1, Chinese
Chinese ancestors immigrated to Singapore for a long time. According to China's ancient books, during the Tang and Song Dynasties, China people had come to Singapore to engage in economic and trade activities, and some of them had settled in Singapore. From the middle of13rd century to the end of14th century, during the period of New Lobro Kingdom, Singapore was extremely prosperous, with countless businessmen from all directions. The Yuan government not only recognized the country and exchanged envoys with it, but also the people of the two countries had close trade contacts, and the number of overseas Chinese living in Singapore was increasing.
/kloc-After the middle of the 9th century, China people moved to Singapore in large numbers. During the period of1821-1931,the population of Singapore increased from 4,727 to 557,700, among which the number of Chinese increased from 1 159 to 465,438+. Until 193 1, immigrants accounted for 6 1% of Singapore's total population, and only 39% were born locally.
At present, the economic activities and occupations of Chinese in Singapore are almost all-encompassing. China has capital and labor in agriculture, fishery, manufacturing, construction, mining, water and electricity utilities, transportation and communication, wholesale and retail business, foreign trade and catering, finance and insurance, real estate and other service industries. Chinese occupy an important position in various local economic sectors and are the main components of the local national economy. After the war, especially after Singapore's independence, the vast number of overseas Chinese in Singapore took Singapore as their hometown, took root there, voluntarily chose Singapore citizenship, became Singapore citizens and became an integral part of the Singapore nation.
2. Malays
Malays are the second largest ethnic group in Singapore. Belonging to Mongolian race, he is not very tall and has light brown skin.
Malays are not aborigines in Singapore. At present, most Malays are descendants of modern Malays who have lived in Singapore for generations (including a few primitive Malays). Their ancestors immigrated to Singapore earlier than Chinese and Indians, and some have reached dozens of generations.
According to its time sequence and starting point, the Malay entry movement can be roughly divided into two parts: the first part is that the ancestors of primitive Malays moved from Central Asia to Malay Peninsula from 2500 BC to 1000 BC. The second part is from the 7th century to the present, from the southern islands of Indonesia (such as Sumatra and Java). ) to move in, known as the modern Malay. Before 1830, Malays were the largest ethnic group in Singapore. After that, its number was surpassed by the Chinese and became the second largest ethnic group. During the British colonial rule, Malays were mainly engaged in agriculture, planting crops such as coconut, rubber, pepper, sweet potato, cassava and fruit, and also fishing along the coast. After Singapore's independence, most of them participated in the modernization of local economy, culture and education and made positive contributions to Singapore's economic prosperity.
3. Indians
"Indians" in Singapore's demographics include people of Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi descent who have obtained Singapore citizenship. Among them, the descendants of Indians are the main body, so they are collectively referred to as "Indians" in the text. It is the third largest ethnic group in Singapore. It is not known when Indians began to immigrate to Singapore. 12-/kloc-The kingdom of "believing in great things and supplementing Romania" in the 0/4th century was influenced by Indian culture. /kloc-a large number of Indians moved to Singapore after the 0/9 s. Because India and Singapore were both British colonies at this time. India is a large agricultural country with a large population. Britain used the power of its suzerain country to seek the source of labor supply from India, which has a large number of unemployed people, and moved a large number of bankrupt farmers, soldiers and prisoners to Singapore and Malaysia to engage in the hard work of reclaiming virgin forests, building infrastructure such as ports, docks, highways and railways, and opening up plantations. As a result, the number of Indians in Singapore has increased year by year: from 182 132 in 0 years to 50800 in 193 1 year, with an increase of 383.8 times. According to the census of 1947, there are 69,000 Indians in Singapore, of which only 36.3% are native Indians and 63.7% are new immigrants. By the middle of 1993, there were 204 1000 Indians in Singapore, an increase of 195.8% compared with 1947. /kloc-Indians who entered Singapore after the 0 th and 9 th centuries were used as servants to build roads, ports, docks and bridges in addition to cleaning the jungle and working in plantations. By 1900, almost all the railways from Singapore to Malaysia were built by Indian laborers. With the development and progress of Singapore society, Indians have more opportunities for education. Indians have entered various economic fields in Singapore. Many people became engineers, doctors, teachers and lawyers, some entered the industrial, commercial, financial and construction industries, and some entered the political and gendarmerie departments. Although Indians are composed of several ethnic groups, Tamils from southern India are the most, so Tamil has become the representative language of Indians. In Singapore, there are Tamil primary schools and Tamil newspapers.
4. Other races
In Singapore's demographic statistics, there is often an "other" item, which includes Europeans, Americans, Africans, Oceania people and people from other Asian countries (such as Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, etc.). ), Eurasian and so on. Some of them have acquired Singapore citizenship, while others are purely foreigners. 1993 The population of "others" was 33,500, accounting for 1.2% of the total population of Singapore. However, most of these people are heads or agents of big bankers, factory owners, business owners and multinational companies in Singapore, and their economic strength far exceeds their proportion.