Claire Lowrie is an Associate Professor of in History at the University of Wollongong, Australia. She works on the history of colonialism and labour in northern Australia and Southeast Asia. Her first book, Masters and Servants, was published by Manchester University Press in 2016. Her ARC Discovery Project on the history of ‘houseboys’ (with Julia Martinez, Frances Steel and Victoria Haskins) has led to the publication of a second book this year (Colonialism and Male Domestic Service across the Asia Pacific, Bloomsbury). She is a co-editor (with Haskins) of Colonization and Domestic Service (Routledge 2015) and has published in Labor History, International Review of Social History, Modern Asian Studies, Pacific Historical Review (with Martinez), Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, History Australia and Gender and History (with Martinez).
This article explores the emergence of cocktail culture in interwar Singapore. Mixed alcoholic dr... more This article explores the emergence of cocktail culture in interwar Singapore. Mixed alcoholic drinks were consumed by British men in Singapore from at least the 1910s, including the famous "Singapore Sling." However, it was not until the 1920s that cocktails became the drink of choice for elite men and women from Singapore's Chinese, British, and Eurasian communities. The consumption of American popular culture and exchange with American colonists in the Philippines helped the cocktail to become a symbol of tropical modernity. At the same time, the possibilities of home entertaining were transformed by the increasing availability of American-made domestic refrigerators in Singapore from the mid-1920s. Multiethnic elites, accustomed to frequenting bars and caf� es to enjoy cocktails, began to host their own cocktail parties with the help of their Chinese servants. The interwar cocktail party offered the wealthy a means to display conspicuous consumption and cosmopolitan modernity. They did so in a way that unsettled but did not overturn colonial hierarchies based on gender, race, and class. The "Singapore Sling"-a concoction of gin, cherry brandy, lime juice, pineapple juice, Cointreau, and Benedictine, finished off with a dash of Angostura bitters-holds a central place in the global history of the cocktail. It is, perhaps, the most iconic cocktail of Asian origins. Singapore's Raffles Hotel has long claimed that the cocktail was created by Hainanese "bar boy" Ngiam Tong Boon at their famous Long Bar in 1915. 1 In the last few years, historians and journalists have questioned this version of the legend. 2 Whatever its origins, the Singapore Sling was undoubtedly the port city's first foray into American cocktail culture. The use of the term "sling" (used interchangeably with "cocktail" in the United States from the nineteenth century) highlights this American cultural influence. 3 Indeed, the United States had its own version of the "gin sling" though it differed to the pink (or red) Singaporean invention. 4
... expertise. I would like to thank Robert Aldrich, Damien Cahill, David Carment, Cynthia Coyne,... more ... expertise. I would like to thank Robert Aldrich, Damien Cahill, David Carment, Cynthia Coyne, Kathy De La Rue, Christine Doran, Catriona Elder, Richard Howsen, Victoria Haskins, Margaret Jolly, Lai Ah Eng, Sue Stanton and Glenice Yee. ...
Review(s) of: Contact zones: Sport and race in the Northern territory, 1869-1935, by Matthew Step... more Review(s) of: Contact zones: Sport and race in the Northern territory, 1869-1935, by Matthew Stephen, Charles Darwin University Press, Darwin, 2010, ISBN 9780980665079, xiv + 249 pp, paperback, $44.00.
Introduction: This paper contemplates the similarities in the working lives of two very different... more Introduction: This paper contemplates the similarities in the working lives of two very different girls.1 It focuses on part descent Aboriginal girls of Darwin working as domestic servants in European homes, and the mui tsai or girl slaves2 of Singapore working for Chinese families. These girls share the common experience of being removed from their families, trafficked a great distance from their homes and forced into domestic service. This paper will consider the common governmental responses to these girls in terms of “protection”. For the mui tsai protection involved potential rescue from forced domestic service. For part-Aboriginal girls, protection resulted in enlistment into forced domestic service. The reasons behind the strikingly different outcomes of protection in Singapore and Darwin in the 1920s and 1930s can be attributed to the different issues which the administrators in Darwin and Singapore faced, culminating out their distinct colonial experiences
Examining the role of Asian and indigenous male servants across the Asia Pacific from the late-19... more Examining the role of Asian and indigenous male servants across the Asia Pacific from the late-19th century to the 1930s, this study shows how their ubiquitous presence in these purportedly 'humble' jobs gave them a degree of cultural influence that has been largely overlooked in the literature on labour mobility in the age of empire. With case studies from British Hong Kong, Singapore, Northern Australia, Fiji and British Columbia, French Indochina, the American Philippines and the Dutch East Indies, the book delves into the intimate and often conflicted relationships between European and American colonists and their servants. It explores the lives of 'houseboys', cooks and gardeners in the colonial home, considers the bell-boys and waiters in the grand colonial hotels, and follows the stewards and cabin-boys on steamships travelling across the Indian and Pacific Oceans. This broad conception of service allows Colonialism and Male Domestic Service to illuminate trans-colonial or cross-border influences through the mobility of servants and their employers. This path-breaking study is an important book for students and scholars of colonialism, labour history and the Asia Pacific region.
