|
The first junk bearing immigrants from the Fujian province of Xiamen
anchored at the mouth of the Singapore River in 1821. The early
settlers built the Thian Hock Keng Temple to thank the gods
for their safe journey, and to ask for protection and prosperity
in their new home.
The
new settlers worked mainly at the port, as coolies carrying cargo
or merchants. There were also letter-writers, who made money
by writing letters dictated to them by illiterate immigrants, to
be sent to their families in China; fortune tellers, mediums, prostitutes
and gangsters. In the often rough-and-tumble life of this
young city, temples and shophouses were often only a stone's throw
away from brothels and opium dens.
Today, many of the old trades have vanished or are fast
disappearing. But if you take a careful walk around the quarter,
you will still catch remnants of its colourful history - temples
where devotees still worship today, old houses that once belonged
to rich traders and that have been restored to their former glory,
buildings where secret society meetings were held. You could
catch a fortune-teller offering to read your palm, or a mourner
burning paper "money" as an offering to his loved ones in the afterworld.
Chinatown
Singapore's Chinatown is a unique mix of old Peranakan-style
buildings, cosy tea-houses, traditional medicine and herbal shops,
colourful night markets, sleek renovated offices and trendy restaurants
and bars.
In this charming quarter, right next to the high-rise Central
Business District, you could spend your afternoon haggling over
the price of antiques and your evening in the newest and hippest
restaurant in town. Chinatown still proudly bears the heritage of
its eventful past, but it's also quick in assimilating the new and
trendy.
Chinatown, being near the city centre, is easily accessible. It
is roughly the area bordered by the Singapore River in the
north, Cecil Street in the east, Cantonment Road in
the south, and New Bridge Road in the west. But before we
bring you on a tour of the sights and sounds in Chinatown today,
let's take a look at the district's history.
Chinatown is where Singapore's early immigrants from China
first made their home. With Singapore fast developing as an important
port in the early19th century, the island soon became a magnet for
those seeking to make their fortunes in a new land.
A common architectural feature you will find around Chinatown is
the shophouse, which is done in a style peculiar to this
region of the world and known as Chinese baroque. These shophouses
were so-called because the ground floor served as a shop while the
upper floors were where the owners lived.
The architecture is an
eclectic mix of Chinese, Malay and European influences and is sometimes
also known as Peranakan, after the Chinese settlers who came
as early as the 15th century and who adopted Malay customs. |
