A comparative study of singapores chinatown and bangkoks chinatown

Chapter 1: Why A Comparative Study of Chinatowns?

1.1 Chinatown: The Ethnic Enclave

An ethnic enclave, it is observed, is created when people of
a particular racial or cultural group create a ―protective‖ (Portes and
Manning, 1996) neighborhood which functions separately from the
majority population of a city as they try to be self-sufficient and
basically survive in a new environment (Hummon, 1996).

In many ways, enclaves like Chinatown were a support
mechanism for incoming immigrants (Kwong, 1996; Logan, Alba
and Zhang, 2002), allowing incoming immigrants to adapt more
comfortably to the new way of life in new places while providing
them with much-needed requirements for settlement, like housing,
jobs, contacts and access to networks (Zhou, 1992; Portes and
Jensen, 1992). ―Dominant in the urban sociology literature on
immigrant incorporation is the role of ethnic enclaves—ethnic
neighborhoods that provide a ―port of entry‖ or ―context of
reception‖ and help facilitate incorporation in the host society by
generating informal resources, networks, and institutions that
provide linguistic and cultural services and products (Portes and
Rumbaut, 1990). The seminal work of Alejandro Portes and his
colleagues developed the concept of a ―context of reception‖ to
describe the key factors that mediate the incorporation of new

1


immigrants (Portes and Bach, 1985; Portes and Rumbaut, 1990;
Portes and Zhou, 1992) such as the provision of emotional, social

and cultural support, as well as other resources such as
information, housing, initial entry into the labor market, and social
capital, and shelter from abuse all of which help them adapt to the
new environment (Aldrich et al; 1984; Zhou and Logan 1991;
Bailey and Waldinger 1991; Logan, Richard and Wenquan, 2002)
attest to the importance of this arrangement to the new immigrant;
for immigration then is more or less a social process facilitated by
ethnic-based networks and these largely informal networks also
promote a particular set of conditions for socio-economic
integration in the host country through the formation of immigrant
enclaves and occupational niches. The enclave is thus where new
migrants congregate, live, work and trade and these activities
sustain the place and give it life and vibrancy as communal ties are
forged and a certain level of interdependency holds everyone in
tension with each other in the same mutual help community.

For our purposes here, it is important to note that besides
being highly contingent social developments that were engendered
out of perceived gaps in service provision and were constituted as
a response to the prevailing social environment these new
migrants find themselves embedded, these ethnically constituted
social developments also bear very significant spatial expression
as activities are enacted in a specific place or ‗quarters‘ or

2


‗neighborhoods‘, and give rise to very distinct spatial outcomes.
These are places whereby ethnic identity was heavily and
meaningfully inscribed, developing a distinct sense of place and

they exist in heavily interdependent relationships with their
incumbents and the social institutions that these then nascent
immigrants engendered to cater to their perceived needs and that
of their fellow countrymen, institutions that are embodiments of that
ethnic identity.

Given this high dependency in taking cues from the physical
and social environment in its development, how the initially strongly
welded relationship between place and ethnic identity has evolved
over time will by implication be a good commentary of the
contemporary social relations between those that currently inhabit
these traditional enclaves. This means that it will be instructive to
begin looking at the contemporary manifestations and read the
changes that have been wreaked on these traditional enclaves
against its genesis to look at how ethnic identity has transformed,
and how it manifests itself in place (See Genealogy of both
Yaowarat and Chinatown SG‘s development at Appendix A).
Looking at how ethnic identity is embodied in space or emplaced
(Gieryn, 2000) today in these traditional enclaves, engendering
various spatial outcomes constitutes a large part of our endeavour
in this thesis.

