1 Another significant component in Britain's decolonisation plan was the Malayan Union (MU) scheme. On 1 Apr. 1946, the British inaugurated the MU, comprising all the Malay States and the Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca (excluding Singapore). Under the MU, all races were offered equal citizenship. However, feeling that their position was greatly undermined, the Malays fiercely protested against the MU, which was abandoned in favour of a pro-Malay Federation from 1 Feb. 1948.

2 Harper, Tim N., The end of empire and the making of Malaya (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 56CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Loh, Kah Seng, Liao, Edgar, Lim, Cheng Tju and Seng, Guo Quan, The University Socialist Club and the contest for Malaya: Tangled strands of modernity (Singapore: NUS Press, 2012), p. 42Google Scholar.

4 Sai, Siew-Min, ‘Educating multicultural citizens: Colonial nationalism, imperial citizenship and education in late colonial Singapore’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 44, 1 (2013): 71CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Wong, Ting-Hong and Apple, Michael, ‘Rethinking the education/state formation connection: Pedagogic reform in Singapore, 1945–1965’, Comparative Education Review 46, 2 (2002): 209CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 In the May Thirteenth Incident, about 1,150 Chinese middle school students lined up for a peaceful march to present a petition for exemption from conscription. However, a police squad was sent to forcibly disperse the assembly, which increased the Chinese community's resentment against the British.

7 Yew, Lee Kuan, The Singapore story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew (Singapore: Times Editions, 1998)Google Scholar.

8 The May 13th Generation: The Chinese middle school student movement and Singapore politics in the 1950s, ed. Tan Jing Quee, Tan Kok Chiang and Hong Lysa (Petaling Jaya: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre, 2011).

9 This binary characterisation was first put forward by Yeo Kim Wah in his seminal work, Political development in Singapore, 1945–1955 (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1973). However, Yeo later revised this in the 1990s when he started to examine student activism among the English educated. See for example, Wah, Yeo Kim, ‘Student politics in University of Malaya, 1949–51’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 23, 2 (1992): 346–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Jianli, Huang, ‘The young pathfinders: Portrayal of student political activism’, in Paths not taken: Political pluralism in post-war Singapore, ed. Barr, Michael D. and Trocki, Carl A. (Singapore: NUS Press, 2008), pp. 188–205Google Scholar.

11 Loh et al., The University Socialist Club.

12 Seng, Loh Kah, ‘Polytechnicians and technocrats: Sources, limits, and possibilities of student activism in 1970s Singapore’, Southeast Asian Studies 7, 1 (2018): 46Google Scholar.

13 Loh et al., The University Socialist Club, pp. 25–6.

14 Weiss, Meredith L., Aspinall, Edward and Thompson, Mark R., ‘Introduction: Understanding student activism in Asia’, in Student activism in Asia: Between protest and powerlessness, ed. Weiss, Meredith L., Aspinall, Edward and Thompson, Mark R. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012), pp. 25–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Loh, ‘Polytechnicians and technocrats’, pp. 39–63.

16 According to Gordon Johnson, the ‘cultural Cold War’ is understood as ‘the range of ways in which high and popular cultures were produced, deployed, interpreted and challenged’. See Gordon Johnson, ‘Revisiting the cultural Cold War’, Social History 35, 3 (2010): 290–307.

17 Xu, Lanjun, ‘The Southern Film Corporation, opera films, and the PRC's cultural diplomacy in Cold War Asia, 1950s and 1960s’, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture 29, 1 (2017): 239–81Google Scholar; Hee, Wai Siam, ‘Malayanized Chinese-language cinema: On Yi Shui's Lion City, Black Gold, and film writings’, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 18, 1 (2017): 131–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Quah, Sy Ren, ‘Imagining Malaya, practicing multiculturalism: The Malayan consciousness of Singapore Chinese intellectuals in the 1950s’, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 16, 1 (2015): 96–112CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Michael Szonyi and Hong Liu, ‘Introduction: New approaches to the study of Cold War in Asia’, in The Cold War in Asia: The battle for hearts and minds, ed. Zheng Yangwen, Hong Liu and Michael Szonyi (Leiden: Brill, 2010), p. 11; Jennifer Lindsay, ‘Festival politics: Singapore's 1963 South-East Asia Cultural Festival’, in Cultures at war: The Cold War and cultural expression in Southeast Asia, ed. Tony Day and Maya H.T. Liem (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010), p. 228.

