When I embarked on this research in December 2002 after doing a coursebook in Advanced Research Methodology, it was not without a certain amount of trepidation since there are very few critical writings on Singaporean and Malaysian novels in English.

I have been interested in the novels of this region since the fifties when Han Suyin' And the Rain My Drink first appeared in 1956. The fact that the author lived in my hometown, Johor Bahru, was exciting for a teenager whose greatest enjoyment was reading. I used to see her, Dr Elizabeth Comber, who had become famous after her first novel, Love is a Many-Splendoured Thing, was made into a movie, at our convent school where her daughter studied.

In 1972, when I had to do an academic exercise as part of fulfilment of the requirement for my Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours in English, I opted to look into for the question on novels about the Japanese Occupation of this region. In order to explore the theme, “Two Dominant Themes in the English Literature of Japanese Occupation: A Study of Modern Response to War”, I read all the memoirs and novels by both European and non-European writers that I could lay my hands on. In those days I could only find one novel by a non-European. Sold for Silver by Janet Lim, an autobiographical novel, was discovered in a second-hand bookshop by chance. It was an old battered paperback.

But by 2002, there were many novels by non-European writers on the shelves of air-conditioned bookshops. In 2001, while formulating the proposal, I decided to concentrate on novels written between 1950 and 1980. After reading them I prepared a questionnaire and set about gathering empirical data. In 2002 I abandoned this idea and decided to focus on the novels that were published between 1980 and 2002. There weren' that many to make this task impossible, but there were enough for me to have to make a selection.

My interest in this area of research was also spurred on by the fact that I had started writing a novel in 1996. My chief concern while I was writing was how to represent my mother' speech and the dialogues with my grandmother which were in Malayalam.

INTRODUCTION

The chairman of the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association (MGMA) deplores the fact that the garment industry in Yangon and its suburbs has been losing workers, in particular experienced workers, to Mae Sot, a Thai border town opposite Myawaddy on the Myanmar side. His own factory employed 150 workers but has recently lost 10 sewing-machine-operators to Mae Sot. The question is why Myanmar workers have left Yangon, the former capital and business centre of the country, for a small border town on the Thai side.

The garment industry in Yangon was severely damaged by the United States’ sanctions of July 2003, which banned all imports from Myanmar. The industry exported nearly half of its products to the United States, and more than 80 per cent of U. S. imports from Myanmar were clothes. Myanmar' garment exports declined sharply from US$829 million in 2001 to US$312.4 million in 2005, a 62.3 per cent decline. Many factories were closed and many workers lost their jobs. Some garment workers who were made redundant went to Mae Sot to seek employment. Such a migration reflects the poor business conditions and serious unemployment problem in Myanmar, as well as the significant wage gap between the two countries. It is therefore only natural that Myanmar workers migrate to Thailand, attracted by abundant job opportunities and higher wages.

However, there are two important questions that must be answered: the first is why so many garment factories are concentrated in a small Myanmar-Thai border town. This question raises issues unique to Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, as shown below. The other question is why the industry is located on the Thai side, not the Myanmar side. Mae Sot and Myawaddy are separated by a small river called the Moei. The friendship bridge that was constructed by the Thai government in 1997 connects the two towns. The Thai garment industry could easily cross the bridge and relocate to Myawaddy, where it could probably employ more Myanmar workers at lower wages. However, this did not happen. The absence of a border industry in Myawaddy indicates that there exists some hindrance or impediment which prevents the Thai garment industry from operating on Myanmar soil.

In Playing Madame Mao (2000), Lau Siew Mei through effective exploitation of the convention of multiple narrators is able to explore fully the concept of freedom of speech. This is because

Thus the multiplicity of voices enables the author to express the underlying theme of the narrative. According to the writer, “central to Playing Madame Mao is the question of what freedom of speech means to human society. What are the effects of censorship and self-censorship upon the inner lives of people living in a country where they are prevalent?” (Quayum 2002, p. 446). Lau Siew Mei emigrated to Australia in 1994 and her novel, published in Australia, uses a mode of presentation which imposes an aesthetic distance from the obliquely political message buried in a phantasmagoric representation of life in Singapore. The main plot of the novel deals with the so called Marxist incident of 1987 when a group of Catholic Church workers was arrested for conspiring to incite resistance against the state of Singapore. The writer uses this incident to dramatize the effects of censorship an

the lack of freedom of speech in a society.