3


1.2 The Ethnic Enclave Today: Chinatown SG Niu Che Shui

Singapore‘s Chinatown (Chinatown SG) was conceived in the
Jackson Plan of 1822 when Sir Stamford Raffles delineated
parcels of land for different groups of migrants to inhabit with the

main purpose of facilitating proper governance in the colony the
British established in 1819. This form of urban planning based on
ethnicity inaugurated the emergence of the phenomenon of ethnic
enclaves1 in Singapore, creating the institutionally developed
presence of ―distinct social and spatial areas‖ or urban villages‖
(Bell and Jayne, 2004:1). Chinatown grew quickly as immigrants
arrived mainly from the southern Chinese provinces with a variety
of dialect groups such as the Hokkiens, Teochews, Cantonese,
Hainanese, Hakkas and Foochows which each formed their own
communities.

Raffles' influence also led to the allocation of

different areas for each clan group. The Hokkiens settled around
Telok Ayer and the waterfront, the Teochews along Singapore
River (Clarke Quay) and around Fort Canning, while the
Cantonese and Hakka lived further out at Kreta Ayer2.

1

An „enclave‟ is a distinctly bounded area enclosed within a larger unit. An „ethnic
enclave‟ is such an area that is mostly populated by recent immigrants who have
voluntarily or involuntarily1 chosen to cluster together. There is usually a geographical
concentration of residents, businesses and community institutions (Zhou and Logan,
1989) of a single ethnic group
2
It should be noted that despite these dialect group differences, there was also a palpable
sense of a unified „Chinese‟ identity as evidenced by examples of supra-Chinese
institutions such as the Chinese Chamber of Commerce started in 1908 where “nearly
all well-known Chinese of Singapore have been members” . The Chamber acts as an

arbitrator and intermediary between Chinese and non-Chinese migrants. In fact when the
Hokkien-Teochew riot broke out in 1906, Capt A.H. Young, then the Colonial Secretary,
went to the CCC to ask the committee for assistance (Song, 1967:389). This shows that
there are supra-dialect institutions that governed the Chinese.

4


Interestingly, the dialect segregation also had an unintended
effect on commerce in Chinatown – business owners, either for the
convenience of communication or the comfort of the familiar, would
often hire workers of their own dialect. This eventually led to trades
being dominated by particular dialect groups. Despite these
differences between the various dialect groupings which saw them
develop clan associations that differentiate them from the other
Chinese dialect groups, these groups coexist cheek by jowl in the
area

demarcated,

enjoying

high

product

and

service

complementariity that affords Chinatown a cohesive if initially
superficial imagined, essentialized uniform ‗Chinese‘ Identity3.

While it is not a totally spontaneous congregation of an
ethnic group in a particular place4, in many ways Singapore‘s
Chinatown resembles the other Chinatowns in terms of its early
beginnings and functions. Like Chinatowns all over the world
Chinatown SG was engendered as an ethnic enclave whereby an
ethnic identity bears strong spatial expression and is strongly
grounded into physical space. In Niu Che Shui can also be found
3

The state‟s nation-building efforts in the 1960s saw education provision taken out of
the hands of clans and private institutions (Wilson, 1978). This period of time also
coincided with the sate‟s desire to clean up the appalling living conditions caused by a
concentration of Chinese immigrants. Plans were then made to move people out and
improve the overall standard of living. It is important to note as well that by this time,
the Chinese as an imagined cohesive ethnic group has become the majority population in
Singapore.
4
It must be noted that Chinatown is an essentialized entity for Chinese immigrants to
Singapore co-habited with other immigrants, a point which is vividly illustrated in Telok
Ayer Street where the Thian Hock Keng temple, the Nagore Durga Shrine and the Al
Albrar Mosque are located right next to each other on the same street, denoting a multiethnic presence .

5


formations that plugged perceived gaps in service provision, social
support and these are similarly engendered in and through the

relations the ethnic Chinese have with mainstream society and
those in power, and serve to alleviate the hardships of the early
migrants and the often dire economic and social living conditions
they had to endure. This narrative of resilience, perseverance and
navigating a new environment through mutual help communities
bears uncanny similarities to that of the Chinese elsewhere.

