There is a brief history ofanarchism inSingapore. In contemporary times, there has been little or no significant presence of the ideology in the country.
While the area which is now Singapore was inhabited for centuries prior to the arrival of European colonialists, thefounding of modern Singapore took place in 1819. Founded by theBritish statesmanStamford Raffles, Singapore – as a colony of Britain – saw theChinese become its largest ethnic group already in 1827. This trend has continued until today, with theChinese Singaporeans making up approximately 74.1% of the population.[1]
The Chinese population, much of which came to Singapore due to political or economic reasons – such as migrants leaving southern China to escape economic hardships, and refugees from theFirst Opium War (1839–1842) andSecond Opium War (1856–1860) – has historically been a driving force behind radical political ideologies in the country. During the anti-Manchu upheavals of the late 19th and early 20th century in China,Chinese anarchists played an influential part opposing and eventually overthrowing theQing Dynasty. Singapore played an important role in this process, serving as a center for Chinese revolutionary activity. In 1906 it became the headquarters of theTongmenghui, a left-wing nationalist group, in Southeast Asia.[2]
The branch was led bySun Yat-sen, who would become a leader of theRevolution of 1911 and the earlyRepublic of China. But political activity in Singapore was not limited to republican revolution. During this period, Sun was associated with the Chinese anarchistZhang Renjie, who provided a significant amount of Sun's funding (Zhang's daughter Helen would later marry a doctor from Singapore,Robert Lim).[3] Zhang, a member of the so-calledParis group who was active in the colony, purchased a printing press to be used in producing anarchist texts.[4] Another member of the Paris anarchist group,Chu Minyi, joined the Tongmenghui while stopping over in Singapore. Years later, in the wake of theMay Fourth Movement of 1919, anarchist groups were formed amongoverseas Chinese communities, in among other places Singapore. These radical societies published their own newsletters and periodicals and spread anarchist literature.[5] Some republican–influenced anarchists joined the General Labour Union of Guangzhou, which had formed in Singapore.[6]
In the modern period, political radicalism of all forms in Singapore has been far less common than in the past, especially for the political ideology of anarchism. Some rare anarchist-related instances have occurred, such as in May 2014 when five Singaporean teenagers were arrested for spraying crudeanarchist symbolism and anti-People's Action Party slogans on a high-rise roof.[7][8]
In Singaporean fiction, the plot of a 2003 six-part drama series produced by the now defunctSPH MediaWorks Channel U, entitledThe Frontline (家在前线), circled around how the country coped after theGerman mastermind of a "neo-anarchist" organisation sets off a bomb at a naval base as an anti-imperialist statement against Singapore's ties with theUnited States.
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