The blurb by Nicholas Jose states that the novel is “a phantasmagoric representation of the life in a world of mirrors, where a woman' memoir of her existence is projected through flashes of this myth and history”. The effective exploitation of this mode is possible as the characters, Tang the scholar, Roxanne the journalist, Chiang Ching the scriptwriter and third person narrator, all speak in the same register as they come from the educated, upper middle-class, where English has become the language of thought and feeling in Singapore. This allows the writer to make rapid changes of scene where one point of view blends into another. The voice of Madame Mao is in vernacular transcription and it is through the role play of Chiang Ching the actress and scriptwriter, that her voice is heard.

In Lee Kok Liang' Flowers in the Sky (1981), the voice that the reader hears is one that remembers and reflects. It is through the search for spiritual solace while trapped in isolation, unable to communicate this profound longing that the two main characters in the novel — one a Jaffna Tamil, and the other a Chinese — both immigrants settled in Penang, are linked. The theme of sexuality and the quest for spirituality slowly emerge from the thoughts and reminiscences of these two characters, as Lee uses a non-linear construction to alternate between the two consciousness, one a monk' and the other a surgeon'. The narrative starts at 3 p.m. on a Wednesday and ends the following Monday at 10 a.m., when Hung, the monk, is discharged from a private hospital after Mr K., the surgeon, operates on him for a hernia.Within the space of six days, the reader hears a multiplicity of social voices which orchestrates the parallel themes of spirituality and sexuality with the theme of communication.

Allusions to the Buddhist sutras and Tantra play a significant role in creating a background for dramatizing these parallel themes. The epigraph that opens the novel, the Lotus Sutra, touches on a central Buddhist belief that the sin of fornication is subject to karmic retribution:

Although this English translation from Sanskrit signals one of the concerns in the narrative, by juxtaposing the above epigraph with the following sutra,

the writer conveys the complex nature of human desire. The reader feels it is influenced by factors beyond human control. This internal “dialogue”, between the two sutras enhances the dialogic quality in the novel. The search for spiritual satisfaction is complicated by human sexuality. The intertextuality that surrounds Venerable Hung, the main interiorized character whose thoughts are represented through vernacular transcription, relates to Buddhist scriptures.

INTRODUCTION

In the process of religious modernisation, the state, the lay community and the Sangha have engaged in various strategies to speed up the process of change. Each group modernises the religion according to its own agenda. Despite the differences, they have all worked towards a singular goal of promoting Reformist Buddhism as a modern religion.

In Shenist practice, it is the ritual that takes centrestage; but in Reformist Buddhism, it is the Buddhist ideology that is the key concern for the adherents. Reformist Buddhism adopts various scriptural tenets from the different Buddhist traditions to answer contemporary needs. Its primary focus is not on the attainment of enlightenment. It is more concerned with this-worldly needs, and it argues that near salvation can be attained in this world and in one's lifetime. Monkhood is only one path to salvation. The other path is to pursue various spiritual and socio-welfare activities to attain this-worldly salvation. Reformist Buddhism is seen as a modern religion that focuses not only on the Buddhist doctrine but also on the socio-cultural and welfare aspects of the society. It is a scriptural religion as well as a social religion, and provides time and space for members to interact in a religiously and socially intimate way. At the same time, it is also a compassionate religion, in that it cares for the socially less-abled and less-privileged people both within Singapore and abroad. It therefore appeals both to the younger as well as the older generations of Singapore Chinese of all classes.

(a) Central Tenets of Reformist Buddhist Teaching

Although Reformist Buddhism adopts various aspects of scriptural knowledge from the different Buddhist traditions, there are key tenets that it expounds to its members and the general public. The key scriptural tenets are (i) the doctrine of causation, i.e., the Four Noble Truths; (ii) the theory of Karma, Rebirth and Merit-making; (iii) Morality and Ethic; (iv) Buddhist Work Ethics; (v) Compassion and Humanity; and (vi) the Eightfold Path. The central idea behind the selection of these various Buddhist teachings is to enable the followers to understand the meaning of life through the Buddhist understanding of suffering and the ability of individuals to reduce the level of suffering through their own actions in both the religious and secular spheres. Let us explore briefly the key Buddhist teachings.

In this study, I have explored how traditional Chinese religion – Shenism – which is part of Chinese culture, is now subjected to a process of religious modernisation. This process of modernisation entails the Chinese moving gradually towards Reformist Buddhism. As a result of the changing needs of the Chinese community, particularly among the younger Chinese, among whom Shenist rituals seem irrelevant to modern religious needs, scripture knowledge is being popularised in its place.

