Authors

This blog is an effort by the following students from class 104.

• Felica Ting (03)
• Gisele Sie (04)
• Jamie Chin (06)
• Seah Jia Hui (10)
• Siti Zulaikha (12)

Acknowledgement

We do not claim ownership over the pictures and source texts used in this blog. All pictures and source texts are reproduced for educational purposes only. We thank the organisations and websites listed below for providing us with the pictures and source texts. We acknowledge that all inferences and conclusions made are our own and the organisations and websites are not responsible for them.

Our sincere appreciation to:

• National Museum
• History Textbook

Final Conclusion: Leisure & Entertainment of Chinese in Singapore during colonial times

From the evidence gathered, I can conclude that the leisure and entertainment were important to the Chinese in Singapore during colonial times. This can be seen in the sources A, B and C, like spending money on opium, gambling and prostitution. Even though those activities were not necessary to sustain their lives, they continued spending their savings on them. They could have sent those money home to support their family.

Final Conclusion: Culture & Religion of Chinese during colonial times

From the evidence gathered, I can conclude that the Chinese were quite superstitious during colonial times. This can be seen from source C which tells us that the Chinese immediately went to a temple to pay respect to their deity. This can also be seen from Source B which tells us that only one dialect group did one type of business. This shows that Chinese believed that only one type of dialect group can be doing only that certain job. Source A also tells us that the Chinese only helps the people who is in the same clan as them. This shows that Chinese believe that people can be classified by their clan and people who did not belong to their clan were not their people.

Trip to National Museum of Singapore

On 11.09.14, our group visited the National Museum in the afternoon. We were all feeling very excited since it was our first time there. We were greeted by a warm welcome by the receptionist at the service counter. The admission to the museum is free, so we presented our student pass and got to enter.

We went to the “Singapore History” gallery. We expected it to be a dull and boring excursion, but to our surprise, it was a thrilling experience for us. We were given a mini tablet throughout the gallery walk. The tablet contained prerecorded voice messages that explains the different sections and parts of the gallery.

At the first station, we were amazed by a 3-dimensional video that immediately spark our interest.
During the walk in the gallery, we felt like we travelled through time. We saw various olden days artifacts. There was also sound and light effects which made us feel how it felt like in the olden days and experience what life was like last time. We even saw “The Headless horseman” that we learnt about in the history textbook.

The Headless Horseman

Some other artefacts we found were objects like broken chinese bowls and plates, and also what people use last time, such as trishaw for transport. It was indeed an enriching experience for us, as we get to apply what we learnt in school in real life. The hands-on with the tablet also enhance the whole experience for us, since we got to listen to the indepth explanation of what we are seeing. We had a whale of a time while researching for this history project and many knowledge was gained.

Leisure & Entertainment

Source A: A photo taken in Nationl Museum

Description: Two coolies smoking opium

From Source A, I can tell that the Chinese coolies of Colonial Singapore smoke opium as their entertainment.This can be seen from the picture which shows two coolies smoking opium. Most of the coolies use their savings on opium. Since coolies do laborious jobs, they have muscle aches everywhere. They believe that opium can relief severe pains. However, the coolies started to get addicted to opium and started treating it as a necessary part of their lives.

Source B: "China Street was known for its numerous gambling dens." ~ quote from History textbook. 

Description: A group of  Chinese gambling

From Source B, I can tell that many of the Chinese went to China Street to gamble as a form of entertainment/leisure and this can be seen from the photo provided which shows a group of Chinese men gambling. The men who come to gamble use up their savings to gamble and if they do lose, they might end up bankrupt. Furthermore, gambling can be addictive. Thus, this means that the Chinese men who gambled and lost might have led miserable lives because they ended up bankrupt and were unable to resist the temptation to gamble. 

Source C: A picture of brothels along Kreta Ayer

There were cabarets and brothels that were open all night long. They serve as a way of destressing. These chinese immigrants drank and got prostitutes. There were licensed and unlicensed prostitutes. Most of the unlicensed prostitutes were Cantonese who were either sold at young age or were born and brought up in Singapore. These were not cheap and they lost all their earnings and probably owe others money.

Culture & Religion

Source A: A photo taken from History textbook

From Source A, I can tell that Chinese immigrants of the same clan before has strong relationship with one another. This can be seen from how "the huay kuan would give" the sinkeh "a place to stay, provide money and food, and help them look for job". The sinkeh only had the same surname as them. Despite that, the huay kuan members continued to donate money to help the sinkeh.

   Source B: A photo from History textbook

From Source B, I can tell that the Chinese had the most population in Singapore as they contained so many different dialect groups such as the Hokkiens, the Teochews, the Cantonese, the Hainanese and the Hakkas. These dialect groups all took part in different businesses such as "trade in tropical produce and foodstuffs" and they also "operated coffee shops and restaurants". This shows that they dominated most of Singapore's workforce before World War 2.  

Source C: A picture of Fuk Tak Chi temple (Chinese: 福德祠)

One of the first things Chinese immigrants did after setting foot on Singapore is to pay their respects to their deity and give thanks for protection and a safe journey. One example of a temple like that is the Fuk Tak Chi temple. It is now our Fuk Tak Chi museum. A temple like that was important for Chinese immigrants as people in the past were quite superstitious and they felt that if they were at a dead end, their god would help them overcome their problems. This gave them hope to not give up no matter how terrible their living conditions were.

Introduction

What are we investigating about?

• Culture & Religion 
• Leisure & Entertainment 

of  the Chinese Immigrants before WW2 ( 1819 - 1941 ).