Index

Abrams, Charles, 104, 220n50
abstraction, 2, 4, 6, 7, 190
accelerationist models, 5, 186
Adorno, Theodor, 73
afterlife, 1, 4, 21, 30, 32, 42, 51, 76, 177; conditions in, 134; conventions of, 23; gifts in, 50
Agrawal, Arun, 99
alienation, 72, 73, 89, 178, 181, 182, 190
Aliens Ordinance (1933), 217n25
amulets, 46, 84, 87
ancestors, 4, 66; communication with, 77; ghosts and, 203n15; orphaned, 125; reciprocating with, 60; upsetting, 32–33
Anderson, Benedict, 103, 220n44
animism, 28
anmetonymy, 118–24
anthropause, 109
anthropocentrism, 189
antidemocratic movements, 14
anti-utopianism, 184
Appadurai, Arjun, 17, 199n53
Architectural Association, 104
architecture, 3, 45, 96, 99, 112, 181; ghosts and, 158; paper, 41; physical spaces of, 22; seizure of, 144; upgrading of, 158
Asian financial crisis, 11
astrology, 120, 160
Ayer Rajah Expressway, 115

bamboo, 42, 74, 78, 79; items, 81 (fig.)
Bank of England, 10
banking, 7, 10, 11, 67, 211n28
Banner, Stuart, 8
Barings Bank, 11
Bataille, Georges, 88
behavior, 14, 15, 35, 64, 96, 102, 107, 119, 126, 127, 220n45, 227n105; bimodal, 224n79; ghostly, 159; rent-seeking, 32; resistant, 230n28, 238n47; spectral, 147
Benjamin, Walter, 49, 53, 91, 187; paper money and, 52
Bidadari Cemetery, 115, 225n88
biophysical, 123; geopolitical and, 118
Biopolis, 106
Bishan, 115, 138
blessings team, 232n51, 236n27
bomoh, 90, 137
Booth, Charles, 100
Bosco, Joseph, 17
Bourdieu, Pierre, 80, 200n56
Brasier, Ken, 204n26
braziers, 33 (fig.)
Brown, Bill, 19, 200n59
BTO. See “Build-to-Order” (BTO) lottery
bucket shops, 65
Buddha, 29, 62
Buddhism, 1, 27, 28, 29–30, 86, 140, 163, 165, 166, 177, 202n8, 224n80, 236n28, 239n9
Buffet, Warren, 9–10, 196n30
“Build-to-Order” (BTO) lottery, 12, 198n40, 198n41
Bukit Batok, 28
Bukit Brown, 113, 114, 225n82
Bukit Timah, 108, 225n86; ritual in, 172 (fig.)
bungalows, ix, 74, 145, 182; good class, 236–37n34
burials, 101, 115, 218n32
burial sites, 101, 115, 116, 141, 218n31, 228n8
burners, 129, 133, 230n22

Campbell, Colin, 103
Cang Jie, 49
capital: access to, 48; accumulation, 10, 21, 95, 100, 103, 154; aesthetics, 59; casino, 1; educational, 89; flows, 58; ghosts and, 40; late, 1, 5, 6, 7–8, 14, 183; risk, 112; space and, 22; venture, 68
Capital (Marx), 19, 40, 72
Capitaland, 106
capitalism, vii, ix, 4, 24, 49, 182, 186, 189; labor and, 195n18; populist, 2, 24; productive magic of, 20; proto-, 196n23; revenge, 187; risked-based, 39–40
casinos, 1, 11–12, 13, 196n25, 206n53, 221n56
CBD. See central business district
CCs. See community centers
cemeteries, 115, 132, 140, 141, 218n29; Chinese, 105, 113; informal, 101; Jewish, 144; land-intensive, 125; large, 113; lost, 114; Muslim, 141
Central Area, 103
Central Bank of Hell, 51, 52, 209n8
central business district (CBD), 11, 221n56, 230n22
Central Intelligence Department, 178
Central Park, 237n44
Central Provident Fund (CPF), 7, 12, 13, 198n41
chance: regime of, 45–48; taming of, ix
Changi, 121, 122, 137
Changi Airport, 106, 222n59
Changi Beach, 122
Changi Hospital, 122
chants, 142, 161, 163, 164, 165, 167, 168, 170, 171
charity, 63, 85, 86, 239n4
Chen, Mr., 139, 161, 162, 163, 167–68, 173, 176; collaboration by, 164; on jungle, 137; site ceremony and, 165, 167
Chia, Jack Meng-Tat, 4
Chinatown, 127, 131, 218n29, 218n32, 230n22
Chinese religion, 2, 32, 61, 90, 118, 120, 149, 159, 187, 189, 224n80, 226n103, 227n103, 239n2; cosmological assumptions of, 1, 27; diversity within, 29–30; environmental/pecuniary and, 178; geomancy/ghost ecology and, 3; paradise of, 186; world-historical drama and, 185
Choa Chu Kang Cemetery, 116, 142
Christianity, 203n16, 226n103, 227n103, 239n10
Chu, Julie, 17, 131, 173, 175, 203n18, 209n8, 228n10; shrines and, 174
Chua Beng Huat, 15, 71, 212n5; public housing and, 226n96
CID. See Criminal Investigation Department
City Harvest Church, 211n27
civil defense, 112
civil life, 14, 39, 212n5
Clafin sisters, 40, 46
clan organizations, 101, 116
coffins, Chinese, 143, 232n48
columbaria, 115, 116, 133
Comaroff, Jean, 45
Comaroff, John L., 45
commerce, 2, 23, 57, 126, 212n5, 221n56
commodities, 19, 71, 72, 74, 80, 85, 90; evolving, 21; ghostly, 20, 73, 87; haunted, 46; mediumship of, 88; metamorphosis of, 20; Singaporean, 73; spectrality of, 21, 89, 212n7; speculative, 45
communication, 7, 77, 121, 131; ghosts and, 14, 17
Communist Manifesto, The (Marx), 16, 40, 184
community centers (CCs), 85, 86
Confucianism, vii, 1, 28, 61
construction, viii, 3, 38, 156, 157, 179, 182, 234n10; extractive/physical, 2; ghostly behavior and, 159; paranormal incidents and, 180; sites, x, 161–62; speculative, 48; violence of, 2, 206n45
consumption, 71, 73, 76, 80, 87
Corlett, Richard, 108
cosmology, 30, 43, 124, 203n15, 224n79; Chinese, 22, 119, 182
Court of Hell, 32
Covid-19 pandemic, viii, 71, 109, 144
CPF. See Central Provident Fund
creative destruction, 121, 181, 182
Criminal Investigation Department (CID), 142–43, 238n49
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, 15
crypto-ecologies, 6, 24
crypts, prefabricated, 116
culture, 5, 30, 50, 61, 66, 68, 73, 134; Chinese, 82; commodity, 90; ghost, 1, 123, 180, 208n66; political, 13; spectral, 39; spirit, 4; urban, 71; Western-Asian, 17
currency, 20, 22, 72; fiat, 57; manipulation of, 49; phantasmal, 53; potential of, 135; spectral, 43. See also money
cyberbullying, 83
cybercrime, 142

