Sun Yat Sen and Sun Yan Zi: Connecting Singapore to China
by Hu Wen
I learn a lot from my students during tutorials, sometimes more than they do from me. During one tutorial when we were discussing some aspects of early twentieth century Singapore history, a student of Chinese nationality suddenly spoke up, “Sun Yan Zi played a very important role in connecting overseas Chinese and China.” The whole class went silent trying to digest what had just been said, and then burst out laughing hilariously! The student had unwittingly mixed up the two “Suns”: Sun Yan Zi the pop singer, also known as Stephanie Sun; and Sun Yat Sen, widely regarded as the founding father of Republican China.
However, the student could be right to some extent. Stephanie Sun DOES play a very important role in connecting China and Singapore today. About a century ago, there was no independent Singapore as we know it today. The majority of the migrant population in colonial Singapore was Chinese sojourners. Most of them saw China as their real home and took a greater interest in the political, economic and social developments in their homeland, rather than in the place they came to work in. The Chinese people sent relief to the victims of various disasters in China. They remitted money back home to build up industries, infrastructure and education. Hence, Sun Yat Sen was able to make use of this emotional connection to drum up support for his revolutionary plans during his visits to Singapore, (which indirectly culminated in the 1911 Revolution).
After Singapore gained independence in 1965, the Chinese in Singapore had to see themselves as Singaporeans; while the Chinese in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) look upon Singapore as a foreign country. Since then, the economic and diplomatic ties between the two countries have been quite close, but these high-level considerations do not always directly affect the daily lives of the general public in both countries. Rather, it is the various aspects of popular culture which connects both Chinese and Singaporean youths, for instance, pop music, literature, gaming etc.
External cultural influences are unavoidable with increasing globalisation. Western (or more accurately American) popular culture is perhaps the strongest, permeating most areas of the globe. Intellectuals and scholars have highlighted the negative effects of Westernisation, for instance, movies from Hollywood, MacDonald’s, all of which are common sights in China nowadays. The world becomes even closer with the advent of new media, such as the Internet. Chinese youths can now share information almost instantaneously with their American counterparts online. For instance, Chinese fans can watch an episode of Prison Break online just a day after it is released in America.
However, it is interesting to note that despite the apparent hegemony of Western moving pictures, Chinese music is still dominant. One notices that in the music collection of most Chinese youths (usually in digital format nowadays), they listen more to Mandarin pop music. The singers usually hail from the Chinese Mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, the US, and in some rare cases, from Indonesia or even Thailand. Bearing Chinese names and features, it is difficult to distinguish off-hand who is who, and from which region. While music is able to cross national and regional boundaries, it does seem unable to transcend the language boundary just as easily. Excluding the really famous and popular foreign music stars, Chinese youths generally only listen to those who sing in Mandarin.
Stephanie Sun is one of them. During my college days, her songs were among the most popular ones during karaoke sessions. While most Chinese youths cannot tell the difference between Hokkien and Hakka, I did not even know that they were two different dialects until I came to Singapore, they nonetheless can all sing “ti o o” (literally meaning “sky is getting dark”) in S. Sun’s song Cloudy Day (Tian Hei Hei). Other Singaporean pop stars are also becoming popular in China, e.g. Wayne Lin Junjie and Huang Yida, who could be said to be even more popular than Stephanie Sun presently. These pop stars bring Singapore, or at least some aspect of it, to the Chinese youths. Their ideas and perceptions of Singapore are not shaped by school textbooks, which seldom mention Southeast Asia; not by the newspapers, which are usually focused on local and international important news, and certainly not by the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park. Instead, Chinese youths know Singapore through the Singaporean-produced songs they listen and sing along to.
Historically, the actions of Sun Yat Sen in Singapore leading up to the 1911 Revolution are significant. When I had highlighted other contributions of Singapore Chinese had made to China, aside from the revolution, they also made contributions of money and military equipment to support their brethren during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945); some of them even went back to fight. I know Chinese students do appreciate these historical facts.
But I also realised that for the youths of China, Singapore only becomes more relevant when talking about Sun Yan Zi, rather than Sun Yat Sen.
The author is a Chinese national and holds a Master’s in History from the National University of Singapore. She is currently doing her Ph.D. at the Department of History, National University of Singapore.
