History of Chinese Cuisine in Singapore. How Three Waves of Chinese Migration Shaped Singapore Hawker Culture

Chinese make up 75% of Singapore's population, hence Chinese dishes form the majority of Singapore hawker cuisine. But, you will not find anything like Singapore Chinese cuisine in China. I mean you can't go to any place in China and find the same hyper diversity of Chinese food that we take for granted in Singapore.

The thing about Singapore Chinese cuisine is, it is not homogenous but a melting pot of Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka, Hainanese and now Sichuan, Shanghainese, etc cuisines. Add Peranakan to that already "chaotic" mishmash of culinary traditions and we only just begin to appreciate the uniqueness of Singapore's hawker culture.

To understand how this delicious "chaos" came about, we have to delve a little into Chinese cuisine and Chinese immigration history to Singapore.

China is a very old and vast country - it is a continuous civilisation since the Xia dynasty established in 2070 BC i.e. over 4,000 years ago. Through a succession of dynasties over the millenniums, China now has a population of 1.4 billion people living in 23 provinces, etc., all with their own cuisine.

Of these, the Chinese consider the cuisines of Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hunan and Sichuan, the eight greatest. All are sea facing provinces or are well irrigated by the Yangtze river, its tributaries and lakes. Each regional cuisine have their own choice of ingredients, seasoning, cooking techniques and taste profiles.

Early Chinese Immigration to Maritime Southeast Asia

Because of its proximity and accessibility through the South China Sea, Chinese have since time immemorial sailed south to maritime Southeast Asia or Nanyang 南洋 i.e. the Malay peninsula, Malay archipelago and the Philippines.

They came as traders, coming south during the Northeast Monsoon (Dec - Mar) bringing silk, pottery, ceramics, etc. During the Southwest Monsoon (Jun - Sep), they returned to China with aromatic woods, hornbill casks (ivory), bird's nest, turtle shells, shark fins, spices, etc.

In the days of sail, traders had to wait months at the seaports for the wind to change for the return trip to China. During the intervening months, the traders mingled with locals. Some intermarried local women who took care of the family and business while the men returned to China. The offsprings of such intermarriages are known as Peranakan which means "local born" in Malay.

Peranakan communities sprouted in Penang, Malacca, Surabaya, Phuket, etc. The Malacca Peranakan community prospered during the heyday of trade between the Malacca sultanate and China's Ming dynasty in the 1400s.

The Peranakan adopted Malay dress, customs and created a hybrid Malay-Chinese cuisine known as Peranakan or Nyonya cuisine. Nyonya being the phrase for Peranakan ladies; the men are known as Baba. 

Singapore Before Raffles (1299 - 1819)

There was a kingdom of Singapura founded by Sang Nila Utama, a prince from Palembang (Sumatra) in 1299. The kingdom lasted 99 years till 1398 when it was attacked, then abandoned by the Majapahit empire from Java.

During its heyday, the kingdom of Singapura was a thriving seaport visited by traders from Arabia, India and China. There were small settlements of Chinese living among the locals during this period, though not much else is known about them.

After the disappearance of the kingdom of Singapura, Singapore island became a backwater with secondary roles in the Malacca sultanate (1400 - 1511) and then the Johor-Riau sultanate.

Under the Johor-Riau sultanate, Singapore was the proverbial fishing village inhabited by about 1,000 Orang Laut (sea nomads) and Riau Malay followers of Temenggong Abdul Rahman. There were also a handful of Teochew Chinese running gambier & pepper plantations.

In 1819, Raffles landed in Singapore searching for a foothold for the British East India Company. Raffles signed the Singapore Treaty with Sultan Hussein and Temenggong Abdul Rahman of the Johor sultanate, allowing the British East India Company to operate a trading post at the Singapore River.

