The Catholic-Teochew Rhythm: Communal Identity in Hougang, 1945-1981.
Many Catholic Teochews in the Hougang area of Singapore exude a sense of communal pride when called to reminisce about the Catholic-Teochew village whose members once congregated there. These Catholic Teochews resided near the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary or Nativity Church and they identified participating in church activities and family prayers, attending mission schools and speaking Teochew as components of their common heritage. This heritage is the outcome of what Maria Chng calls a "rhythm"--the collective social memory of a routinized Catholic-Teochew way of life. (1) Akin to a musical rhythm generated by three instruments--church, family and schools--the perpetuation of this rhythm and people's association with it forged a distinct communal identity for some 70 per cent of Hougang's residents. (2) Overlapping Teochew and Catholic traditions marked this identity in a process of gradual assimilation and negotiation that resulted in nothing less than a distinct identity forged wholly in the Singapore context.Three factors accounted for the distinctiveness of this community. First, the Teochew migrants arrived in Hougang before the foundation of a church there. They constituted an essentially Teochew community before the burgeoning influences of institutional Catholicism in the area. Missionaries of the Societe des Missions etrangeres de Paris (MEP) had begun to convert Teochews in Shantou and its hinterlands as early as the eighteenth century (Lee 2003, p. xvii), and the Catholics who began to arrive in Hougang in the early nineteenth century had their origins in that population. Only in 1857 did MEP priest Fr Ambroise Maistre purchase forty acres of land from the British East India Company to build an attap church ministering to a handful of Teochew farmers and fishermen in the area (Church of the Nativity 2012, p. 31). After the establishment of the church, contacts between the MEP bishop in Shantou and the order's missionaries in Singapore resulted in a steady influx of both Catholic and non-Catholic Teochew migrants to Hougang. (3) The physical expansion of the church to become the Neo-Gothic structure renamed the "Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary" in 1901 reflected the scale of that influx. The process of negotiating and amalgamating the Teochew and Catholic traditions allowed for a certain distancing from the roots of both traditions that sets the scene for the emergence of a new identity, one forged in Singapore. Second, the daily routines and ceremonial practices of about five hundred extended Teochew Catholic families congregated in close proximity on church land reinforced this communal identity. (4) Third and last, the mission's ownership of land also allowed for an unprecedented concentration of four schools in what was still a rural setting. These schools represented the only education option in the vicinity, and their common routinized Catholic practices further fostered and enforced the Catholic-Teochew rhythm.
The agency of these institutions brought the coalescence of the various traditions and peoples into a single identity, in a process whose history challenges common understandings of Singaporean identities as legacies of imported migrant cultures based on dialect or ethnic groups. While the case of Hougang features an identity in whose formation a general early missionary practice of establishing churches on the basis of dialect figured importantly, no other area displayed the same confluence of church, dialect speakers and schools concentrated in one location. The establishment of St Teresa's Church in 1925, for instance, catered to the Hokkien community at Kampong Bahru Road (Wijeysingha 2006, p. 133), but it did not effectively perpetuate a Hokkien blend of Catholicism. In this respect, the Hougang Catholic Teochews were a distinctive group on the Singapore landscape.
This prevalence of Catholicism in Teochew Hougang would earn the area the title of "Siadi", meaning "holy land" in Teochew. The appellation embodied the community's heritage of being both Catholic and Teochew. However, I argue that it was not only the actions of the parish but also the ingraining of Catholic traditions in families and the schools that produced this Catholic-Teochew rhythm of life. The micro-historical case of Catholic Teochews in Hougang and the evidence of a locally forged identity that it offers thus serves to undermine understandings of Singaporean identities as primordial.
Geographically located in the northeastern part of Singapore, Hougang, previously a "jungle in which wild animals roamed freely" (Wijeysingha 2006, p. 107), stood at the centre of a community reported in the church census extending beyond mission land owned by Nativity Church to Sungei Serangoon and Upper Serangoon Road. The common, inherited practices of the Catholic families that resided across this territory formed a historical continuity and came eventually to define the Catholic-Teochew communal identity. The collective memory of the people of Hougang, the Hougang-nang, in the context of larger forces of social change thus points to an important narrative of an emerging local identity in Singapore's history.
To conceptualize the Catholic-Teochew community, I borrow Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie's analysis of the Cathars of Montaillou as an example of microhistory (Le Roy Ladurie 1990). My analysis of communities' commemoration of the intangible shared heritage of cultural traditions draws on Maurice Halbwach's work and on Jan Assmann's studies of cultural memory (Assmann 2011; Halbwach 1992). Benedict Anderson defines a nation as "an imagined political community", imagined because the "image of communion" lives in the mind of each member (Anderson 1991, p. 6). I have adapted this idea to analyse the Catholic Teochews of Hougang as an imagined cultural community whose members identified with one another through common routinized practices. Finally, my approach to the role of the family in reinforcing identity and negotiating changes draws from Virginia Yans-Mclaughlin's work on Italian Catholic immigrants in Buffalo, New York (Yans-Mclaughlin 1977). These concepts interweave to provide the overarching conceptual framework of routinized Catholic traditions pervading the lives of Teochews in Hougang.
The dialectic process through which the community negotiated both Teochew and Catholic identities occurred between the end of the Pacific War and the early 1980s. Initially, Hougang was primarily a Teochew village with a few Catholic families. The gradual extension of the parish's influence paralleled the arrival of increasing numbers of Teochew migrants. These families assimilated Catholic traditions into their Teochew family practices within a context of increasing interaction with those traditions as upheld by the parish church. The result of this extension of the parish's influence manifested itself in the amalgamated Catholic-Teochew rhythm that distinguished the post-war decades.
