The drink's inventor was Hainanese, though accounts of the drink's history and contents vary.
The only reference to it in any form of Chinese that I was able to find was apparently written in Mandarin, where it's called 新加坡司令
which clearly is a Mandarin transcription (sīlìng
) and clearly not a calque of any concept of "sling".
I can't help but wonder if the name 新加坡司令
is a recent invention from China; Mandarin was not a major dialect in Singapore's early history, and a 新加坡司令
sounds more like a Singaporean citizen's commanding officer during national military service than anything to do with a drink made in Singapore. Attempts to compare the name to other related names don't seem to be of much help; Singapore's ASEAN professional basketball team, the Singapore Slingers, are known as 新加坡騰飛之獅籃球隊 in Chinese, and 騰飛之獅
also has nothing to do with any concept of "sling".
What do Chinese-Singaporeans call it in their local dialects?