The First Wave - Peranakan Laokeh 老客

Raffles and Farquhar (the first Resident or governor of Singapore) moved quickly to realise Raffles' vision of Singapore as a major trading hub. They tapped on their connections to jumpstart the port of Singapore - Raffles brought traders from Penang and Bencoolen (where he was previously governor), while Farquhar called on his network in Malacca (where he was last governor). Many of these traders were Peranakan.

In 1824, the English and Dutch signed the Treaty of London which divided the Malay world between themselves. Under the agreement, the British controlled territories in Singapore and its north (Malay peninsula). The Dutch owned territories in the Malay archipelago (today's Indonesia). The Dutch gave up Malacca in exchange for Bencoolen (in Sumatra).

London Treaty signed, the British set up the British Straits Settlements in 1826 to rule Singapore, Penang, Malacca (and Dinding) as a single entity. This greatly facilitated and encouraged more traders to move from Penang and Malacca to Singapore.

By the 1826 census, there were 6,088 Chinese, 4,790 Malays, 1,242 Bugis, and 267 Javanese in Singapore. Many Chinese were Peranakan traders from Penang and Malacca, thus establishing the Peranakan community in Singapore.

The Peranakan brought Nyonya cuisine to Singapore. Nyonya cuisine combine Malay and Chinese culinary traditions to create wholly new dishes. Examples are Ayam Buah Keluak, Itek Sio, Babi Ponteng, Nyonya Chap Chye, just to name a few.

However, Nyonya cuisine did not feature in Singapore hawker culture during Singapore's first 100 years. Peranakan families have their heirloom recipes which they guard jealously. Peranakan families were relatively wealthy and would greatly loathe the prospect of Nyonya cuisine hawked in the streets.

The Second Wave - Sinkeh 新客

Beside traders, Raffles's seaport also needed tradesmen, boatmen, and sheer muscle power to carry and lift goods. For these, he turned to India and China.

The British hunger for manpower to man the port of Singapore coincided with the long death throes of the Qing dynasty which ruled China since 1644. The Qing dynasty wrecked by corruption, incompetence, rebellion, invasions, famine and disease was gasping its last breaths. The Qing dynasty finally fell in 1912 but it only brought more chaos as China broke up into fiefdoms of warring warlords. Civil war broke out between the Chinese Communist Party and Kuomintang in 1927. Japan invaded China in 1937.

For the 100 years between 1840 to 1940, millions of Chinese emigrated from China, mainly from the southern provinces of Guangdong and Fujian. Many came to Singapore. They were labelled as Sinkeh or "new guests" to differentiate them for the well established Peranakan and Straits born Chinese. Sinkeh came from different backgrounds - there were Cantonese, Teochew, Hokkien, Hakka and Hainanese.

By 1849, 52.8% of Singapore's population of 52,891 were Chinese, reaching over 70% by 1901. Most the migrants from China were single or left their wives in China. In 1901, there were 130,367 Chinese males compared to 33,674 Chinese females (many of whom were Straits born Nyonya ladies).

With so much unaccompanied sinkeh men, there was high demand for cooked food by street hawkers. For many coolies (indentured labourers), cheap hot hawker food is comfort food which provide some solace in a harsh environment far away from home.

Hokkien

Telok Ayer Street 1900

Hokkien people from Fujian province is the largest Chinese community in Singapore, making up 40% of the Chinese population.

Early Hokkien immigrants settled around Amoy Street, Telok Ayer Street and Singapore River. As the Hokkien population grew, they expanded to Hokkien Street and China Street. Thian Hock Keng temple was at the heart of the Hokkien enclave. The Hokkien were engaged in trading spice, coffee, rubber, flour, Chinese tea, hardware, building materials, textiles, tropical fruit, and rice.

Prawn Noodle is yellow noodles tossed with dark soy sauce, aromatic oil (fried shallot), lard, chili sauce and topped with prawns. The noodles are served with an umami-savoury soup made by boiling prawn shells / heads and pork bones. Simple, comforting, delicious dish. Commonly found in hawker centres though most stalls now serve elevated versions with large prawns and premium add-on like Japanese style chashu チャーシュー.

