Strikes and other forms of labour unrest were common in 1950s Singapore. The year 1955 saw 57 cases of labour unrest involving bus company workers, including the Hock Lee bus workers’ strike and riot. That same year, bus workers of the Singapore Traction Company ...
Samsui women, also known as hong tou jin (红头巾; Mandarin for “red headscarf”) after their trademark red headgear, were female immigrants mainly from the Sanshui (“Samsui” in Cantonese; meaning “three waters”) district of Canton (Guangdong today) province in southern ...
Chinese laundry shops are colloquially termed dhobi shops, after the Indian dhobi man who operated a similar business in an Indian neighbourhood. The sign on the door is usually in Chinese, coupled with English the words "washing and dry-cleaning". The shops were ...
Checha Davies, also known as Mrs. E. V. Davis (b. 1898, Kerala, India–d. 2 September 1979, Singapore), was a social worker, women’s activist and community volunteer. She was prominent in various organisations, including the trailblazing Singapore Council of Women ...
The Workers’ Party (WP) was formed on 3 November 1957 by David Saul Marshall, with the inauguration held at the Hokkien Association Hall on Telok Ayer Street. The founding executive committee of the party comprised 20 trade unionists and 10 non-unionists. The party’s ...
On 30 April 1955, about 1,300 port workers employed by the Singapore Harbour Board Staff Association (SHBSA) went on strike for better wages and working conditions. The strikers included tally clerks, stenographers, storekeepers and accountants. The strike ended ...
Teresa Hsu Chih (许哲) (b. 1898, Swatow, China–d. 7 December 2011, Singapore) was a prominent social worker and the oldest person in Singapore at the time of her death, aged 113 years. The centenarian, who began devoting her life to helping the poor and destitute ...
Shirin Fozdar (b. 1 March 1905, Bombay, India–d. 2 February 1992, Singapore) was a women’s rights pioneer. One of the founders of the Singapore Council of Women (SCW) in 1952, Fozdar was also a key figure in establishing the Muslim Syariah Court and the Women’s ...
Jamit Singh (b. 1929, Ipoh, Malaysia–d. 10 December 1994, Ipoh, Malaysia) was a well-known trade unionist in Singapore. He inspired and united the port workers in colonial Singapore against the Singapore Harbour Board, and won several concessions for them in 1955. ...
The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) was established on 6 September 1961, with Mahmud Awang as the pro-tem chairman and C. V. Devan Nair its first secretary-general. The labour movement initially represented only a minority of unionised workers. Its membership, ...
In March 1999, an abattoir worker in Singapore fell victim to what was initially thought to be the Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus but was subsequently verified as a yet unnamed Hendra-like virus (later known as the Nipah virus).
Pawnbroking in Singapore started in the 19th century. In the past, pawnbrokers were regarded as the “poor man’s bankers”. Now their customers include white-collar workers, gamblers and businessmen, and an increasing number of younger customers.
R. A. Hamid (b. 1922/23, Kerala, India–d. 9 February 1982, Singapore) was a union activist noted for championing issues concerning seamen’s welfare. During the labour unrests of the 1960s, he participated in settling the dispute between the Singapore Harbour Board ...
Ho See Beng (b. 5 February 1918, Fujian, China–d. 5 December 2008, Singapore) served as a labour union leader and member of parliament during Singapore’s formative years. A vanguard in the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), Ho’s humble background and intimate ...
Golden Mile Complex is a residential and commercial development, situated between Nicoll Highway and Beach Road. Formerly known as Woh Hup Complex, it was developed as part of the Urban Renewal Department’s goal to redevelop Singapore’s central area in the 1960s. ...
The Factories Ordinance, 1958 (Ord. 41 of 1958), was a piece of legislation that sought to set minimum standards for the health, safety and welfare of workers in factories. In 1960, factory workers numbered about 120,000 and made up one-quarter of Singapore’s total ...
Flor Contemplacion (b. 1953 - d. 17 March 1995, Singapore) was a Filipino domestic worker convicted of murdering another Filipino domestic worker, 34-year-old Della Maga, and Nicholas Huang, the four-year-old son of Maga’s employer. The murders took place in May ...
Chua Mia Tee (b. 25 November 1931, Shantou, Guangdong, China–) is one of Singapore’s foremost realist painters. He is best known for his oil paintings that depict Singapore’s vanishing traditional urban landscape. He is also a much sought-after portrait artist ...
The Neptune Theatre Restaurant was a well-known restaurant and theatre in Singapore that was in business from the 1970s to 2006. Housed in the Overseas Union House at Collyer Quay, Neptune was famous for hosting topless revues and large-scale dinners. During the ...
On 6 July 1990, a team of doctors at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH), led by Dr Tong Ming Chuan, performed the first heart transplant in Singapore. The donor heart was from Ong Soon, a 41-year-old construction worker, who died in an industrial accident. The ...