The

similarities however,

end

there

as

Singapore‘s

Chinatown underwent a dramatic change in trajectory following a
series of efforts carried out under the auspices of the state‘s vision
of urban redevelopment in the 1960s that saw the clearing out of
Chinatown businesses and residents and later in the 1980s a
change of tack in ideologies couched in terms of conservation and
heritage. These inconsistencies in policies have been frequently
been said to account for the ―inauthenticity‖5, ―placelessness‖ of
Chinatown SG today for it destroyed the quotidian rhythms of place
that made it what it was, and these were often deemed culpable in
transforming it into a space that is unrecognizable and ―that speak
little of local identities and lifestyles‖.

5

This thesis adopts a constructivist approach to „authenticity‟, conceptualizing it as a
continued lived in experience that can be either still enacted in place and remains
meaningful because the community of users as a community of practice are able to agree
collectively and validate the cultural experiences.

6


These themes constitute a leitmotif of lamentations that are
echoed in the literature surveyed, the first being the notion of how
Chinatown was and still is a product of the state‘s changing
policies and ideologies; and second, that these changing
ideologies have spatial consequences and problems have arisen
out of having changes superimposed upon it, usually top-down, by
external agencies; third, that because the people who make up this
community have not been sufficiently consulted about their views
and were largely passive, powerless and lacking a voice in the
proceedings as they watched top-down, state-driven projects
irrevocably change their lives, mutated their social lives and
marched on relentlessly as the state negotiated what is popularly
termed the ―conservation-redevelopment dilemma‖ (Kong & Yeoh,
1994; Yeoh & Huang, 1996) on their own with economic goals
seemingly at the forefront of any decision-making and as
something that is privileged over and above other factors as an
overriding concern; with the result that fourth, the occurrence of the
production of a ―manufactured sense of place‖ (Henderson, 2000)
that has little resonance and fail to strike a chord with the people in

general owing to its ―artificial prefabrication‖ of old buildings, with
its newly embellished façade marked by a kitsch bright coat of
paint and the eradication of traditional activities and tenants who
used to reside there, destroying the very elements that made it a
‗place‘ (Yeoh and Kong, 1994) and by implication made it
meaningful.

7


The notion that the state‘s ideologies has driven and still
drives its conservation efforts; that state-driven, top down,
economic-centered efforts at conservation was often carried out
without consultation of the public was problematic and deemed a
large contributing factor to its current ―inauthentic‖ form; that the
state‘s efforts engenders questions of whom the conservation is
really for; being ―themed and tamed‖ (Chang, 1997), rid of its
―social contamination‖ and other polluting influences (Yeoh and
Kong, 1994) and become a kind of modernist caricature that has
little resonance and as a consequence the creation of a dissonant,
discordant and meaningless landscape (Chang, 1997: 47) and
becoming a place in which locals have unwittingly become
relegated to the position of an ―outsider‖; the destruction and
creation of memories of place reflect that there is a general
consensus that Chinatown has become a victim of sorts, victimized
by the state‘s somewhat overzealous efforts at conservation and
suffered as a result of the changing policies the state has
employed over the past 40 years, which has robbed it of its
potential, and installed in its place a freeze-framed theme park with
little resonance for the locals and constitutes part of our dissonant

heritage.

However, these explanations while valid arguably neglect
the fact that Chinatowns are socially contingent ethnic formations

8


and its forms and functions today actually tell us more about the
prevailing

social

environment

and

the

relevance

and

meaningfulness of an ethnic identity today for the inhabitants of
that space. Further, they have always been constituted as a
response to the relationships the Chinese have with those in power
in mainstream society. These mean that the state can only be one
part of the problem and the ‗Chinatown problem‘ is also in part the
outcome of wider social changes that have occurred and shaped
the meaningfulness and relevance of an ethnic identity which is a

crucial component in ethnic place-making. Place elements such as
restaurants, shops, markets exist because they are meaningful to
the people who continue to consume these goods and services
that still has resonance as part of their reproduction of their
identities; and conversely to the business people who continue to
inhabit it as a commercial space, who thrive because of that
interdependence they share with place and with their customers.
These elements embody identities that are produced and enacted
in space, and powerfully draw together the place-ethnic identity
dyad that is over time sustained by heritage undergirded by shared
social memories that belie the expression of ethnic identity that
continue to have currency today.

