Across the Ocean, Rebuilding Homeland: A Study on the Cultural Aspects of the Chinese Community in Singapore

Author: Zeng Ling
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: This book combines literature and field research data, examining the historical process of how Chinese immigrants from South China used local cultural resources from their ancestral hometowns to rebuild their homes in Singapore, within the context of social development in China, Singapore, and the entire Asia-Pacific region since modern times. Through macroscopic studies and case research, it specifically explores this process. The study reveals that the enhanced social functions of Chinese folk culture in Singapore are due to the adjustment and expansion of the concepts of "relative" or "kinship" in the immigrant society towards virtual or generalized blood ties, thereby exhibiting characteristics of "community-oriented" culture. Through the accumulation of social and historical changes, the "community-oriented" relationships of "relative" or "kinship" in the Chinese society of Singapore have carried many important humanistic values, such as caring for the community and dedicating to society, which have also become an important feature and content of Chinese folk culture in Singapore. The sociocultural characteristics of the Chinese in Singapore fully demonstrate the immense vitality, adaptability, and regenerative functions of the folk culture system in Chinese culture.