When we think of street hawkers – true street hawkers with push carts or portable kitchens – we only see pictures of them today from the 1960s or earlier. Today, street hawkers are a thing of the past, although we still have collections of hawkers called hawker centres (and the next generation air-conditioned food courts). How did this transformation happen? Peter Chan unfolds the change of our food scene in a series of posts entitled, ‘This is the way we eat’.

Ngoh Hiang Hawker from the 1970s

Peter writes:

Singapore cultural and food streetscape used to be a myriad of hawker stalls that filled the wet markets and alleys. Living in the city you just took up space along the “5-foot way” shop-houses and in the rural area you built a tent, perhaps under a tree. There were few barriers to entry to begin with; small capital, simple cooking skills and cheap family-supplied labour. Hawking licence? Not really necessary – those that needed one operated in government-built wet markets or pasar malams. Although there were licensed street stalls, unlicensed hawkers out-numbered the former by 8:1 at the time of separation from Malaysia.

Singapore’s changing food scene did not come about without resistance, as street hawkers sought to preserve their way of life – and their profit margin. You can read about the relocation of Singapore Street Hawkers in Peter’s two parter on Good Morning Yesterday, here (Part 1) and here (Part 2).