Redefining the Dual City: Changing Ideas of Plural Citizenship in Colonial/ Postcolonial Singapore

Abstract

Contemporary Singapore has a plural society, which is officially described as multiracial and is divided into four ethnic categories: Chinese, Malay, Indian, and “Other” The roots of this model may be traced to the colonial period and to the systems of classification and categorization that underlay the division of commerce and labor in Singapore’s colonial economy. These racial divisions were, more importantly, facilitated through a plan for a segregated city, where racial groups were located in distinct enclaves. In short, Singapore today maintains an expanded, plural model of the dual city familiar to colonial urbanism1.