By the mid-1960s, a distinct enclave of Catholic Teochews whose people lived according to the same rhythm had emerged. After that time, external forces of development necessitated the reassertion of the Catholic-Teochew identity, which culminated in the memory of the Hougang Siadi as a common heritage. Finally, Catholic-Teochew traditions declined after the provision of public housing from 1977 onward. This micro-historical narrative concludes with the geographical displacement of the community starting in 1981 due to government resettlement policies. The communal identity of living a Catholic-Teochew rhythm eroded with the decline in Church influence over the schools and the fragmentation of extended families.
Regarding Sources
The scarcity of documentary sources on tradition is compounded with the low literacy levels of the Teochew-nang in pre-urban Singapore. My discussion therefore relies heavily on oral-history interviews. While there are limitations in relying on oral history in reconstructing the trajectory of the Catholic Teochews, the recollections of interviewees are significant for the ways in which they capture memories and beliefs constitutive of identity. To mitigate the challenges of oral history, I have also used published and unpublished written sources from Nativity Church, schools and the press to present a more layered narrative of the community.
The Growing Community, 1945-1965
Chinese originally migrated to Singapore from southern China in large numbers during the nineteenth century. Among these migrants, the Teochews were the second-largest dialect group after the Hokkiens (Tan 1994, p. 5). Their inclination towards agriculture led them to favour rural areas like Hougang where they could continue the work as fishermen and farmers that they had known in China. However, the Japanese Occupation of Singapore during the first half of the 1940s displaced the majority of the original Teochew community. Japanese forces executed many Teochew males during "suk cheng", while others fled to Bahau, an agricultural colony in Negeri Sembilan, Malaya (Church of the Nativity 2012, p. 89). Hence, a considerably different community of Teochews to the prewar one remained in Hougang after the Japanese surrender in 1945. When Fr Francis Chan was appointed parish priest in that same year, Nativity Church intensified its outreach to this community affected by the occupation to help its members cope with the aftermath of war in various ways.
Eugene Wijeysingha's history of the Catholic Church in Singapore asserts that the Japanese Occupation of 1942-45 "to a large extent restricted the growth of the Catholic Church.... [W]hatever growth took place was between 1934 and 1941" (Wijeysingha 2006, p. 138). However, Nativity Church's baptism figures, according to which post-war baptisms vastly exceeded pre-war numbers, contradicts this contention. In fact, the occupation catalysed the growth of the distinctive Catholic-Teochew community. By meeting the pragmatic concerns of the community, Catholicism suffused into the lives of members of the community through common practices that served as a means of coping with the immediate post-occupation concerns.
The participants in these common practices therefore formed an "imagined community", identifying with each other by living the same Catholic-Teochew rhythm. These common practices greatly increased the size of the Catholic-Teochew community, as evinced in increasing numbers of baptisms. Hougang had been a Teochew enclave, with pockets of Catholic Teochews, before the Japanese Occupation. After the end of the war, however, the outreach efforts of the parish led to a societal coherence that eventually transformed Hougang into a Catholic-Teochew enclave.
The first outreach effort of Nativity Church took the form of liturgies for mourning the dead. Agnes Chan remembers that Teochew families would register the names of the dead in a small chapel at Punggol End, where suk cheng killings had occurred. "Fr Chan would lead a procession to that chapel and celebrate a Mass for the souls." (5) Ritualistic similarities with Chinese funeral processions led many non-Catholic Teochew families to join Fr Chan's processions to express their grief. Additionally, the church restarted institutions like the Saint Joseph's Dying Aid Association (SJDAA) to help families in their time of bereavement. SJDAA expanded in 1954, adding a Benevolent Section that gave financial aid to needy families of the deceased (Church of the Nativity 2012, p. 68).
At the same time, language barriers limited proselytization efforts. Celebrating only Latin Masses for a congregation with low education levels, Nativity Church had to reach out to parishioners at the experiential level through repetitive actions rather than by cultivating intellectual understanding of the faith. Agnes Cher recalls that Catholic Teochews would "just follow, [as they] were taught the appropriate actions during Catechism". (6) Catechism lessons for children occurred daily; the parish used a Teochew translation of the Baltimore Catechism and a question-and-answer teaching style. Participants later remember the main catechist, Maria Lee, as Torli Kou (Catechism Aunty), and recalled the fear that she inspired. Fr Edward Lim remembers that attendees "were just like parrots; she recites, we follow... if we didn't follow, she would hit us". (7) Confusion compounded the fear, as Torli Kou spoke a different variation of the Teochew dialect to that of the residents of Hougang. She had migrated to Singapore through missionary networks to escape the civil war in China, and settled in Hougang apart from the other refugees. But her work resulted in a generation of Catholic Teochew children unified by a common memory of being "trained" daily by Torli Kou despite not understanding the content of what she sought to communicate. Their shared experience of fear and lack of understanding seemed to catalyse the ingraining of common Catholic traditions into their community.
Nativity Church also recognized the Teochew dialect as the undisputed identity marker of the imagined community. Most of the foreign priests posted to Hougang already had some linguistic proficiency in Teochew. This aided in their acculturation to the community and in the perpetuation of Catholic traditions. For instance, Fr Edouard Becharas was a French priest fluent in Teochew whom parishioners would remember for his translation of the Stations of the Cross into Teochew. (8) The Teochew-nang of Hougang identified with anyone who was able to speak Teochew, regardless of dialect or ethnic origins. Fr Augustine Tay recalls how Montfort School was nicknamed "the Teochew School" because even Malay and Indian students and staff spoke some Teochew. (9) Priests who could not speak Teochew were compelled to learn. In 1955, Fr Hippolyte Berthold became parish priest and found himself called "angmoh seng hu" (Caucasian priest), a title that he diligently tried to lose by learning Teochew. (10) After Fr Berthold, however, the term angmoh senghu came to apply to missionary priests who could speak Teochew, as they successfully assimilated into the community and further perpetuated Catholic traditions using the Teochew vernacular.