Mee Hoon Kueh is kneaded flour dough, hand rolled and then pinched and thrown into boiling water to cook. The cooked squares of dough are then served in a bowl of soup made by boiling pork bones and anchovies. Additional flavours come from fried shallot oil and fried shallot. Customers may ask for an optional raw egg, dropped into the piping hot soup on serving.

Popiah is stewed turnip, blanched bean sprout, egg, shrimp, lettuce, savoury fermented sauce, chili sauce, etc wrapped in a roll with thin flour crepe. A popular snack, most hawker centres have one popiah stall. It is a healthy antidote for that snack attack.

Boat Quay 1900

Teochew people making up 20% of the Chinese population in Singapore is the second largest group in the Singapore Chinese community. Many Teochew came to Singapore from the Chaoshan region and city of Swatow in Guangdong province.

Early Teochew arrivals settled along Singapore River mainly at Boat Quay, Circular Road, and South Bridge Road. Many worked as boatman (of Twakow boats), fishermen, fishmongers, fish wholesalers, and also traded sundry goods, fruits, rice and textiles. Teochew also ran pepper and gambier plantations (before Raffles landed in Singapore).

There was intense rivalry between the Hokkien and Teochew over territory and business, culminating in riots in 1854 - the deadliest in Singapore history, claiming over 500 lives.

Bak Chor Mee or minced pork noodles is a well loved hawker dish in Singapore. There are two types - soupy and "dry". Soupy bak chor mee is a humble dish, reflective of the lean times when it was first brought to Singapore in the 1920s from Chaozhou city. It is just a mound of noodles in a pork soup with minced pork and chopped spring onion flavoured with fried shallot, lard crouton and dried sole fish. There is also a couple of wantons. Soup bak chor mee is loaded with layers of savoury flavours and aromas.

Bak Chor Mee "dry" version with pork soup served separately. "Dry" bak chor mee is more pervasive, found throughout Singapore (while the soupy version is mostly found in the east of the island). Comes with broad or slender noodles in a savoury spicy sourish sauce which is a blend of soy sauce, fish sauce, chili sauce, lard, vinegar, etc. Each stall have their secret sauce blend. The noodles are topped with lean pork slices, pork liver, pork ball, minced pork, wanton, etc. There's often a piece of dried sole fish.

Fishball Noodle is a well loved comfort dish. The most popular stalls still hand make their fishballs, fish cake and fish dumplings. The best fishballs are 100% mashed fish meat. Fish dumplings are like wantons - there's a ball of minced pork with dried sole fish inside and wrapped with a "skin" made of fish paste. Fans love the tender chewy texture of fishballs / fish dumplings and their savoury sweet taste. The fishballs, etc., are eaten with noodles. The dry version is tossed with a blend of soy sauce, fish sauce, lard, chili sauce, vinegar, etc. Unfortunately, handmade fishballs are getting harder to find, replaced by factory made replicas.

Char Kway Teow or fried rice noodle is an artisanal dish in that it is highly reliant on the skill of the hawker in turning out a good rendition of the dish. It is simply rice noodle, sometimes with yellow noodle or rice vermicelli stir fried with oil (traditionally lard), soy sauce, fish sauce, chili sauce (optional), diced garlic, egg, blood cockles, chives, bean sprouts, etc. The skilful hawker infuses the released flavours of sauce and garlic into the noodles which explode in the mouth when we bite into it. Char kway teow enthusiasts look for the coveted toasty, smokey flavour of caramelised sauces and starch which is known as "wok hei".

