Singapore History Day Contest

Raffles Institution

An Analysis of the Impact of Racial Relations in Early

Modern Singapore: Annotated Bibliography

Team members:
Daniel Ching
Huang Ziwen
Kam Pak Wai

Primary Sources
Munshi Abdullah. The Hikayat Abdullah. Translated by Hill A. H. Malaysian Branch of
the Royal Asiatic Society.

The source Hikayat Abdullah was very integral in shaping our perception of the
Singaporean society at that specific time period of the early 1800s to 1850s as
the author of the book which Hikayat Abdullah was an autobiography of Abdullah
bin Abdul Kadir. His close relations and access to prominent figures at that time,
including Sir Stamford Raffles and Colonel William Farquhar, gave us many
interesting views of society at that time and presented numerous useful accounts
of the events of that era that are of use to us. The writing from a different point of
view, from a Malay himself, offers diversity in the information that we gathered,
which was mainly from the British’s sources, as they were the ones wealthy
enough to have their first-hand accounts recorded and saved in archives.

Raffles, Sophia. Memoir of the Life and Public Services of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles:
Particularly in the Government of Java, 1811-1816 and of Bencoolen and Its
Dependencies, 1817-1824. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

This source is once again pivotal in understanding how the British saw modern
Singapore, widely known as the “Spirited Little Colony” and this book gives us a
better understanding as to how Raffles saw the forming of his colony through the
lens of a British overseer and especially how the development of racial relations
between the different groups that were present on the island unfolded. This book
 provides a good third person perspective on the relations on the island at that
period in time.

St. John, Braddell Roland, Brooke Gilbert Edward, and Makepeace Walter. One
Hundred Years of Singapore : Being Some Account of the Capital of the Straits
Settlements from Its Foundation by Sir Stamford Raffles on the 6th February
1819 to the 6th February 1919. London: Murray.

This served as an essential primary source as it was from Sir Thomas Stamford
Raffles and his group of British governors themselves- therefore giving us an
insight on how Raffles himself saw the different racial groups interacting together,
allowing us to glean information from the man who founded modern Singapore
himself. The book also went into great lengths into explaining the details of
transactions as accounts had also been recorded and reproduced in this book
that was meant to celebrate the 100 years of Raffles’ landing in Singapore. This
is also a landmark moment as this year marks the 200 years of Raffles’ landing in
Singapore and thus shows that the landing of Raffles was viewed with high
importance like it is similarly held today, with the SG Bicentennial programme
being launched to commemorate this occasion today.

Thomson, J. T. (1865). Some glimpses into life in the Far East. London: Richardson &
Company.
Thomson, J. T. (1865). Sequel to Some glimpses into life in the Far East. London:
Richardson & Company.

These two sources contain some of the main quotes in which we used in the
headers of the page Racial Relations and these sources are highly significant
since they are coming from an observer of the times - John Turnbull Thomson,
who played an extremely critical role in the development of early Singapore,
therefore having notable streets such as Thomson Road after him. Among other
things, he was the architect and builder of Tan Tock Seng Hospital and
Horsburgh Lighthouse on Pedra Branca. Thus, he carried significant weight in
the early stages of Singapore and has his legacy named after him. In his books,
which were meant to be surveys of Malaya, he described the situation as that of
harmony, where people can interact with one another as mentioned in our
analysis. This encounter and exchange of ideas that were present at that time
was found to be noteworthy even in the short section of the book on describing
life in Singapore, thus showing the potency of the racial relations at that time.
Secondary Sources
Abshire, Jean E. History of Singapore (The Greenwood Histories of the Modern
Nations).
Greenwood Publishing Group, 2011.
This source gave extremely useful context and statistics of early Singapore to
help us understand how Singapore was like during our target time frame. The
book gives very detailed and in depth descriptions of the establishment and of
different races during our target time period.

柯木林, Mulin Ke. 新加坡华人通史 Xinjiapo Huaren Tongshi [A General History of the
Chinese in Singapore]. Singapore: Xinjiapo Zong Xiang Hui Guan Lian He Zong
Hui, 2015.

This source contained a trove of information regarding the Chinese in Singapore.