... were living and the rules of that society, for example, in administering discipline to their ... more ... were living and the rules of that society, for example, in administering discipline to their convicts. ... 292 Making Film and Television Histories | Buffalo Legends 4, 1720 Bulletin, The 160 Burns ... 8 Goldson, Annie 94, 11316, 197, 240, 25762 Goodall, Heather 13 Governor, The 89 ...
This chapter explores the relationship between domestic service, violence, and colonial masculini... more This chapter explores the relationship between domestic service, violence, and colonial masculinities in the settler colony of Darwin and the exploitation colony of Singapore. The chapter analyses representations of assault and abuse of domestic servants by their British, white Australian, and Chinese masters in order to illuminate the ways in which violence could challenge or sustain colonial patriarchy. The central argument is that the ways in which violence towards Chinese and Aboriginal servants was either justified or ignored by the press, colonial officials, and ordinary colonists reflected an underlying agenda to protect the reputation of ruling-class men and the colonial venture as a whole. By comparing Darwin and Singapore, this chapter aims to illuminate the shared and particular preoccupations that underpinned settler and non-settler colonial projects.
Review(s) of: Contact zones: Sport and race in the Northern territory, 1869-1935, by Matthew Step... more Review(s) of: Contact zones: Sport and race in the Northern territory, 1869-1935, by Matthew Stephen, Charles Darwin University Press, Darwin, 2010, ISBN 9780980665079, xiv + 249 pp, paperback, $44.00.
Asian migrations: sojourning, displacement, …, 2005
... tendencies of white women in the work of both Maugham and Prichard is the notion of sexual je... more ... tendencies of white women in the work of both Maugham and Prichard is the notion of sexual jealousy (Morse, 1988: 92; Knapman, 1986: 6 ... Catriona Elder argues that representations of the " half-caste" emerge alternately as the embodiment of" the best of both worlds" or" lost in ...
This article explores the emergence of cocktail culture in interwar Singapore. Mixed alcoholic dr... more This article explores the emergence of cocktail culture in interwar Singapore. Mixed alcoholic drinks were consumed by British men in Singapore from at least the 1910s, including the famous "Singapore Sling." However, it was not until the 1920s that cocktails became the drink of choice for elite men and women from Singapore's Chinese, British, and Eurasian communities. The consumption of American popular culture and exchange with American colonists in the Philippines helped the cocktail to become a symbol of tropical modernity. At the same time, the possibilities of home entertaining were transformed by the increasing availability of American-made domestic refrigerators in Singapore from the mid-1920s. Multiethnic elites, accustomed to frequenting bars and caf� es to enjoy cocktails, began to host their own cocktail parties with the help of their Chinese servants. The interwar cocktail party offered the wealthy a means to display conspicuous consumption and cosmopolitan modernity. They did so in a way that unsettled but did not overturn colonial hierarchies based on gender, race, and class. The "Singapore Sling"-a concoction of gin, cherry brandy, lime juice, pineapple juice, Cointreau, and Benedictine, finished off with a dash of Angostura bitters-holds a central place in the global history of the cocktail. It is, perhaps, the most iconic cocktail of Asian origins. Singapore's Raffles Hotel has long claimed that the cocktail was created by Hainanese "bar boy" Ngiam Tong Boon at their famous Long Bar in 1915. 1 In the last few years, historians and journalists have questioned this version of the legend. 2 Whatever its origins, the Singapore Sling was undoubtedly the port city's first foray into American cocktail culture. The use of the term "sling" (used interchangeably with "cocktail" in the United States from the nineteenth century) highlights this American cultural influence. 3 Indeed, the United States had its own version of the "gin sling" though it differed to the pink (or red) Singaporean invention. 4
... expertise. I would like to thank Robert Aldrich, Damien Cahill, David Carment, Cynthia Coyne,... more ... expertise. I would like to thank Robert Aldrich, Damien Cahill, David Carment, Cynthia Coyne, Kathy De La Rue, Christine Doran, Catriona Elder, Richard Howsen, Victoria Haskins, Margaret Jolly, Lai Ah Eng, Sue Stanton and Glenice Yee. ...
