ACCORDING to statistics, approximately one in five marriages in Singapore is interracial. But prejudice against such unions is still widespread, say the couples featured in Rebels, Traitors and Peacemakers: True Stories of Love and Conflict in Indian-Chinese Relationships, who had to overcome numerous odds to stay in love.

The book is co-written by Shivaji Das, a managing director at business-consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, and Yolanda Yu, a career and leadership coach. They hail from India and China respectively, and are now Singaporean citizens. They have been married for 11 years and have a four-year-old daughter. 

Das says: “We sometimes read in the newspaper about Indian-Chinese couples, but the stories tend to focus on the things like the food, festivals and costumes. We wanted to go much deeper and look at the emotional challenges Indian-Chinese couples face, and how we and they cope – or not cope – with them.”