In early Singapore, Malays dominated, and its earliest literature records originated from China in the 3rd century/kloc-0.

/kloc-In the 4th century, the Ming Dynasty called Singapore Temasek.

1819 65438+1On October 29th, Stanford Raffles, an employee of the British East India Company, landed in Singapore and took charge of the area. 1824, Singapore officially became a British colony, initially under the jurisdiction of British Indian colonial authorities. 1867, Singapore was upgraded to a strait colony, which was under the jurisdiction of Penang and Malacca and directly under British rule.

On February 1942 and 15 (during the Pacific War), it occupied Singapore, renamed as "Zhaonan Island" and administratively called "Zhaonan Special City". Among them, the word "Zhao Nan" is taken from the article "Southern Land Acquired in Showa Period", as well as "Light of the South" and "Hirohito's Territory in Nanyang". On September 1945, 12, the Japanese army announced its surrender, and Britain recovered its jurisdiction over Singapore and restored its name to "Singapore". 1959, Singapore gained autonomy. 1963, Singapore, together with the then Malayan Federal State, Sarawak and North Borneo (now Sabah), established the Malaysian Federation, thus completely escaping from British rule. 1On August 9, 965, due to the differences in power distribution between Lee Kuan Yew and the then Malaysian federal government, Singapore was expelled from Malaysia and forced to become an independent sovereign country.

After the founding of

After entering the1970s, Singapore's domestic political freedom space was gradually suppressed, but it achieved rapid economic development, and soon became an important financial and entrepot trade center in Southeast Asia, and it was one of the "Four Little Dragons of Asia" at that time. At the same time, the living standards of Singaporeans have been greatly improved, and problems such as housing, education and transportation have been solved. 1990, when lee Kuan yew announced his resignation as prime minister, Singapore had become a model of economic development in the region and even in Asia as a whole. Under the leadership of its second Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, this small Southeast Asian country successfully survived the Asian financial crisis that broke out in 1997. However, when the third Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong took over from 265438 to the beginning of the 20th century, Singapore once again faced the new problem of how to face the rise of other economies in the region.

Chinese appellation

In the past, Singapore used "Singapore" as its common Chinese name in the early days of independence. Influenced by Chinese dialect habits (including Minnan dialect, Cantonese dialect, Hakka dialect, etc. ) brought by local overseas Chinese, many derived country names appeared in the later period, such as Xingjiapo, Xingjiapo, Mao, Mao and even Mao.

The origin of national flower

1893, Ennis Jin Zhuo, a Spanish female gardener living in Singapore, successfully cultivated a new orchid variety. In memory of her, the Singapore Botanical Garden named her "Jin Zhuo Vandelan", which has outstanding beauty and immortal meaning from generation to generation. This beautiful lilac orchid has four petals, symbolizing all ethnic groups and four major language families: English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil. The elegant and exquisite flowers symbolize the simple temperament and vigorous vitality of Singaporeans, and even symbolize the spirit of hard work and brave struggle of Singaporeans.

Human population

According to the statistics of the Singapore government in 2008, the current permanent population in Singapore has reached 4.84 million, of which 3.84 million are citizens or permanent residents (collectively referred to as "local residents"). Among the local residents, Chinese account for 75.2%, Malays account for 13.6%, Indians (mostly Tamils) account for 8.8%, and Eurasian mixed-race population and other ethnic groups (including). Therefore, Singapore is not only the country and region with the highest population density in the world except Mong Kok, Macau and Monaco in Hong Kong, but also Taiwan Province Province, Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Monaco.

Most Chinese Singaporeans come from Chinese mainland, Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan, with Fujian as the majority, followed by Chaoshan, Guangfu, Hakka and Hainan.

Lang.

Singapore is a multilingual country, and its official languages include English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil. Based on the historical origin with Malaysia, the Constitution of Singapore clearly stipulates that Malay is "the national language of Singapore". However, since independence, government agencies have always regarded English as the main lingua franca and teaching language among different nationalities, and positioned it as the "first language"; Besides, it was once under British colonial rule, and its English was mostly based on British English. Under the influence of this multilingual environment, only the older generation of Chinese Singaporeans can speak some Malay, while most young Singaporeans are used to speaking a derivative Singlish, which is mixed with many foreign words.

Mandarin in Singapore is another widely used language. More than 70% Singaporeans can speak Mandarin, which is the main homonym among some Chinese in Singapore. However, Singaporean is widely used by the younger generation in Singapore. The Singapore government has designated 2008 as the Year of Chinese Language, which not only encourages Chinese in Singapore to use Chinese more, but also hopes that Chinese can be more widely used in business and trade exchanges. Nevertheless, English is still a strong language in the whole society, and there are not many opportunities to speak Chinese in Singapore's official and work fields. The level of Chinese language in Singapore's schools has gone from bad to worse. Many Chinese Singaporeans have gradually alienated Chinese writing after leaving school, and even become Chinese illiterate.

Since the "Speak Mandarin Campaign" led by the Singapore government in the 1960s and 1980s (similar to "Promoting Putonghua" in China), the use of dialects by the Singapore media has been restricted or even banned, resulting in the inability of most young Chinese Singaporeans to use Chinese dialects effectively. In addition, the Singaporean government also imposes strict restrictions on Chinese-language programs on TV and radio: for example, Taiwanese and Cantonese film and television dramas imported from Taiwan Province Province and Hong Kong must be dubbed in Chinese before they can be broadcast or released.

Singapore officially uses simplified Chinese characters consistent with China. However, during the period from 1969 to 1979, he had his own simplified standard of Chinese characters for a short time. See Singapore Chinese characters for details. Chinese characters mixed with complexity and simplicity can be seen everywhere among the people.

Among the Indian communities in Singapore, no more than 50% can speak Tamil, and the rest use other Indian languages, some of whom even speak some Fujian dialects to some extent.

religion

Singapore is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural immigrant society, which brings together many religions in the world, including:

Buddhism: the largest religion in Singapore. It accounts for about 32.5% of the population, and its followers are basically Chinese.

Islam: People of Malay or Pakistani descent are basically Muslims, but there are also some Muslims of Indian descent. At present, there are about 348,000 Muslims in China, and about 80 mosques have been built, among which Huatima Mosque and Sultan Mosque are famous.

Protestantism and Catholicism:/kloc-364,000 believers (accounting for 14.6%) and 266 churches. The earliest churches in Singapore are the Armenian Church on Hill Street and the San Andreas Church on San Andreas Road.

Taoism: It accounts for 8.5% of the population, and its followers are basically from China.

Hinduism: There are more than 80,000 followers, mostly of Indian origin. There are about 22 temples.

According to statistics, nearly 86% of Singaporeans have religious beliefs. Compared with the above-mentioned major religions, the number of other religions is relatively small, with a total of only1.1. Sikhism was introduced from India in the19th century. There are seven Sikh temples in Singapore, such as the Central Sikh Temple in queen street, whose followers are mainly Sikh police and security guards. Judaism has two synagogues in Singapore. Zoroastrianism in Singapore has no temples.

Singapore's Constitution guarantees religious freedom, but it still prohibits minority sects (such as Jehovah's Witnesses). The believer was convicted of opposing military service. According to Singapore law, citizens must perform military service, and refusing to perform military service is still illegal.