and have neither developed profound respect for nor embraced them.
\nA country\u2019s national language and religion usually comes from its dominant culture, implying that culture\u2019s racial superiority.<\/p>\n

An example of a multicultural society can be drawn from Southeast Asia\u2019s cultural heritage. Intermarriages between Chinese and Malays were common in precolonial times. These Peranakan marriages combined Chinese and Malay cultures to loosen cultural boundaries and produce unique cultural practices, including traditional wedding and funeral customs and cuisine. These unions illustrate how cultures can embrace diversity by looking past race and ethnicity. The simultaneous embrace of diversity and rejection of stereotypes could cause Southeast Asian societies to become truly multicultural, states Prof Alatas.<\/p>\n

Read the full article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are Southeast Asian states truly multicultural societies? Not according to Professor Syed Farid Alatas (NUS Sociology and Malay Studies). In \u2018Against The Grain: Rejecting Ethnicity\u2019 in The Edge Malaysia, Prof Alatas discusses how Southeast Asia\u2019s colonial past has shaped its ethnic relations. Prof Alatas lays out the arbitrary nature of racial categories, through which colonial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":27195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27193"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27197,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27193\/revisions\/27197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}