SOC205 Singapore Society Tutor-Marked Assignment 01-02 – Singapore celebrates its bicentennial – 200 years since the arrival of Sir Stamford Raffles, Singapore

TMA01: Singapore History, the Nation and Nation-Building (1,000 words)

Question (100 marks)
This year, Singapore celebrates its bicentennial – 200 years since the arrival of Sir Stamford Raffles, commonly spoken of as the year of the founding of modern Singapore which marked the start of a dramatic transformation of Singapore. The event commemorates this, yet increasingly, it is also acknowledged that Singapore’s history dates further back.

Read the article ‘Singapore’s bicentennial commemoration in 2019: A time to reflect on its rich history’, Channel NewsAsia, 31 December 2017 (available via
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singapore-s bicentennial commemoration-in-2019-a-time-to-reflect-9823248).

Drawing on the course materials, examine the link between a nation’s history and nation- and state-building processes (and challenges). In your answer, you should reflect upon the impact of accounts of national history on the construction of the nation-state, as reflected, for example, by the bicentennial commemoration.

Additional research, only if needed, can be done from both academic and news databases in the SUSS library’s e-resources (JSTOR, Sage Sociology collection, SOCIndex for academic resources; Factiva for news). You may familiarise yourself with the bicentennial celebrations from reports in the local media.

Using evidence from the readings, critically discuss the way nation-building and its corresponding challenges have been framed by considering the constructions of national history, the motivations behind these, and their consequences. For instance, think about how concerns about Singapore’s future, postindependence as well as today, have often been framed.

In responding to the question, you should consider:
1. The meanings of the concepts ‘history’, ‘state’, ‘nation’ and ‘nation-state’ as used by sociologists and social scientists; the processes of state-building and nation-building – you should differentiate the two
2. Singapore as a secondary nation-state, and the way this contributed to the historical exigencies of post-independent nation-building
3. The significance of accounts of national histories for the building of nation-states, e.g., Singapore’s founding myths and national interests as defined by the state, and how these have had impact on nation-building

TMA02: Culture, Race and Ethnicity: Multiculturalism in Singapore (1,500 words)

Question (100 marks)
Read the article, ‘NDR 2018: Singapore to nominate hawker culture as “intangible cultural heritage” for UNESCO listing’, 19 August 2018 (available via https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/ndr-2018-singapore-nominate-hawkerculture-unesco-heritage-10631126).

Singapore has lodged a bid to have its ‘hawker culture’ included in Unesco’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Apply a sociological lens to this endeavour involving hawker culture, to analyse ‘culture’ in Singapore.