A post-occupation baby boom also created an increasing need for education in the community. In response, the church used the mission land to launch four different schools. It thus effectively monopolized education in Hougang, as there were no other schools in the vicinity. Catholicism deepened its penetration of the community by providing single-sex education in both Chinese and English. The success of this approach to education was manifest in the growth of the schools, to the extent that other educational missionaries were needed to assist in running them. In the 1950s, the Brothers of St Gabriel took over the English-medium boys school and renamed it Montfort School, whereas the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (FMM) nuns ran the Chinese-medium girls school as Hai Xing Girls School (Seah 2016, p. 28). Similarly, the nuns of the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ) converted the English-medium girls school to Punggol Convent (Meyers 2004, p. 200).
Conversions to Catholicism paralleled increasing enrolment numbers in the schools, especially since Catholics were given priority in applying for places. After admission, the Catholic routines of the schools would expose the remaining non-Catholics to the religion and further stimulate conversions. Justina Yeo is an example of a non-Catholic student who converted after graduating from CHIJ. She attributes her conversion to the daily Catholic routines in the schools, such as participating in First Friday Masses and praying in church during recess." Prayers, said at the beginning and end of classes, became markers of time within the school routine. Even non-Catholics like Frankie Choo recognized the close connection between religion and education, remembering Nativity Church as "Montfort Church". (12)
The acculturation of non-Chinese Catholic education missionaries to a Teochew community had distinctive consequences. The Catholic Teochews of Hougang misconstrued the name of Archbishop Michel Olcomendy (1953-76), remembering him as "Bishop Also-Monday". (13) Cradle Catholics, baptized from infancy like Rosie Lim, recall first hearing Olcomendy's name in church during Teochew catechism classes. The transliteration of the French Bishop's name to Teochew sounded like "Also-Monday", two English words she had come to recognize from her English education at Punggol Convent. The memory of "Also-Monday" still resonates with a majority of Catholic Teochews, further illustrating the significance of the schools in moulding this communal identity.
However, the pivotal force shaping the Catholic-Teochew identity was undoubtedly the Catholic families. Families like that of Fr Edward Lim attended Mass together at 5.30 a.m. each morning and also prayed the rosary daily (Catholic News 2017). These Teochew families strictly adhered to routinized Catholic traditions. Indeed, Fr Tay describes how "the moment the sun set after dinner, the whole kampong [village] would resonate with chanting of the Teochew Rosary". (14)
Furthermore, family stories about the Catholic Church regularly told in Teochew became a communal tradition. This tradition was adapted from the Chinese practice of storytelling to contain mythical accounts of the church instead of tales from Chinese novels. These stories exemplified an oral tradition rooted in the historical context of the preliterate community. After the occupation, miracle stories of avoiding adversity were commonplace. John Goh's family was often told how his aunt avoided being raped by a Japanese soldier by praying the rosary fervently, causing the irate soldier to leave her alone. (15) Other stories attributed the miracle of Nativity Church's being undamaged, despite bombings in the area, to the protection of Mary. These intangible myths coalesced around a physical object, the Statue of the Immaculate Conception located at the front of the main entrance to the church. Even though the Sultan of Johor donated the statue in 1946, after the occupation, the community perpetuated myths about its having protected the church from the Japanese bombings. The historical inaccuracy and apparent idolatry associated with the perceived spiritual power of the statue, rather than of Mary herself, perhaps reflected the community's ignorance of orthodox Catholic teachings and the strong Chinese influences in their beliefs.
Catholic-Teochew traditions in Hougang emerged through a dialectic process of amalgamation. Nativity Church had embraced Teochew rites that enhanced the Catholic canon such as the tradition of distributing cakes to elders to announce an upcoming marriage. The church even adjusted the timeframe for publishing the matrimonial banns to match the duration of the period of Teochew cake-giving. (16) It tolerated other rites alongside its own, but it still insisted that the wedding Mass occur before the celebration of all Teochew wedding traditions. For non-Catholic wedding rituals did continue; many Catholic Teochews placed chickens under the nuptial bed to determine the gender of the newlywed's firstborn baby by verifying the gender of the first chicken to emerge from under the bed. (17) Such rituals reflected the long-standing influence of Teochew belief in auspicious signs rather than Catholic prayer.
In this amalgamation process, Fr Tay explains, "the Church accepted customs as long as they did not import pagan practices. Whatever that was cultural was acceptable to the Church." (18) The community often exploited this ambiguity in determining what was "pagan" and "cultural" to continue traditional Teochew practices. In convincing the Church that practices were cultural, or by practising them without reference to the liturgy of the Church, members of the community determined which traditions were culturally Teochew and which Catholic. This behaviour resonates with Yans-Mclaughlin's argument about families serving as "a flexible organisation" that continued "to rely upon traditional forms and ways of relating" to new influences (Yans-Mclaughlin 1977, p. 23).
In the immediate post-occupation years, Nativity Church clearly attempted to assimilate into the Teochew culture of Hougang by a range of pragmatic means. It pervaded all aspects of life, with a set of practices and beliefs that synchronized with the community's family routines, and its influence gradually permeated the existing rhythms of the families. However, the community still primarily imagined itself as Teochew. Therefore, this suffusion of Catholic traditions had to be transmitted through Teochew traditional routines before it could gain traction. The church thus played a less-than-authoritative role in defining members of the imagined community of the Catholic Teochews, as it was still synchronizing its activities with the existing rhythm.