da zi ran, 158, 178, 180
Dean, Kenneth, 17
death, 21, 123, 155, 203n15; literature on, 17; social existence and, 224n81; as world-making force, 190
Debord, Guy, 73
debt obligations, 12, 32, 66, 67, 151
defects period, 175
deities, 1, 27–28, 29, 30, 62, 174, 193n4; luck and, 63
Department of Development and Tropical Studies, 104
Department of Social Welfare, 217n19
derivatives, 9–10, 196n30
Derrida, Jacques, 15, 17, 18, 19, 23, 40, 72, 186, 199n53, 207n56, 210n16; formulation of, 184; space/capital and, 22; taxonomy of, 200n56; theorization of, 16; visor effect and, 35
designed nation, environment and, 97–99
determinism, 9, 13, 215n10; environmental, 98, 190
devaluation, 3, 88, 182, 196n24
development, 1, 38, 104, 153, 181, 185, 187, 189, 220n50; commercial/government, 3; economic, 124, 233n1; history of, 10–11; local, 154; models of, 192n10; process, 175; property, x, 7, 11, 176, 206n47; real estate, 24, 124, 176; securing, 159–70; unsuccessful, 157
Dhoby Ghaut, 113, 144
Diefenbach, Katja, 72
dipterocarp, 108, 109
discourse: charismatic, 40; civic, 71; of ghosts, 17, 46–47, 193n4; paranormal, 144; popular, 34; spectral, 158, 224n79; state, 38
dispossessed, 42, 43, 44–45, 117–18
disturbance, 3, 114, 119–20, 126, 131, 139, 142, 151, 159, 164, 182, 189; energetic, 144, 157; environmental, 125; family, 37; ghosts and, 121; logic of, 123; material-spatial, 118; spiritual, 113
diversity, 9, 11, 19, 30, 196n24
divination, 46, 61; yarrow stalk, 141, 207n65
di yu, 31, 32, 34, 43, 52, 57, 75, 82, 119, 131–32
Durkheim, Émile, 18, 28, 201n67

ecology, 96, 107, 158, 176, 186, 187, 189, 190; coastal, 109; district, 109; ghost, 1, 3, 184; island, 108; riverine, 109; spectral, 118–24, 126; spirit, 179; subtropical, 109
Economic Development Board, 122
economic growth, 46, 69, 95
economics, 3, 7, 34, 65, 103, 155, 186; ghostly, 135; “occult,” 45; spectral, 46, 63
economy, vii, viii, 20, 96, 113; alternate, 91; contemporary, 184, 186; finance and, 194n15; ghostly understanding of, 46; immaterial, 65; industrial-productive, 181; labor, 101; market, 20; occult, 45; positive-sum, 88; spaces and, 188; spectral, 96, 126; speculative, 1, 9, 146
effigies, 42, 74
Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, The (Marx), 40
8 Napier condominium, 155, 157
8 Nassim Hill Road, 160, 164, 165, 166, 175, 176, 179, 234n9, 235n18; site ceremony at, 166 (fig.), 168–69, 170
Electronic Road Pricing, viii
Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (Durkheim), 201n67
energy, 30, 47, 177, 179, 188; cosmological, 23–24; harmony/balance of, 150; matter and, 119
entrepreneurs, xi, 7, 46, 96; ghost-trades and, 47
environment, viii, 99–101, 113, 125, 150, 160, 162, 179, 189, 190; as corroboration/index, 110; designed nation and, 97–99; destruction of, 119; gardening and, 107; micropolitics of, 97–99; physical, 95, 123; urban, 15, 24
Esplanade Park, 97
ethnic communities, 101, 102, 109
Ewart Park, 146
exchange, 228n7; ghostly, 55; rates, 235n21; reciprocal, 43
exchange-values, 20, 21, 89, 158, 182, 186, 214n29, 214n31; market-oriented, 212n8
exhumation consultancy, 143
ExxonMobil, 10

