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Chinatown was an enclave for the early Chinese immigrants in Singapore in the 19th and early 20th centuries

The Chinese in Singapore are people of Chinese descent who are born in or immigrated to Singapore and have attained citizenship or permanent residence status. As of 2000, Chinese Singaporeans constitute 78% of Singapore’s population, or approximately three out of four Singaporeans.

Chinese in Singapore today commonly recognize themselves as Singaporeans rather than Chinese. Some Chinese have married Peranakans, who are Chinese in ethnicity but somewhere in their ancestorial line, they had married ethnic Malays. They had thus developed a culture of their own comprising a mixture of Chinese and Malay culture.

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 The Chinese in Singapore are Han Chinese with the exception of the Peranakans. The Peranakans are classified as a separate ethnic group whose ancestry is not directly traceable to China. The Chinese forms 78% of the population in Singapore. They belong to several linguistic-cultural dialect groups, originating from mainly the southern parts of China. The Hokkien, Teochew and Hainanese, all of whom belong to the Min-nan group, jointly form more than three-quarters of the Chinese population. The Cantonese and Hakka account for most of the remainder.

Government policies targeted at narrowing dialect-culture and eradicating the subunit orientation differences within the Chinese community, was spearheaded by the Speak Mandarin campaign together with the banning of dialect-medium subjects in schools and the media, have resulted in an entire generation of young Singaporeans distanced from their respective mother tongues and therefore their respective culture and heritage.

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Thian Hock Keng is the oldest Hokkien temple in Singapore

The Hokkiens constitute around 41% of the Chinese Singaporean population. Most came from the southern parts of the Fujian province, primarily Xiamen and Quanzhou. They speak Amoy Hokkien, a Min-nan (??) dialect, which is 50.4% comprehensible with Teochew, and less so with Hainanese.[1]

The Hokkien language has somehow became the unofficial working language amongst the majority. It is not surprising that those who do not speak their own mother tongues do speak Hokkien and other ethnic groups such as the Malays and Indians are also able to communicate with the medium.

Early Hokkiens settled around Amoy Street and Telok Ayer Street, enclaving around the Thian Hock Kheng Temple and subsequent clan headquarters Hokkien Huey Kuan, later expanding to Hokkien St and the vicinity of China Street. Being most adventurous amongst the Chinese, the Hokkiens were the most active in early trading that centered along the Singapore River.

As the early settlers come from the southern coast of China, they tend to live off sea trades and worship one of the patron-deities of Taoist pantheon, the Heavenly Mother or “Ma Zhu” who supposedly look out for seafarers. Thian Hock Kheng Temple houses Goddess “Ma Zhu” and is thus also known as Ma Zhor Kheng. Another popular patron group of deities being the Nine Emperor Gods, a commemoration of the Emperors who brought peace and prosperity to the people. The common reverence of the supreme Taoist God, the Jade Emperor is also eminent amongst the Chinese Singaporeans and the bithday of the Jade Emperor on the 9th day of Chinese New Year is accorded utmost prominence.

An official Taoist practice by a Taoist spiritual medium known as “Tangki” (a phrase derived from Taiwan) is also popular amongst the Chinese. Basically, the spiritual medium goes into a spiritual trance and establish a channel of communication between the mortal and the chosen Deity. It is said that the Taoist Deity transmogrified the spiritual medium and provides a wide range of help to devotees ranging from religious rituals to health, business, domestic queries and request like a talisman to protect their love ones.

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The Ngee Ann Kongsi is based at the Teochew Building on Tank Road

The Teochew (also spelt Teochiu) in Singapore constitutes about 21% of the Chinese population in Singapore. Teochews originated from the Chaoshan region in Guangdong Province of China, namely Jieyang, Shantou, Chaozhou, Chaoyang, Puning, Chao’an, Raoping, Huilai, Chenghai and Nan’ao.