Consolidation amidst Attrition, 1965-1977
Mary Chua reiterates the Hougang-nang's sense of belonging to a community. "We have an identity. You feel proud to be both Catholic and Teochew." (19) This "identity" was consolidated in response to the attrition of Catholic and Teochew traditions which between 1965 and 1977 necessitated the self-definition of the Catholic Teochew vis-a-vis other communities in Singapore. Assmann's assertion, that "any people that sees itself as a unit unlike other peoples imagines itself somehow to be chosen" (Assmann 2011, p. 17), thus resonates strongly with the case of the Catholic Teochews of Hougang. These "chosen" people of the Siadi confronted two great stimulants of change.
The first was the Second Vatican Council. Pope Paul VI concluded the council in 1965 with directives centred around actuosa participatio, promoting "active participation within the Church" (Paul VI 1963,). In response, Nativity Church began re-energizing existing ministries and establishing new ones (Church of the Nativity 2012, pp. 109-12). A Catholic Teochew became likely to spend her or his free time in church, participating in numerous ministry activities.
Further to encourage the active participation of parishioners, the church replaced the Latin Mass with English and Mandarin Masses in 1965 and 1970, respectively (Church of the Nativity 2002, pp. 14-15). In 1971, Fr Matthias Tung relieved Fr Berthold as parish priest and initiated the Teochew Mass and a Teochew choir (Church of the Nativity 2012, p. 216). The Teochew Mass was well received by the community and usually fully attended despite its being held at 6.00 a.m. (20) Fr Tung's thirty-year-long pastoral leadership was also a symbol of continuity. His unwavering support for Teochew liturgies fostered a constant integration of Catholic and Teochew traditions over an extended period. In 1974, Fr Joseph Jeannequin, a French priest fluent in Teochew and Mandarin from his prior MEP missions, joined him. (21) Fr Jeannequin employed Teochew and Chinese traditions during wedding Masses, continuing the legacy of the angmoh senghu. He wore priestly vestments with Chinese characters traditionally used for weddings--two "[phrase omitted]" joined together--and explained that each "[phrase omitted]" represented the bride and the groom, bonded by an unbreakable bond in marriage. (22) Actuosa participatio allowed the parish leadership to interpret Teochew traditions using a Catholic lens, and thus provided the opportunity for the church to perpetuate a jointly Catholic-Teochew rhythm.
At the same time, however, Singapore's efforts at modernization formed an opposing trend--one that forced the subordination of the Catholic-Teochew traditions. This pressure was especially evident in education--the second stimulus of change. The report of the All-Party Committee on Chinese Education of 1956 and the increasing intervention in mission schools on the part of the Ministry of Education from 1959 onward meant that the landscape of Catholic education began to change drastically (see Gopinathan 2013, p. xiv). Increasing MOE emphasis on technical subjects saw less priority given to religious studies. The first cohort of CHIJ Punggol to take the Primary School Leaving Examinations in 1962 received religious education after school hours; only Catholics now attended (Meyers 2004, p. 203). MOE policies on bilingualism led gradually to the diminished use of Teochew in the four schools. Furthermore, when Singapore's prime minister Lee Kuan Yew visited Hougang in 1963, he stressed the importance of "religious tolerance", emphasizing non-exclusivity in building the inclusive Singaporean identity (Seah 2016, p. 65). Policies to institute integrated schools and co-curricular activities as incubators of common experience meant that the "Catholic-only" label of the Hougang schools had to be peeled off.
Nonetheless, the schools continued to catalyse conversions by indirect means. The schools capitalized on the increased numbers of non-Catholics and gradually acculturated them to a Catholic lifestyle. Margaret Lee remembers how Catholic prayers continued to give a routine to the school days of Hai Sing Girls' School, where Buddhists and Taoists increasingly made up the non-Catholic population. Non-Catholics "became very familiar with the Catholic practices over time. As a result, many of them converted." (23) For most converts, eventual baptism was merely a formality, as they were already living according to the Catholic-Teochew rhythm.
Within families, the duality of both traditions in the household life also reinforced the Catholic-Teochew identity. This dynamic echoes Yans-Mclaughlin's analysis: the increasing permeation of the Catholic rhythm "does not necessarily imply the dissolution of traditional family forms... but rather the adaption of one to another" (Yans-McLaughlin 1977, p. 22). The opportunity for this dialectic interaction of traditions began with Pope Paul VI's 1970 Matrimonia Mixta. This apostolic letter stated that the Catholic Church "relaxes ecclesiastical discipline" (see Paul VI 1970) on the formerly mandatory conversion of non-Catholics before marriage. While this step would potentially lead to a fall in conversions, the caveat obligating the Catholic party to bring up children in the Catholic faith actually promoted conversion among other family members. Non-Catholic family members were later acculturated through the constant practise of Catholic traditions at home and eventually converted. (24) Non-Catholic spouses also converted, given a mindset holding that the whole family should have the same faith.
Nevertheless, important Teochew family traditions persisted, too. Angeline Yeo's non-Catholic mother insisted on asking for sidiamgim, a betrothal gift of four different items of gold, from her Catholic bridegroom. (25) Yeo would later adapt this practice by giving her daughter-in-law a golden crucifix and chain as two of the four items of gold. (26) Such amalgamated practices illustrate families' maintenance of core Teochew practices, reinterpreted within a Catholic perspective.
The Church also began to look "favourably on everything in the customs of these people that is not inseparably bound up with superstition and error, and, if it can, [tries to] protect and conserve them" (Catholic News, 6 January 1963). This attitude allowed families to alternate between Catholic and Teochew identities or to amalgamate both traditions for convenience. This common, concurrent embodiment of two identities eventually melded into a communal heritage.
Memory and the Heritage of the Siadi
Assmann's contention that "a person's memory forms itself through his or her participation in a communicative process" (Assmann 2011, p. 23) is useful for understanding the notion of the Hougang Siadi. The Catholic-Teochew heritage of the "Holy Land of Singapore" emerged through the perception among members of the community of themselves as a "chosen people" as they confronted the attrition of Catholic-Teochew traditions. Social memory, as a summation of their common experiences, became a marker of communal identity.
