An analysis of the human-animal relationship in post-colonial Singapore.
Modern Singapore is the Garden City, a biophilic urban space that includes a variety of animals, from mosquitoes to humans, even polar bears. Singaporean Creatures brings together historians to contemplate this human-animal relationship and how it has shaped society—socially, economically, politically, and environmentally. It is a work of historical and ecological analysis, in which various institutions, perspectives, and events involving animals provide insight into how the larger society has been formed and developed over the last half-century. The interaction of all Singaporean creatures thus provides a lens through which we can understand the creation of a modern and urban nation-state, shaped by the forces of the Anthropocene.
List of Images
Introduction: Humans and Other Animals in a Singaporean Anthropocene
Chapter 1: Tilapia, Travel and the Making of a Singaporean Creature
Chapter 2: One of the Main Drawbacks of Tropical Living
Chapter 3: Mosquitoes, Public Health and the Construction of a Modern Society
Chapter 4: Fear, Fascination and Fantasy in the Cultural History of Crocodiles
Chapter 5: Too Much Monkey Business
Chapter 6: Songbirds in a Garden City
Chapter 7: Marine Life in Service of the State at Public Aquariums and Oceanariums in Singapore
Chapter 8: Nation, Nature and the Singapore Zoological Gardens, 1973-2018
List of Contributors
Bibliography
Index
Timothy P. Barnard is an associate professor in the Department of History at the National University of Singapore, where he specializes in the environmental and cultural history of island Southeast Asia.
“A lively and persuasive account of Singapore’s relationship with animals from the mid-20th century onwards…. Thoroughly intriguing and readable, Singaporean Creatures is also a worthy 'sequel' to Barnard’s earlier book Imperial Creatures, which explored Singapore’s relationship with other animals within an earlier time frame of 1819 to 1942.” Straits Times
“This is a thorough account of multidisciplinary research in the post-colonial world and capitalist social engineering on a grand scale.”Leonardo Reviews