Review(s) of: Contact zones: Sport and race in the Northern territory, 1869-1935, by Matthew Step... more Review(s) of: Contact zones: Sport and race in the Northern territory, 1869-1935, by Matthew Stephen, Charles Darwin University Press, Darwin, 2010, ISBN 9780980665079, xiv + 249 pp, paperback, $44.00.
Introduction: This paper contemplates the similarities in the working lives of two very different... more Introduction: This paper contemplates the similarities in the working lives of two very different girls.1 It focuses on part descent Aboriginal girls of Darwin working as domestic servants in European homes, and the mui tsai or girl slaves2 of Singapore working for Chinese families. These girls share the common experience of being removed from their families, trafficked a great distance from their homes and forced into domestic service. This paper will consider the common governmental responses to these girls in terms of “protection”. For the mui tsai protection involved potential rescue from forced domestic service. For part-Aboriginal girls, protection resulted in enlistment into forced domestic service. The reasons behind the strikingly different outcomes of protection in Singapore and Darwin in the 1920s and 1930s can be attributed to the different issues which the administrators in Darwin and Singapore faced, culminating out their distinct colonial experiences
Examining the role of Asian and indigenous male servants across the Asia Pacific from the late-19... more Examining the role of Asian and indigenous male servants across the Asia Pacific from the late-19th century to the 1930s, this study shows how their ubiquitous presence in these purportedly 'humble' jobs gave them a degree of cultural influence that has been largely overlooked in the literature on labour mobility in the age of empire. With case studies from British Hong Kong, Singapore, Northern Australia, Fiji and British Columbia, French Indochina, the American Philippines and the Dutch East Indies, the book delves into the intimate and often conflicted relationships between European and American colonists and their servants. It explores the lives of 'houseboys', cooks and gardeners in the colonial home, considers the bell-boys and waiters in the grand colonial hotels, and follows the stewards and cabin-boys on steamships travelling across the Indian and Pacific Oceans. This broad conception of service allows Colonialism and Male Domestic Service to illuminate trans-colonial or cross-border influences through the mobility of servants and their employers. This path-breaking study is an important book for students and scholars of colonialism, labour history and the Asia Pacific region.
... were living and the rules of that society, for example, in administering discipline to their ... more ... were living and the rules of that society, for example, in administering discipline to their convicts. ... 292 Making Film and Television Histories | Buffalo Legends 4, 1720 Bulletin, The 160 Burns ... 8 Goldson, Annie 94, 11316, 197, 240, 25762 Goodall, Heather 13 Governor, The 89 ...
This chapter explores the relationship between domestic service, violence, and colonial masculini... more This chapter explores the relationship between domestic service, violence, and colonial masculinities in the settler colony of Darwin and the exploitation colony of Singapore. The chapter analyses representations of assault and abuse of domestic servants by their British, white Australian, and Chinese masters in order to illuminate the ways in which violence could challenge or sustain colonial patriarchy. The central argument is that the ways in which violence towards Chinese and Aboriginal servants was either justified or ignored by the press, colonial officials, and ordinary colonists reflected an underlying agenda to protect the reputation of ruling-class men and the colonial venture as a whole. By comparing Darwin and Singapore, this chapter aims to illuminate the shared and particular preoccupations that underpinned settler and non-settler colonial projects.
Review(s) of: Contact zones: Sport and race in the Northern territory, 1869-1935, by Matthew Step... more Review(s) of: Contact zones: Sport and race in the Northern territory, 1869-1935, by Matthew Stephen, Charles Darwin University Press, Darwin, 2010, ISBN 9780980665079, xiv + 249 pp, paperback, $44.00.
Asian migrations: sojourning, displacement, …, 2005
... tendencies of white women in the work of both Maugham and Prichard is the notion of sexual je... more ... tendencies of white women in the work of both Maugham and Prichard is the notion of sexual jealousy (Morse, 1988: 92; Knapman, 1986: 6 ... Catriona Elder argues that representations of the " half-caste" emerge alternately as the embodiment of" the best of both worlds" or" lost in ...
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