Fabian, Ann, 8, 98
Falk, Pasi, 103
Fanon, Frantz, 17, 125
Farrar Court, 163
Faust (Goethe), 50
Fay, Michael P., 206n51
Fei Xiaotong, 82
feng shui, 119, 145–46, 163, 179, 231n31, 233n61, 236n30; theory, 134, 169; using, 160
fetishism, 4, 20, 72, 78, 88, 158, 185, 201n59, 201n63, 206n47; Marxian model of, 89
finance, 6; enigma of, 8–9; global, ix, 12; legal-technical conditions of, 47; multinational, 65; productive economy and, 194n15
financial imaginary, 193n5; ghost-money and, 65–69
financialization, 15, 22, 45, 46, 58, 68, 96; sorcery of, 20
financial services firms, 106
FIRE industries (finance, insurance, and real estate), 11
Fire Safety and Shelter Department (FSSD), 234n6
Fisher, Mark, 37, 185, 186, 187, 201n68
Flower Dome, 222n59
forest-ghosts, 136–37, 231n31
Form School, 236n30
fortune, 2, 7, 11, 24, 40, 45, 66, 104, 151, 153, 158, 171, 174, 177, 179, 180; earthly, 61; ill, xi, 148, 156; reversal of, 147
Foucault, Michel, 99, 206n50
4D lottery system, 43, 44, 63, 64, 79, 141, 148, 211n24, 213n16, 213n17, 231n40
Frankfurt School, 6, 72–73
Freud, Sigmund, 17, 72, 122
Fujian, 27, 30, 52, 228n10
funerary practices, 34, 116, 140, 218n32, 224n80
futurism, 185, 190

gambling, 8, 9, 12, 14, 48, 63, 64, 76, 122, 142, 196n22
Gammeltoft, Tine, 17, 73
Garden City, 96, 109, 110, 111, 223n68
gardening: community, 108; environmental control and, 107; paramilitary, 106–12
Gardens by the Bay, 106, 222n59
gates of hell, 128
Genting Group, 12
geography, 190; real, 16; urban, x, 96
geomancy, 3, 4, 30, 38, 47, 113, 150, 151, 165, 169, 172, 178, 180, 188, 203n15, 205n44; crypto-ecologies of, 24
geopolitical, biophysical and, 118
George, Cherian, 71, 97, 98, 212n3
Geschiere, Peter, 45
ghost-auctions, 64, 82–91
ghostbusters, 143–44
ghost-busting, x, 232n51
ghost-economy, 43, 74, 82, 83, 86, 89, 190, 214n28; credit within, 85; monetary, 65
ghost-home, 78–79
ghostliness, 1, 31, 35, 73, 136, 190
ghostly, 20, 61, 129, 142, 149, 184; modernity and, 23
ghost-modernism, 186
ghost-money, 51, 52, 78, 87, 172; financial imaginary and, 65–69
Ghost Month, 41, 42, 79, 85, 138, 171, 173, 192n11, 214n26, 227n2; auctions during, 46; public realm and, 126–35
ghost-phone, communication with, 77
ghost-practices, 22, 68, 158, 186, 192n15
ghosts, 1, 4, 16, 24, 34, 54, 60, 67, 88, 120, 123, 127, 132, 135, 137, 140, 145, 146; aromas for, 36; attracting, 182; character of, 29–30, 63–64; Chinese, 15, 30; conjured, 149; contemporary, 118, 183; disrupting, 147; domination by, 144; economic circuitry of, 45; encounters with, 35–39, 124, 228n4; foreign, 145, 171; giving/receiving by, 82; goods and, 20, 41, 41 (fig.), 42, 72, 90; hungry, 18, 31, 32, 43, 44–45, 63, 116, 120, 128; killing, 142; magnetism for, 123; migratory, 171; movement of, 131, 134; orphaned, 117; popular theorization and, 1; proliferation of, 112; proto-ecological model of, 151; quality of, 38–39; reciprocating with, 60; recollection and, 189; scolding, 146; seizures by, 150; space/economy and, 188; troublesome, 66, 140, 146, 147, 156; ubiquity of, 123, 126–27; yin/yang and, 120, 189
ghost stories, 111, 115, 126, 193n6, 230n28
ghost-world, 43, 65, 68, 75, 150
gifts, 54, 58, 64, 73, 78, 82, 83, 121, 133, 150, 165, 168; ancestral, 77 (fig.), 91; obligation and, 89; proto-monetary, 50; ritual, 76–77
Gleneagles Hospital, 155
Gluckman, Max, 180
Goddess of Prostitutes and of Night Entertainers, 28
Goethe, Johann-Wolfgang von, 50
Goh, Daniel P. S., 198n38
Goh, Master, 139, 150, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168 (fig.), 169, 169 (fig.), 170, 171, 172, 173, 176, 177, 178, 179, 188, 235n28, 236n13
Goh Chok Tong, 82, 216n18, 219n37
Goh Keng Swee, 68, 99, 100, 217n19
governance: micromanagerial, 101–2; models of, 192n10; orderly/stable, 120; urban, 15
Government of Singapore Investment Company, 104
Graeber, David, 195n22
gramophone, 73, 213n13
graves: disinterment of, 121, 144; sitting at, 142
gremlins, 147
Guan Yin, 28, 139
gui, 15, 31, 34, 37, 38, 39, 45, 58, 61, 65, 73, 87, 88, 90, 113, 117–18, 120, 133, 150, 157, 158; appeasing, 148; communication with, 77, 78; materiality of, 131; offerings to, 129, 171
gui-shen, 30, 76, 140, 141 203n18, 209n8
Gunning, Tom, 36, 204n29