Framed this way, this thesis argues that it is more fruitful to
examine the evolution of elements and ethnic identity in Chinatown
SG in contributing to its current configuration, relooking at the

9


state‘s role in this equation by incorporating considerations of a
wider change in society and how that has impacted the relevance
and currency of an ethnic identity and impacted the place-identity
dyad that is so crucial for enclaves like Chinatown. This approach
is premised on the genesis of Chinatown as a place that is
ethnically significant, whereby activities enacted en site are
ethnically symbolic, significant and emblematic of a reproduction of
identities in place; where place and ethnic identity were mutually
reinforcing and are produced and reproduced symbiotically in an
interdependent quotidian fashion and kept alive through praxis.

Our goal here is to look at how identities are represented in
Chinatown SG today and Chinatown SG today is read as a spatial
outcome of that expression of an ethnic identity today.

1.3 Why Compare and Why Yaowarat? A Note On The PlaceIdentity Dyad and Authenticity

The story of Chinatown SG so far is one of destruction of
the elements that make place. Because these elements have been
removed, it is difficult to discuss how these elements have made
place. To rectify this perceived issue, this thesis adopts a
comparative framework with Bangkok‘s Yaowarat in a bid to
identify and examine the elements that arguably are embodiments
of ethnic identity and study the impacts they have on place.

10


Yaowarat thus constitutes a foil with which to inform our
understanding of Chinatown SG.

The relationship between place and ethnic identity (placeidentity dyad) have been a focal point of scholars of contemporary
urban configurations. The earliest studies of Chinatown by Portes
and others showed us indubitably that place and identity were
strongly welded and constituted lived in experiences, that were
‗authentic‘ owing to its composition of ‗live‘ communities of cultural
practitioners. Contemporary studies of these enclave formations
over time however face the two-fold challenge of firstly distilling the
elements that are central to making place (a task made more
difficult as simultaneously social and physical change affecting the
ways identity is expressed and anchored spatially as ethnic groups

relate to the place differently today6 are ongoing); and secondly, in
these ―ethnic enclave reconfigurations‖ (Luk and Phan, 2005),
defining ‗authenticity‘ becomes difficult and contestations over what
the term means today are rife since MacCanell (1973,1976)
introduced the concept to sociological studies of tourist motivations
and experiences two decades ago.

With these in mind, this thesis conceptualizes place-making
elements as food (Drucker, 2006), entrepreneurial activity as
embodied in ethnic businesses (Valdez, 2002; Waldinger et. Al.,
6

For example as people move out of Chinatown to create “ethnoburbs” (Li, 2009) or
other satellite ethnic towns and as new immigrants from other ethnicities succeeding the
physical space of their predecessors.

11


2009; Zhou, 2004), and places of community worship (Kong, 1994;
Ho, 2006). These are cultural markers and are effective as markers
because they differentiate and are commonly accepted by the
Chinese community as powerful cultural markers. The subsequent
chapters will flesh these out.

This thesis also follows Bruner (1994) and adopts a
constructivist approach towards authenticity. This is a view that
asserts that authenticity is not a property inherent in an object,
forever fixed in time. Instead it seen as a struggle, a social process
in which competing interests7 argue for their own interpretation of

history (1994:408). Conceptualized this way, this means that
authenticity is dependent on the collective agreement of the users
and their ―relationship

with a place‖ (Sasaki, 2000) and

authenticity or inauthenticity is the result of how one sees things
and of his perspectives and interpretations. In this conception
―culture is always in process‖ and context is always in its purview.
This is arguably the most reasonable approach in a study of
changing social meanings in an enclave. This is because this user
centric definition of ‗authentic‘ firmly locates the ‗authentic‘ in the
‗lived in experience‘ with ‗lived‘ alluding to being sustained by what
we will term ‗a community of practice‘.

