Institutionally incorporated, symbolically un‐remade: state reform of Chinese schools in postwar Singapore

Abstract

When Singapore underwent decolonization after World War II, its government—keen on constructing a Singapore‐centered identity—sought to replace Chinese schools, which taught a China‐centered worldview. This attempt provoked tough resistance from the local Chinese. Succumbing to this pressure, the ruling regime accommodated Chinese schools as part of the state education system. Afterward, the authorities, eager to make sure the now‐incorporated Chinese institutions would not unleash symbolic effects detrimental to their position, endeavored to transform the curriculum of Chinese schools into a locally centered one. This attempt, however, failed, because the state was unable to curb influences from non‐local pedagogic agents and, without a strong indigenous intellectual tradition, the Singapore authorities found it difficult to produce a genuinely local curriculum. This historical case suggests that we should consider the incorporation and remaking of subordinated culture as two distinct processes of hegemonic strategies necessitating analytical distinction. It also urges us to differentiate conceptually the institutional and symbolic dimensions of culture when using a theory of hegemony to examine education and power.