Hacking, Ian, ix, 47
Hadid, Zaha, 106
Haila, Anne, 192n2
Hakka Association, 116
ham sup, 35, 145
hantu, 4, 193n6, 215n3
Haraway, Donna, 189
Harvey, David, 7, 8
hauntedness, 19, 96, 232n47
haunting, 35, 144–45, 148, 149, 158, 190, 205n36, 206n49; allegations of, 157; domestic, 145; protocol, 143; rumors of, 208n67
hauntology, 4, 15–24, 40, 184, 194n10
Haw Par Villa, 203n19, 204n26
HDB. See Housing Development Board
health, 2, 14; biophysical, 123; environmental, 210n120
hei jin, 84, 86
hell, 32, 49, 171; Chinese, 203n19; folk conception of, 31
hell money/notes, 23, 42, 51, 52 (fig.), 53, 53 (fig.), 54, 58, 59, 60, 86, 87, 90, 150, 171, 172; burning, 41, 44 (fig.), 61, 65–66; conceptions of, 52; cost of, 43; digitized, 67; dominance of, 209n8; expensive version of, 56 (fig.); powerful, 55–56, 67; spirit world and, 69; symbolism of, 68; values and, 57
Helsinger, Elizabeth, 59
Heng, Terrence, 4, 36, 117, 232n48, 232n49
Hinduism, 29, 148
History of Money (Weatherford), 211n29
HIV infections, 138, 231n33
Ho Kok Cheong, 221n56
Hokkien, 27, 28, 144, 233n59, 236n23, 237n36
holism, 24, 90, 118–19, 187; environmental, 118; phantasmagoric, 6; pragmatic, 2
Holy Spirit, 40
homeless, 6, 24; ghosts, 112–18
Hong Kong, 52, 75, 80, 126, 227n1, 238n47
hotels, 222n59; ghosts in, 142–49, 150, 165, 178
housing, 106, 123, 182; boom in, 145; CDB strip, 105–6; Chinese, 147; haunted, 142–49, 150, 165; high-end, 235n20; ideas about, 100–101; new, 3, 153–54; public, ix, 86, 99, 226n96; self-built, 100; subsidized, 48, 104; temporary, 101
Housing Development Board (HDB), 12, 97, 99, 101, 105, 107, 115, 153, 188; block, 132; dwellers, 116; estates, 121, 128, 138, 139; experiment and, 102, 103; systems, 117
hua ren, diaspora of, 27
huat, 61, 66, 88–89, 144, 149, 150, 186
hui guan, 101, 218n32
Hungry Ghost Festival, ix
Hungry Ghost Month, 32–33

I Ching, 231n42
identity, 79, 80; class, 154
ideology, 22, 123; bourgeois-populist, 240n11; neo-neoliberal, 184; pragmatist, 103
illiberalism, 10, 14, 197n36
imagination, 112, 187; cultural, 5, 190; global, 39
Immigration Restriction Ordinance (1928), 217n25
incense, 41, 129, 161, 166, 172
income, 7, 104, 192n15, 195n22, 225n91; disparities of, 45
infrastructure, 10, 98, 106, 114, 125, 129, 135, 158; financial, 7
Integrated Resorts (IRs), 12
interreligious organization (IRO), 156, 232n51
In the Mood for Love (Wong), 80
investment, 3, 7, 66; cash/abstract modes of, 60; democratization of, 48; foreign, 14, 112; haunted, 82–91; security and, 112
iPhones, 77, 78, 87
irrationalism, 73, 89

