越境する力：シンガポールの日常における第三の場所 ―華人 イスラム教改宗者の事例から (Power to cross borders between ethnicities in Singapore: through the cases of Chinese Muslim converters)

Abstract

Ethnic groups in Singapore are not mere social, economic and cultural groupings but governing units for the state. These ethnic groups are stipulated as Chinese, Malay, Indian and Others, and social policies are crafted to maintain these four ethnic groups and keep them existing as different groups without mingling. This social structure makes it increasingly difficult to imagine border-crossing between different ethnic groups in Singapore’s everyday life, although border-crossings unavoidably happen. This article will attempt to investigate such bordercrossings in Singapore, with Chinese Muslim converters as a case in point. It will also attempt to understand hybrid subjects created through border-crossing Chinese Muslim converters in this case, by deploying Homi Bhabha’s idea of the third space.