Just Browsing…
While I was browsing today I saw a excellent post about…
Websites worth visiting…
[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]……
Related……
[...]just beneath, are numerous totally not related sites to ours, however, they are surely worth going over[...]……
Sites we Like……
[...] Every once in a while we choose blogs that we read. Listed below are the latest sites that we choose [...]……
Its hard to find good help…
I am constantnly saying that its difficult to find quality help, but here is …
You should check this out…
[...] Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a few unrelated data, nevertheless really worth taking a look, whoa did one learn about Mid East has got more problerms as well [...]……
where can you buy wartrol…
[...]Wartrol picture of genital wart[...]…
Siesta Key Vacation Rentals…
[...]while the web sites we link to below are completely unrelated to ours, we think they are worth a look, so have a look[...]…
wartrol for genital warts…
[...]Wartrol Scam genital warts female treatment[...]…
cuckold…
[...]we like to honor other sites on the web, even if they aren’t related to us, by linking to them. Below are some sites worth checking out[...]…
Great website…
[...]we like to honor many other internet sites on the web, even if they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Under are some webpages worth checking out[...]……
Great Clips Coupons…
[...]what follows are a couple of url links to web sites we link to seeing that we believe they really are worth browsing[...]…
Just Browsing…
While I was browsing today I noticed a excellent post concerning…
Recommendations from our visitors…
our visitors came across this website and found some useful information…
Yahoo News…
When checking out Yahoo News yesterday I found this…
Related……
[...]just beneath, are numerous totally not related sites to ours, however, they are surely worth going over[...]……
Sources…
[...]check below, are some totally unrelated websites to ours, however, they are most trustworthy sources that we use[...]……
Blogs ou should be reading…
[...]Here is a Great Blog You Might Find Interesting that we Encourage You[...]……
Kamasz…
[...]just below, are some totally unrelated sites to ours, however, they are definitely worth checking out[...]…
Orthopedic Dog Beds For Large Dogs…
[...]just below, are some totally unrelated sites to ours, however, they are definitely worth looking into[...]…
Great Clips Coupons…
[...]right here are a handful of links to online sites which we connect to because we feel they’re worthy of checking out[...]…
Much Thanks!…
Thanks for taking the time to provide us all with the info!…
Yahoo News…
When reading a bit Google and Bing News just now I noticed this…
Really enjoyed this blog post.Thanks Again. Really Great….
Hey, thanks for the blog. Awesome….
iPhone 5…
[...]we like to honor other sites on the web, even if they aren’t related to us, by linking to them. Below are some sites worth checking out[...]…
Great Clips Coupons…
[...]in the following are several references to online sites that we connect to since we feel they will be well worth visiting[...]…
Barát Keresés…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]…
Blogs ou should be reading…
[...]Here is a Great Blog You Might Find Interesting that we Encourage You[...]……
Great Clips Coupons…
[...]listed here are a couple of references to internet pages we link to for the fact we feel there’re really worth checking out[...]…
Check this out…
[...] that is the end of this article. Here you’ll find some sites that we think you’ll appreciate, just click the links over[...]……
It is quite hard to find good help…
I am really constantnly saying that its difficult to procure good honest help, but here is …
Websites you should visit…
[...]below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[...]……
Recommeneded websites…
[...]Here are some of the sites we recommend for our visitors[...]……
Great Clips Coupons…
[...]the following are a couple of url links to internet sites I always link to seeing as we believe they will be seriously worth checking out[...]…
Websites we think you should visit…
[...]although websites we backlink to below are considerably not related to ours, we feel they are actually worth a go through, so have a look[...]……
Tumblr article…
I saw someone talking about this on Tumblr and it linked to…
Visitor recommendations…
[...]one of our visitors recently recommended the following website[...]……
Its hard to find good help…
I am forever saying that its hard to procure quality help, but here is …
Read was interesting, stay in touch……
[...]please visit the sites we follow, including this one, as it represents our picks from the web[...]……
Awesome website…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]……
Cool sites…
[...]we came across a cool site that you might enjoy. Take a look if you want[...]……
Bing results…
While searching a bit Bing and Yahoo I happily discovered this page in the search results and I do not think it match…
Yahoo results…
While searching Yahoo I discovered this page in the results and I didn’t think it fit…
Related……
[...]just beneath, are numerous totally not related sites to ours, however, they are surely worth going over[...]……
Sites we Like……
[...] Every once in a while we choose blogs that we read. Listed below are the latest sites that we choose [...]……
Recommeneded websites…
[...]Here are some of the sites we recommend for our visitors[...]……
Sources…
[...]check below, are some totally unrelated websites to ours, however, they are most trustworthy sources that we use[...]……
Websites we think you should visit…
[...]although websites we backlink to below are considerably not related to ours, we feel they are actually worth a go through, so have a look[...]……
Its hard to find good help…
I am constantnly saying that its difficult to procure quality help, but here is …
közösségi portálok…
[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]…