ABSTRACT
This chapter will study Kuo Pao Kun’s play Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral as a reexamination of Singapore’s position within the Indian Ocean world; the play critically examines what Singapore has become, and proffers an alternative, almost utopian vision to offset the dystopia of a “dour and puritanical modernity”2 which is evinced in the form of a monocular focus on material comfort. By juxtaposing the historical fi gure of Admiral Zheng He with a group of modern day Singaporean yuppies, it looks at Singapore’s position in the past on the great Oceanic trade route, and how that position has been translated into the present. The play takes a critical stance towards what has become of Singapore as it seeks to consolidate its prime position in the global world of trade and fi nance; Singapore is presented as soulless and focused almost entirely on material gain. The play then tries to present another, more spiritual and joyful view of what Singapore might have been. Interestingly, however, that vision is still grounded in an ingrained perception of Singapore as a trading centre. That identity, it would appear, has become too deeply entrenched to be easily shaken off. My reading of the play in conjunction with historical references to Zheng He and the Indian Ocean world reveals a complex and nuanced vision of contemporary Singapore as a nation wholly predicated on its relationship to the sea and its associated trade routes. While today the sea routes have to some extent been replaced by air travel and new communication technologies, Singapore remains steadfastly “outward” in its outlook. For this reason Zheng He, an early master of the Indian Ocean trade routes, has been of central signifi cance in Singapore’s imagining of itself and the global position it occupies.