19 Tony Day, ‘Cultures at war in Cold War Southeast Asia: An introduction’, in Day and Liem, Cultures at war, p. 3.

20 Jeremy E. Taylor, ‘“Not a particularly happy expression”: ‘Malayanization’ and the China threat in Britain's late-colonial Southeast Asian territories’, Journal of Asian Studies 78, 4 (2019): 789–808.

21 Alison M. Groppe, Sinophone Malaysian literature: Not made in China (Amherst, NY: Cambria, 2013).

22 Ien Ang, On not speaking Chinese: Living between Asia and the West (London: Routledge, 2011); Shu-Mei Shih, ‘Against diaspora: The Sinophone as places of cultural production’, in Global Chinese literature: Critical essays, ed. David Dewei Wang and Jing Tsu (Leiden: Brill, 2010), pp. 29–48; Rey Chow, ‘Introduction: On Chineseness as a theoretical problem’, in ‘Modern Chinese literary and cultural studies in the age of theory: Reimagining a field’, special issue, boundary 2, 25, 3 (1998): 1–24.

23 In the early to mid-20th century, Chinese migration to Singapore and Malaya grew substantially. As people and families came and settled down for longer periods, there was an increasing need to have Chinese schools where people could send their children to receive education in the same way as they did in the homeland.

24 Karen M. Teo, Schooling diaspora: Women, education, and the overseas Chinese in British Malaya and Singapore, 1850s–1960s (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), pp. 21–2.

25 Robert Culp, Articulating citizenship: Civic education and student politics in southeastern China, 1912–1940 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007), p. 36.

26 Ibid., pp. 97–102. See also Barry C. Keenan, ‘Educational reform and politics in early republican China’, Journal of Asian Studies 33, 2 (1974): 225–37.

27 On the influence of China's May Fourth Movement in the Chinese diaspora, see David L. Kenley, New culture in a new world: The May Fourth Movement and the Chinese diaspora in Singapore, 1919–1932 (London: Routledge, 2003).

28 Yoji Akashi, The Nanyang Chinese National Salvation Movement, 1937–1941 (New York: Paragon Book Gallery, 1970).

29 Beiyu Zhang, Chinese theatre troupes in Southeast Asia: Touring diaspora, 1900s–1970s (New York: Routledge, 2021), pp. 84–100.

30 Yao Souchou, ‘All quiet on Jurong Road: Nanyang University and radical vision in Singapore’, in Barr and Trocki, Paths not taken, p. 176.

31 Chizidanxin: Wuhan Hechangtuan Nanyang Chouzhen Xunhui Yanchu Jishi [A loyal and patriotic heart: Wuhan Choir Troupe's Nanyang Salvation Tours], ed. Ye Qisi (Beijing: Zhongguo huaqiao chubanshe, 2006), p. 30.

32 Ibid., pp. 10–22.

33 ‘Huaxiao zongshi xueguan huashenghai tanhua’ [Talks by Senior Inspector of Chinese Schools Watson Hyatt], Nanyang Siang Pau, 8 May 1952, p. 5.

34 On Zhong Yi's tours in Singapore and Malaya, see Beiyu Zhang, ‘Performing “bifurcated homelands”: Touring the Chinese diasporas in Bangkok and Singapore, 1945–1960s’, China Perspectives (forthcoming).

35 ‘Benshe jianshi’ [A brief history of Zhong Yi], Zhong Yi Shizhounian Jinian Tekan, 1938–1948 [Special issue dedicated to the Tenth Anniversary of Zhong Yi's Nanyang Tours, 1938–1948] (Singapore: Zhongguo gewu juyi she, 1948), p. 4.

36 Ibid., p. 44.

37 Xinjiapo Zhong Hua Nüzi Zhongxue Chuzhong Xubie Wanhui Tekan [Special issue on Singapore Chung Hwa Girls’ School Farewell Concert] (Singapore: n.p., 1954), pp. 27–30.

38 Emily Wilcox, ‘Dance in wartime China: Liang Lun's choreographic migrations of the 1940s’, 무용역사기록학 52 (2019): 62–3.

39 ‘Jiemu Biao’ [Progammes], in Xinjiapo Huaqiao Zhongxue Di Shijiujie Gaozhong Biyeban Xubie Youyi Wanhui [Special issue on Singapore Chinese High School celebrating 19th anniversary of farewell concerts] (Singapore: n.p., 1960), p. 1.

40 Mai Liufang (Mak Lau Fong), Xu'ni Rentong: Zaoqi Malaiya Huaren De Aiguo Gequ [The virtual identity: Chinese patriotic songs in early Malaya] (Singapore: Xinjiapo huayi guan, 2012), p. 40.

