Postcolonial Lesbian Identities in Singapore: Re-thinking Global Sexualities

211 Pages·2017·2.883 MB·English

by  Shawna Tang

Postcolonial Lesbian Identities in
Singapore
Taking lesbians in Singapore as a case study, this book explores the possibility of
a modern gay identity, in a postcolonial society, that is not dependent on
Western queer norms. It looks at the core question of how this identity can be
reconciled with local culture and how it relates to global modernities and
dominant understandings of what it means to be queer. It engages with debates
about globalisation, postcolonialism and sexuality, while emphasising the speci­
ficity, diversity and interconnectedness of local lesbian sexualities.
Shawna Tang is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Western Sydney University, Australia.
Formerly a Lecturer at the Department of Sociology, National University of
Singapore, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National Univer­
sity of Singapore, and former Deputy Editor of International Sociology, she
obtained her PhD at the Department of Sociology at the University of Sydney.
Routledge Research on Gender in Asia Series
3 Sex Trafficking in South Asia 10 Gender, Governance and
Telling Maya’s Story Empowerment in India
Mary Crawford Sreevidya Kalaramadam
4 Religion, Gender and Politics in 11 Social Transformation in
Indonesia Post- conflict Nepal
Disputing the Muslim Body A Gender Perspective
Sonja van Wichelen Punam Yadav
5 Gender and Family in East Asia 12 Motherhood and Work in
Edited by Siumi Maria Tam, Contemporary Japan
Wai- ching Angela Wong and Junko Nishimura
Danning Wang
13 Gender, Violence and the State
6 Dalit Women’s Education in in Asia
Modern India Edited by Amy Barrow and
Double Discrimination Joy L. Chia
Shailaja Paik
14 Intimacy and Reproduction in
7 New Modern Chinese Women Contemporary Japan
and Gender Politics Genaro Castro- Vázquez
Ya- chen Chen
15 Postcolonial Lesbian Identities
8 Women and the Politics of in Singapore
Representation in Southeast Re­ thinking global sexualities
Asia Shawna Tang
Engendering Discourse in
Singapore and Malaysia 16 Unmarried Women in Japan
Edited by Adeline Koh and The drift into singlehood
Yu- Mei Balasingamchow Akiko Yoshida
9 Women and Conflict in India
Sanghamitra Choudhury
Postcolonial Lesbian
Identities in Singapore
Re­ thinking global sexualities
Shawna Tang
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Shawna Tang
The right of Shawna Tang to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Tang, Shawna, author.
Title: Postcolonial lesbian identities in Singapore : re­thinking global
sexualities / by Shawna Tang.
Description: New York : Routledge, [2016] | Series: Routledge research
on gender in Asia series ; 15 | Includes bibliographical references and
index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016019401| ISBN 9781138855175 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781315720500 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Lesbianism–Singapore. | Sexual orientation–Singapore. |
Postcolonialism–Singapore. | Sex role and globalization–Singapore.
Classification: LCC HQ75.6.S55 T36 2016 | DDC 306.76095957–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016019401
ISBN: 978­1­138­85517­5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978­1­315­72050­0 (ebk)
Typeset in Galliard
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
In loving memory of my beautiful mother,
Sally Tey Kwi Hong (1944–2013)

Contents
Acknowledgements x
1 Introduction 1
Women who love women in Singapore 1
Queer- ed in an Anglo- American way: the globalisation of same- sex
identities 3
The queer Asia critique and specificities of Asian queer sexualities 7
The arsenal of Asian ‘lesbian’ research, and the absence of
Singapore 10
Locating female non- normative sexualities in Singapore’s
modernity 12
Subjects in question, central provocations and theoretical
interventions 15
Road map 18
2 Conceptual underpinnings of global queering 22
SECTION ONE
A genealogy of the global gay? 23
Globalisation in the global gay domain, and Altman’s
antimony 26
Specifying the ‘other side’: non- Western sexualities in the global
gay domain 28
Theoretical problematic and persistent logics: an elementary
framework 34
Searching for historical tradition and specific local cultural
experience 36
SECTION TWO
Towards a postcolonial LGQ studies 38
The postcolonial orientation of queer Asian scholarships 42
viii Contents
Re- theorising hybridisation 44
Turning to ‘transnationality’ 47
Coda 50
3 Postcolonial Singapore: state, nationalism and sexuality 51
Sexuality, state and nationalism in a postcolonial world 52
Setting the conceptual context: ‘state’, ‘nationalism’ and
‘sexuality’ 54
Specifying Singapore’s postcolonial historical context 57
State policing, portrayals and pronouncements of homosexuality in
Singapore 62
4 Sexual politics in Singapore: sodomy law and lesbian
resistance 76
A parliamentary petition against Section 377A 78
A leadership tussle over lesbianism 85
Coda 89
5 Transnational politics of local queer activism and lesbian
activists 91
Fostering queer consciousness in fraught discursive tropes 93
Queering Singapore: local to transnational spaces for lesbian and
gay organising 99
Pink Dot 102
The reverse implantation of Pink Dot 106
Reflections on the local queer movement 108
Early lesbian agency in Singapore 112
Transnational lesbian activism 116
Politics of ‘coming out’ and ‘gaining visibility’ 118
Political significance of hybridising, transnational sexualities 119
6 ‘Modern’ lesbian lives in postcolonial Singapore 124
Prelude 124
Analysing Singaporean lesbian women’s experiences 126
Agency, subjects and structure 127
Queer? No way! I am not weird: labels and gendered lesbian
lives 129
‘Coming out’ in the city-s tate 147
A queer turn 159
Contents ix
7 Recollections, remarks and re-m aking the relations:
a postcolonial politics of difference 162
Poststructuralism, state- sexuality relations and local resistance 165
Final notes 168
Methodological appendix 170
References 179
Index 198