The main players in the process of religious modernisation – the Singapore State, the Reformist Sangha, Reformist Buddhists and the Christians (including the Fundamentalists, Catholics and Liberation Theologists) have been influential in restructuring traditional Chinese religion from Shenism to Reformist Buddhism, offering its adherents an alternative spiritual lifestyle. The Singapore state sees religious modernisation in the Chinese religion as imperative in a variety of ways. First, there is the problem of image. Traditional Chinese religion with its magical and ritual acts is seen as irrational and outdated for a literate population of a modern metropolis. Second, religious engineering is important in order that the Singapore state can continue to maintain the ethno-religious link and that religion is severed from political involvement of any kind. The Maintenance of Religious Harmony Law ensures that each religious group polices its own religious activities and actions and so maintains religious harmony among the ethnic communities. By being involved in religious engineering, the state also ensures that the values that it wants to promote can be integrated as part of the religious discourse of the various religions found in Singapore, including welfare works.

It is possible to argue that Christian activities, especially its aggressive proselytisation serve as a catalyst for the Reformist Buddhists to rationalise and reform existing Shenist practices into modern Reformist Buddhist practices. There has been rapid conversion of the Chinese to Christianity since the 1980s. This increase is at the expense of Shenism and Buddhism.

The state and the Christians have to a certain degree forced a re-evaluation of the Shenist belief system. At the same time, a home-grown group of Reformist Buddhists and monks has matured and readied itself to restructure Shenism and promote Reformist Buddhism. Apart from encouraging the Chinese population to embrace Reformist Buddhism and forgo Shenism, the Reformist Buddhists’ other task is to encourage non Chinese to become Buddhists and to reconvert Christian converts into Reformist Buddhism. They have had some success with this.

INTRODUCTION

Since the 19th century, the Chinese in Singapore have been practising what was commonly known as bai shen, literally “praying to the deities and gods”. This is the traditional Chinese religious syncretism. It is non-institutional and individual-based and fulfills the functional, socio-psychological and religious needs of the practitioners. The complex and syncretic nature of Chinese religion has resulted in it being termed differently by different scholars. Tan refers to it simply as Chinese Religion (Tan, 1995: 139) while others such as Hu called it “Siniticism” to denote the indigenous Chinese belief system (Hu, 1969:32) and Elliot termed it Shenism (Elliot, 1955). Wee noted that majority of the Chinese in Singapore who called themselves Buddhists were in fact practising Chinese religion with Buddhist elements (Wee, 1976: 155-188). While there is a variation in the terms and labels for Chinese religious syncretism, I have chosen to use the term “Shenism” as expounded by Elliot, as the Chinese continue to use the term “baishen” when worshipping their gods and deities. The term “shen” is used to describe gods and deities within the Chinese religious syncretism.

The early migrants, particularly the women, were engaged in a process of cultural reinvention. In this process of cultural reinvention, invented traditions are seen as “traditions actually invented, constructed and formally instituted and those emerging in a less traceable manner within a brief and dateable period – a matter of a few years perhaps – and establishing themselves with great rapidity” (Hobsbawm and Ranger, 1983). By reproducing familiar gods and deities and adapting ritual practices to the local environment, as well as inventing new ones, the Singapore Chinese are constantly negotiating their religious needs within the Chinese cosmological boundary.

CHINESE COSMOLOGY AND COSMOGONY

The Chinese cosmogony and cosmological worldview is predominantly a synthesis of Daoist and Buddhist metaphysical ideas, with Confucianism providing the moral base. The extent to which these religious doctrines are intertwined and integrated constitutes the strength and uniqueness of the Chinese religious system (DeGroot, 1964, Weber, 1951, Yang, 1961). It is therefore possible to identify the Chinese cosmogonic and cosmological worldview as comprising the Daoist, Buddhist, Confucianist and Shenist universes (Diagram 1.1).

In the aftermath of the 9/11 incident where Islamic extremist groups under Osama Bin Laden decimated the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York, religions and religious movements have come under close scrutiny. It is unlikely that full religious freedom will be condoned in many parts of the world, including the countries that expound democratic ideals of the Western world. What one is likely is guided democracy. Many local religious groups as well as those with global networks will be subjected to either outright or discreet policing by the government and other international law enforcement agencies. Extremist religious movements, including those that champion nationalism and separatism will be regarded as high-risk religious movements capable of terrorist activities and will be monitored closely. While previously the actions of the Singapore government in religious engineering were met with cynicism and criticism by Western governments and human rights groups, such actions are now likely to be regarded as acceptable or even desirable. Furthermore, it is also likely that Asian as well as Western governments might adopt certain legislation to allow them to monitor and to intervene in certain types of religious activities. In this sense, the terrorist attacks will hasten the move towards religious engineering in both local and global contexts.

