Best of both worlds : hybrid identities of mixed-race individuals in Singapore

This paper explores how mixed-race Singaporeans negotiate their racial identity within a society that regards “race” as static and unchanging—exemplified through state-sanctioned racial definitions and policies. The major themes of this study are (a) the centrality of race as part of their constructions of self-identity, (b) their constant need to take positions vis-à-vis inquiries about “what they are”, due to their ambiguous phenotype, (c) the cultural capital that mixed-race individuals construct to make choices when navigating various social situations, and (d) the strategies that these individuals employ to resist being placed in defined racial categories. By examining their lived experiences, this paper brings to light their negotiations of dominant discourses on race that exists in Singapore, and subsequently puts forth the claim that as the country moves away from the rhetoric of multiculturalism to one of cosmopolitanism, recognizing racial and cultural hybridity ought to be encouraged by the state.Bachelor of Arts in Sociolog