Singapore's high school music education program can lead to what is known as AP music in the US, or A-Level music in the UK. In the 1980s and 90s, this was 100% Western music, reflecting the history of the country, which was colonized in 1819 by the British. While decolonization was achieved in 1959 (when the British left), this did not mean decoloniality, as evidenced in the persistence of Western cultural imperialism in the history of music education in Singapore.
The process of decolonizing music education began around 2000, when the musics of the Chinese majority and Malay and Indian minorities in Singapore were introduced (as part of a campaign for national identity), successfully diversifying the curriculum. At that point, the vast majority of teachers were trained in 100% Western music university programs, and so this was a systemic shock. Everyone had to become a student of global musics, cobbling books, CDs, and workshops by musicians to become fluent in these musics. The initial slate of musics included non-Singaporean musics—Japanese music, "African" music (problematically lumped as a continent, instead of regions or countries), and "Latin American" music (again, lumped as a continent). A few years later, the Ministry of Education reduced the slate of musics to just Western and Singaporean Asian musics (Chinese, Malay, Indian), which I consider to be a parochial-nationalist move.
Diversity in the music curriculum is positive, but it does not address the situation that I was often in, which is that 100% Chinese teachers are teaching 100% Chinese students. In my 5 years as a public school teacher in Singapore, I taught 1 Indian student, and had 0 minority colleagues. The diversification of the music curriculum came about because of awareness of Singapore's "Asian" identity. Multicultural musics were included based on the government-administrative framework of "different races" inherited from British colonization. But no one is seriously addressing the issues of inequality between the various Asian peoples in Singapore, nor the fact that these Asian musics are widely considered to be "antiquated" in a global milieu in which "Western" signifies "modern," which is where decolonial theory comes in. Singapore may not be the same as other countries which are caught within the imperialist ambitions of modern-day hegemons, which may effect political regime changes for the purposes of economic profit. But decoloniality has been and continues to be relevant.
Diversity in the music curriculum is positive, but it does not address the situation that I was often in, which is that 100% Chinese teachers are teaching 100% Chinese students. In my 5 years as a public school teacher in Singapore, I taught 1 Indian student, and had 0 minority colleagues. The diversification of the music curriculum came about because of awareness of Singapore's "Asian" identity. Multicultural musics were included based on the government-administrative framework of "different races" inherited from British colonization. But no one is seriously addressing the issues of inequality between the various Asian peoples in Singapore, nor the fact that these Asian musics are widely considered to be "antiquated" in a global milieu in which "Western" signifies "modern," which is where decolonial theory comes in. Singapore may not be the same as other countries which are caught within the imperialist ambitions of modern-day hegemons, which may effect political regime changes for the purposes of economic profit. But decoloniality has been and continues to be relevant.
Decoloniality is not as simple as diversifying the music curriculum because the very multicultural framework used for that project is inherited from British colonial-administrative division of the "races." This is translated today to strict racial quotas per housing block of government-built apartments that 85% of the population live in. My neighbors in Singapore are a Malay family, and if the quota for the Chinese have been reached in my block, the apartment can only ever be sold to a non-Chinese buyer, which means depressed apartment prices (because of lack of demand). In fact, the COVID-19 crisis in Singapore is sparked by the housing of massive numbers of Indian and mainland Chinese migrant workers in purpose-built dormitories, administered using the colonial logic of divide and govern.
Beyond the issue of race, decoloniality emphasizes the interconnectedness of vectors of oppression according to race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability. In music education, the initial lack of Asian musics is coupled with another form of invisibility: the queerness of canonic composers such as Schubert and Tchaikovsky is until now still straightened in a heteronormative milieu. Contemporary homophobia in Singapore can be traced to an arcane British colonial-era law (Section 377A of the penal code) that makes gays illegal. While the government stated that they will never make prosecutions based on that law, which they claim needs to be kept to reflect the moral majority, this kind of legal, symbolic, and cultural oppression must be addressed in curriculum reform to develop a music education that reflects the diversity of composers, performers, and music-makers.