The claim that Hougang is the "Holy Land of Singapore" involves a large number of religious hypotheses that fall beyond the scope of the present discussion. Yet the role of church and family in memorializing the Catholic-Teochew identity exemplifies the role of human agency in forming the Siadi. For instance, Teochew mystical stories reiterated the power of Catholicism within families. The most famous story was about the Gau Wang Ya (Nine Emperor Gods, [phrase omitted]) procession. This Taoist festival concluded with a grand procession to Sungei Serangoon with the urn supposedly containing the Gau Wang Ya on a sedan chair (Lee 2011). Unfortunately for members of the Taoist temple, the shortest procession route passed in front of Nativity Church. Fr Lim recalls that "the chair could not pass by the church. So [the Taoist priests] will shout and pull, and the chair swung violently", as they tried, but often failed, to get it past the shrine to the Blessed Virgin. (27) Such stories implicitly established a hierarchy of Catholicism vis-a-vis other religions. While recognition of the existence of Taoist spirits seems heretical to Catholic orthodoxy of monotheism, tolerance towards other religions nevertheless buttressed the hybridized worldview according to which the Catholic Teochews were superior. This immortalized memory of the Gau Wang Ya priests struggling with, and sometimes even kneeling to ask permission from, the Blessed Virgin further affirms Hobsbawm's notion that "no memory is possible outside frameworks used by people living in society to determine and retrieve their recollections" (Assmann 2011, p. 24). This memory of the Church's spiritual authority was created via the framework of interactions with other religions.
Moreover, the perception of the "immense, uncontainable holiness" in Hougang saw the founding of St Anne's Church in Sengkang and the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary at Highland Road as offshoots of Nativity Church (Wijeysingha 2006, pp. 159-67). (28) A number of religious vocations among Hougang parishioners accompanied these events. Between 1965 and 1977, eight priests, one brother and eleven nuns from Hougang were ordained (Church of the Nativity 2012, pp. 245-47). Interactions within the Catholic-Teochew community undoubtedly played a significant role in producing these vocations. The seminarians of Hougang were acquainted as fellow "altar boys or neighbours or classmates". (29) The unmatched concentration of mission schools further intensified the prevalence of religious vocations. Sr Mary Chua remembers realizing her calling "through visiting former Hougang schoolmates at the Convent". (30) Classmates also often encouraged one another. "The CHIJ girls would aspire to be nuns; the Montfort boys would want to be priests." (31)
Therefore, it seems that the influences of church, family and school mutually overlapped, reinforcing layers of Teochew religiosity within the communal traditions. Michael Chiam notes that he embodies the ultimate intertwining of these rhythms, as he asserts, "When they see Michael Chiam; Teochew surname, from Montfort, from Hougang; and they can confirm that he's a Catholic boy." (32)
The Faded Rhythm, 1977-1981
When Gregory Yong was appointed Archbishop of Singapore in 1977, he pledged to support government policies that "will enable our fellow human beings to achieve their eternal destiny" (Straits Times, 3 June 1987, p. 10). This increased alignment of the Catholic Church with the urbanizing agenda of the People's Action Party government foreshadowed the last era of the Hougang-nang. After Nativity Church's one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary, the Catholic-Teochew rhythm began to fade, overpowered by the forces of urbanization and secularization. By the late 1970s, the immigration of Shantou Teochews had also long since dropped to insignificant levels; this drop removed one of the influences sustaining Teochew traditions in Hougang. Further, Singapore had begun to develop at an exponential rate in pursuit of modernity. Its development appeared to necessitate the abandonment of certain traditions for more functional practices. While the concentration of Teochews in Hougang had initially made it easy to create a cultural stronghold, the traditional Catholic-Teochew practices of people there had to evolve. This evolution eventually attenuated the communal identity.
Nativity Church did attempt to maintain its longstanding influence over the community. It made increasingly concerted attempts to reach out to parishioners distracted by urbanization, not least by organizing Home Missions in 1973 and 1977. These missions visited all the households belonging to the parish as a form of outreach in response to the government's resettlement policies (Church of the Nativity 2012, p. 136). The 1977 Mission followed the government's acquisition of church land in 1976. (33) Yet, such outreach efforts were hardly novel. Priests had previously visited the attap houses of parishioners on a daily basis. (34) Even when the government resettled parishioners into Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats, Fr Jeannequin "took it upon [himself] to visit the parishioners every day.... [He] would take the lift up to the highest floor and work downwards." (35) His personal outreach was indicative of the Church's adaptation to urbanization. But the former daily routine of visiting parishioners was reduced to one-off events, relegating the constant Catholic rhythm to a mere cymbal clash.
Church groups also began to stratify, to cater to the changing pastoral needs of parishioners faced with the pressures of urbanization. Margaret Lee recalls progressing from the Young Christian Students community to the Young Christian Workers (YCW) on joining the workforce. (36) Between 1977 and 1980, YCW's membership grew tremendously with the purpose of helping members cope with skills upgrading and problems at work (Church of the Nativity 2012, p. 124). Nativity Church continued to keep the Catholic-Teochew community within the routine of participating in church groups by pragmatically adapting its outreach approach.
