Multicultural dance-making in Singapore: Merdeka, youth solidarity and cross-ethnicity, 1955–1980s

Abstract

Emphasizing inner racial and ethnic distinctions, post-independent Singapore adopts multiculturalism as a founding ideology to construct its national culture. However, the artistic experimentation of multicultural dance-making had emerged prior to Singapore achieving independence. This article argues that Singapore’s multicultural dance-making was to be contextualized in the regional development in 1955 when the “Bandung spirit” was translated into youth solidarity that brought together three ethnic groups (Chinese, Malays, and Indians) to perform their visions of Merdeka (free from colonization). Without an identical culture and lineage to build on, the multiracial population flexibly drew resources from their respective ethno-cultural roots, which offered an important Inter-Asia lens for their anticolonial and diasporic imaginations. Such an artistic approach continued and was energized by dancers traveling from India, Taiwan, and Indonesia to implant new dancing forms into local Singapore society. The migratory trajectories of dance pioneers and their convergence in Singapore reveal un-explored inter-Asia connections that were crucial in nurturing local-born Singaporean dancers, who envisioned their hybrid multicultural dances to thrive in the independent Singapore.

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