Sān shuǐ fùnǚ 三水妇女 or Hóng tóujīn 紅頭巾
Woo Yan San, one of the few remaining Samsui women - a group of Chinese immigrants who helped to build Singapore
Samsui women sānshuǐ fùnǚ 三水妇女 or hóng tóujīn 红头巾
Samsui women came from mainly Sanshui (Foshan in Guangdong (Canton) Province, China
In Chinese, these women are referred to as hóng tóujīn 红头巾 which means "red bandana", because of the red cloth hats they wore at work. Coming to Singapore as cheap labourers in the world, Samsui women worked mainly in the construction industry and other industries that required hard labour. They also worked as domestic servants. They had a reputation of rejecting jobs involving drug (particularly opium) peddling, prostitution, or other vices, even if that meant they sometimes had to live in poverty. They made a lot of contributions to Singapore's early development mostly by building houses and some of them worked at hawker centres manning the stalls there too. Samsui women came to Singapore to work as cheap labourers from 1920s to 1940s. They mainly worked as construction workers. Although they made a lot of contributions to Singapore's early development mostly by building houses, it was very tough. They were given very little. Living conditions were very poor
Before arriving in Singapore, most Samsui women took vows never to marry, although there have been known exceptions. They lived in cramped conditions with other Samsui women, helping out each other and forming tightly united cliques. Samsui women also remained in touch with their relatives back home in China, communicating with them frequently through letters. Occasionally, they would send money to them. There are fewer than a hundred Samsui women left in Singapore today, all of them in their 80s and 90s. Organisations exist to raise awareness of these women's achievements and contributions to Singapore's development, and their current state. Some of these organisations also strive to provide free travel for the women back to China to visit their relatives before they die. One such organisation was the Sam Shui Wai Kuan Association that took care of the needs of Samsui women.
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The Legacy of Samsui Women in Singapore’s History
In the vibrant tapestry of Singapore’s rich cultural history, the Samsui women stand as enduring symbols of resilience, determination, and contribution. They were primarily from the district of Sanshui (三水, pronounced as “samsui” in Cantonese) in Guangdong, then known as Canton. These remarkable women left an indelible mark on Singapore’s development during the early 20th century.
The Samsui women – known as hóng tóujīn 红头巾 in Mandarin for “red headscarf” – were clad in distinctive red headgear and blue samfoo (shirt-and-pants). They were an integral part of the burgeoning construction industry, contributing significantly to the nation’s infrastructure. Beyond their undeniable physical prowess, these women were known for their strong sense of community, sisterhood, and unwavering work ethic.
Samsui women’s arrival - Although the roots of Samsui immigrants in Singapore can be traced as far back as 1841, a significant shift occurred in 1933 with the implementation of the Alien Ordinance. This ordinance imposed a cap on Chinese male immigrants due to the Great Depression that caused widespread unemployment in Singapore in the 1930s. This ordinance allowed for larger numbers of female immigrants to seek employment in Singapore.
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Samsui women were the heroines S’pore needed but their struggles were real
Many of us might have never seen a samsui woman in the flesh, but these ladies were once the backbone of our developing infrastructure, just like the transient workers who build our country today.
The first wave of Chinese immigrants who arrived in Singapore in search of a new life were largely male.
Over the years, the sex ratio in Singapore became overwhelmingly skewed towards males, such that by 1928, the colonial government introduced immigration controls to limit the number of male Chinese immigrants into Singapore.
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Unsung Heroes Series: “Builders Of Singapore”
Samsui Women were also known as “hong tou jin” (Mandarin for “red headscarf”). They immigrated from the Sanshui district of the Canton province of China, to Nanyang (what Singapore was known as) to seek a living. Many of them landed jobs as general labourers in the building and construction industry, making significant contributions to the Singapore landscape.
Their trademark feature was the red headscarf and dark blue/ black samfu which comprised a set of blouse and trousers. The dark colours prevented the Samsui Women’s clothes from being stained easily. Their “sandals” were made out of pieces of rubber cut out from used tyres.
There were English and Mandarin speaking guides to introduce to the participants more about the buildings which the Samsui Women were involved in constructing – National Gallery (former Supreme Court), Bank Of China Building, the former Asia Insurance Building (Ascott Raffles Place today). Along the route, the guides and participants also visited attractions like the Arts House (Singapore’s first Parliament House), Asian Civilisation Museum, and the streets where Samsui Women used to live in – Nankin, Pearl (Chin Chew) and Pagoda Streets in Chinatown.
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Scaling the heights of construction
Another once common sight at the construction site which has disappeared, is that of the women with their signature red cloth head-dresses, bearing loads their frail frames had seemed too tiny to support. A tribute to these women who came from Sanshui (Samsui) District of Guangdong Province in China to make a living here as menial workers at construction sites, is found across the road from the Airview Building at the side of the URA Centre.
