Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes * We would like to express our sincere gratitude to our colleague Ryan Bishop for offering us invaluable input on an early draft. Our thanks also go to the anonymous reviewers whose comments helped to shape the subsequent reworking of this paper. The authors welcome further discussion and can be contacted at ellchh@nus.edu.sg or ellcs@nus.edu.sg 1. This is the title of Singapore's first Prime Minister (now Minister Mentor) Lee Kuan Yew's memoir published in 2000 Lee , Kuan Yew . 2000 . From Third World to First: The Singapore story, 1965–2000 . New York : HarperCollins . [Google Scholar]. 2. In the 2006 general election the dominant PAP party garnered 66.7 per cent of the votes, claiming all but two seats in parliament. This is generally understood to reinforce the idea that Singaporeans want to have a strong government in power but one that is checked and balanced by a credible opposition in parliament. 3. Known locally as the Maria Hertog riot, the violent clashes between Muslims and Christians in the 1950s in Singapore resulted from a tussle over the custody of a Dutch-born girl, Maria Hertog, who was raised by a Malay family. This conflict later led to one of the bloodiest riots in Singapore's race history. The riot—on 21 July 1964 between Malays and Chinese—claimed 23 lives and injured 460. This date is now observed as Racial Harmony Day in Singapore. 4. Upon reflection, while writing this paper, it occurred to us (to our own chagrin), that the instinct that caused us to ‘smell’ possible crisis stemming from just one complaint perhaps testifies to the ‘crisis mentality’ that we Singaporeans are said to harbour. This kind of reflexive response to a situation surely says much about the pervasive mode of socialisation as Singaporeans initiated from a national level of consciousness. 5. Bruce Elder (1997, 1–21) sketches a clear history of the mind/body debate in his introduction. Richard Warner also discusses this at great length in The Mind–Body Problem: A Guide to the Current Debate (1994 Warner , Richard . 1994 . Introduction . In The Mind–body problem: A guide to the current debate , edited by Richard Warner and Tadeusz Szubka . Oxford : Blackwell . [Google Scholar]), in his introduction to the volume. 6. For a more detailed discussion of the body in Hinduism and Buddhism, see Richard King (1999 King , Richard . 1999 . Indian philosophy: An introduction to Hindu and Buddhist thought . Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press . [Google Scholar]). In chapter 8 he deals with ‘consciousness and the body’ in both philosophies. 7. For further discussion on the body and feminism, see Jane Gallop (1988 Gallop , Jane . 1988 . Thinking through the body . New York : Columbia University Press .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]); Elizabeth Grosz (1994 Grosz , Elizabeth . 1994 . Volatile bodies: Towards a corporeal feminism . Bloomington : Indiana University Press . [Google Scholar]); and Judith Butler (1993 Butler , Judith . 1993 . Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of sex . New York : Routledge . [Google Scholar]). 8. Interestingly, Sharina's question echoes the Confucian concern over family/clan and national loyalties, i.e. that the individual in society exists not as self per se but as a self in relation to others. 9. For example, these five principles are classed as ‘national symbols’ on a local school website. An example may be seen on the home page of Victoria School, Singapore at http://vs.moe.edu.sg/ [accessed 13 November 2006]. 10. For further discussion, see Chitra Sankaran and Chng Huang Hoon (2004 Sankaran , Chitra , and Chng Huang Hoon . 2004 . ‘We women aren't free to die’: Transacting Asian sexualities in a feminism classroom in Singapore . Critical Asian Studies 36 ( 2 ): 285 – 301 .[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and Chng Huang Hoon and Chitra Sankaran (2003 Chng , Huang Hoon , and Chitra Sankaran . 2003 . Looking to East and West: Feminist practice in an Asian classroom . In Fractured feminisms , edited by Laura Rosendale and Gil Harootunian . New York : SUNY Press . [Google Scholar]). 11. See, for instance, Brady (1994 Brady , Jeanne . 1994 . Critical literary feminism and a politics of representation . In Politics of liberation , edited by McLaren Peter L. and Eslin Lankshear . London and New York : Routledge . [Google Scholar]) and McLaren (1994 McLaren , Peter . 1994 . Multiculturalism and the postmodern critique: Toward a pedagogy of resistance and transformation . In Between borders: Pedagogy and the politics of cultural studies , edited by Girone Henry A. and Peter McLaren . New York and London : Routledge . [Google Scholar]).