It is often said (by both insiders and outsiders) that multicultural Singapore does not have
its own performance culture and that anything that might be called 'Singaporean' has been
imported from outside. The articles in this book address and deconstruct the question of
whether there is such a thing as Singaporean performance from multiple perspectives including
those of: local and foreign scholars performers of music and dance from different local groups
of same and mixed ethnicities and composers. Issues of Singaporean history politics
development strategies and cultural policies necessarily inform the background of these essays
the research they represent and the contexts of the performers performances described.
Constructions of group and individual identity through performance are investigated as
questions about the value and the possibility of multiple identities claimed and demonstrated
through performance are examined. Intentionally decentering the main topic of the volume -
Singaporean Performance - the title of the book provokes and encourages discussion about the
myriad traditional newly composed hybrid and many other kinds of performing arts created and
experienced in Singapore.