The Teochew speak Teochew, a Min-nan dialect, which has an overall 50.4% mutual intelligibility as Hokkien.[2]. However, despite linguistic and cultural similarities, the Teochews and Hokkiens considered themselves distinct and did not get along well during their early settlement in Singapore, especially during the British colonial era. Like the Hokkiens, the Teochews similarly shared the Taoist belief of a Taoist spiritual medium.

The Teochews were the dominant Chinese dialect group for a period of time during the 19th century. Mass immigration of Chinese from Fujian later outnumbered the Teochews, especially in the south. The majority of the Chinese living along the banks of the Straits of Johor were largely Teochew until the HDB initiated mass redevelopment from the 1980s onwards.

However, the majority of the Teochew settled along the banks of Singapore River in Chinatown during the 19th and early 20th century. Teochews who settled in Chinatown professed in many commercial sectors as well as fishery. Traditional commercial sector Chinatown once dominated by Teochews include Circular Road and South Bridge Road.

Others, mainly businessmen, set up gambier and pepper plantations in the dense forests of Singapore, parts of northern Singapore as well as Johor Bahru. The Chinese first started their plantations with the approval of the Sultan of Johor from the nineteenth century onwards. This attracted more Teochew businessmen to start their plantations in those areas over the years. As such, the “Kangchu” system eventually started to form. The Chinese word “Kang” (?) means river, while “Chu” (?) means house. However, in this context, “Chu” is the clan’s name of the first headman in charge of the plantations in the area. The “Kangchus” gave rise to modern place names such as Choa Chu Kang, Lim Chu Kang and Yio Chu Kang, all of which were largely plantation areas prior to urban redevelopment.

Like many other dialect groups, early Chinese immigrants cluster themselves to form clan and dialect associations. These clan associations or Kongsi serves as unions for the mostly illiterate Chinese laborers and their colonial ruler/ employer. Subsequently there was a decamp from colonial bosses when the Kongsi conducted their own import/ export, which in the colonialists’ eyes was considered competition and thus labelled piracy. In order to safeguard their rice bowl, members of certain clans were sworn in with elaborate rites of passage which the colonialists termed as secret societies. Mostly, such associations were formed to look after the religious and welfare needs of Chinese immigrants in Singapore. One of the more prominent clan assosciation for the Teochew include Ngee Ann Kongsi, a Teochew-oriented association formed in 1845 has established itself since thence.

The Straits Times highlighted that Hougang has a relatively high concentration of Teochew residents.

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 The Cantonese makes up 15% of the Chinese Singaporean population. Unlike the Hokkien, Teochew and the Hainanese, the Cantonese speak a dialect belonging to the Yue family. The Cantonese community is also further sub-divided into several sub-dialect groups. Yue Hai is considered to be the purest form of Cantonese because of its close proximity with Guangzhou. Other variants include Luoguang, Seiyap and Gouyeung. The Gwainaam variant is largely based in Guangxi and shares close affinity with Pinghua. As with the Hokkiens and Teochews, the Cantonese equally shares the Taoist belief of a Taoist spiritual medium.

The Cantonese mainly worked as goldsmiths, tailors and restaurateurs during the early and mid 20th century. Cantonese businesses predominated shophouses along Temple Street, Pagoda Street, and Mosque Street.

Many Cantonese women left behind their families in China and came to Singapore to work in construction sites for a living during the 20th century. This group of Cantonese women came from the Samsui district in Guangdong were later known as Samsui women. They are noted for their distinctive navy blue outfits and bright red headgear, which were meant for protecting their hair as they worked. The headgear was first worn by Wang Chao Yun (??????), a concubine of Su Dongpo, in the Hakka Fui Chiu district of Guangdong province and it eventually became the traditional headgear of Hakkas. Cantonese women who worked alongside with female Hakka labourers and adopted the use of the headgear. To the average person, Samsui women normally evokes the image of a woman clad in blue top and trousers and the invariable headgear.

Cantonese women from the Seiyap district in Jiangmen prefecture wear a black headgear similar to the Samsui women. Seiyap women who wear black headgears mainly work in shipyards at the old harbour along Singapore river as well as at Keppel Harbour.

