# Anarchism in Singapore

Part of a series on :
Anarchism :
Glossary
History
Outline :
Schools of thought
Feminist
Green
Primitivist
Social ecology
Total liberation
Individualist
Egoist
Market
Naturist
Philosophical
Mutualist
National-
Postcolonial
African
Black
Queer
Religious
Christian
Jewish
Social
Collectivist
Parecon
Communist
Magonism
Without adjectives
Methodology
Counter-economics
Illegalism
Insurrectionary
Pacifist
Platformism
Relationship
Syndicalist
Synthesis :
Theory
Practice
Anarchy
Anarchist Black Cross
Anarchist criminology
Anationalism
Anti-authoritarianism
Anti-capitalism
Anti-militarism
Affinity group
Autonomous social center
Black bloc
Classless society
Class struggle
Consensus decision-making
Conscientious objector
Critique of work
Decentralization
Deep ecology
Direct action
Free love
Freethought
Horizontalidad
Individualism
Law
Mutual aid
Participatory politics
Permanent autonomous zone
Prefigurative politics
Proletarian internationalism
Propaganda of the deed
Refusal of work
Revolution
Rewilding
Sabotage
Security culture
Self-ownership
Social ecology
Sociocracy
Somatherapy
Spontaneous order
Squatting
Temporary autonomous zone
Union of egoists
Voluntary association
Workers' council :
People
Alston
Armand
Ba
Bakunin
Berkman
Bonanno
Bookchin
Chomsky
Cleyre
Day
Durruti
Ellul
Ervin
Faure
Ferrer
Feyerabend
Giovanni
Godwin
Goldman
González Prada
Graeber
Guillaume
He-Yin
Kanno
Kōtoku
Kropotkin
Landauer
Liu
Magón
Makhno
Maksimov
Malatesta
Mett
Michel
Most
Parsons
Pi i Margall
Pouget
Proudhon
Reclus
Rocker
Santillán
Spooner
Stirner
Thoreau
Tolstoy
Tucker
Volin
Ward
Warren
Yarchuk
Zerzan :
Issues
Animal rights
Capitalism
Education
Love and sex
Nationalism
Religion
Violence :
History
French Revolution
Revolutions of 1848
Spanish Regional Federation of the IWA
Paris Commune
Hague Congress
Cantonal rebellion
Haymarket affair
International Conference of Rome
Trial of the Thirty
International Conference of Rome
Ferrer movement
Strandza Commune
Congress of Amsterdam
Tragic Week
High Treason Incident
Manifesto of the Sixteen
German Revolution of 1918–1919
Bavarian Soviet Republic
1919 United States bombings
Biennio Rosso
Kronstadt rebellion
Makhnovshchina
Amakasu Incident
Spanish Revolution of 1936
Barcelona May Days
Red inverted triangle
Labadie Collection
Provo
May 1968
LIP
Kate Sharpley Library
Australian Anarchist Centenary
Carnival Against Capital
1999 Seattle WTO protests
Really Really Free Market
Occupy movement :
Culture
A las Barricadas
Anarchist bookfair
Anarcho-punk
Arts
DIY ethic
Escuela Moderna
Films
Freeganism
Infoshop
Independent Media Center
The Internationale
Jewish anarchism
Lifestylism
May Day
"No gods, no masters"
Popular education
"Property is theft!"
Radical cheerleading
Radical environmentalism
Self-managed social center
Symbolism :
Economics
Communization
Cooperative
Cost the limit of price
Decentralized planned economy
Free association
General strike
Gift economy
Give-away shop
Labour voucher
Market socialism
Mutual bank
Mutual credit
Social ownership
Wage slavery
Workers' self-management :
By region
Africa
Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Argentina
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazil
Bulgaria
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Dominican Republic
East Timor
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Estonia
Finland
France
French Guiana
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Guatemala
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Korea
Latvia
Malaysia
Mexico
Monaco
Mongolia
Morocco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Nigeria
Norway
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Romania
Russia
Serbia
Singapore
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Taiwan
Tunisia
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Venezuela
Vietnam :
Lists
Anarcho-punk bands
Books
Fictional characters
Films
Jewish anarchists
Musicians
Periodicals :
Related topics
Anti-corporatism
Anti-consumerism
Anti-fascism
Anti-globalization
Anti-statism
Anti-war movement
Autarchism
Autonomism
Communism
Definition of anarchism and libertarianism
Dual Power
Labour movement
Left communism
Left-libertarianism
Libertarianism
Libertarian socialism
Marxism
Situationist International
Socialism
Spontaneous order :
Anarchism portal
Politics portal :
vte :
There is a brief history of anarchism in Singapore. In contemporary times, there has been little or no significant presence of the ideology in the country.

## History

While the area which is now Singapore was inhabited for centuries prior to the arrival of European colonialists, the founding of modern Singapore took place in 1819. Founded by the British statesman Stamford Raffles, Singapore – as a colony of Britain – saw the Chinese become its largest ethnic group already in 1827. This trend has continued until today, with the Chinese Singaporeans making up approximately 74.1% of the population.
The Chinese population, much of which came to Singapore due to political or economic reasons – such as migrants leaving southern China to escape economic hardships, and refugees from the First Opium War (1839–1842) and Second Opium War (1856–1860) – has historically been a driving force behind radical political ideologies in the country. During the anti-Manchu upheavals of the late 19th and early 20th century in China, Chinese anarchists played an influential part opposing and eventually overthrowing the Qing Dynasty. Singapore played an important role in this process, serving as a center for Chinese revolutionary activity. In 1906 it became the headquarters of the Tongmenghui, a left-wing nationalist group, in Southeast Asia.
The branch was led by Sun Yat-sen, who would become a leader of the Revolution of 1911 and the early Republic of China. But political activity in Singapore was not limited to republican revolution. During this period, Sun was associated with the Chinese anarchist Zhang Renjie, who provided a significant amount of Sun's funding (Zhang's daughter Helen would later marry a doctor from Singapore, Robert Lim). Zhang, a member of the so-called Paris group who was active in the colony, purchased a printing press to be used in producing anarchist texts. Another member of the Paris anarchist group, Chu Minyi, joined the Tongmenghui while stopping over in Singapore. Years later, in the wake of the May Fourth Movement of 1919, anarchist groups were formed among overseas Chinese communities, in among other places Singapore. These radical societies published their own newsletters and periodicals and spread anarchist literature. Some republican–influenced anarchists joined the General Labour Union of Guangzhou, which had formed in Singapore.
In the modern period, political radicalism of all forms in Singapore has been far less common than in the past, especially for the political ideology of anarchism. Some rare anarchist-related instances have occurred, such as in May 2014 when five Singaporean teenagers were arrested for spraying crude anarchist symbolism and anti-People's Action Party slogans on a high-rise roof.

## In Fiction

In Singaporean fiction, the plot of a 2003 six-part drama series produced by the now defunct SPH MediaWorks Channel U, entitled The Frontline (家在前线), circled around how the country coped after the German mastermind of a "neo-anarchist" organisation sets off a bomb at a naval base as an anti-imperialist statement against Singapore's ties with the United States.