Today, as we seek to understand the role of Buddhism in modern society, an important role that is gaining currency rapidly is Buddhism's journey into humanity where apart from its role in shaping the morality of individuals and communities through its values, it is increasingly becoming socially-engaged. Socially-engaged Buddhism has witnessed a large increase in membership throughout the world where its members attempt to fight against increasing materialism and consumerism. Here, these socially-engaged Buddhists help shape a more humane local and global community through their concrete social actions for the benefit of the poorer segment of the local and global communities. Through their contributions in material form, time and actions, they are building the groundwork for the emergence of a global Buddhist philanthropic culture.

For the last three decades, socially-engaged Buddhism has gradually increased its influence on the global stage and attracted new members from various parts of the world. In particular, Buddhism has experienced rapid development in America, Europe and Australia, alongside its stronghold in the various Asian countries. Parallel to this is the rapid revival of Buddhism among the youthful population.

Religion, since the beginning of human civilisation, has played a crucial role in all societies. Its metaphysical appeal continues to fulfil individuals’ imagination and quest for an understanding of the unknown and the events that unfold before our eyes. Such a role has become even more significant with the dawn of the 21st century as societies have become more complicated and besieged by increasing wants both metaphysical and material in nature. As we move into the age of globalisation, fraught with relativism that challenges existing structures, institutions and ideologies, we are confronted with a multitude of behaviours and insatiable demands that expose the world as both rational and chaotic, moral and immoral, and compassionate and ruthless. Amidst these conflicting demands, individuals continue to cope with religious and spiritual imaginations.

So, where does religion stand on the global stage in the contemporary world? Since the 9/11 incident in 2001, the world has been looking at all types of religious activities, religious revivalism and religious renaissance in a cautious manner. Could religion lead to what Huntington (1996) viewed as “clashes of civilization” considered inevitable because of differing ideological underpinnings of the different religions within different socio-political cultures, or could it be as the old school of thought has argued that religion continues its journey into humanity, allowing for discursive understandings and shaping the moral underpinnings of each individual society.

While the impact of the 9/11 incident has made us re-examine religions on the global stage, cementing the link between religion and politics and religion and security issues, too much attention today has been paid to this set of relationships, often neglecting the other aspects of religion in the globalised world that we live in. The political and security issues confronting religious activities often make it to the front page of major newspapers. Attention is focussed on the Islamic extremist groups and their actions or would-be terrorist activities foiled by various governments in the world. At the same time, the violence between Buddhism and Hinduism has also made headlines in the news. Towards the end of 2007 and first half of 2008, attention was turned to Buddhism with the sudden assembly of monks in saffron robes taking to the streets in protest against authoritarian regimes with regard to religious freedom, human rights issues and political freedom in Myanmar and Tibet. Such high profile movements gained worldwide attention.

INTRODUCTION

Apart from reproducing the religious ideologies and ritual practices, the Chinese during the early years also reproduced the familiar institution of the village temple in colonial Singapore. Among the common terms for a temple are miao, gong, she and tang. These various terms are used interchangeably to denote Buddhist, Daoist and Shenist temples. The village temple emerged to cater to the functional needs of the peasants and later, in Singapore, of the migrants. Most Chinese were intimately involved in the religious life of the temple, for it fulfilled their individual religious needs. It was important for the Chinese, especially the women, to visit the temple and pray to their gods and deities for help and favour. Members of the Sangha, i.e., monks and nuns, lived in the temples. They were often seen as the embodiment of the institution of the temple because of their status and the roles they played within it. Traditionally, the temple and the Sangha functioned as a single entity.

However, in present-day Singapore, the temple and the Sangha are subjected to the process of bureaucratisation to make them “modern”, “rational” and accountable to the general public. As a result of this process of bureaucratisation, both the temple and the Sangha have different roles. The temple as a religious institution is engaged in both religious and secular activities while the Sangha as a monastic institution is engaged in the pursuit of religious activities. Only certain types of secular activities that are closely linked to religion such as those related to welfare and education can be pursued by individual Sangha members.

