Occupation of the Chinese Immigrants

Source 2: A photograph of a Chinese Rickshaw Puller in Colonial Singapore, 1880.

Reference:

Pump Park Vintage Photography / Alamy Stock Photo (Year unknown). c.1880 South East Asia - rickshaw puller Singapore. Retrieved from https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-c1880-south-east-asia-rickshaw-puller-singapore-173242994.html

Source 3: An extract of a research paper “Chinese Merchants in Singapore and the China Trade, 1819-1959”, published in 2012.

The Chinese had been trading in the Malay Peninsula long before Europeans set foot in the region. British colonial policy of laissez-faire* and the declaration of Singapore as a free port for the entrepôt trade played an important role in the Malayan economy following its intervention in the Malay Peninsula in 1874. Singapore became the key port-city for the import of Chinese goods and the export of Malayan goods to China.

Chinese merchants in Singapore imported a variety of Chinese commodities such as tea, silk and porcelain for consumption by the Chinese communities in British Malaya. China imported rubber and tin produced in Malaya through them.

Chinese merchants had a numerical advantage over European traders in Singapore, forming between 55 and 70 per cent of the population in the Straits Settlements, and that the European and Chinese merchants complemented each other – the former depended on the Chinese to sell manufactured imports from Europe and export Southeast Asian produce, while the Chinese depended on the Europeans for credit facilities to conduct their trade.

*laissez-faire: the policy of non-interference

Reference:

Lim, J. (2012). Chinese Merchants in Singapore and the China Trade, 1819-1959. Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers. 551. Retrieved from https://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers/551.

Source 4: An extract on Samsui women in Colonial Singapore.

Samsui women, also known as hong tou jin (红头巾; Mandarin for “red headscarf”) after their trademark red headgear, were female immigrants mainly from the Sanshui (“Samsui” in Cantonese; meaning “three waters”) district of Canton (Guangdong today) province in southern China. Other areas where they came from include Shunde and Dongguan, also in Canton province, as well as places outside of Canton like Fujian and Chao’an.  Samsui women started arriving in Singapore in large numbers in the mid-1930s and many found work as general labourers in the construction industry.

Some of the women found employment as labourers in tin mines and rubber estates; others became domestic servants (known as amah) in wealthy households. Most were hired as general labourers on construction sites to carry building materials and clear debris – these women became referred to as samsui women. A typical workday involved waking up before dawn to prepare their breakfast-cum-lunch and then with other samsui women to go to work. Their meals were sparse and usually consisted of cooked rice, some bean cheese and a bit of pickled or fresh vegetables. In the 1930s, samsui women would go to Upper Chin Chew Street (which they called tau fu kai – Cantonese for “beancurd street”, named after the beancurd shops in the area) – to find work on an ad-hoc basis, for which they were usually paid 50 to 60 cents a day. They mostly travelled to work on foot to save money. In later years, they were taken in lorries to construction sites that were situated further away.

Samsui women usually began their workday at 8 am. The work was physically demanding: They dug soil and carried earth, debris and building materials in buckets hung from shoulder poles. After a short lunch break, they sometimes gathered wood to bring home as fuel for cooking. Work ended at about 5 pm or 6 pm, after which the women went home to prepare their dinner.

Reference:

Koh, Q.R.V. (2014). Samsui Women. Singapore Infopedia, National Library Board. https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_795_2005-01-18.html#:~:text=As%20many%20as%202%2C000%20samsui,Republic%20of%20China%20in%201949.

Source 5: An extract on street hawkers in Colonial Singapore during the 19th century.

Travelling hawkers or itinerant hawkers were a common sight in Singapore during the 19th century to mid-20th century. They were frequently found along busy streets and intersections, peddling food, drinks, vegetables, poultry and sundries. Street hawking was a popular occupation for many new immigrants to Singapore as it gave the unemployed and the unskilled a way to make a living with little costs.

In the 1930s, there were about 6,000 licensed itinerant hawkers and an estimated 4,000 unlicensed hawkers on the streets, comprising Chinese, Malay and Indian vendors. The Hokkiens were the largest in numbers and were found throughout the city, especially Chinatown. They typically sold coffee and cooked food, though some also sold vegetables that they had cultivated in the outlying districts. Teochews formed a quarter of the Chinese hawkers. They peddled cooked food, fresh fish and pork, but their niche was in the sale of fruits and vegetables. Operating as a collective of wholesalers and peddlers, the Teochews dominated the trade of fruits and vegetables between China and Singapore, and had their own association which was headquartered near Ellenborough Market.

Cantonese hawkers congregated around the areas of People’s Park, Kreta Ayer and Jalan Besar andsold a variety of products such as food stuffs, vegetables, apparel, toys and cigarettes. They also controlled the supply of vegetables from the farms in Balestier, and durian and mangosteen from Malaya. The Hockchias and Hockchius mostly operated night stalls in Queen Street and Johore Road where scores of rickshaw pullers lived. They were well-organised and had their own association known as the Hockchia Coffee Stall Keepers Guild that regulated the trade. The Shanghainese were largely nomadic traders who purchased silk from China ports and sold them to markets in Singapore, Indonesia and India. 

Reference:

Thuluja, N. R. (2016).Travelling hawkers. Singapore Infopedia, National Library Board. Retrieved from https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_47_2004-12-27.html

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