History & Food Legacy of Rickshaws in Singapore

Hand pulled rickshaws were a major means of transport in Singapore from the 1880s to 1930s.

The rickshaw was invented in Japan in the 1860s. It spread throughout Asia and Africa as a means of transport much like today's taxis. (Image courtesy of Wikipedia.)

The first rickshaws appeared in Singapore in the 1880s. Rickshaws initially came in single seater and double seater models. (Image courtesy of NAS.)

The British colonial government banned double seaters in 1911 on humanitarian grounds but they only disappeared from our streets in the 1920s. (Image courtesy of Wikipedia.)

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Many coolies arriving from Fuzhou, Fujian province in southern China in the 1880s to 1920s became rickshaw pullers. Hockchew or Hockchia (Fuzhou) people dominated the rickshaw profession in Singapore.

By the 1920s, there were some 50,000 rickshaw pullers. By the 1930s, the numbers grew to an estimated 100,000. Registered (licensed) rickshaw pullers numbered 30,000. The rest were "pirate taxis" of sorts. (Image courtesy of NAS.)

Rickshaw pullers plied the streets often shirtless, in shorts or baggy pants and bare feet under Singapore's blistering sun. (Image courtesy of NAS.)

~~Traffic~~ Rickshaw jam at the old Police Court and Central Police Station at South Bridge Road in 1900. Both buildings were demolished in the 1970s.

In response to the rapid growth of rickshaw numbers, the British colonial government enacted the Jinricksha Ordinance and established the Jinricksha Department in 1888. The task of the Jinricksha Department was to register, regulate and manage rickshaw vehicles and drivers. (Jinricksha is the Japanese word for "human powered vehicle" i.e. rickshaw.)

Up to the 1920s, many rickshaw pullers made only 60 cents a day with part of that measly sum paying for rental of the vehicle. Rickshaws were accident prone and rickshaw pullers often suffered injuries.

In the 1920s, a Rickshaw Association was formed to look after the welfare of rickshaw pullers. (Image courtesy of NAS.)

The Jinricksha Station at Tanjong Pagar Road was built in 1903 and began operations in 1904. It was like the central taxi terminal and also housed the Jinricksha Department offices (Image courtesy of NAS.)

In 1987, the Jinricksha Station building was gazetted a historic site for conservation. Today, Jinricksha Station belongs to Hong Kong movie star Jackie Chan who bought the building in 2007 for SGD$11 million. Once used as restaurants, bars, karaoke lounges, foot reflexology centres and such, it is now occupied by office tenants.

The advent of pedal trishaws in the 1930s led to the decline and phasing out of hand pulled rickshaws. In 1947, hand pulled rickshaws were banned from Singapore streets. (Image courtesy of NAS.)

In this fascinating video of 1920s Singapore, we see rickshaws plying Hock Lam Street. (This street no longer exists.)

This video also shows a rickshaw man stopping for a meal at a hawker stall. He was probably having a bowl of rickshaw noodles.

Rickshaw noodle 拉車麵 is a humble dish. It was just yellow noodles cooked in a pot or basin of choy sum vegetable soup with dried shrimps for added savoury flavour. It was garnished with deep fried shallot and a dribble of oil for flavour and aroma.

The yellow noodles were snipped into short strands so that the rickshaw man can eat them with a spoon (sans chopsticks) or simply slurp everything into his mouth. A typical pit stop shouldn't take more than a few minutes before the rickshaw man went on his way to fetch his next fare.

Rickshaw noodle hawkers were once common as rickshaw men were everywhere. Now, only a couple of stalls still serve this humble dish as rickshaws have disappeared and Singaporeans have become more affluent.

If we can taste the same dish that our hardworking forefathers ate, would you like to try it?