"Oi, Recruit! Wake up your idea!"

"Oi, Recruit! Wake up your idea!" - Homosexuality and Cultural Citizenship in the Singaporean Military was the fourth chapter, written by Chris K K Tan, in the 2012 academic book Queer Singapore: Illiberal Citizenship and Mediated Cultures edited by Audrey Yue and Jun Zubillaga-Pow. Its entire text may be read on Google Books:[1].

In the sociological study, Tan examines gay life experiences in another fundamental pillar of Singaporean society - the military. Drawing upon both the idea of cultural citizenship and his dissertational fieldwork, Tan argues that the sense of national belonging in Singapore differs from previous conceptualisations of cultural citizenship as largely top-down or bottom-up processes. Rather, the State determines the contours of cultural citizenship and citizens react only when the strictures work against their interests. The military exemplifies this passively driven negotiation. Although many gay men consider the military an abusive and wasteful organization, others see it as the nation-building experience par excellence. Its emphasis on quantifiable test results means that gay soldiers need not come out - and most do not. Yet, those who do (even flamboyantly so) will find much manoeuvreing room if they satisfy stringent standards of physical fitness. This flexibility highlights the possibilities and limits of NS as a citizen-making site.

As part of his dissertational fieldwork on cultural citizenship among Singaporean gay men that Tan conducted from August 2007 to January 2009, he interviewed 29 men. All but one of them was Chinese; the exception being Malay. 26 self-identified as gay and 3 as straight. Most of them were in their late 20s to mid-30s at the time of the interviews, although a small number were older. The majority also reported middle-class backgrounds, albeit to different degrees. When Tan asked his informants what they thought of National Service, they professed mixed attitudes towards it even as they acknowledged its national importance.

See also

• Gay men in the Singapore Armed Forces
• Lim Chi-Sharn
• Nicholas Deroose

References

• Chris K K Tan, "Oi, Recruit! Wake up your idea!", Queer Singapore: Illiberal Citizenship and Mediated Cultures, edited by Audrey Yue and Jun Zubillaga-Pow, 2012:[2].

Acknowledgements

This article was written by Roy Tan.