This series of photographs is part of my continuing research into the ever changing consciousness of the Chinese diasporic community in Singapore. The nation-state of Singapore incorporates a majority ethnic group of Chinese, making up 80% of the population. This community of Chinese face a unique situation, being able to identify with a larger diasporic group of the huaqiao (overseas Chinese), as well as in themselves composing the host society bounded within a nation state. Furthermore, Singapore itself has been considered by scholar and layman alike to be a global city, one that is exposed to the multitude of global cultures, ideologies and influences. Hence, the Chinese in Singapore are at a crossroads of their diasporic form, being pulled in various directions of contemporary and historical influences.

By using the Chinese wedding ritual as my field of study, I intend to show how a concentrated burst of activity like the Chinese wedding exemplifies and symbolizes the quotidian existences of the actors involved as they negotiate between and within themselves what it means to be Chinese and what Chineseness means to them, and how these characteristics might change with the various influences they have syncretized through media, education, propoganda or other social networks. Through the use of these photographs, I intend to examine how actors assign (to others) and assert (through themselves) ethnic identifications in their everyday lives, and how this affects their diasporic consciousness.