However, the area's Catholic schools became increasingly distant from Nativity Church. The secular school system eventually absorbed them. Fr Liam Egan's 1978 Catholic News article captured this phenomenon. "[0]ur schools do not qualify as Catholic schools at all, or very imperfectly at best", he wrote (Egan 1978). The physical relocation of schools also embodied their removal from the church's influence. By the late 1970s, the MOE had flagged many of the Hougang schools as "in need of development" (Seah 2016, p. 50). Three of the four schools originally situated on church land eventually relocated to new campuses, with only CHIJ Punggol remaining in its original site to this day (Meyers 2004, p. 203). The schools, preoccupied with preparations for moving, withdrew from participation in activities connected to Nativity Church. The routinized Catholic experiences shared by students gradually gave way to the occasional celebration of Mass "in school every once in a while... only for Catholics". (37)
The Catholic schools' initial policy of giving priority to Catholics during enrolment was also discontinued, and the church lost its dominant role in education in the area. Leo Sequeira, who taught at Montfort from 1963 to 2004, remembers that the Singapore government "reserved a certain percentage of students admitted into our school for Muslims". (38) As mission schools became government-aided schools, the number of Catholic staff also dwindled. Nonetheless, Sequeira maintains that Montfort School still enjoys a core of Catholic teachers, even if they are only a minority. (39)
Changes in school activities further accelerated the secularization of Hougang's Catholic schools. Emphasizing inclusiveness, schools changed their approach of lightening non-Catholic students' obligation to attend Mass and catechism to one of preventing them from doing so altogether. Writing in this era, Fr Egan further explained that, "as far as religious instruction is concerned, the fact that it must be given outside school hours means that it cannot be satisfactorily organised" (Egan 1978). This shift was the final stage in detaching catechism, initially compulsory for all mission school students, from Catholic education. Furthermore, Extra-Curricular Activities also took place after school hours. Teochew Catholic students thus had to manage both catechism classes and involvement in church groups alongside mandatory extra-curricular participation in sports and uniformed groups (Straits Times, 12 April 1975, p. 23). Nevertheless, some Catholic Teochews attempted to maintain the Catholic rhythm in their lives by making participation in Catholic societies such as the Joyful Vanguard one of their extra-curricular activities.
Lastly, the change in school leadership necessitated the implementation of more secular policies and a decrease in Church involvement. Fr Egan lamented that "in most of the schools the Principal is a lay teacher; in some there is not a single Brother or Sister on the staff" (Egan 1978). Hai Sing Girls' School, founded under the leadership of FMM Nuns, eventually transferred the post of principal to the lay teacher Maria Ng in 1969 (Loh and Shiow 2009). This trend was also evident at Montfort School and CHIJ Punggol, where the clergy gradually assumed less significant roles.
At the same time, a dialectic "relationship between modernity and tradition" (Yans-McLaughlin 1977, p. 22) remained evident in schools that still emphasized their Catholic roots. Lay Catholics typically replaced principals from religious orders. Many teachers like Sequeira also remained on the staffs of mission schools and continued to organize church activities. (40) The Catholic rhythm persisted in the schools, but less and less audibly, as the secularization of education drowned it out. The Catholic-Teochew identity that these schools had previously perpetuated thus began to erode.
For the larger community, Archbishop Yong's reaction to parishioners affected by the government's land resettlement policies caused dissatisfaction rooted in a perception of double standards. Archbishop Olcomendy had earlier compensated resettled parishioners with 80 per cent of the amount the Catholic Church received for land purchased by the government in 1976. These funds were meant to help cover the cost of new flats (Church of the Nativity 2012, pp. 136-38). In contrast, Yong believed that the government adequately compensated resettled residents, and he did not follow suit (Tan 1994, p. 50). His treatment of the Catholic Teochews living on mission land sparked feelings of betrayal and abandonment towards the Church. Some of the affected families moved to other urban new towns and cut connections with the parish, in behaviour that reflected the longstanding pragmatic mindset of the community. Some among them, such as Lim Sui Kok, eventually moved back into Hougang New Town, explaining that they returned because "we like this place and it has become so much a part of us" (Church of the Nativity 2012, p. 138). Nevertheless, these nuanced responses among members of the community fragmented their common sense of identification.
It was the changes occurring within families that finally extinguished the Catholic-Teochew rhythm. In 1977, Fr Pierre Barthoulot lamented that families were "losing their ancestral tradition for the modern outlook of life in which materialism is the principle concern and faith is no more a family pride" (Church of the Nativity 1977, p. 23). People abandoned numerous Teochew traditions, and the enclave's common practices came to an effective end. Nuclear families' moving into HDB flats exacerbated matters. Large extended families from the same kampong became geographically fragmented, unable to continue many family traditions. For instance, members of the extended Ang family resettled from living behind the Nativity Church to areas as far-flung as Whampoa and Marine Parade (Church of the Nativity 2002, p. 21).
Nevertheless, Yans-Mclaughlin's description of the family as "a flexible organisation... adapting to new social conditions" also helps to explain why geographical displacement did not necessarily constitute a break with the parish (Yans-McLaughlin 1977, p. 23). Many Hougang-nang eventually purchased resale flats beside the Nativity Church, while others took advantage of the improved transport system to return on Sundays (Church of the Nativity 2012, p. 134). The descendants of the Ang family have continued to be active members in various church groups (Church of the Nativity 2002, p. 21). Nonetheless, the urbanized lifestyles of Catholic Teochews eventually relegated previously essential daily Catholic-Teochew routines to mere Sunday obligations.
The disintegration of the extended family also undermined its role in perpetuating Catholic-Teochew traditions. Maria Goh remembers how the daily rosary prayers in the kampong houses ceased in the late 1970s, alongside the redevelopment of Hougang and the resettlement of its residents. (41) The prolonged attrition of Teochew family traditions created a generation whose members perceived themselves as Teochew less and less. George Lee said that his wedding in 1979 was more Catholic than Teochew, as he felt that observing Teochew traditions rooted in superstition, such as placing chickens under the nuptial bed, would have been ridiculous. This was especially the case since wedding banquets were no longer held on the verandas of attap village homes but in hotels. (42)
Ironically, the parish itself became the principal agent for the perpetuation of Teochew traditions. In 1981, Nativity Church initiated the blessing of mandarin oranges for the Lunar New Year. These oranges, long exchanged during family visits, now added the dimension of being spiritual blessings to Teochew interpretations of exchanging prosperity. Within the context of declining dialect and ethnic family traditions in Singapore, the church began to play an increasingly significant role in perpetuating the Catholic-Teochew rhythm.
