ABSTRACT
Understandings of mixed race are intertwined with classifications of race and the social context of racial/ethnic relations. In Singapore, mixed race has been acknowledged through the category of ‘Eurasian’. This colonial category originally provided a label for individuals of European/Asian descent, along patrilineal European lines. Its meaning has changed over the past decades, and currently, it provides an official space for individuals of mixed descent, akin to a ‘multiracial’ option. However, the reality of this label in the lives of individuals is more complex. ‘Eurasian’ identity occupies an in-between space, serving to reinforce gendered and racial boundaries, based on historical notions of authenticity. This paper looks at experiences of mixed race of Eurasian in Singapore, drawing on 20 interviews with women and men. It highlights the ways in which a label of multiplicity can serve to exclude, and even re-racialize, identities within a regulated multiracial society.
