ABSTRACT
The social history of non-cooperation continues in this chapter on smallpox. To Singapore’s Asian working class, Western biomedicine appeared incomprehensible and harmful. The compulsory vaccination of children for smallpox aroused much social resistance and avoidance. Conversely, colonial officials and doctors viewed the disease through racial lenses, blaming the Asian population, especially the Malay minority, for its alleged apathy to official measures. But the real reasons for non-cooperation were practical and political rather than racial. After the Second World War, the mass vaccination efforts of the late colonial state had the support of the majority of the people.