41 Xu Xiu, ‘Cong Jianku Zhong Yunyu Chulai De Xubie Wanhui’ [Our farewell concert was born out of hardship], in Xinjiapo Yu Ying Zhongxue Chuzhong Biyeban Xubie Wanhui Tekan, [Special issue on farewell concert of the graduating class of Singapore's Yu Ying Middle School students] (Singapore: n.p., 1954), p. 3.

42 SCMSSU, also known as Zhongxuelian, was a student organisation that brought all Chinese middle school students together. It was a direct response to the May Thirteenth Incident to fight for the welfare of Chinese school students and protect Chinese education.

43 Yanchu Weiyuan Hui [Concert Preparatory Committee], ‘Cong choubei dao yanchu’ [From preparation to stage performances], in Xingzhou 1953 Niandu Huawen Zhongxue Biyeban Tongxue: Yishu Yanjiuhui Wei Nanda Choumu Jijin Youyi Dahui Tekan [Singapore Chinese Middle School Graduating Class of 1953: Special issue for the Arts Association's Fundraising Concert for Nantah] (Singapore: n.p., 1955), p. 3.

44 Zhan Daoyu, Zhanhou Chuqi Xinjiapo Huawen Xiju, 1945–1959 [Chinese theatre in postwar Singapore, 1945–1959] (Singapore: Department of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore, 2001), pp. 81–5.

45 Xuanchuangu [Propaganda Department], ‘Tantan Xuanchuan Gongzuo’ [Discussions on our propaganda work], in Xinjiapo Zhongzheng Zhongxue Gaochuzhong Biyeban Xubie Wanhui Tekan [Singapore Chung Cheng Middle School Graduating class: Special issue on the farewell concert] (Singapore: n.p., 1954), p. 4.

46 ‘Xuanchuan'gu De Gongzuo Baogao Yu Jiantao’ [Reflections on the work of the Propaganda Department], in 1955 Zhongzheng Zhongxue Gaochuzhong Biyeban: Wei Choumu Litang Ji Zhuxuehui Jijin Youyi Wanhui tekan [1955 Chung Cheng Middle School Graduating Class: Special issue on the fundraising concert for the school hall and Mutual Aid Society] (Singapore: n.p., 1955), p. 4.

47 Yanchu Weiyuan Hui, ‘Cong Choubei Dao Yanchu’, p. 3.

48 Mai, Xu'ni rentong, 2012, p. 39.

49 ‘Youyihui Jiemubiao’ [Table of contents], Xinjiapo Nanyang Huaqiao Zhongxue Gaochuzhong Xuebie Wanhui Tekan [Special issue of Singapore Chinese High School Graduating Class Farewell Concert] (Singapore: n.p., 1953).

50 ‘Xianyou Lüye Houyou Hua’ [Flowers come after leaves], in Xinjiapo ZhongZheng Zhongxue Gaochuzhong Biyeban Xubie Wanhui Tekan, p. 28.

51 The Anti-Yellow Culture Movement is well researched in Lau Yu Ching, ‘The Anti-Yellow Cultural Movement, 1953–1961: Morality and the language of decolonizing Singapore’ (MA thesis, History Dept., National University of Singapore, 2016). Cheng Tju Lim also pays important attention to the Movement. Cheng Tju Lim, ‘The Anti-Yellow Culture Campaign in Singapore: 1953–1979’, in The state and the arts in Singapore: Policies and institutions, ed. Terence Chong (New Jersey: World Scientific, 2018), pp. 31–48.

52 FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office and predecessors) 141–14775, ‘The Singapore Anti-Yellow Culture Council’, Great Britain, Records of Former Colonial Administrations: Migrated Archives, The National Archives, United Kingdom, p. 358.

53 FCO 141–14768, ‘Intelligentsia and Cultural Organisations’, 28 Feb. 1959, p. 31.

54 FCO 141–14775, ‘The Singapore All-Race Anti-Yellow Cultural Organization Issue Manifesto and begins Work’, p. 366.

55 Goh Boon Kok, ‘A Chinese dancer's experiences in early dance activities in Singapore’, in Tan et al., The May 13th Generation, p. 304.

56 ‘Nanyang Nüzhong Choujian Xin Xiaoshe’ [Nanyang Girls’ School conduct fundraising concert for school hostels], Nanyang Siang Pau, 10 Dec. 1955, p. 7.

57 ‘Fujian Huiguan Shuxia Wuxiao Xiaoyouhui Youyihui’ [Five schools under Hokkien clan conduct a school concert], Nanyang Siang Pau, 24 Sept. 1955, p. 8.

58 Emily Wilcox, Revolutionary bodies: Chinese dance and the socialist legacy (Oakland: University of California Press, 2019), p. 49.