The stories of these women who built Singapore – most came over in the 1920s to the 1940s and were sworn to single-hood, and the resilience they demonstrated (many who by the time I saw them in the 1960s and 1970s were in already well advanced in age), are well worth hearing.
The story of one, Madam Ng Moey Chye, can be found at an exhibition currently being held at the National Museum’s Stamford Gallery. The exhibition runs until the 23rd of June 2013 and features the stories of six pioneering tradesmen. More information on the exhibition, Trading Stories: Conversations with Six Tradesmen, is available at a previous post on it, “Trading stories with six tradesmen“.
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Remembering the Samsui Women: Migration and Social Memory in Singapore and China
Immediately recognisable by their hong tou jin 紅頭巾 or red headscarves, Singapore's Samsui women immigrants from the Samsui region of Guangdong, China have become icons of Singapore's twentieth century economic transformation. Working in construction, in factories and as domestics, the Samsui women have become celebrated in Singapore for their hard work and their resilience, and in China for the sacrifices they made for their families.
Kelvin Low explores the lives and legacy of the Samsui women, both through media and state representations and through the oral histories of the women themselves. His work sheds light on issues of their identity, both publicly constructed and self-defined, and explores why they undertook their difficult migration.
Remembering the Samsui Women is an illuminating study of the connection between memory and nation, including the politics of what is remembered and what is forgotten.
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'The Samsui Women of Chinatown: Helping Hands from Our Past'
Comprising mainly Cantonese and some Hakka women from Sanshui district in Foshan, Guangdong province, they worked in the brutal heat and toil of construction, and hard labor jobs, avoiding the vice trades of prostitution, opium and drugs. Most were illiterate and wanted to escape the poverty of the farms to earn a stable-enough salary. Most hoped to send enough money back to China for their families to build houses and live more comfortably. These women were thrifty, fiercely independent and endured so much hardship in Nanyang.
Like the ah-ma-cheh (or ah-sum, amah, or in Mandarin ma jie 妈姐) with their single plaits or pigtails recognizable black and white samfoo from Shunde district in Foshan, also Guangdong province, many samsui women remained single, either by choice or via abandonment or divorce, forming a close network of sisterhood and support. These networks and clan associations were highly crucial to providing help post-war and aiding their medical needs as the century turned, and they got too old and too weak to continue to work.
Samsui women were a common sight right up to post-1965 Singapore, building Capitol Theatre and Toa Payoh housing estate in the early 1970s. They worked for as long as they physically could. Then they aged, and there were none to take their place. They retired. Some returned to China. Others stayed. A few remained single, and others married. A bygone era. The tides of the construction industry shifted as other male foreign labor from other developing countries dominated the trade. Machines and technology relieved the humans of back-breaking work.
read more
Tribute to Samsui Women of Singapore
This blog to express as a tribute to the Samsui women of Singapore, the silent heroine who built Singapore over five decades. The immigrant construction workers from China, the synonymous red headgear workers (all female) with tough, resilient, hardworking and weather-beaten characters who are the vanishing workers of Singapore.
The blog is created with acknowledgement of thanks to the contributors at National Archive of Singapore (NAS), YouTube and other "memory-aid" resources of the Internet fraternity to share with our bloggers.
Samsui women came to Singapore in large numbers. As many as 200,000 are thought to have arrived between 1934 and 1938 alone. From the Sanshui District (三水區 sānshuǐqū) of Guangdong, they took a vow to never marry before leaving China and wore large red headdreses as a symbol and reminder of their vow. Most found menial employment in construction or as domestic servants and were known and respected for refusing to work as prostitutes or opium peddlers. Many of them had taken root in Singapore as their homeland.
read more
Samsui women, also known as hong tou jin (红头巾 hóng tóujīn; 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 China.
Immediately recognisable by their hong tou jin 紅頭巾 or red headscarves, Singapore's Samsui women immigrants from the Samsui region of Guangdong, China have become icons of Singapore's twentieth century economic transformation. Working in construction, in factories and as domestics, the Samsui women have become celebrated in Singapore for their hard work and their resilience, and in China for the sacrifices they made for their families.
Kelvin Low explores the lives and legacy of the Samsui women, both through media and state representations and through the oral histories of the women themselves. His work sheds light on issues of their identity, both publicly constructed and self-defined, and explores why they undertook their difficult migration.
