During 1930 different immigrant communities play a part in Singapore’s development. The countries of origin for most immigrants to Singapore were people from Europe, China, Arabia, India and Ceylon, Melaka and Penang, and the Malay Archipelago.When the immigrants came, the different races were segregated and a kapitan, which means chief or captain in a Malay term was appointed to take charge of the internal affairs for each community. It was divided into separate areas for the different dialect groups during the Singapore town plan, 1822. They were divided into separate areas such as Chinatown, Commercial Square, Chulia Kampong, Kampong Glam and European Town. The immigrants came to Singapore to escape poverty and war in their homeland and to seek better opportunities.

Here is a picture of a rickshaw puller during 1930 in Singapore. There was middlemen, known as coolie-agents who helped the traders and merchants look for workers who came from India and China. These Indian and Chinese workers provided much-needed labour. A Chinese rickshaw puller provided transportation for people around a and outside of the town areas. That was one of the services that were provided by the Chinese in Singapore. The Chinese ended up as a rickshaw puller as large number of them came unskilled labour and they were all called coolies.

The immigrants from China who migrated to Singapore, most of them were from the southern provinces of China. The Hokkiens came from Fujian province. From the province of Guangdong came the Cantonese, Teochews and Hakkas. The Hainanese came from Hainan Island. The reason why the Chinese were also separated to their dialect group is because “it was well known that the people of one province were more quarrelsome than another, and that continued disputes and disturbances took place between them,” explained Raffles.

Tags: Rickshaw puller, Old Photographs, National Museum of Singapore