While limited in insights into general racial relations, it provides a lot of
information on how the Chinese lived, as well as the Peranakans, a living
example of racial relations between the Chinese and Malays. The source was
first retrieved in Chinese, as a result, we had to translate substantially to
understand more about the cultures of the Chinese at that time, which was no
easy feat.
Turnbull, Constance Mary. A History of Modern Singapore: 1819-2005. Singapore: NUS
Press, 2009.
This source was very detailed in describing the situation in Singapore, including
during our target time frame. It contained many useful statistics and analysis as
well as references to other sources which we could make use of. This book also
contained information on the racial relations from a modern perspective, opening
a fresh lens for us during our research.
Images
Dave Sarks. "Silk Road by the Sea." Sarkology. September 25, 2016.
http://www.sarkology.net/2016/09/silk-road-by-sea.html.\
From this we can see the convergence of a few trade routes in Singapore,
especially those from Europe or India to China. These were very profitable trade
routes and the location of Singapore along these trade routes as seen here
provide an explanation for Singapore’s quick development as an international
port.

Hong Suen Wong, and Roxana Waterson. Singapore through 19th Century: Prints and
Paintings. Singapore: Star Standard, 2010.

This source was essential in the systematic gathering of the sources of all the
olden paintings of Singapore in the 1800s, which served as an extremely handy
tool when we had to use pictures or paintings depicting life in Singapore, usually
drawn from a first-hand perspective, therefore allowing it to be classified as a
primary source. Paintings was the most reliable source of depicting the scene at
a point in time as

Janice Loo. "Mem, Don't Mess with the Cook." Bliblioasia. July 10, 2016.
http://www.nlb.gov.sg/biblioasia/2016/07/10/mem-dont-mess-with-the-cook/.

This source reveals the working conditions of certain groups of immigrants but
most importantly also on how different groups could work for the same European
family.

Jason Toh. Singapore Through 19th Century Photographs. Singapore: Star Standard.

This source provided many photographs of Singapore during the 19th Century,
providing us and readers a visual representation of Singapore. Such photographs
are a primary source as they we re taken during that time. However, such a
collection can only be found in secondary sources such as this book, from which
we extracted many images.

Joshua Lee. "S’pore’s Town Plan Some 200 Years Old Ago Known as ‘Jackson Plan’."
Mothership. April 11, 2018.
https://mothership.sg/2018/04/jackson-plan-singapore/.
 The Jackson plan, also known as the Raffles town plan was indeed of great
importance since the segregation of races caused by this town plan minised
potential for racial conflict. This source provides a good visual on how the
Singapore town was organised and how the Raffles town plan worked.

Malay and Chinese Readers in Nineteenth-Century Singapore. (2018, March 8).

Retrieved from
http://southhem.org/2018/03/08/malay-and-chinese-readers-in-nineteenth-centur
y-singapore/

These pictures give an interesting visual perspective to complement the text

already there to further allow the reader to understand what the early arab
traders who were the first settlers in Singapore look like.

Malay (Bahasa Melayu / ‫)ﺑﮭﺎس ﻣﻼﯾو‬. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.omniglot.com/writing/malay.htm

The Jawi script we found very clearly exemplifies the Arab influence on the locals
in the region. Arabic was a holy language to the locals who were mostly muslim,
which explains the positive relations between the Malays and the Arab
immigrants.

Mecca: a dangerous adventure. (2010, November 16). Retrieved from

https://www.theculturist.com/home/mecca-a-dangerous-adventure.html

This photo aims to depict where the Arabs came from and represents pilgrims
completing the ritual of the Hajj, which shows the religious roots that the Arabs
had which was also in common with the Malays, therefore being able to form
strong bonds with the native Malay community in Singapore as well as the Malay
immigrants from the rest of the Riau Archipelago.
What Was Singapore Like Before The 1819? (2014, March 27). Retrieved from
http://21193111dlhiproject.blogspot.com/2014/03/what-was-singapore-like-before
-1819.html

These pictures were very unique in giving a very different visual perspective into
the lives of the early Orang Laut and other settlers in Singapore to complement
the text that describes the lives of the Orang Laut and the other local settlers.
The Orang Laut people are widely accepted to be the first inhabitants of the
island of Singapura before the founding of modern Singapore by Raffles in 1819,
therefore