"The Workers from Samsui" (by Chi Yin)

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Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:40:56 +0000

Changing strokes: Samsui woman Yip Say Mui, 90, has to alter her clothes now and again because she's shrinking. She used to stand at 1.58m tall but is now permanently hunched -- from carrying heavy loads all her life. Although her eyesight is still quite good, with her weakening hands, she finds it difficult to thread her needles for sewing, sometimes trying for over an hour to get a single strand through. Madam Yip died of throat cancer some months after these pictures were taken.

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:40:56 +0000

Changing strokes: Samsui woman Yip Say Mui, 90, has to alter her clothes now and again because she's shrinking. She used to stand at 1.58m tall but is now permanently hunched -- from carrying heavy loads all her life. Although her eyesight is still quite good, with her weakening hands, she finds it difficult to thread her needles for sewing, sometimes trying for over an hour to get a single strand through. Madam Yip died of throat cancer some months after these pictures were taken.
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From construction to cardboard: Samsui woman Yip Say Mui, 90, took to collecting cardboard around a market near her Redhill flat after retiring as a construction worker. She can make about $5 a day from two trips to the market -- once in the morning and another time in the evening. While she once stood at 1.58m tall, she is now permanently bent over - from carrying heavy loads all her life. Madam Yip died of throat cancer some months after these pictures were taken.

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:40:56 +0000

From construction to cardboard: Samsui woman Yip Say Mui, 90, took to collecting cardboard around a market near her Redhill flat after retiring as a construction worker. She can make about $5 a day from two trips to the market -- once in the morning and another time in the evening. While she once stood at 1.58m tall, she is now permanently bent over - from carrying heavy loads all her life. Madam Yip died of throat cancer some months after these pictures were taken.
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Lunchtime: Samsui woman Loh Ah Kwai, 91, eats the simple meal she's prepared for herself -- a fistful of rice (washed thrice) with a few salted dates. She eats only boiled or steamed food and, like other old people in her Redhill block, gets a bag of rice, biscuits and noodles from a voluntary welfare organisation every Saturday afternoon. Madam Loh had kept to her lifelong routine of waking up at 5.30 every morning; she sleeps on a porcelain pillow, a replica of the one she had brought with her from Samsui, China. (Her original piece is displayed at the Chinatown Heritage Centre.) She lives off her savings and charity handouts these days but refuses to take welfare money from the state.

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:40:56 +0000

Lunchtime: Samsui woman Loh Ah Kwai, 91, eats the simple meal she's prepared for herself -- a fistful of rice (washed thrice) with a few salted dates. She eats only boiled or steamed food and, like other old people in her Redhill block, gets a bag of rice, biscuits and noodles from a voluntary welfare organisation every Saturday afternoon. Madam Loh had kept to her lifelong routine of waking up at 5.30 every morning; she sleeps on a porcelain pillow, a replica of the one she had brought with her from Samsui, China. (Her original piece is displayed at the Chinatown Heritage Centre.) She lives off her savings and charity handouts these days but refuses to take welfare money from the state.
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Child-friendly? Samsui woman Yip Say Mui, 90, looks on as her friend and carer Madam Cheong Choy Ying, plays with a neighbour's baby. Most Samsui women, some of whom married in their teens in China, came to Singapore alone in the 1930s. Most of the fiercely-independent women didn't have children. They worked on construction sites and remitted what little money they earned to support their families in China.

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:40:56 +0000

Child-friendly? Samsui woman Yip Say Mui, 90, looks on as her friend and carer Madam Cheong Choy Ying, plays with a neighbour's baby. Most Samsui women, some of whom married in their teens in China, came to Singapore alone in the 1930s. Most of the fiercely-independent women didn't have children. They worked on construction sites and remitted what little money they earned to support their families in China.
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Reflection on times past: Madam Choy Yee Lui, 74, worked for most of her life on rubber plantations and rubber processing factories here and in Malaysia. She did short stints as a Samsui woman at construction sites. Still going strong, Madam Choy has continued with her lifelong habit of smoking 20 cigarettes she rolls herself each day. She lives in the same block of rental flats as Madam Loh and Madam Yip, fellow Samsui women.