James, Henry, 36
Jameson, Fredric, 6, 7–8
Jay, Martin, 16, 204n23
Jewel Mall, 106, 222n59
jing, 59, 123, 124; male/female, 119
Johor Bahru, 217n28
joss paper, 41 (fig.), 50, 55 (fig.), 58, 60, 76, 131, 229n15; burning, 41; effigies of, 42; items, 81 (fig.); offering, 32; proper, 78
joss sticks, 73, 129, 133, 140, 171, 172, 173 (fig.); burning, 167, 228n10, 229n18; lighting, 167, 202n9; odor of, 131
JPMorgan Chase, 47
jungles, 157; described, 137; ever-spectral, 135–42
Jurong Bird Park, 223n68
Jurong Island, 10, 104
Jurong Town Corporation, 11, 106

kampung, 101, 108, 112, 113, 117, 121, 130, 137, 185, 217–18n28, 220n45
Katong Shopping Centre, 145
kimzua, 83, 129, 135; conventional, 75–76; empty things and, 73–82; hybrid/hyperbolic forms of, 90; Zhong Yuan and, 82
King, Mervyn, 10, 47, 208n70
kinship, 22, 58, 73
Kipling, Rudyard, 36
Kirk, Neil, 73
Kirkland, Russell, 204n20
Kobe, Susumu, 104, 220n50
Kong, Lily, 102, 113
Königsberger, Otto, 104
Koolhaas, Rem, 112
Kubor Kassim Muslim Cemetery, 141
Kurokawa, Kisho, 127
Kwan Im Buddhist temple, 29

labor, 101; capitalism and, 195n18; dead, 135; division of, 95–96; foreign, 210n17; migrant, 225n94; migration, 100
Land Acquisition Act (1966), 105
landscape, ix, 3, 99, 123, 154, 179; disciplined, 107; economic, 103; equatorial, 106; formations of, 121; performative, 96; physical, 22, 102, 103; Singapore, 98, 223n72, 223n73, 223n76; social-material, 189; supernatural, 22
Lao Zi, 28
Las Vegas Sands, 12
Latour, Bruno, 19, 201n59
Lazada, 42
Lee, Benjamin, 196n23
Lee, Russell, 126, 131, 227n3
Lee Hsien Loong, 95, 96, 97, 215n10, 217n21; public housing and, 99
Lee Kuan Yew, 11, 95, 97, 99, 100, 101, 107, 140, 183, 219n37, 221n56; on environment, 109–10
Leeson, Nick, 11
Lee Yuan Xing, 83 (fig.), 84
legalism, 96, 124
Lim, Adrian, 148, 151
Lim, Jonathan, 95, 130
Lim, Lydia, 198n42
Lim Kim San, 99
Lion City, vii, 106
Lion Dances, 228n7
Lippo Group, 237n43
LiPuma, Edward, 196n23
logistics, 7, 48, 150
Loh Kah Seng, 100
Lomnitz, Claudio, 114
lottery system, 42, 43–44, 62
luck, 2, 83, 89, 182, 188; bad, 120, 155; calculus of, 47; ecologies of, 149–51; economic downsides of, 68; ghosts and, 43, 63; making, 60–64; praying for, 62
Lukács, Georg, 72–73

magic, 20, 40, 201n67; associative, 58–60; death-, 21; informal, 60; money, 179; social, 2, 66; sympathetic, 80; value-, 87
Maid, The (film), 238n47
Malayan Forum, 215n2
Malays, 136–37, 139, 140, 208n66, 219n42
Mandai, 116
Mantel, Hilary, 27
Mao Zedong, 52
Marcuse, Herbert, 190, 194n8, 240n14
Marina Bay, 12, 221n56, 224n77, 233n61
Marina Bay Sands, 11, 198n38
Marina Bridge, 233n61
Marina Square, 221n56
Marx, Karl, 6, 16, 21, 50, 72, 201n59, 201n64, 207n56; exchange-value and, 212n8; ghostly analogy and, 40; ghostly goods and, 20; hieroglyph of, 89; materiality and, 200n59; necromancy and, 73; occult obfuscation and, 78; specter and, 20; “turning” table and, 19
Marxism, 5, 8, 184
Massumi, Brian, 36
materiality, 23, 188, 199n50, 200n59
Mauss, Marcel, 80
Maxwell Market, 43–44
Mbembe, Achille, 17, 18, 184, 199n50
media, 6, 23; anticolonial, 216n13; digital, 11, 73; global, viii. See also social media
Mediapolis, 106
medicine: Chinese, 31, 59, 119; spirit, 121
mediums, x, xi, 2, 24, 38, 145, 148, 156, 165, 166, 236n23
megachurches, 63, 239n10
Mendelson, Scott, 119
Mephistopheles, 50, 82
Merlion, 151, 223n71
metaphysics, 4, 33
metonymic ordering, 3, 24
military installations, 96; paranormal activities at, 228n11
modernity, 153, 222n57, 226n103; ghostly and, 23
modernization, 139, 144, 151, 153, 189; ghosts and, 24, 117, 186; secular, 113
monetary inputs, 22, 60, 159
monetary strategy, 68
money, 45, 46, 49–50, 53, 129, 201n64, 208n1, 209n3, 209n8, 211n24; burning, 23, 31, 42, 54–55, 57, 60, 65, 66; fake/real, 51; ghosts and, 19, 22, 39, 58; imaginary of, 150; irrational, 54–58; joss paper, 55 (fig.); materiality of, 229n15; Mulberry, 67; quick, 61; recycling of, 159; transfers of, 43; understanding of, 65. See also hell money/notes; paper money; spirit money
monks, 156, 166, 236n28
Monte Carlo model, 9
Mount Vernon, 116
MRT rail systems, 114, 144
Mumford, Lewis, 132
Munn, Nancy, 237n44