Bak Kut Teh (Teochew style) is a Singapore food icon though we do not know how it came about. Teochew bak kut teh is simply pork ribs boiled in water with peppercorn and garlic cloves. The soup tastes savoury sweet spicy which brings out the natural sweetness of pork. Bak kut teh might have been created by labourers collecting spilled spices at the port and used these to make pork bone soup. Or, it could be invented by pepper plantation workers - there were some 800 pepper plantations in Singapore by the 1850s. Whether created in port or plantation, one thing for sure, there is no such dish in China. Teochew bak kut teh is a fairly common hawker dish in Singapore. (There is a rarer Hokkien bak kut teh where the soup uses dark soy sauce and herbs. I am fond of Hokkien bak kut teh and am sad that it will soon disappear from Singapore hawker centres.)

Cantonese make up 15% of the Chinese population in Singapore. Most came from Guangzhou city, its districts and surrounding counties. Cantonese also include Taishanese, Samsui women, Hong Kongers, etc.

Smith Street 1919

The Cantonese settled around Kreta Ayer (today's Chinatown) at Temple Street, Pagoda Street, Smith Street, Sago Lane and Mosque Street.

Most early Cantonese immigrants were artisans, carpenters, woodcarvers, tailors, jewellers, and goldsmiths. My own paternal grandfather came from Taishan county in the 1920s as a typesetter. A handful were traditional medicine traders.

In the 1930s, women from Shunde district came to work as majie (domestic help) in wealthy households. They vowed never to marry, intending to return to their hometown after their stint in Singapore. Majie combed their hair in a bun as a sign of their vow. My adoptive maternal grandmother came from Shunde as a majie in the 1930s. 

Samsui women, known by their red headdress, came from Sanshui county of Guangdong. The hardy women who made a similar vow as the majie, worked in construction sites as brick, earth and stone haulers. Many buildings built in Singapore up to the 1970s were their legacies.

Dim Sum (and yumcha or drink tea) culture are Cantonese icons. Dim sum are bite size savouries or sweets which are steamed, baked or deep fried. Common examples are char siew buns, pork buns, fried carrot cake, stewed chicken claw, prawn dumpling, pork dumpling (siew mai), lo mai kai (steamed glutinous rice with chicken), etc. Restaurants have a wider range while hawker centre stalls usually just carry a small selection like this siew mai and lo mai gai at Bendemeer food centre.

Cantonese Roasts consists of the trinity of roast pork (siew yok), BBQ pork (char siew) and roast duck. The meats are marinated with Chinese 5-spice powder, malt sugar, etc and then roasted in a charcoal fired "Apollo" oven. Good Cantonese roasts have a slight crisp outside, caramelisation on the surface while the inside is tender and moist / juicy. Though hawker centre stalls are tiny, most Cantonese roast stalls managed to shoehorn an "Apollo" oven inside. Kudos to Cantonese roasts hawkers for their effort in safeguarding authenticity of their craft and providing customers with freshly grilled roasts.

Wanton Noodle is the most common Cantonese dish in Singapore - every hawker will have at least one, if not two wanton mee stalls. It is a seemingly simple dish - a mound of slender egg noodles in a shallow pool of savoury (sometimes spicy) aromatic sauce, dressed with char siew slices and stalks of blanched choy sum or kai lan greens. The noodles are served with a separate bowl of pork soup with wantons (minced pork dumplings) inside. In Guangdong, noodles and wanton (sans char siew) are served inside a bowl of soup, but in Singapore hawker centres, the noodles are mostly served "dry" with a small bowl of soup and wanton at the side.

Chee Cheong Fun which literally means "pig intestine noodle" is actually rice roll. In its simplest form (most common in Singapore), it is just rolled sheets of steamed rice flour. Chee Cheong Fun is usually eaten for breakfast, simply dressed with savoury sweet fermented soy bean sauce, chili sauce and a sprinkle of toasted sesame seed. There are elevated versions with fillings - pig liver, BBQ pork, minced pork, shrimp, etc., rolled between the steamed rice sheets. Most Singapore hawker centres would have a chee cheong fun stall.

South Bridge Road 1890

Hakka people make up the fourth largest group of Chinese in Singapore with 8% of the Chinese population.