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:40:56 +0000

Reflection on times past: Madam Choy Yee Lui, 74, worked for most of her life on rubber plantations and rubber processing factories here and in Malaysia. She did short stints as a Samsui woman at construction sites. Still going strong, Madam Choy has continued with her lifelong habit of smoking 20 cigarettes she rolls herself each day. She lives in the same block of rental flats as Madam Loh and Madam Yip, fellow Samsui women.
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Modern comfort: Samsui women Loh Ah Kwai (centre) and Yip Say Mui (right) used to wake up at 5.30 every morning and take a bus from the Chinatown shophouse to construction sites all over the island. (One Friday in August 2003) Here, they take a taxi with their carer Cheong Choy Ying (left) from their Redhill blocks to arts centres, The Esplanade to guest star in an installation art opening. As two of the oldest Samsui women left, they often get invited to dinners, charity events and outings – and have to don their full regalia for the appearances.

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:40:56 +0000

Modern comfort: Samsui women Loh Ah Kwai (centre) and Yip Say Mui (right) used to wake up at 5.30 every morning and take a bus from the Chinatown shophouse to construction sites all over the island. (One Friday in August 2003) Here, they take a taxi with their carer Cheong Choy Ying (left) from their Redhill blocks to arts centres, The Esplanade to guest star in an installation art opening. As two of the oldest Samsui women left, they often get invited to dinners, charity events and outings – and have to don their full regalia for the appearances.
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Centre of attention: Samsui women Loh Ah Kwai (second from right) and Yip Say Mui are used to the stares they get when out in their traditional headgear and black clothes. Young Singaporeans like these kids going down the escalator at Singapore’s arts centre The Esplanade probably don’t know who they are or what they did. Madam Loh muttered in Cantonese: ""I find it funny that they find us funny. But they probably have not seen us before.''

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:40:56 +0000

Centre of attention: Samsui women Loh Ah Kwai (second from right) and Yip Say Mui are used to the stares they get when out in their traditional headgear and black clothes. Young Singaporeans like these kids going down the escalator at Singapore’s arts centre The Esplanade probably don’t know who they are or what they did. Madam Loh muttered in Cantonese: ""I find it funny that they find us funny. But they probably have not seen us before.''
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Thank you: A cleaner at The Esplanade put her cleaning trolley aside for a moment to shake Madam Loh’s and Madam Yip’s hands, saying “thank you” for the work they had done as pioneer migrant workers. They didn’t speak each other’s language but the human touch conveyed all feelings.

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:40:56 +0000

Thank you: A cleaner at The Esplanade put her cleaning trolley aside for a moment to shake Madam Loh’s and Madam Yip’s hands, saying “thank you” for the work they had done as pioneer migrant workers. They didn’t speak each other’s language but the human touch conveyed all feelings.
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And the top comes off: The minute they stepped out of the Esplanade's doors, the show’s over. Madam Loh and Madam Yip took off their headgear and took out the pins in the red fabric which they promptly kept in their bags. ""It's hot and people stare,'' explained Madam Loh. Madam Yip immediately folded her headgear on the floor, just before getting in queue for a taxi back to her Redhill flat.

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:40:56 +0000

And the top comes off: The minute they stepped out of the Esplanade's doors, the show’s over. Madam Loh and Madam Yip took off their headgear and took out the pins in the red fabric which they promptly kept in their bags. ""It's hot and people stare,'' explained Madam Loh. Madam Yip immediately folded her headgear on the floor, just before getting in queue for a taxi back to her Redhill flat.
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Back at the foot of her rental flat, it was another Saturday and another ritual wait for food rations for Madam Yip -- not in the mood to be photographed that day. She lost her struggle with throat cancer some months later. Her relatives, who were said to have visited her at her flat on special occasions, gave her a quite-grand Chinese funeral at the foot of her block, Block 89 Redhill Close, complete with a white Mercedes Benz effigy to follow her to the next life – a far cry from the trusty real-life trolley she had left behind.

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:40:56 +0000

Back at the foot of her rental flat, it was another Saturday and another ritual wait for food rations for Madam Yip -- not in the mood to be photographed that day. She lost her struggle with throat cancer some months later. Her relatives, who were said to have visited her at her flat on special occasions, gave her a quite-grand Chinese funeral at the foot of her block, Block 89 Redhill Close, complete with a white Mercedes Benz effigy to follow her to the next life – a far cry from the trusty real-life trolley she had left behind.
view full-size image