7

As mentioned in THESIS “STB is trying to create Chinatown as “living history” but it
doesn‟t have the “local life” that convinces tourists. On the other hand, the authenticity
that STB is creating in Chinatown is questioned by locals who do not always recognize
what has been reconstructed in Chinatown as being “accurate” according to their own
memories and experiences.

12


This is crucial as this allows for ‗lived in experience‘ to be
anchored spatially in Chinatown while being simultaneously
cognizant of the fact that the community of practitioners are not
restricted to those living in the vicinity but bears a larger social

footprint. This is meaningful in a study of ethnic enclaves over time
as while concentrated celebrations of festivals like Chinese New
Year and Mid- Autumn Festival continue be practiced en site in
Chinatown and Yaowarat, and while practices tied to ethnicity
continue to be performed regularly en site, it continues to
contextualize the experience of these cultural markers in lived in
experience through social memory in a way that Chinese living
outside of it can also draw and partake in ethnic consumption and
continue to be a part of the community of practice. Geraldine
Lowe-Ismail‘s book on her Chinatown memories and the
passionate debates captured by Kwok et al (2000) stand testament
to that.

This triadic relationship between place, ethnic identity and
authenticity over time thus constitute the crux of the problematic
this thesis seeks to explore in Singapore‘s Chinatown as studies
and the mass media have often lampooned it as being
―inauthentic‖. A comparative framework is utilized here in a bid to
shed greater light into the problematic. The place-identity dyad and
how it is interlinked affects the authenticity of a place like
Chinatown for its users (both within and without) and it is hoped

13


that a comparative analysis can offer us more insight into broader
social changes that have taken place in the Singapore case and
allow for a more nuanced and sensitive reading of Chinatown‘s
contemporary configuration and perceived inauthenticity.

Yaowarat constitutes an interesting case for it has as we
shall see later evidently remained an ethnic stronghold, an enclave
whereby a Chinese identity continues to have currency and import
through the concentrations of ethnic businesses, food, temples,
community foundations etc. It appears to still embody many
characteristics that mark it out as different from the rest of Bangkok
and clearly stands out as a place on which an ethnic identity is
inscribed, where place identity and social identity remain congruent
as a lived- in memory. As Van Roy noted, ―It is among the most
successful in having adapted to the host culture while protecting
and preserving its own ethnic integrity‖ (Van Roy, 2007:5) This is in
marked contrast to the place identity in Chinatown SG that is no
longer congruent with that experienced in reality that we have
noted earlier to be inscribed, superimposed and seemingly
unsustainable.

Identifying and examining more closely the embodiments of
an ethnic identity in Yaowarat is purposed towards allowing us to
gain more insight into the evolution of the spatial expression of an
ethnic identity over time there and use that as a reference point, a

14


spring board to provide a more broad-based, nuanced, textured
explanation for Chinatown SG‘ s current configuration by
reconstituting the state‘s oft mentioned heavy hand at urban
redevelopment as a cause of Chinatown SG‘s ―inauthenticity‖,
―placelessness‖ becoming a space ―that speak little of local
identities and lifestyles‖ rather than the state as the final arbiter of

the dissonance of the Chinatown landscape today. It will also help
us put a finger as to what elements are missing, how they embody
an ethnic identity, and exactly how these are expressed and impact
place identity.
In other words, it looks at the state‘s interventions and
heavy-handedness in Chinatown SG and asks instead what
necessitates such interventions and why place identity appear to
be ultimately unsustainable and requiring frequent resuscitation
efforts by the state in enlivening it through deliberate ―festivizing‖
and embellishments. From this vantage point, the state‘s
intervention is part of the cause but also appears to be a
consequence of wider social changes that have taken place and
arguably a cross-comparison can shed light on what these social
changes can be, and how these changes have spatial impacts.
Thus, this is a strategy aimed at exploring how place is made in
Yaowarat and seeks to establish the elements of import in securing
identity in place and how conversely the absence of which can
potentially dislocate identity in place over time. Yaowarat
constitutes a memory regime that is alive and constantly reworked

15


and current; and that departs from the hijacking of memories and
identities we have seen enacted on Chinatown SG.