Hakka originally from Shanxi and Henan province started migrating south during the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368), settling in the hills of south China during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). Today, Hakka settlements are found in Guangdong, Fujian, Hainan, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhejiang, and Guizhou. The Hakka who migrated to Singapore were from Fujian and Guangdong.

The early Hakka enclave was around South Bridge Road, and North Bridge Road. Many Hakka were vegetable farmers and also ran pepper and gambier plantations.

Yong Tau Foo literally means stuffed bean curd. Traditionally, it is different forms of bean curd (fresh and fried), and vegetables stuffed with minced pork. However, fish paste and surimi fillings are more common in Singapore nowadays. The stuffed bean curd / vegetables are blanched and served in a soup or "dry" with savoury sweet fermented soy bean sauce and chili sauce. It is also served in laksa (coconut milk and spices). For carbs, yong tau foo is eaten with noodles or rice vermicelli.

Lei Cha is boiled rice in a bowl topped with fried chopped vegetables, fried tofu, nuts, fried scrambled egg, etc., flooded with a green colour gruel of ground vegetable and herbs such as mint, etc. It is an acquired taste but when you are hooked, it is among the tastiest, healthiest dish you can find in a hawker centre. Lei Cha stalls are not common in Singapore hawker centres partly because Hakka are a minority and Singaporeans are not quite into its green taste. Personally, I love it. 

Abacus Seeds are little buttons with dimples made with mashed yam and rice flour. These are stir fried with soy sauce and minced pork to make a filling, savoury sweet dish. I like the tender yet chewy bite of the abacus seeds, so-named because they resemble the beads in the ancient Chinese calculator.

Middle Road 1935

Hainanese make up 7% of the Chinese population in Singapore but their influence on Singapore hawker food culture is larger than their numbers suggest.

The Hainanese, mostly from Wenchang and Haikou in Hainan island arrived in Singapore in numbers after the 1860s (following the opening of Haikou's port to foreign trade after the Treaty of Tianjin in 1858). By that time, other Chinese communities already occupied the Chinese enclave west of the Singapore River. The Hainanese therefore had to settle for the "no man's land" between European Town and Arab Kampong. They settled around Seah Street, Purvis Street and Middle Road away from the other Chinese communities.

In professions too, the Hainanese couldn't enter into trades already taken by other Chinese communities. As a result, many Hainanese men became domestic help, cook boys, waiters, bar tenders etc in the homes of colonial officers and wealthy families. They also work as cooks onboard ships. Some enterprising Hainanese later owned restaurants and kopitiam (coffee shops).

Hainanese Chicken Rice is one of the most famous Singapore hawker dishes and unofficial national dish. Chicken rice is a dish cooked in Hainanese homes. After the Second World War, due to financial hardship, Hainanese started to hawk chicken rice in the Hainanese enclave of Middle Road, Seah Street and Purvis Street. The mobile hawkers later moved into coffee shops and restaurants. Hainanese chicken rice is loved for its tender juicy chicken meat, aromatic rice cooked in chicken fat, and eaten with chili sauce. Now, chicken rice hawkers come from all Chinese communities, adding their tweaks to the dish but it is still called Hainanese chicken rice. Today, Hainanese chicken rice in Singapore is a far cry of the original dish in Wenchang, Hainan.

Nyonya Laksa is thick rice vermicelli submerged in a flavourful and aromatic pool of coconut milk and spices. It is commonly found in hawker centres. The dish wouldn't be sold in hawker centres if not for the Hainanese. Peranakan would not think of hawking their precious heirloom recipes in the streets. Hainanese who learned the Nyonya laksa recipe while working in Peranakan homes started hawking the dish in the streets of Katong and Joo Chiat after the Second World War. The founders of Janggut Laksa and Sungai Road Laksa, both learned the craft from Hainanese.

