eurasians in singapore are persons of mixed european and asian descent. they form one of the identifiable communities in singapore. eurasians have been viewed with mixed fascination and disdain by the european and asian communities. their european ancestry traces to emigrants of countries that span the length and breadth of europe, although eurasian migrants to singapore in the 19th century came largely from other european colonies in asia, such as british malaya in particular malacca and penang, india including goa, part of the former portuguese india, and chittagong (today in bangladesh), the dutch east indies and french indochina. when the european maritime powers colonised asian countries, such as india, ceylon, malaya, singapore, indonesia and indochina, from the 16th to 20th centuries, they brought into being a new race of people known historically and generally as the eurasians. the early western colonisers were not accompanied by their womenfolk on the perilous journey to asia. consequently, many married the local women of these lands, or formed liaisons with them. initially the offspring of such a union were brought up as an appendage of the ruling class and enjoyed advantages not generally accorded the rest of the local asian population. in time, as colonial attitudes hardened due to the 1915 singapore mutiny and growing independence movement, eurasians were largely cast aside by the colonial masters and treated much like the rest of the local population. eurasians or kristang eurasians who generally have some kristang-speaking ancestry form a sub-group distinct from those who are the offspring of more recent immigrants and expatriates of european and asian origin and who are also commonly called "eurasians" in singapore. the same or similar distinction exists between on the one hand those first- or second-generation eurasians who typically would share the ethnic identity of one parent more closely, that parent typically not being of kristang or portuguese-origin and on the other hand multi-generation(i.e. typically third-generation, fourth-generation and fifth-generation, etc) eurasians who typically might have at least some distant kristang-speaking or iberian-origin ancestry, and many of whom would associate with some kristang or portuguese-origin cultural practices (e.g. kristang songs and portuguese-origin dances like "jinkli nona") and dine on kristang eurasian dishes like devil's curry or "curry debal" in kristang. as a general rule, first or second-generation eurasians typically do not have any kristang-speaking ancestry, do not speak kristang, generally do not adopt kristang or portuguese-origin cultural practices and cues and are less familiar with kristang eurasian cuisine, language and history. simply put, first-generation eurasians are people whose parents are not eurasians. multi-generation (typically third-generation, fourth-generation and fifth-generation, etc) eurasians are people whose parents or forefathers are themselves eurasians.