Representation of international marriages and foreign wives in public discourses in Singapore from 1980s to 2000s

• Main Author: Lee, Wanyi
• Other Authors: Jessica Bridgette Hinchy
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
• Subjects: Humanities::History
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/147295
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

There has been an abundance of social science research on marriage migration in Singapore, among which, illustrated the negative portrayals of foreign wives in media. Building on existing social science scholarship on marriage migration, the paper aims to develop a historical perspective to the topic of marriage migration and explores public discourses about international marriages and the figure of foreign wives in Singapore from 1980s to 2000s. The scope of public discourses examined in the paper consists of the state, civil society and media like newspaper, television, and films. Using various materials including newspaper articles and publications from women’s rights organisation, Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE), the paper argues that the public discourses portrayed the figure of foreign wives as largely problematic since the 1980s through different means such as silences and the amplification of certain negative traits. While some discourses framed foreign wives as a collective group, some nationalities have been featured more than the others, namely Chinese and Vietnamese nationals.