Nanyang, 27, 28
Nanyang University, 218n32
National Kidney Foundation, 85
National Museum of Singapore, x
National Parks Board (NParks), 107, 108, 223n72, 225n86
National University Hospital (NUH), 127
National University of Singapore, 218n32, 223n72
nature, 138; -as-topiary, 140–41; open, 214n22; urban, 148
Ndembu, 18, 32, 204n24
necromancy, 19, 72, 73
Necropolitics (Mbembe), 17
neoconservatism, 184
neoliberalism, vii, 10, 187, 197n33
New Cemetery, 217n29
New Creation Church, 211n27
New Paper, The, 142, 214n25, 232n43
New Town, 101, 102, 103, 139
Ne-Zha, 28
Ngee Ann City, 115
ngoh hiang, 172, 237n36
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 4
Northern Song dynasty, 74
Novena, 113, 144
NParks. See National Parks Board
numbers: ghosts and, 231n42, 232n45; lottery, ix, 213n16

Oasia hotel tower, 222n59
occult, 62; knowledge, 158; manipulations, 2; obfuscation, 73, 78, 214n28; reconciliation, 186
offerings, 32, 40–41, 46, 129, 140, 171–72; burning, 23, 54–55, 57, 77, 129, 130; ghost, 77, 167; making, 33 (fig.); power of, 135; seven month, 130
Ong, Aihwa, 17
open spaces, 102, 126, 128, 130, 133, 171, 221n56
orchids, 108–9
Otherworld, ix, 73
Our Home (HDB), 220n45
Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation, 211n28
Owen, Robert, 102

Pan-Island Expressway, 114, 228n8
PAP. See People’s Action Party
paper house, 78, 79, 80. See also ghost-home
paper money, 23, 51, 52, 67–68, 208n3; burning, 201n67
partnerships, public-private, 105, 197n33
PayNow, 207n58
Peebles, Gavin, 11
Peirce, Charles, 204n28
Pensky, Max, 91, 187
People’s Action Party (PAP), 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 38, 39, 68, 95, 98, 104, 105, 108, 116, 118, 121, 159, 162, 185; elites, 215n10; governance by, 101–2; ideology of, 124; legitimacy and, 99; ordering systems of, 125; politics of, 71; rise of, 100; securitization and, 149; wealth/power for, 235n16, 235n17
People’s Association, 239n1
People’s Park Complex, 221n56
personhood, 1, 6, 34
phantoms, 5, 15, 19, 187
Pietz, William, 213n10
planning: absolute, viii; physical, 22; state, 112; strategy, 98; theories, 102
Poe, Edgar Allan, 36–37
political agency, 39
political demonstration, 39
political-economic theory, 60
Pollock, Friedrich, 6
pollution, 134, 230n24; energetic, 158; physical/spiritual, 175
polyvocalism, 30, 61
Pontianak, 36, 140, 193n5, 193n6
populism, 159, 235n16
Portman, John, 221n56
postmodernism, 7–8
Postone, Moishe, 195n18
poverty, 110, 126, 210n17, 223n68
power: personal, 182; political, 4; social, 24, 48; spectral, 75; spiritual, 42, 89; timeline of, 206n50
pragmatism, 154, 197n33, 216n17; spiritual, 163, 187
prayer, 151, 171, 183; cycles, 162; energy, 169
Primary School Leaving Examination, 82
property, 3; market, 105; phantomalization of, 19; price of, 182
prosperity, 2, 21, 61, 87, 211n22, 239n10; calculus of, 47; concept of, 158; gospel, 40, 63; symbolizing, 233n59
public order, 39, 132
public spaces, 15, 102, 129, 134, 153; gardening for, 109; privatization of, 15
Pugh, Cedric, 99, 216n18
Pulau Blaking Mati (now Sentosa), 227n104
Pulau Tekong, 136

qi, 18, 30, 59, 113, 118, 119, 121, 124, 152, 164, 170, 172, 188; concentration of, 123
Qing Ming, 32, 79, 115, 116, 126; rites, 128, 141

racism, 214n20, 219n43
radical uncertainty, 47
Raffles, Stamford, 108
Raffles Hotel, 149
real estate, 1, 6, 11, 17, 45, 196n24; development, 24, 124, 176; haunted, x; investment, 156; value of, 158
reciprocity, 63, 64, 66, 87, 124
redevelopment, 113, 115
religion, 40, 156, 206n49, 206n52; literature on, 17; Malay/Indian, 193n5; popular, 4
Remain, 194n13
Report of the Committee Regarding Burial and Burial Grounds, Colony of Singapore (Singapore Government Printing Office), 218n31
Residential Property Act, 237n42
resistance, 30, 38, 159
Resorts World Sentosa, 12
Riau Islands, 191n7
Ring Plan, 104
risk, 39–40, 65, 112; ghosts and, 48, 150; managed, 8; security and, 6–15, 184
rituals, 24, 32, 47, 58, 116, 149, 159, 160, 162, 170–75, 172 (fig.), 176–77, 180, 190; ancestral, xi; contemporaneity of, 23; funerary, 75; geomantic, 173; participation in, 2; performance of, 161; seven month, 134; tendencies of, 171
Rojak, 202n12

