A CULTURE OF INTEGRATION, NOT ASSIMILATION.

Speaking at the official opening of the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre (SCCC) along Shenton Way, Mr Lee said being Singaporean has “never been a matter of subtraction, but of addition; not of becoming less, but more; not of limitation and contraction, but of openness and expansion”.

The Government has encouraged each of the four major races – Chines...e, Malay, Indian and Eurasian – to preserve its own unique culture and traditions, while respecting that of the others.

This culture of integration, not assimilation, means not one group has been forced to conform to another’s “cultures or identities, let alone that of the majority”, but has been influenced by others, Mr Lee said.

“The result has been distinctive Singaporean variants of Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Eurasian cultures, and a growing Singaporean identity that we all share, suffusing and linking up our distinct identities and distinct ethnic cultures.”

Often, this distinctness is instantly recognisable when Singaporeans run into each other overseas, whether in neighbouring countries or further away – someone speaking or acting in a certain way is instinctively pegged as a fellow Singaporean.

“When we deal with nationals from these countries, we are confident of our own Singaporean cultures and identities, even as we are conscious that we are ethnic Chinese, Malays, Indians or Eurasians.

“Thus the Chinese Singaporean is proud of his Chinese culture – but also increasingly conscious that his ‘Chineseness’ is different from the Chineseness of the Malaysian and Indonesian Chinese, or the Chineseness of China, Hong Kong or Taiwan,” he added.

Mr Lee pointed out technology, power, and prosperity alone are not the only measures of a civilisation.