1.4 Methodology

This thesis makes use of semi- structured quantitative
surveys with a mixture of both closed and open-ended questions.

This was the main method of data collection and is utilized in the
hope of supplementing quantitative data with qualitative additions
that can help us formulate a fuller picture of the site surveyed.

With an initial conceptualization and cognizance of the fact
that identity is closely tied to food consumption, livelihoods and
community places, the target respondents were the hawkers on the
food streets in Chinatown SG (Smith Street) and Yaowarat; the
shopkeepers conducting businesses in Pagoda and Trengganu
Street and Yaowarat Road and Charoen Krung Road and
members of the temple and foundation hospitals. As this is a
comparative study, the choice of streets to conduct the survey in
were as closely matched in terms of function and location as
possible in the hope of achieving parity. It should be noted that the
definition of Chinatown SG utilized in this thesis are the boundaries
delineated by the state and encompasses the four main streets of
Pagoda Street, Temple Street, Smith Street, Mosque Street with
Trengganu Street stretching the interstices flanked by the four
streets.

16


Response rate varied widely between the two field sites with
the best data garnered from the food street in Yaowarat where 38
interviews were conducted successfully out of 45 attempted
(84.4%). On Smith Street, the response rate was 3 out of 15
(20%). The shops on Pagoda and Trengganu Street, the main
thoroughfare in Chinatown SG garnered a response rate of 19 out
of 30 (63.3%) attempted, whilst that in Yaowarat and Charoen

Krung streets was 76 out of 90 (84.4%) attempted.

1.5 Conclusion

In sum, the ultimate objective of this thesis is to offer an
alternative,

more

broad

based

explanation

of

Singapore‘s

Chinatown‘s current configuration. To fulfill this aim, Yaowarat is
used as a contrast case through which to understand the
constitution of place and identity over time and explore what
varying strategies of memory say about the larger social context. It
marries urban sociology with social memory and the sociology of
everyday life in a bid to understand how place and identity is
constituted and how reality in enacted in and through memory and
with what kinds of repercussions for notions of identity and
ultimately authenticity of a site like Chinatown that straddles
historically contingent time-space-ethnic relationships that has

17


changed over time. We will start our interrogation of food in
Chinatown SG and in Yaowarat before moving on to examining the
other businesses there in Chapter 3, the temples in Chapter 4,
community foundations in Chapter 5 and finally drawing the
threads together in the concluding chapter.

18


Chapter 2: Making Place: Food, Memory and Identity

2.1 Introduction

In the previous chapter I mapped out and explained the
analytic framework that I will be using in this study of Chinatown;
explained the rationale behind approaching the study of Chinatown
SG through the use a comparative approach; and mapped out
what I hope to achieve in viewing Chinatown from this vantage
point. In this chapter I will embark on an analysis of the concepts
laid out in the previous chapter and start examining ethnic identity
in place over time through the conduit of food, to look at the
‗foodscape‘. Sociologists of food have long established the
relationships between food and one‘s identity (Caplan, 1997;
Narayan,1995; Searles, 2002) and also by implication memory
(Holtzman, 2006). This makes food a useful analytical tool with
which to study the embodiments of identity and memory present in
Yaowarat and Chinatown SG today, allowing us to trace the social

trajectories that place identity, ethnic identity and memory have
undergone.