As Catholic-Teochew traditions eroded, only nostalgia for the Siadi and its initial ability to weather the forces of attrition remained. But this Siadi heritage reflected a small proportion of the prevalent Catholic-Teochew culture of the past. Stories were still told within the family, but no longer in Teochew. And another story, one resembling the older mystical tales, emerged in response to the loss of the Siadi. Angeline Yeo recounts that, at the time of the exhumation of corpses from the cemetery next to the Nativity Church, many of them were in perfect condition, without signs of decomposition. (43) Although such myths are not recorded in the official church history, they remind later generations that there was something truly special about the church and the community of Catholic Teochews that centred on it.
The "Teochew" Parish
In 2005, Catholic News published an article titled, "The 'Teochew' Parish" (Lee 2005), that captured the memories of the Catholic Teochews of Hougang. It announced that Nativity Church had been gazetted as a National Monument, in a move that highlighted the importance of the community that it had fostered to Singapore's heritage. Nativity Church remains today the only parish that celebrates the Teochew Mass--an embodied tradition of the community that once anchored itself around the church.
Through the growth, consolidation and eventual dilution of the Hougang Catholic-Teochew identity from the mid-1940s to the early 1980s, the three institutions of church, family and school harmonized in generating a Catholic-Teochew rhythm of life. The increasing pervasiveness of Catholicism in Teochew routines and the dialectic process in which the community amalgamated and negotiated both traditions generated a rich heritage, one memorialized in the idea of the "Teochew Parish" of Nativity. The historical circumstances that led to the same confluence of factors did not exist anywhere else in Singapore and probably could not exist after the fragmentation and dispersal of the community. What initially existed as a Teochew rhythm was increasingly incorporated with Catholicism to produce a distinct Catholic-Teochew rhythm. Forces of urbanization later caused the disentanglement of the two rhythms as the Teochew rhythm receded and the community identified with the church more than with its dialect. Therefore, while Hougang remains mainly populated by Teochews and Catholics, the two identities are no longer synonymous.
By 1981, the Housing and Development Board flats of Hougang New Town had replaced all the kampongs in the Hougang-Kangkar area and a majority of the area's residents had been relocated. This date thus marks the end of the microhistory of the Catholic-Teochew community in Hougang, as a new community displaced the Catholic Teochews. Nevertheless, the microhistory of the Catholic Teochews documents a distinct communal identity tied to a particular interpretation of Catholicism through various institutions. The distinct legacy of this Catholic-Teochew enclave not only illustrates the agency of the Catholic Teochews in refracting and reinterpreting Catholic identity but also distinguishes them as a distinct cultural community. This history also implicates the present understanding of identities in Singapore, for the legacy of the "Teochew Parish" challenges prevalent notions of primordial immigrant identities as features of the Singaporean social landscape.
The Singapore government has long asserted that identities are inherent, that the nation's beginnings as a destination of migrants from a multitude of locales brought the importation of those identities. Assuming the reality of primordial identities, Singapore has endorsed ethnic classification along the model of Chinese-Malay-Indian-Other since the first census in 1824 (Au-Yong 2016). Yet the history of the Catholic Teochews of Hougang suggests that identities in Singapore are nurtured rather than primordial. It supports an argument against the idea Singaporean identities are remnants of speech-group primordialism imported from abroad. The distinct beginning of the Catholic-Teochew rhythm in the early post-occupation years especially exemplifies the origins of an identity forged in Singapore rather than imported from China. Furthermore, the historical trajectory of the Catholic-Teochew identity illustrates the agency of many local stakeholders in shaping a distinct social identity that still persists in the form of nostalgic pride.
Inductively, we can thus assert that identities are created rather than primordial. This argument ought to provoke further inquiry into other identities in Singapore that feature overlapping ethnic and religious boundaries and whose histories may challenge the officially endorsed notion of identities in the country. This history of a distinct communal identity, overwhelmed by homogenizing policies that diluted ethnic enclaves, exemplifies a fate possibly shared by other identities. Perhaps, then, the rhythms of other communities that traverse the stratums of classification in Singapore have also faded to inaudible fragments. Such rhythms, similarly drowned out by secularization, urbanization and housing policies, constitute a slice of Singapore's history lost in the effort to ground a homogeneous national identity.
Bryan Goh received his bachelor's degree, with first class honours, in History and Philosophy from the National University of Singapore in 2018; email: [email protected].