This chapter discusses how the process of bureaucratisation results in the separation of the Sangha and the temple. It also discusses the modernising roles played by the monks and nuns, the lay community and the Singapore State in restructuring Chinese religion and Buddhism to suit the modern needs.

EARLY TEMPLE STRUCTURE

In traditional China, there were two main types of temples, the large monasteries and the village temples. They emerged to cater to two separate groups of people. The monasteries were built for those who had chosen a monastic way of life, whose primary preoccupation was the pursuit of enlightenment. They were also seats of power, learning and much scholarship as well as significant economic institutions that controlled large stretches of rural land (Welch, 1967; Chen, 1973).

Religion plays an important role in the process of modernisation and social change in contemporary societies. Likewise, a changing socio-economic and socio-political environment has forced existing religions to change and cater to the modern needs of the people, the society and the state. This is particularly the case in a postmodernist era with the rise of religious movements and a revival in the various world religions such as Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism.

RELIGIOUS CHANGE AND MODERNISATION

This book explores religious modernisation and change within the Singapore Chinese society. It will focus on how Chinese religious syncretism – Shenism – is being forced to change and adapt to the modern needs of society and state. It will examine the process of “Buddhicisation” of the Chinese religious syncretism and a movement towards Reformist Buddhism within the Chinese community where 65% of the Buddhists now regard themselves as Reformist Buddhists. In this process of religious modernisation and change, the agents responsible for transforming the religious landscape of the Singapore Chinese include the Singapore state, the Buddhist Sangha and the Reformist Buddhists within the Chinese community. On top of this, the Christians, particularly Christian fundamentalists, with their aggressive proselytisation and rapid conversion rate, serve as a catalyst to hasten religious change within the Chinese community.

In searching for an answer to understand the relationship between religious change and modernisation in Singapore, it is imperative for us to explore the process of modernisation. Early debates on modernisation focus on the role of colonialism, the emergence of a group of Western-trained modern elites and the acquisition of Western skills in bringing about political, social and economic changes in a country. Modernisation is often equated with Westernisation, and this modernising path continues to be taken for granted in many parts of Asia today (Lerner, 1958; Apter, 1965; and Alter, 1989). Among the politicians in Singapore, modernisation continues to be equated with Westernisation in the immediate years of independence up till the 1980s. Since the late 1980s, with the then Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, at the forefront, there has been a push among the Asian countries for the Asian brand of modernisation culminating in the “Great Debates on Asian Values”.

On the academic front, a group of scholars gathered to discuss the issue of “multiple modernities” in an attempt to understand the various paths of modernisation embarked upon by different countries in the world today.

INTRODUCTION

Today, the changing profile of the Singapore Chinese population with its local-born, second and subsequent generations have found much of the Chinese syncretic religious practices less meaningful to their religious needs. While recognising the functional aspects of Shenism, they found it irrelevant to their quest for individual spiritualism and salvation. These younger Chinese are searching for a religion that will fulfil their spiritual needs. They seek a canon of religious teachings that encompasses a set of moral-ethical values and a spiritual excursion into the world of theodicy, eschatology and soteriology. They thus look to other religious organisations that will provide them answers to their quest for spiritualism. At the same time, they also look towards a priesthood (in our case, the Sangha) that is well-versed with the scriptures, erudite in their doctrinal exposition and charismatic in their public communication. Apart from fulfilling their spiritualism, these younger Chinese also expect the religion to take on relevant social roles. It is expected to be sympathetic and charitable to the under-privileged and marginalised groups of people including the aged and people who have been abandoned by society at large. These young Chinese found their quest of spiritualism in Reformist Buddhism.

This chapter will profile Buddhist membership found in Singapore and the changing religious needs of a younger Singapore Chinese population. It will also explore their position and influence within the Chinese religious community.

MEMBERSHIP PROFILING

The 1990 Census survey found that 31.8% of household heads surveyed are Buddhists and 23.8% are Shenists (Chinese traditional beliefs)/Daoists (Department of Statistics, 1994: (6):63). However, the 2000 Census survey groups religion according to resident population, reflecting the trend towards an individual-based belief instead of a household-based belief system. This reflects a growing trend towards regarding religion as a personal and private affair where individuals are free to choose their own religion. The 2000 Census shows that there has been a rapid increase of Buddhists in Singapore and a rapid decline in Daoism/Chinese traditional beliefs. Within the Chinese community, 54% of the Chinese are Buddhists while only 11% are practitioners of Daoism and Chinese traditional beliefs (Department of Statistics, 2001 (2): 112).