Further, framed against an ethnic neighbourhood

setting these relationships have a further element of being a part of
place identity as well. The purpose of this chapter then is to look at
what Susan Drucker (2002: 173) has termed ―enclave food‖ in
relation to its meanings and representations today; with a view
towards utilizing it as a foil from which to study identity formulations

19


in these historical enclaves today and as a tool that enables us to
gauge

its

current

contributions

to

place

identity

through

understanding its complex influence on ethnic identity.

The attempt at understanding the relations between food
and ethnic identity and how it is enacted in place will be explored
through ethnographic descriptions and discussions of the physical
manifestations of food institutions present in Yaowarat and
Chinatown SG today; as well as a through a selective crosssectional study8 of the social profile of the proprietors manning
these. Simultaneously, to enable a more holistic, contextual
understanding of contemporary configurations of food and identity
in these traditional enclaves over time, these primary findings will
be framed and understood against the backdrop of historical social
trajectories the relationship between food and ethnic identity has
taken over time in these two places as embodied in these food
spaces and purveyors of food. Tracing these permutations will
allow us to glean insight into the social ecology of these hawkers
over time and allow us a contextualized understanding of the
different constructions of ethnic identity over time in place in both
Yaowarat and Chinatown SG respectively.

After mapping out the social ecologies of food hawkers in
the two sites over time the chapter will take another comparative
8

Because this is a comparative study, there is a need to juxtapose comparable
manifestations against each other. Due to this consideration, the food street is
profiled alongside its counterpart food street in Yaowarat.

20

turn and the two sites will be juxtaposed. The differences in the
social ecologies of food hawkers in Yaowarat and Chinatown SG
will then be discussed in a bid to look at what food represents in
each enclave today and its impacts on place identity. This then
forms the basis from which we conduct a discussion with regards
to the contexts that give rise to memory conditions that contribute
to the formation of a strong, accessible ethnic identity and hence
place identity versus one that results in a weak, inaccessible,
dislocated place identity. This chapter will then conclude with an
extrapolation on what these differing constellations of food as a
consumptive aspect of identity formation can inform us with
regards to understanding the placelessness that has become
synonymous

with

Chinatown

SG,

and

allow

us

to

examine/extrapolate on what is being consumed through food

beyond identity in weak memory regimes.

2.2. Chinatown SG

Chinatown SG offers an array of cuisines for the visitor to
pick from. Available are Korean restaurants, vegetarian cuisine,
Chinese food hailing from different parts of China, Thai food, local
fare served in a kopitiam and other local snacks such as desserts
and Chinese yam cake, mooncakes and other assorted Chinese
biscuits interspersed between the various cuisines that also
includes a German/Austrian sausage store with a gregarious

21


German proprietor who has been featured in local media forming
part of the Chinatown SG food scene.

The word ‗eclectic‘ comes to mind when trying to collectively
describe the kinds of food available in Chinatown SG. There are no
obvious concentrations of a particular cuisine or type of food, and
one will be hard pressed to categorize a trademark cuisine
synonymous with the place. The disparate nature/character of food
in Chinatown SG is noteworthy and is a point we will revisit later in
the chapter.

Given this wide-ranging variety and apparent lack of definition in
the kinds of food served in Chinatown SG, the only clustering of
food stalls that is evident on Smith Street stands out as distinctly
different.

Clustering

expresses

a

certain

homogeneity

or

complementarity in function or is an expression of a set of
relationships. It is hence from here that we will begin our
discussion on food, ethnicity, memory and place identity, with the
conscious knowledge that a food parallel food street exists in
Yaowarat (organically) and will provide a basis for comparative
cross referencing subsequently.
2.2.1 Welcome to The Food Street

The food street (above) was inaugurated 10 years ago, the
brainchild

of

the

Singapore

Tourism

Promotion

Board

in

22


collaboration with the Chinatown Business Association (CBA) as
part of a larger overall overhaul of Chinatown in a bid to rejuvenate
it. The CBA itself was the brainchild of the Singapore Tourism
Board (STB) who inaugurated the CBA to act on its behalf in
matters pertaining to businesses in Chinatown. As part of this jointinitiative, the Food Street is a carefully coordinated establishment
run by the CBA and hawkers who hope to conduct business there
lease these stalls from the association. The Food Street then, can
be inferred thus to be a joint effort between the state and its
agents, as essentially a state sanctioned, organized effort deemed
compatible with Chinatown land use9.

