Javanese-Singaporeans : changing perceptions and practice in culture and identity during post-1965 Singapore

Abstract

This thesis explores how Javanese-Singaporeans manage and retain their Javanese culture since post-1965 Singapore. Being subsumed into the ‘Malay-Muslim’ community, these Javanese-Singaporeans are pushed to undergo an acculturation process. This paper will look at the experiences of these 2nd Generation Javanese-Singaporeans who have lived through this transitional phase of Singapore’s nation-building as it aims to uncover the changes in the way they perceived and practiced Javanese culture. Particularly, this paper will seek to explore the changes made towards these two main Javanese elements, life-cycle rituals and its usage of the language. Hence, it will be interesting to investigate how these intangible cultural heritages have been altered to adapt to the local context. As such, this challenges the notion of an maintaining an “authentic” Javanese cultural identity in Singapore, Instead, Javanese culture and identity were molded by the interactions between the Javanese-Singaporeans and Singapore’s unique and complex social conditions. This have since led to a reconstruction of its own unique version of Javanese culture. Therefore, this paper argues that Singapore’s social conditions, in post-1965, have reconstructed the perceptions of Javanese-Singaporeans towards Javanese culture. As such, this reshaped the way they practiced their Javanese culture, particularly, in their language usage and rituals, resulting in a distinctive blend of Javanese-Singaporean culture while upholding their Javanese identity.