S$. See Singapore dollars
sacrifices, 67, 129, 232n45
Safdie, Moshe, 106
Saldaff, Janet W., 218n32
Samsung, 83
Savage, Victor, viii, 98
Schmitt, Jean-Claude, 204n29
Schrager, Allison, 8
séances, 19, 40
securities, 6, 194n15, 196n27
securitization, 3, 8, 15, 48, 72, 149, 158; speculation and, 112
security, viii, 65, 87, 212n3; foreign investment and, 112; late capital and, 14; risk and, 6–15, 184
Seng, Eunice, 105, 221n56
Seng, Loh Kah, 217n25
Sentosa, 12, 122
Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, 15
SGD. See Singapore dollars
shamanism, 203n16, 227n103
Shang dynasty, 28
shen, 30, 31, 79
Shenism, 27
shrines, 28, 43–44, 174, 230n22, 234n10, 237n40; home, 129
Siddique, Sharon, 102
Siglap Close, 141
Sim, Ron, 148, 194n14
Singapore Airlines, strike by, 14
Singapore Botanical Gardens, 108, 109, 138, 225n86
Singapore dollars (S$ or SGD), 12, 13, 51, 53, 57, 59, 150, 201n67; exchange rate for, 68
Singapore Exchange, 105–6
Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT), 100, 101, 216n18, 217n23, 217n28
Singapore Land Group Ltd., 221n56
Singapore Land Transport Authority, 179
Singapore Ministry of Defense, 138, 231n33
Singapore Ministry of National Development, 10
Singapore model, ix; power of, 13–14
Singapore Police Force, x, 142
Singapore Pools, 141
Singapore Population Census, 29
Singapore Press Holdings, 228n3
Singapore River, 151, 233n61
Singapore Tourist Board, 106, 122
Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), 215n4, 217n21
Singapore Zoo, 223n68
Singlish, 202n12, 211n24, 214n20
SIT. See Singapore Improvement Trust
site ceremonies, 159, 164, 165, 166, 166 (fig.), 167, 168–69, 168 (fig.), 170–75, 170 (fig.), 180
Smeyers, Kristof, 207n55
social goods, equitable distribution of, 103
social history, 22, 189
socialism, 99–100, 101, 185
social life, 13, 61
social media, ix, 83, 154, 222n59
social order, 96, 98
social relations, 37, 55, 72, 90; spirit money and, 57–58
social status, 32, 204n24
social unrest, 123, 188–89
social welfare, 141, 217n19
Soja, Edward, 8
spacecraft, environmentality/statecraft as, 99–103
spaces, viii, 18, 121; allegations of, 96; burial, 113; capital and, 22; Cartesian, 5, 124; domestic, 145; economy and, 188; ghost, 1, 134; haunted, 121; insecure, 149; national, 96, 126; private, 102; shortage of, 100; urban, 1, 134, 187. See also open spaces; public spaces
spatial constructs, 15, 22, 118, 188
spatial order, 98, 118, 142
specters, vii, 15, 16; literary, 37; social role of, 5; speculation and, 45; theorization of, 19
Specters of Marx (Derrida), 15, 199n53, 210n16
spectral, 35, 36, 129, 199n33; productive life and, 23; spatial and, 22
spectral events, 18, 21–22, 37, 90, 145, 180, 183, 189
spectral studies, 5, 22–23, 184, 199n54
spectro-capital, 23, 65
spectro-commodity, 21, 23, 71, 89
spectro-economy, 2, 50, 54, 56, 65, 68, 87, 150, 158, 185, 186, 187; introduction to, 39–45; ritual transitions and, 40–41; value and, 60
speculation, 35, 50, 65, 149, 154, 175–82; awareness of/participation in, 46; ghosts and, 39, 49; securitization and, 112; specters and, 45
spirit care, 2
spirit fields, 151, 158
spirit money, 50, 65, 66, 90, 134, 142, 203n15, 209n8; burning, 41, 58; freedoms of, 68; graphic language of, 210n12; social relations and, 57–58
spirits, 1, 40, 47, 66, 74, 124, 131, 170, 175–82; ancestral, 2, 18, 128, 131, 132; appealing to, 69; bright, 32; burnings and, 133; conventions of, 23; discourses surrounding, 34; dispossessed, 42; evil, 133; feeding, 43; foreign, 135; free, 183; as gatekeepers, 63; ghosts and, 2, 31, 33; goods for, 41 (fig.), 42; hungry, 38; literature on, 17; movement of, 31–32; nonancestral, 30; resident, 175; rogue, 132; satanic, 151; as social beings, 34; transformation/praxis and, 5
spiritual presence, chemistry of, 148
spirit world, 48, 61, 188; communication with, 121; hell money and, 69
Sri Krishnan Hindu temple, 29
Standard Chartered Bank, 211n28
statecraft, 15, 96, 99–103
Straits Times, 148, 218n35, 227n3
Strange, Susan, 9, 10
subjectivity, 5, 15, 38, 184
Sun God, 28, 29
supernaturalism, 5, 45, 137, 157
superstition, 149, 156, 162, 227n103
surplus, 65, 82–91, 181
SUTD. See Singapore University of Technology and Design
symbolism, 54, 68, 140, 175

