Chinese Singaporean
Chinese Singaporean
?????
Total population
3,496,710
[1]
Regions with significant populations
Singapore
Languages
Mandarin (predominantly Singaporean
Mandarin and Singdarin), English/Singlish,
various Min dialects, Hakka, Malay, and
numerous other Chinese languages or dialects
Religion
Mainly Buddhism, Chinese Folk Religion,
Confucianism and Taoism; minority Christianity
and secular
Related ethnic groups
Peranakans, Chindians
Chinatown was an enclave for the early
Chinese immigrants in Singapore in the 19th
and early 20th centuries.
Chinese Singaporeans are people of
Chinese descent who are born in or immig-
rated to Singapore and have attained citizen-
ship or permanent residence status. As of
2000, Chinese Singaporeans constitute 78%
of Singapore’s population, or approximately
three out of four Singaporeans. Outside
Greater China, Singapore is the only country
in which overseas Chinese forms the majority
of the population.
Chinese in Singapore today commonly re-
cognize themselves first as Singaporeans (???
?), and then Chinese (Huaren ??). The term
Chinese
Singaporean
or
Singaporean
Chinese are used interchangeably with no
differences in meaning. In terms of racial or
ethnic identity, Chinese in Singapore com-
monly identify themselves as "Huaren ??".
Peranakans are ethnic Chinese who had mar-
ried ethnic Malays somewhere in their ances-
tral line and thus developed a culture of their
own comprising a mixture of Chinese and
Malay culture.
Language groups
The majority of Chinese in Singapore are Han
Chinese with the exception of the Peranakans
and a few Chinese of Non-han ancestry such
as Manchu. The Peranakans are classified as
a separate ethnic group whose ancestry is
not directly traceable to China.
In general, the Chinese in Singapore are
grouped according
to
their
respective
Chinese
language/dialect groups
(dialect
roots) or linguistic-cultural groups. Inter-lan-
guage group marriage is quite common in
Singapore, but association of language roots
will follow the respective language root