Quora Answer: Are Eurasians, in Singapore, becoming Less Recognised?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Are the Eurasians in Singapore becoming less recognised?”

The very nature of being Eurasian is that our identity is eventually diluted into oblivion through constant cross-cultural marriages.  The very concept of a Eurasian is a hybrid of European and Asian influences.  There is nothing inherently bad about that.  I am of Portuguese, Dutch, English and Chinese mix.  We pride ourselves on being Kristang, but there are less than a thousand of us in Singapore who speak my mother tongue, the Portuguese dialect of Cristao.  After me, I doubt my children would be able to speak it.  My great-grandmother spoke Dutch.  After she passed away, none of us do.

Our cuisine is now called “fusion”, but many of the old recipes have either been forgotten, or changed to such an extent that people forget that it is Eurasian.  In some dishes, only the name remains.  We no longer wear our cultural dress, and what the Eurasian contingent wears at the National Day Parade is a caricature of it, for a performance.

Our old songs, and dances are largely forgotten, and can be found as tourist curiosities.  Our literature is found in museums.  My great-grandfather was a famous Portuguese opera singer.  We do not even know the songs he sang, or the operas he performed.

The irony here is that while the Eurasian community clamours for recognition, we have essentially forgotten what we were ourselves.  We are losing our languages, our cuisine, our dress, our everything.  Being Eurasian is merely a label, without much of that reality.

When it comes to any conversation on making a definitive contribution at the national stage, we have a community that is known for its entertainers.  Perhaps half the people on radio are Eurasian.  We are the performers, the singers, the models, the pageant winners, the television personalities, and perhaps, the lawyers with an affair.  What we do not have enough of, are the thinkers, the writers, the policy makers, the captains of industry, the people of real substance.  In that sense, we deserve to fade into oblivion.