又到了交报告的时候。突发奇想，出了研究新加坡人认同感的题目。写了之后开始后悔，真的好难。。。历史短、著作不多是一回事，身处岛国又如何从世界看岛国呢？
翻了几本经典名著，查找了新闻资料库，总算交了一篇六千字的功课。
Benedict Anderson has described nation-ness and nationalism as cultural artifacts of a particular kind. Nation = an imagined political community, and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign; with imagined communities of nations replacing religious communities and dynastic realms when modern states evolved.
History plays an important role in nation-building process. French historian Ernest Renan suggested “collective selective amnesia” in effective nation building. The collapse of Ottoman Empire after World War I reminds advocates of collective amnesia that, yes, rulers who did not allow multi-racial population to forget their past and forge a binding nationalism would bear the risk of facing such endings.
The independence of Singapore in 1965, a history we are all familiar with, at least to a generation like us. But how would the history end is not something we would anticipate. The future of Singapore history lies in the hands of “us”. How much does “us” matter?
To be continued…
