Abstract
Abstract This thesis focuses on the life experiences of the Chinese single women who immigrated to Singapore at the beginning of the 20th century to work on construction sites. They were referred to as “Hong Tou Jin” (Red Head-scarf) in Chinese because of the red headscarves they wore while working, and as "Samsui women" in Englsh due to the common knowledge that most of them came from Samsui County in Guangdong Province, South China. These women immigrated to Singapore when the city approached to the end of British colonization, and gradually as well as intriguingly, these women became a celebrated icon in the history of the nation. Basing on the analysis of the Hong Tou Jin women's life experiences, this thesis aims at a better understanding of how the nation with a colonial past uses the experiences of these female immigrants to build up its histories and national identity. To understand the stories against a broader regional-historical background, this thesis also compares the diverse histories of Southern Chinese women immigrants in Singapore and West Malaysia. Through the comparison, the author reveals how this basically common cohort of Southern Chinese women immigrants are attributed with highly differentiated images both in the collective memories of dialect-based social groupings of Chinese communities and in the media portrayals of respective countries. The author further shows that this differentiation is closely related to the differences in the histories of nation building between Singapore and Malaysia. The social construction of the image of “Heroines of Nation Building” for the Hong Tou Jin women in Singapore was recounted and analyzed in detail. This process of social construction is not without obstacles, resistance and indifference derived from various social strata. Power struggles between, as well as internal conflicts within, dialect associations, plus diversified interests and intentions of concerned agents from different socio-economic classes, all exert influence on the representations of Hong Tou Jin. The processes in a sense accentuate the differences amongst Singaporeans' national identities. The thesis demonstrates that for female immigrants, their experiences during the immigration and their adaptation to the new land deserve more attention then they are currently receiving from scholarly works. More efforts should be devoted to the interpretation of their decisions and intentions to immigrate. In appearance, Singapore State currently recognizes Hong Tou Jin’s contribution as construction laborers who helped to build the nation and to give its people their identity, and hence having earned their place in the history books. But is this state-sanctioned image doing justice to the individual women immigrants? Judging from the contemporary representation of Hong Tou Jin in Singaporean society, the relationship between the efforts of these female immigrants and the building of the nation are mainly economical, though a lighthearted feminist twist – that those women came to Singapore by themselves and worked on construction sites side by side with men. Deeper reflection on the whole “heroine making” process shows that, (1) the iconic “Heroine of Nation Building” status that the Hong Tou Jin enjoys is largely denied to the majority of women immigrants working in domains not selectively recognized by the public, such as house-maid, waitress or even tin mine and robber plantation workers; and (2) the personal experiences of these Hong Tou Jin women, both before and after being made “Heroine of Nation Building” demonstrates that there is still undeniably a paternal dominance in the linkage between working women and national recognition. By studying the different experiences of individuals, it is possible to examine how the state, through manipulating social status and collective representation, creates national recognition of a specific group of woman laborers. Recounting this story from a female standpoint is significant in the understanding of social structures – the differences of which cause differences in national identify and national acceptance of specific subaltern groups. This significance is the core idea that this thesis aims at highlighting. Keyword: Singapore, Samsui women, female immigrant, nation building, identity