59 ‘Xinzhongguo Wenhua Daibiaotuan’ [New China's Cultural Delegation], Nanyang Siang Pau, 15 July 1955, p. 11.

60 Emily Wilcox, ‘When folk dance was radical: Cold War Yangge, World Youth festivals, and Overseas Chinese leftist culture in the 1950s and 1960s’, China Perspectives 1 (2020): 3.

61 Hong Liu, ‘The historicity of China's soft power: The PRC and the cultural politics of Indonesia, 1945–1965’, in Zheng et al., Cold War in Asia, p. 166.

62 Taylor, ‘Not a particularly happy expression’, p. 7.

63 Ting-Hong Wong, ‘Institutionally incorporated, symbolically un-remade: State reform of Chinese schools in postwar Singapore’, British Journal of Sociology of Education 27, 5 (2006): 633–50.

64 Chua Soo Pong, ‘Performing Arts in Singapore’ (Theatre/Drama), Oral History Center, National Archives of Singapore, Accession no. 003528.

65 ‘Zuzhi Yu Wei Zuzhi De Qingchun: Chen Mengzhi, Cai Chujun Fangwenlu’ [An interview with Chen Mong Tse and Chai Chu Chun: Those organised and disorganised times of youth], in Xiaoyaoyou: 1945–1965 Xinjiapo De Zhongxue Shenghuo Yu Keyu Huodong [Education at large: Student life and activities in Singapore, 1945–1965], ed. Li Huiling, Zeng Zhaocheng and Ding Shaoshi (Singapore: bafang wenhua chuangzuoshi, 2012), p. 104.

66 Zhang Xinghong, Xingzhou Xingguang: Xiandai Lüren Shouji [Starlight of Singapore: Modern travellers and their stories] (Singapore: bafang wenhua chuangzuoshi, 2016), p. 242.

67 There is a burgeoning scholarship on the role of Hong Kong in the Cold War. See Shuang Shen, ‘Empire of information: The Asia Foundation's network and Chinese-language cultural production in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia’, American Quarterly 69, 3 (2017): 589–610; Florence Mok, ‘Disseminating and containing communist propaganda to overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia through Hong Kong, the Cold War pivot, 1949–1960’, Historical Journal (2021): 1–21; Poshek Fu and Man-Fung Yip, eds, The Cold War and Asian cinemas (New York: Routledge, 2020).

68 ‘Zhongguo Minjian Yishu’ [Chinese Folk art], Nanyang Siang Pau, 25 Aug. 1956, p. 6.

69 Goh Boon Kok, ‘A Chinese dancer's experiences in early dance activities in Singapore’, p. 304.

70 Zhang, Chinese theatre troupes in Southeast Asia, pp. 124–43. For more on the China-Hong Kong-Singapore film nexus during the Cold War, see Wai Siam Hee (Xu Weixian), Remapping the Sinophone: The cultural production of Chinese-language cinema in Singapore and Malaya before and during the Cold War (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2019); Mai Xin'en, Xianggang yu Xinjiapo: Lengzhan Shidai Xinggang Wenhua Lianjie, 1950–1965 [Hong Kong Cinema and Singapore: A cultural ring between two cities, 1950–1965] (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2018).

71 Xinjiapo Zhongzheng Zhongxue Gaochuzhong Biyeban Xubie Wanhui Tekan, 1954, p. 11.

72 Wilcox, Revolutionary bodies, p. 26.

73 Beiyu Zhang, ‘Multicultural dance-making in Singapore: Merdeka, youth solidarity and cross-ethnicity, 1955–1980s’, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 23, 4 (2022): 645–61.

74 Chua Soo Pong, Performing arts in Singapore (Theatre/Drama), Oral History Center, National Archives of Singapore, Accession no. 003528.

75 ‘Yindu Sahongjie Wu’ [Indian Holi festival dance], Nanqiao Nüzi Zhongxue Gaozhong Biyeban Xubie Wanhui Yanchu Takan [Nan Chiao Girls’ School ….], 1960, p. 14.

76 ‘Wudao Jiemu Jieshao’ [Introduction on dance programmes], in Xinjiapo Yishu Juchang Gongyan Yinyue, Shige, Wudao Wanhui [Singapore Arts Theatre's concert: Music, poems and dances] (Singapore: n.p., 1960), p. 4.

77 Nanqiao Nüzi Zhongxue Gaozhong Biyeban Xubie Wanhui Yanchu Takan, 1960, p. 14.

78 Nanyang Daxue Xueshenghui Ge Minzu Wudao Youyi Wanhui [Nanyang University Students’ Union conducted multicultural concert] (Singapore: n.p., 1960).