Taizong Hell Scrolls, 204n26
Taleb, Nassim Nicholas, 47
Tampines, 164
Tan, Tony, 64
tang-ki, 38, 39, 202n2
Tan Kim Song, 68
Tankism, 28
Tan Tock Seng Hospital, 130, 144, 229n16
Tan Wee Kiat, 98
Taoism, 1, 16, 27, 29, 30, 62, 88, 145, 148, 159, 163, 165, 173, 177, 178, 182, 206n52, 224n80; debt and, 32; polytheistic emphasis of, 202n11; religious aspect of, 28
Tao Te Ching, 28
technology, viii, 6, 15, 78, 143; ghosts and, 77; gifts of, 77 (fig.); securitizing, 107; speculative, 60
Telok Ayer, 99, 218n32
Temasek Holdings, 104, 106, 221n53
temporary occupation permit (TOP), 235n13, 237n42
Teo Chew, 27, 115, 116, 236n23, 237n36
theodicy, 47, 156
Thongchai Winichakul, 98, 216n13
Tilly, Charles, 223n76
Tiong Bahru, 113, 115, 127, 212n6, 214n24, 218n29; cemeteries in, 101; creation of, 100
Toa Payoh, 102, 139, 148
Toa Pek Kong, 63, 174
Tokyu Construction, 160, 161, 164, 171; site ceremony for, 167–68
Tong, Kelvin, 238n47
Tong Chee Kiong, 4, 32, 41, 42, 116, 207n66, 214n24
Toop, David, 36
Tote Board, 11, 231n40
tourism, 48, 103, 123
Tourist Promotion Board, 151, 223n71
transformation, 5, 22, 76, 81, 108, 113, 117, 121, 125, 131, 159, 175, 176, 177, 182
trauma, 22, 24, 33, 34, 122, 125, 148; physical, 176
Tree Planting Day, 97, 222n66
Trocki, Carl, 107
Tu Di Kong, 63, 132, 173, 174
Turner, Victor, 18, 32

unheimlich, 89, 118, 181
United Nations, 104
Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), 103, 104, 138, 219n41
urbanscape, ix, 3–4
urban villages, 95, 100, 102, 110
urns, 83, 84, 133; joss, 172; lucky, 214n25
utopianism, 38, 184

value, 47, 65, 74, 80; abstract, 7; backflow of, 63; deification of, 88; elevation of, 60; expansive/proliferating, 190; fluid, 54–58; free, 58–60; ghosts and, 19, 39; health, 59; hell money and, 57; -magic, 87; metaphysics of, 46; modern, 8; modes of, 72; -as-money, 21; -production, 38, 135, 155, 188; property, 154; speculative, 56–57; surplus, 181; “true,” 55; use-, 21, 89
violence, 33, 117, 123, 144, 207n66; construction, 2, 206n45; fear of, 38; history of, 151; interethnic, 206n49; law-preserving, 39; Malay-Chinese, 219n43; slow, 23; social, 113; sociospatial, 110; spectral, 24; transformative, 3, 178
visitations, allegations of, 39, 96

Wall Street, 65
Waterloo Street, 29, 86
wealth: accumulation of, 45; burning, 42–43; inequity, 69; off-shore, vii; production/cycle of, 43; “tiger,” 103; visions of, 2
Weber, Max, ix, 234n6
West Coast Parks, 138
witchcraft, 40, 148
Wolin, Sheldon, 110
Wong Shun Feng, 34, 35
Wu Cheng’En, 28
Wu Hung, 49, 60
wuxing, 121, 236n32

yang, 30, 31, 188; disturbance of, 120; energy, 167, 189
Yap, Erica X. Y., 173, 174, 177
Yeoh, Brenda, 102, 113
yin, 120, 188; attractive zones of, 128; dominance of, 119; energy, 25, 30, 36, 40, 132, 167; ghosts and, 189
Ying Foh Fui Kun, 116
yin zhi, 41, 42, 47, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 58, 60, 68, 83, 86, 87, 150, 167, 171, 172
Yishun, 116
Yue, Victor, 29

zhiza, 74, 76, 78, 80
Zhong Yuan, ix, 32–33, 57, 76, 82, 86, 234n12, 237n35
Žižek, Slavoj, vii, 72

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