The Evolution of Contemporary China Studies in Singapore: From the Regional Cold War to the Present

Abstract

This study provides an overview of the development of contemporary China studies in Singapore from the regional Cold War to the present. It argues that the waxing and waning of China studies in Singapore were intertwined with state interests at different points in time, defined in accordance with the state’s self-professed “pragmatism”. In particular, this paper suggests that the state’s ostensible aversion to communist China during the regional Cold War, the decline of the Chinese language under its bilingual policy, and the state’s active courting of China from the 1990s have profound and lasting influence on the state of China studies in Singapore. All in all, in the context of a rising China and the state’s “pragmatic” responses, it is likely that China studies in Singapore shall continue to gravitate toward policy research for many years to come.