Remembering the Samsui Women is an illuminating study of the connection between memory and nation, including the politics of what is remembered and what is forgotten.
read more
'The Samsui Women of Chinatown: Helping Hands from Our Past'
About 200,000 samsui women (known as 三水婆 sānshuǐ póor 紅頭巾 hong tou jin), clad in blue and black samfoo and trademark red headgear/headscarf, were Chinese immigrants who flocked to then-Nanyang (literally 'south seas', 南洋, referring to Malaya) in the 1920s to pre-war years. They congregated in Chinatown, buying groceries and living in the tiny squalid shophouses. Life was very tough
Comprising mainly Cantonese and some Hakka women from Sanshui district in Foshan, Guangdong province, they worked in the brutal heat and toil of construction, and hard labor jobs, avoiding the vice trades of prostitution, opium and drugs. Most were illiterate and wanted to escape the poverty of the farms to earn a stable-enough salary. Most hoped to send enough money back to China for their families to build houses and live more comfortably. These women were thrifty, fiercely independent and endured so much hardship in Nanyang.
Like the ah-ma-cheh (or ah-sum, amah, or in Mandarin ma jie 妈姐) with their single plaits or pigtails recognizable black and white samfoo from Shunde district in Foshan, also Guangdong province, many samsui women remained single, either by choice or via abandonment or divorce, forming a close network of sisterhood and support. These networks and clan associations were highly crucial to providing help post-war and aiding their medical needs as the century turned, and they got too old and too weak to continue to work.
Samsui women were a common sight right up to post-1965 Singapore, building Capitol Theatre and Toa Payoh housing estate in the early 1970s. They worked for as long as they physically could. Then they aged, and there were none to take their place. They retired. Some returned to China. Others stayed. A few remained single, and others married. A bygone era. The tides of the construction industry shifted as other male foreign labor from other developing countries dominated the trade. Machines and technology relieved the humans of back-breaking work.
read more
Tribute to Samsui Women of Singapore
This blog to express as a tribute to the Samsui women of Singapore, the silent heroine who built Singapore over five decades. The immigrant construction workers from China, the synonymous red headgear workers (all female) with tough, resilient, hardworking and weather-beaten characters who are the vanishing workers of Singapore.
The blog is created with acknowledgement of thanks to the contributors at National Archive of Singapore (NAS), YouTube and other "memory-aid" resources of the Internet fraternity to share with our bloggers.
Samsui women came to Singapore in large numbers. As many as 200,000 are thought to have arrived between 1934 and 1938 alone. From the Sanshui District (三水區 sānshuǐqū) of Guangdong, they took a vow to never marry before leaving China and wore large red headdreses as a symbol and reminder of their vow. Most found menial employment in construction or as domestic servants and were known and respected for refusing to work as prostitutes or opium peddlers. Many of them had taken root in Singapore as their homeland.
read more
Samsui women
Other areas where they came from include Shunde and Dongguan, also in Canton province, as well as places outside of Canton like Fujian and Chao’an, although samsui women from these regions were much fewer. Samsui women started arriving in Singapore in large numbers in the mid-1930s and many found work as general labourers in the construction industry.
A large number of these women lived together in shared accommodations. There are few samsui women left in Singapore today, as most have either passed away or returned to China.3 They are often depicted in popular culture as thrifty and resilient individuals who helped to build up the country’s infrastructure.
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This sculpture shows a trio of samsui women, identified by their characteristic hats and the loads they carry on their backs. Samsui women came to Singapore from the Sansui Province of China mostly between the 1920's and 1940's in search of jobs to support their families back home. The location of this sculpture outside the Urban Redevelopment Authority's building is significant, as samsui women were mainly responsible for construction and industrial jobs during key development periods in Singapore's history.
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Samsui Women
Ah Sum or Ah Ma Jie (Majie 妈姐)
The majie and it dawned on me that these were FDWs of yesterday. Not unlike the FWDs of today, these single women in black and white samfu outfit with their hair tied in buns were from the Guangdong province. They worked here from the 1930s to the 1970s. These sturdy women were not called “maids” though they took vows of celibacy to dedicate themselves to their vocation.
The word majie is made up of the word ma (mother) and jie (elder sister), though some have suggested that amah may have originated from the Portuguese ama meaning "nurse". In Taiwan and China, the word amah refers to an older lady in general, As many were also nannies, it could well have come from the word nai ma (literally "milk mother" in Chinese). Variants such as amah-chieh or mahjie have also been used. Similar terms in the same context includes ah-yee, yee-yee or ah sum (aunt), or jie-jie (elder sister).
Again, not unlike the FDWs of today, the majie of yesterday worked very long hours. It was normal to be up at 5 am in the morning, and they worked to around 8 or 9 pm in the evening. But unlike the FDWs of today, they did not have families to return to. Many were treated as part of the family as they served their employers for a long time.