Mixed Race Studies

Tune Your Engine – What is a New Zealander?

Afternoons with Jim Mora
Radio New Zealand National
2011-08-02, 03:10Z (15:10 NZT)

Jim Mora, Presenter

Zarine L. Rocha, Research Scholar in the Department of Sociology
National University of Singapore

Zarine Rocha is a research Scholar in the Department of Sociology at the National University of Singapore. She’s exploring the issues of mixed race and mixed ethnic identity in New Zealand and Singapore. (00:19:25)

Listen to the interview here in (MP3 or Ogg Vorbis format).

Double-barrelled race system to start on Saturday

Today Online
2010-12-31

Zul Othman

SINGAPORE – From Saturday, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) will implement the registration of dual heritage options for children with parents of different races. This means these children will be able to share dual heritages on their identity cards (ICs), by way of “double-barrelled” races.

This change was first announced in Parliament in January; giving mixed marriage couples—a Caucasian-Chinese, for example—the flexibility to decide how their children’s race should be recorded instead of categorising them as Chinese, Caucasian, or Eurasian.

The ICA says that there will not be any advantages in terms of policy considerations for those who register either a double-barrelled or singular race…

…As for the HDB’s [Housing and Development Board’s] Ethnic Integration Policy—which puts a cap on the number of families of each race in a HDB block to ensure a balanced mix of races—it has previously said that it may be more flexible towards mixed-race couples…

Read the entire article here.

Dreaming of a colour-blind S’pore

The Straits Sunday Times
2010-08-08
page 30

Edwina Shaddick, 22
British-Chinese

Edwina Shaddick, final year politics and sociology major from SMU, has a father from Swindon, England and a mother who is Chinese Singaporean. She shares how her mixed heritage has shaped her identity.

The politics and sociology major from Singapore Management University (SMU) has a father from Swindon, England, who is a Singapore permanent resident. Her mother is a Chinese Singaporean.

The eldest of three children goes to England occasionally to visit relatives and friends.

Her primary and secondary school years weres pent at Methodist Girls’ School.

She is known as a Eurasian on her identity card. She had asked for Anglo-Chinese, but it was not allowed. Her two siblings are classified as Caucasians.

Q: How has your mixed hetitage shaped your Identity?

I think being mixed is but one facet of my identity. When I was younger I used to grapple with issues of race much more, like what it meant to not look like the majority of people in Singapore, what it meant to have an English father, which culture I liked more.

But when I got older, I found other things that defined me, like my interest in sports or my sense of humour, so I placed less emphasis on something as trivial as race to define myself…

Read the entire article here.