Eurasian Singaporean

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eurasian Singaporean is an umbrella term to describe a community in Singapore descended from Europeans who married local Asians. The ethnicities within the community span the length and breadth of Europe, although Eurasian migrants to Singapore in the 19th century came largely from colonies already in Asia, such as old Malaya, Goa, Chittagong, the Dutch Indies, and the French Indo-China.

Currently, the community boasts family names which come from Portuguese (Conceicao, De Almeida, De Souza, Oliveiro, Pereira, Monteiro, De Payva, Pestana, Gomes, Nunes, Theseira, etc), Dutch (Ess, Marbeck, Moesbergen, Van Culyenberg, Reutens, Vanderstraaten), Armenian (Galistan), French (Longue, Poulier), Danish (Lange), German (Oehlers), Swedish (Holmberg, Olsen), Italian (Marini) and British (Shepherdson, Capel, Caines, Reeves, Smith) nationalities.

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[edit] The Portuguese

The first Europeans to land in Asia were the Portuguese, followed by the Spanish. The Portuguese explorers also ferried the first Jesuit Priests to Asia. Their descendants, who are of mixed Portuguese and Malay/Chinese/Indian descent, are collectively known as Gente Kristang.

[edit] The Dutch

In 1602, a Dutch trading company called the VOC (abbreviated from Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, meaning United East India Company) was created to conduct trade in the area east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan. In establishing their numerous trade stations spanning across Asia, the Dutch created independent settler societies in each of their colonies, where Batavia (now Jakarta) became the administrative centre and rendezvous point for the company's Asian shipping traffic.

Between 1602 and 1795, the VOC fitted out some 4,700 ships which carried almost a million Europeans to the Far East. Almost 70 percent of the one million of the passengers never actually returned to Europe, making Asia their new home. These early seafarers were not only made up of Dutch, but also included Germans, French Huguenots, Italians, British, Scandinavians and other Europeans who were employed by the VOC. In time, many were assimilated into Dutch colonies situated throughout Asia (though primarily in modern Indonesia) where they were stationed and became part of the respective communities.

Intermarriages between VOC employees and locals were encouraged, which lead to the creation of communities of Dutch descendants. Today, there are only four surviving coherent and large communities who are descended from those early intermarriages by VOC employees. They are the Coloureds from South Africa, Dutch Burghers from Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), Dutch Indos from Indonesia, some Anglo-Burmese and Dutch Eurasians from Malacca, Malaysia.

Dutch descendants in Malaysia and Singapore are primarily made up of Dutch Eurasians originating from Malacca, Ceylon Dutch Burghers originating from Sri Lanka as well as early Dutch settlers originating from Indonesia and India.

[edit] The Armenians

Migrants from Armenia arrived in Asia as refugees, fleeing persecution by the Ottoman Empire in their occupied homeland.

[edit] The Eurasian Community at large

Overwhelmingly Christian, most being Roman Catholics of Portuguese descent, celebrating Christian feast days such as Christmas, Easter and Corpus Christi.

English is spoken as a first language, whilst amongst the elder generation the Portuguese creole known as Papia Cristao or Kristang [1] is still spoken by a handful of people.

Unique to their culinary traditions are Devil's curry, Feng, Vin D'arlo, Mulligatani, Shepherd's pie & Eurasian Smore.

[edit] Prominent Eurasian Singaporeans

[edit] External links

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