One will realize that they have reached ‗The Food Street‘ by
virtue of actual signboards that trumpet its exact location. Situated
along Smith Street, the food street rolls out in a neat and orderly
fashion.

9

The food street was mooted as part of STB‘s proposal for theme streets that

was supposed to include market street, festive street, tradition street and bazaar
street (Kwok et al, 1998:39). It was a plan that drew much criticism but STB put
up a ―strenuous defense against fears that Chinatown is being developed into a
theme park‖. That food hawking was singled out as part of the resuscitation
efforts by the state is worth noting as the whole spectrum of wet market and
night markets went hand in hand with food hawkers in the daily rhythms of those
who inhabited Chinatown in the 1980s and before (Thoo, 1983) and yet only this
cross section was singled out for re-manifestation. It is also worth noting that
while the other proposed theme streets did not materialize, the food street went
ahead despite objections from members of the public who were concerned that
such a move to ‗thematize‘ Chinatown will compartmentalize it into functions,
providing visitors a neat but simplified experience of Chinatown. There were also
apprehensions voiced with regards to STB‘s attempts to provide an overarching
theme to Chinatown, with fears that in so doing, it has ignored Chinatown‘s
history and culture-that it has reduced the layers of meaning to one that overemphasizes an idealized or artificial kind of ‗Chineseness‘ (Kwok et al, 1998:39).
This will be a point we will come back to later in the chapter.

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Figure 1 The Food Street on Smith Street at 6 p.m. on a weekday.

Consisting of 20 standardized-sized stalls lined up equidistant from
one another on the pavement of one side of Smith Street, the food
street operates daily officially from 6pm on till late. Patrons can
either seat themselves on the row of wooden tables and benches
running parallel to the stalls about two metres away from the stalls,
or in the evenings dine alfresco seated on the tables and plastic
stools rolled out on Smith Street itself, which closes to vehicular
traffic after 6 pm to cater to the anticipated human traffic such an

arrangement was designated to serve.

Interestingly, lined up along Smith Street on both sides are
two corresponding rows of restaurants with many offering a
pantheon of ‗Chinese‘ cuisine from Tian Jin, Beijing, Shanghai, that

24


are run by Chinese nationals. Interspersed between these
restaurants are institutions located in Chinatown under the Arts
Housing

Scheme

that

include

the

Harmonica

Aficionados

Community, Xin Sheng Poets Society and Singapore Association
of Writers, Ping Sheh, Chinese Theatre Circle, Shi Cheng
Calligraphy and Seal Carving Society, Er Woo Musical and
Dramatic Society, TAS Theatre Company and Toy Factory
Productions Limited.

The food street is well lit at night with coloured streetlights
zig-zagging their way along the street overhead in the alfresco
setting. These are accompanied by red swaths of cloth artfully
draped adorned with traditional Chinese red lanterns interspaced
similarly, all zigzagging artfully above the street creating a distinct
ethnic overtone. That these were installed by the CBA and not the
hawkers themselves add to the notion of contrived, deliberate
attempts to foster a, hyper-Chinese ambience that reeks of an
ethnic overtone.

Food sold on the food street include Chinese desserts such
as ―ah balling‖ or flour balls with peanut or sesame filling served in
a sweet soup and other desserts like ice-kachang, pig-organ soup,
stir-fried and/or barbecued seafood with ‗sambal‘ chilli sauce, fried
carrot cake, fishball noodles, fried kway teow, fruit juice, poh piah

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