Hainanese Curry Rice is the amalgamation of recipes Hainanese cooks learned from working in the kitchens of Peranakan and colonial officers' homes plus traditional Hainanese dishes. Hainanese curry rice stalls offer a smorgasbord of dishes. There's Peranakan influenced curry chicken, squid, vegetables, etc. There's Hainan-ised Western dishes like chicken chop and pork chop. Then, there's traditional Hainanese stewed pork, etc. The way to enjoy this is to order as many different dishes as possible and flood your plate of rice with different curries and braising sauce. If there is a metaphor for Singapore hawker food, I would choose Hainanese curry rice.

Third Wave - Xinyimin 新移民

Chinese migrants from China during the late 20th and early 21st century are known as "Xinyimin 新移民" (new immigrants). Many of the Third Wave did not come from Guangdong and Fujian, unlike the First and Second Wave before them. They came instead from Henan, Hebei, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Beijing, Shanghai etc.

The Third Wave of Chinese migration began from the 1980s, feeding Singapore's demand for blue-collar workers. In 1989, following the Tiananmen Square protests, Singapore offered 25,000 permanent residency to Hong Kongers. The Third Wave also includes Chinese students who come to Singapore under sponsorship to study in polytechnics and universities.

In 1990, 177,245 Chinese nationals live in Singapore (150,447 from the Chinese mainland, 15,043 Hong Kongers and 11,755 from Macau). The number of Chinese nationals living in Singapore increased to 311,501 in 2000, and 532,734 in 2015.

In 2018, 3.4 million Chinese nationals visited Singapore. While it is not hawker culture, many Chinese restaurants opened in Singapore's Chinatown to tap the Chinese tourist market.

Mala Xiang Guo is the most pervasive of Third Wave Chinese cuisine in Singapore hawker centres - many food centres and food courts have a Mala Xiang Guo stall. The dish is a selection of ingredients picked by the customer from a display chiller. It includes meat, fish, vegetables, mushroom, tofu, etc. A chef will cook the ingredients in a spicy sauce with the signature Sichuan Mala numbing spicy effect. The first Mala Xiang Guo stall opened in Singapore in 2008.

Xiao Long Bao are dainty little juice filled, pork dumplings from Shanghai. Now, xiao long bao stalls are common in Singapore hawker centres and coffee shops. The wrap is made in situ at the stall, filled with marinated minced pork, and steamed on order. Fans love the scathing hot, savoury sweet stock and pork ball inside the little dumplings which are eaten with slivers of ginger and vinegar. 

Knife Shaved Noodle is originally from Shanxi province and it has spread throughout China. Now, it is in Singapore hawker centres as well though not yet widely available. The noodles are made by shaving a large "loaf" of kneaded dough, letting the slivers of noodles fall directly into a pot of boiling water. The blanched noodles are then served either in a soup or "dry" with sauce. Sichuan style mala numbing spicy sauce is a popular choice. Common toppings are stewed beef or beef offal. I love the chewy tender texture of knife shaved noodles.

        

China is a vast country that would take a lifetime to experience. But, at least in Singapore, thanks to our immigration history we can get a taste of the diversity of Chinese cuisine all in one little tropical island.

History of Indonesian migration and food in Singapore 👈 click

       

                     

             

             

               

               

             

           

           

           

                         

           

             

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Written by Tony Boey on 21 Aug 2021

References:

Map of cuisines of China courtesy of Wikipedia. Map of China courtesy of flickr. Image of Chinese junk courtesy of Wikipedia. Image of Sang Nila Utama courtesy of Wikipedia. Image of Boat Quay courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. Image of Peranakan wedding courtesy of flickr. Image of Singapore River 1900 courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. Map of Chinese migration courtesy of Wikipedia. Image of Telok Ayer Street courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. Image of Boat Quay courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. Image of Middle Road courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. Image of popiah courtesy of Wikipedia. Image of citizenship ceremony courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.