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Ying Fo Fui Kun is the first Hakka clan association in Singapore

The Hakkas constitute 8% of the Chinese Singaporean population. Since their dialect was initially somewhat intelligible to Mandarin, although strongly influenced by Min-nan and Yue, they were believed to have migrated from Northern China between the 16th and the 17th century. Recent genetic studies, however, have shown that the Hakkas originate from Southern China, like the other Chinese dialect groups in Singapore.

Many Hakka women who came to Singapore during the early 20th century worked in construction sites and wore headgears similar to the Samsui women. However, unlike the Samsui women, those Hakka women wore black, rather than red headgears.

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This group constitutes 5% of the Chinese Singaporean population. Of them, the majority are Hainanese, from Hainan, speaking Hainanese, a Min-nan dialect with its roots from the Hokkien dialect.

The others, who included the Hockchew (Fuzhou), Hockchia and the Hinghwas, who came from Northern Fujian and Southern Zhejiang. They speak various Northern Min dialects. As late-comers to Singapore (late 19th century), most of them worked as shop helpers, chefs, and waiters in the hospitality sector. Hainanese Chicken Rice is a famous dish.

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Mandarin speakers from Beijing and other northern provinces, and Wu speakers from Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, constitute only 2% of the Chinese Singaporean population. Most of them immigrated to Singapore much later than the other groups. They can all speak Standard Mandarin, the lingua franca among all the Chinese dialects, and may be able to speak their own dialects that are rarely used in daily life even amongst those from the same region.

These are mainly first and second-generation Chinese Singaporeans who came to Singapore in the 1990s. They tend to be highly paid white-collar workers in multinational corporations or academics in research and educational institutes. Also, there is an increasing number of Chinese teachers from the PRC working in Primary and Secondary schools and Junior Colleges in Singapore. This is because the Ministry of Education in Singapore finds it increasingly difficult to find qualified young Singaporeans to teach Standard Mandarin.

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Peranakans in Singapore were once concentrated in Katong

The Peranakan, also known as Baba-Nonya are early Chinese immigrants from Malacca, of which many of them later migrated to Singapore. As they contain mix blood of the Chinese and the Malays, the Peranakans are classified as a separate ethnic group from the Han Chinese in Singapore. They embrace a fusion of Malay and Chinese cultures while still maintaining their Chinese ethnicity. The men are known as Baba while the women are known as Bibiks or Nonyas. Peranakans in Singapore were once concentrated in the Geylang and Katong areas. This is because the Peranakans were often intermediaries for businesses and social groups during colonial Singapore owing to their ability to speak English, Malay and Hokkien.

Many Peranakans and Hokkien Chinese moved out of the congested town of Singapore - now the Central Business District (CBD) - and built seaside mansions and villas along the East Coast in Tanjong Katong (”Turtle Bay” in the Malay language) for their dynasties.

However, they have since dispersed off to other parts of Singapore after 1965. Peranakans in Singapore generally belong to the Hokkien and Teochew dialect groups and spoke Baba Malay and Chinese dialects as mother tongues. Many of them converted to Roman Catholicism during the 18th-century Portuguese colonisation into South-East Asia. Missionaries set up posts in Batavia (Indonesia), Malaya (Malaysia) of which Malacca, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore were parts of before the 1965 independent and separation movement of Singapore city from its Malayan hinterland.

The Peranakans were a transcultural mix of races that blended colonial English style with indigenous Malay languages and Hokkien Chinese customs.

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 According the 2000 census, 42.5% of Singapore’s Chinese population declared themselves to be Buddhist, 8.5% Taoist, 14.6% Christian and 14.8% non-religious. The Chinese form the vast majority in these four groups, due to their dominance in Singapore.

The majority of the Chinese in Singapore register themselves as Buddhist, and a smaller number claimed to be Taoist. Many Chinese have retained to a certain extent the Taoist belief and practice which is an age-old Chinese tradition. Taoism was once the dominant belief system, but younger generations have either switched to Buddhism or have become non-religious.

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