79 Kong Kam Yoke, ‘Poon Sow Keng: From lover's tears to tears of love’, National Library Board, Singapore, 20 Aug. 2010, https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/music/Media/PDFs/Article/25d3811e-1ae3-4304-a3d6-2f6c3c3bad96.pdf (accessed 23 Feb. 2020); Josh Stenberg, ‘North across the Southern Seas: Cold War Chinese careers of Indonesian songs’, in Chineseness and the Cold War: Contested cultures and diaspora in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, ed. Jeremy E. Taylor and Lanjun Xu (New York: Routledge, 2021), p. 142.

80 ‘Malaiya Diantai Guangbo Jiemu’ (Malaya Rediffusion programmes), Nanyang Siang Pau, 31 May 1957, p. 8.

81 On the lives of activists, intellectuals and cultural figures in this era, see Carolien Stolte and Su Lin Lewis, eds, The lives of Cold War Afro-Asianism (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2022).

82 Su Lin Lewis and Carolien Stolte, ‘Other Bandungs: Afro-Asian internationalisms in the early Cold War’, Journal of World History 30, 1–2 (2019): 1–19; Hong Liu and Taomo Zhou, ‘Bandung humanism and a new understanding of the Global South: An introduction’, Critical Asian Studies 51, 2 (2019): 141–3.

83 Sunil S. Amrith, ‘Internationalism and political pluralism in Singapore, 1950–1963’, in Barr and Trocki, Paths not taken, pp. 40–41.

84 See Loh et al., The University Socialist Club, pp. 112–16.

85 ‘Women De Hua’ [Our words], in Malaiya Xuesheng Bao [Malayan Student, Chinese edition], 9 Nov. 1955, p. 1.

86 ‘Ge Minzu Qingnian Xuesheng Canjia Wenhuajie’ [Youth and students from different ethnic groups participated in the Cultural Festival], Malaiya Xuesheng Bao [Malayan Student, Chinese edition], 2 Dec. 1955, p. 1.

87 Nanyang Daxue Xueshenghui Ge Minzu Wudao Youyi Wanhui [Nanyang University Students’ Union Variety Concert] (Singapore: n.p., 1959); Gongshang Xiaoyouhui Lianhe Wuyinzu Wenhua Tuanti Yanchu Wudao Zhiye [Industrial and Commercial Old Boy Association Cooperated with Malay and Indian Cultural Groups to hold ‘the Dance Night’] (Singapore: n.p., 1960).

88 Koh Tai Ann, ‘Malayan culture, multiracialism, the British colonial project and heritage: 1945–1965’, in Chong, The state and the arts in Singapore, pp. 15–16.

89 ‘Aneka Ragam Ra'ayat’, Straits Times, 10 Dec. 1959, p. 4; ‘Concert at Katong Park’, Straits Times, 27 Sept. 1959, p. 13.

90 There were many insoluble differences between the two ruling parties of Singapore's PAP and Malaysia's UMNO, but the separation was mainly due to conflicted racial politics. See Albert Lau, A moment of anguish: Singapore in Malaysia and the politics of disengagement (Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1998).

91 Huang Jianli, ‘A window into Nanyang University: Controversy over the 1965 Wang Gungwu report’, in A general history of the Chinese in Singapore, ed. Kwa Chong Guan and Kua Bak Lim (Singapore: Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations; World Scientific, 2019), pp. 445–75.

92 Lim, ‘The Anti-Yellow Culture Campaign in Singapore: 1953–1979’, p. 39.

93 Zhu Xi [Chair Committee], ‘Jianchi Fanhuang Zhengyi Douzhen, Jixu Tuiguang Wenyu Huodong’ [Carry on with Anti-Yellow Culture Movement, continue to promote arts and culture], in Daonan, Peiqing Xiaoyouhui Lianhe Juxing Wenyu Wanhui [Tao Nan and Pei Qing Old Boy Association School Concert] (Singapore: n.p., 1965), p. 1.

94 The term was first used in Jeremy Taylor's article, ‘Lychees and mirrors: Local opera, cinema and diaspora in the Chinese cultural Cold War’, Twentieth-century China 43, 2 (2018): 163–80.

95 See Meredith Oyen, ‘Communism, containment and the Chinese overseas’, in Zheng et al., The Cold War in Asia, pp. 60–61.

96 Jeremy Taylor, ‘Introduction: Putting Chineseness back into Cold War cultures’, in Taylor and Xu, Chineseness and the Cold War, p. 13.