The questions of coordination and administration posed by ethnic heterogeneity (see Goldberg, 2002) are answered by funnelling Singapore's 42 (or so) ethnic and linguistic groups into four efficacious racial categories (Brown, 1994). With these categories in place, the state is able to distance itself from each racialised group and play an ethnically-neutral and trans-cul tural umpiring role in relation to them (Goh, 2008). The government gains legitimacy by granting equal recognition to each of these groups, as well as by upholding a form of surplus distribution based on 'merit' (Quah,1998).......................................................................The racial identity of the nation is reproduced in the realm of public hous ing. Indeed, the state ensures that each apartment block and housing estate reflects Singapore's multi-ethnic composition of 75% Chinese, 15% Malay and 8% Indian (and a residual category of'Others'). When these percentages went off course in the late 1980s, a complicated system of ethnic quotas was imposed to bring them back centre (Chih, 2002).