Identity grafting: influence of Confucian model universities on Chinese Singaporean engineering professionals

ABSTRACT Singapore’s higher education history had students involved in anti-colonial movements. This study examines how historical discourses on state efforts to manage university student movements (1953–1980) unintentionally reproduce in the intercultural business practices of today’s professionals. It explores how professional accounts of intercultural business practices resonate with historical memories of student movements, with individual accounts varying according to their family and educational backgrounds. Interviews with 30 Chinese Singaporean engineering professionals were compared and analysed based on their childhood home language, socioeconomic status, and whether they attended universities locally or overseas. Results show that the respondents selectively and unintentionally reconstruct historical themes to understand their cultural identities and professional practice. They converge on which aspect of higher education history resonates with them based on their family and educational backgrounds. This study shows how current actions have long-term unintended consequences. The discussion takes a postcolonial perspective of the global implications of the findings on individuals, national identity and higher education development.