'Others' is not a Race - Melissa De Silva

Book Summary: 'Others' is not a Race is a tapestry of stories that weaves together the multiple genres of narrative fiction, creative nonfiction, literary food writing and family memoir, to offer insight into the micro-minority Eurasian community through the intensely personal lens of the writer's own experience living and growing up as a Eurasian in Singapore. Throughout are themes of memory, loss, language, identity and cultural reclamation. Similarly, it is a reflective and provocative journey of self-discovery; a journey the reader may also take to explore what it means to exist at the confluence of being Singaporean and being Eurasian, and to interrogate the liminal space between two cultures, Asian and European, occupied by this community.

My thoughts: Back in November 2017, I made my first ever trip to BooksActually in Tiong Bahru for the Singaporean Writers Festival. This place is quite honestly the cutest bookstore I've ever been to - they have a cat and a vending machine that disposes mystery books! The event itself was incredible, opening my eyes to the awesome talent here in Singapore and how much there is that I need to read! This short but nifty book immediately caught my eye simply because of the title and book cover. As a regular marker of the "Other" or Eurasian ethnicity, I was keen to buy this book to understand more of this mixed Singaporean experience.

Quick history lesson: Singapore as a nation has only existed for a little over 50 years, and the ethnicities that make up the country are just as fluid and dynamic. Many Singaporean Eurasians trace their heritage back to European colonisation in Asia, initially back to the Portuguese in the 1500s (in Malacca, Sri Lanka, Goa and Timor), then the Dutch (Malacca, Sri Lanka and Indonesia) and finally the British. According to the 2010 census, Eurasians comprised of 0.4 per cent of the Singaporean population, or 15, 581 people in total. The cover itself also visually encapsulates also the ethnic make up of Singapore - Chinese being the butter, Indians being the Sugar, Malays being the Sugee, and the small smidge of vanilla essence being the 'Other'. The problem with this small smidge of vanilla essence is that the category also includes new citizens who don't fit into those 3 dominant races, such as Japanese, Caucasians, Africans and Japanese. This ultimately means Singaporean Eurasians are grouped along with people who are not necessarily perceived as Singaporean - causing all kinds of inherent thoughts of who Eurasians are. It then begs the question - what does it mean to be a Eurasian living in Singapore?

Over time, this unique community became their own, drawing together cultures and creating new traditions. It's interesting to read about an individual's experience of belonging, yet feeling isolated, existing in the middle. Holding a Portuguese, Dutch, Indian and Southeast Asian ancestry makes for quite an interesting diaspora, with so much to delve into. I loved reading about De Silva's self-exploration of her cultures, learning about her mother tongue Kristang, how to make the Indian dish Sugee (the Eurasian way), and stories of her family migrating from Malacca.

I loved how she spoke in great depth about how learning her mother tongue truly grew her strong connection to her culture. I immediately thought about my own personal experience of learning Indonesian, where gained a whole new understanding of who I was, as well as the ability to speak to my family in a whole new light. I never was able to visually 'look' Indonesian per-say, but the language gave me a door, a path, a way into a world I so badly wanted to understand. I grasped my mother tongue, and I haven't been able to let go of that passion since. Learning Kristang for De Silva was her door into legitimacy of her, of our, Eurasian-ness.

I felt like this book was the book De Silva, and many other Singaporean Eurasians, sorely needed. It's a memoir but it's also an ethnographic record, a moment in time of the mixed experience. It's definitely worth a read and is an eye-opener.

You can purchase the lovely book at BooksActually here.