Family Matters: Negotiating Intergenerational Mixed Identities among Eurasian Families in Singapore

Abstract

This paper tracks and explores the generational changes in the dynamics of racial identity and identification of Eurasians in Singapore, as reflected in family life. Eurasians are a historic mixed-descent community originating in the mixing of European and Asian cultures in the region since the 16th century. By analysing the embodied enactment and negotiation of mixed identities intergenerationally in the spheres of marriage and language choices, the paper reveals how families express and construct what it means to be Eurasian in the Singaporean context. This study draws on 30 interviews with self-identified Eurasians over two generations, including six paired intra-family interviews, illustrating intergenerational identity shifts. While the boundedness of racial identification appeared to be the norm for earlier generations, a tempering of race as a boundary marker and an openness to changing familial rhythms have served to encourage a lowering of race consciousness among younger Eurasians in Singapore.

Family transmission and identity construction: The perspective of ‘mixed’ individuals with a Muslim parent in Quebec

“…The results of our study confirm the active role of mixed individuals while showing how they participate in redefining existing categories (Osanami Törngren et al, 2021;Yeoh et al, 2020). They are also consistent with the work of Arweck and Nesbitt (2010a) or Cerchiaro (2020), which has shown that this type of mixedness is not necessarily more problematic than others.…”

“…When both parents are migrants, respondents often identify with one of the two minority cultures more than the other, depending on the cultural model that is dominant in their family, in addition to identifying themselves as Quebecers and/or Canadians. Our data thus supports the few studies that emphasize the role of family transmission in the development of a plural identity (Allouche-Benayoun 2008; Arweck and Nesbitt, 2010a; Song, 2017; Yeoh et al, 2020). However, in contrast to these studies, identification with the minority group seems (in more than half of the cases) to be more related to experiences and knowledge, cultural practices, traditions or habits than to nationality or knowledge of the language or religion.…”

“…In each of the countries studied, parents helped shape individuals’ perceptions of their cultural identity and background through exposure to cultural practices. Findings from Yeoh et al’s (2020) study on Eurasian identity in Singapore reveal the centrality of family in the transmission of material culture and daily practices, while also showing that younger generations have greater freedom to define what makes them Eurasian. Other studies indicate that when parents pass on references from both origins to their children, the latter are more likely to develop a plural identity, without necessarily giving equal weight to each of the two origins (Arweck and Nesbitt, 2010a; Rodríguez-García et al, 2018).…”