Appendix Timeline of Events
1852 Fr Ambroise Maistre arrives in Hougang
26 Aug 1857 Fr Maistre procures land at Hougang from the British East
India Company to build an attap chapel, named Church of
St. Mary
1898 Fr Casimir Jean Saleilles begins building Neo-Gothic
church
8 Dec 1901 Neo-Gothic church unveiled as Church of the Nativity
of the Blessed Virgin Mary
1916 Holy Innocents' English School founded
1920 Holy Innocents' Chinese Boys' School founded
1924 St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary established
1930-33 Church expansion conducted by parish priest Fr Edouard
Becharas
1934 Fr Moses Koh appointed parish priest
1936 Brothers of St Gabriel take over Holy Innocents'
English School
1938 CHIJ nuns start St Joseph's Convent at Flower Road
Fr Michael Seet appointed parish priest
1942-45 Japanese Occupation of Singapore
1946 Sultan of Johor donates statue of the Immaculate
Conception
1947 Fr Michel Olcomendy appointed Bishop of Malacca and
Singapore
1954 St Joseph's Convent moves to Hillside Drive, Highland
Road
1955 Fr Hippolyte Berthold appointed parish priest
25 Feb 1955 Bishop Michel Olcomendy is appointed Metropolitan
Archbishop of Malacca and Singapore
1957 CHIJ Sisters rename Holy Innocents' English Girls'
School as Punggol Convent and begin its pioneer class
Fr Peter Lu posted in to assist at Holy Innocents'
High School
1958 Holy Innocents' High School opens new campus at
Serangoon Road
1959 Franciscan Missionaries of Mary Sisters rename Holy
Innocents' Chinese Girls' School as Hai Sing Girls'
High School
1960 Fr John Amestoy posted to Nativity Church, passes away
a year later
1962 First batch of PSLE students at Punggol Convent
1962-72 Second Vatican Council opened under Pope John XXIII
and concluded under Pope Paul VI
1963 Fr Berthold builds St Anne's Church in Punggol
1965 First English Mass celebrated
Singapore gains Independence
1970 First Mandarin Mass celebrated
1971 Fr Matthias Tung replaces Fr Berthold as parish
priest First Teochew Mass celebrated
1972 Fr Alfred Chan posted to Nativity Church
18 Dec 1972 Archdiocese of Singapore created; Archbishop Michel
Olcomendy takes office as Archbishop of Singapore
13 Aug 1973 First Home Mission
1974 Fr Joseph Jeannequin posted to Nativity Church
13 July 1975 Second Home Mission
1975 First Phase of Housing Resettlement Policy
MOE makes extra-curricular activities compulsory in
all schools.
1976 Nativity Church Centre built at Lorong Low Koon
1977 125 Years of Nativity Church celebrated
All four Schools affiliated with the church become
MOE-aided schools
2 Apr 1977 Fr Gregory Yong appointed Archbishop of Singapore
1980 Second Phase of Hougang Resettlement Policy implemented
Parish Mission conducted
1981 All kampongs in Hougang-Kangkar area replaced by
Housing and Development Board flats in Hougang New
Town
NOTES
(1.) Interview with Maria Chng, Singapore, 5 January 2017.
(2.) Figures calculated from 1973 parish census.
(3.) Interview with Fr Augustine Tay, Singapore, 11 January 2017.
(4.) Figures estimated from recollections of interviewees and from parish censuses.
(5.) Interview with Agnes Chan, Singapore, 6 January 2017.
(6.) Interview with Agnes Cher, Singapore, 9 January 2017.
(7.) Interview with Fr Edward Lim, Singapore, 25 January 2017.
(8.) Interview with Fr Augustine Tay.
(9.) Ibid.
(10.) Interview with John Goh, Singapore, 4 January 2017.
(11.) Interview with Justina Yeo, Singapore, 19 January 2017.
(12.) Interview with Frankie Choo, Singapore, 11 January 2017.
(13.) Interview with Rosie Lim, Singapore, 4 January 2017.
(14.) Interview with Fr Augustine Tay.
(15.) Interview with John Goh.
(16.) Interview with Fr Augustine Tay.
(17.) Ibid.
(18.) Ibid.
(19.) Interview with Mary Chua, Singapore, 9 January 2017.
(20.) Interview with Angeline Yeo, Singapore, 9 January 2017.
(21.) Interview with Fr Joseph Jeannequin, Singapore, 8 January 2017.
(22.) Ibid.
(23.) Interview with Margaret Lee, Singapore, 7 January 2017.
(24.) Ibid.
(25.) Interview with Angeline Yeo.
(26.) Ibid.
(27.) Interview with Fr Edward Lim.
(28.) Interview with Fr John Khoo, Singapore, 20 January 2017.
(29.) Interview with Fr Edward Lim.
(30.) Interview with Sr Mary Chua, Singapore, 8 February 2017.
(31.) Interview with Michael Chiam, Singapore, 13 January 2017.
(32.) Ibid.
(33.) Ibid.
(34.) Interview with Fr John Khoo.
(35.) Interview with Fr Joseph Jeannequin.
(36.) Interview with Margaret Lee.
(37.) Interview with Lucy Lee, Singapore, 7 January 2017.
(38.) Interview with Leo Sequeira, Singapore, 9 January 2017.
(39.) Ibid.
(40.) Ibid.
(41.) Maria Goh, interviewed by Trudy Gwee, Singapore, 8 March 2012; transcript of interview in collection of Nativity Church.
(42.) Interview with George Lee, Singapore, 7 January 2017.
(43.) Interview with Angeline Yeo.
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DOI: 10.1355/sj33-1o
TABLE 1 Number of New Catholics Entering Nativity Church Year 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 Baptisms 182 154 189 180 179 177 183 124 57 130 Converts 28 44 26 35 26 22 22 25 27 3 Total 210 198 215 215 205 199 205 149 84 133 Year 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 Baptisms 182 235 205 260 238 255 257 247 293 234 Converts 71 37 20 61 33 31 40 32 62 45 Total 253 272 225 321 271 286 297 279 355 279 Year 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 Baptisms 303 286 283 292 260 291 259 341 166 186 Converts 70 125 88 91 72 52 89 51 59 48 Total 373 411 371 383 332 343 348 392 225 234 Source: Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Baptismal Records. 1853-2016. TABLE 2 Table of Schools on Church Land Catering to Boys Girls English- Holy Innocents' English Boys Holy Innocents' English educated School (Later Montfort School) Girls School (Later CHIJ students 1925 Punggol) 1927 Chinese- Holy Innocents' Chinese Boys Holy Innocents' Chinese educated School (Later Holy Innocents Girls School (Later Hai students High School) 1925 Sing Girls School) 1929 Source: Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary 2012, p. 61.
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| Title Annotation: | Notes & Comment |
|---|---|
| Author: | Goh, Bryan |
| Publication: | SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia |
| Article Type: | Essay |
| Geographic Code: | 9SING |
| Date: | Mar 1, 2018 |
| Words: | 8636 |
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