Continuity and change : Song Jiarui’s relations with family during his migration experience to Nanyang from the 1920s to 1950s

• Main Author: Dong, Huiying
• Other Authors: Goh Geok Yian
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73591
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

History from below is a new approach in the study of the migration experience of ordinary Teochew migrants in Singapore. 1 I argue that Song Jiarui experienced continuity and change in his relations with his traditional family in Chaozhou amidst a period of economic, social, and political change from the 1920s to the 1950s. In terms of features of continuity, Song Jiarui continued to the embedded in the migration network comprising close relations such as relatives and family friends, there were also a persistence of traditional family values such as adoption of sons for the continuation of male line and an emphasis on the traditions and customs of the Teochew family. However, there were also some changes during this period, such as the challenge of patriarchy during the Great Depression in the 1930s and changing attitudes towards gender and migration during the Cold War conditions from the 1940s. In this thesis, through analysing Song Jiarui’s comprehensive remittance letters with his family from the 1920s to the 1950s, I aim to provide insight into an ordinary Teochew’s migration experience in Singapore through his intimate correspondence with his family and show his “aspirations, frustrations, and motivations”2 during his migration experience in the Nanyang.