Mistaken for a Filipino or a Thai before, Julia D’Silva says Eurasians embody what Singapore is – a melting pot of cultures.
SINGAPORE: I was once asked by a bank officer what race I was. When I said Eurasian, her reply was “Huh? What is that?” That was not the first time I had been asked where I am from or what race I am.
As a result, about 15,500 are left today, just 0.4 per cent of the population, down from almost 2.2 per cent at one point - all drowned out by the tsunami of foreigners when Singapore opened its doors to people from all over the world to come and work here.AdvertisementIt can be confusing. I have been mistaken for a Filipino or Thai. Many of my Eurasian friends can tell you of their similar experience.
The French also came to Indochina, and other Europeans, like the Germans, came in smaller numbers to seek their fortune in the Far East. Through further inter-marriages among these communities, the Eurasian population in Singapore grew and became a very intricate and colourful fabric with myriad threads.Eurasians with Portuguese roots married Eurasians with Dutch roots, and British roots, and so on. Chinese, Indians, Peranakans and Malays were also part of the fabric. So quite unlike Eurasians in other parts of Asia, Singapore Eurasians have multiple ethnic roots.
My grandfather, Edward Samuel D’Silva, a Ceylonese Burgher with Portuguese roots, came to Malaya and married a Peranakan woman from Penang in the early 1900s. Their eldest son, my father, married a Cantonese woman whose family came from China to seek a better life in Singapore. My paternal grandfather from Ceylon and his Peranakan wife from Penang, with three of their five children.
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