Biography and Representation: A Nanyang University Scholar and Her Configuration of the Sinophone Intelligentsia in Singapore

Abstract

This study uses the corpus of writings and range of activities of a Nanyang University scholar as the lens to refract the transfiguration of the Chinese-educated intelligentsia in Singapore over five decades of English-educated PAP hegemony. It is a weaving of biography and representation, bringing to the forefront Lee Guan Kin's educational experience and public intellectual activism, and pairing these with her scholarly analysis of them. Her insider's perspective would allow for a greater appreciation of the dilemma, anguish, aspirations and intra-dynamics of this segment of the Chinese community amidst the larger national environment of declining Chinese language competency.