Boyanese (Baweanese) in Singapore

Here's an interesting aside following from our previous discussions on ear wax and ethnicities.

A casual discussion with a Boyanese lady revealed that she had wet ear wax. Just an interesting association despite n= 1.

The other interesting nugget of information was that apparently the Boyanese do not classify themselves as Malays on their NRIC (National Registration Identify Card). They are either listed as 'Boyanese' or 'Others'. This is of interest because when we are collecting ethnicity/race information for purposes of medical case studies etc, any 'Malay' data may be under-represented.

The Boyanese originate from a small island off the north coast of East Java. It is of interest to us because many Singaporean Malays trace their heritage back to the original Boyanese settlers. Ethnically they are austronesians like the other Malays. If hospital records use NRIC classifications for ethnicity, and if the Boyanese do not classify themselves on the NRIC as Malays, it may be expected the the Malay data from hospital records will not be very representative.