Harsh realities about Indian-Chinese romances

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.”