“五帮共融”系列之广东人—从南来移民到本土扎根

 “五帮共融”系列之广东人—从南来移民到本土扎根

粤语是新加坡华社的第三大方言，在民间与商界颇具影响力。

Five In One Series: Cantonese Singaporeans

Early immigrants from Guangdong left their mark on Singapore’s neighbourhoods and culture.

Translation: Hong Xinyi

The Cantonese dialect

Cantonese is the third most commonly spoken dialect among Singapore’s Chinese community. It was not just the language of the immigrants from Guangdong province who arrived here in the 19th century, but was also spoken by members of other Chinese dialect groups, as well as from some in the Malay and Indian communities. One of the reasons for this was the popularity of Cantonese movies and music in Southeast Asia.

Cantonese clan associations

Singapore’s first kinship-based organisation was the Sing Chow Chiu Kwok Thong Cho Kah Koon. It was founded in 1819 by Chow Ah Chey, who was from Taishan and had arrived here with the Raffles expedition. Three years later, Ning Yeung Wui Kuan was established, becoming Singapore’s first Chinese clan association and the first such organisation set up outside China. Subsequent associations were based on kinship ties and places of origin. In the mid-20th century, there were about 290 Cantonese clan associations in Singapore.

Traditional trades

Early Cantonese immigrants mostly worked in grocery retail, gold and silver pawnbroking, construction and transport, garment manufacturing, daily necessities retail, food and beverage, tourism, and traditional Chinese medicine. Grocery retail was dominated by merchants from Xinhui and Heshan, who imported products from Guangdong to Singapore. These became known as guanghuo (Guangdong goods). For Cantonese immigrants working in construction, the Kallang River area was their enclave.

Healthcare efforts

In 1867, Cantonese merchants set up Thong Chai Yee Say to provide free medical consultations to the needy. This was the origin of today’s Thong Chai Medical Institution. In 1910, Cantonese businessmen founded Kwong Wai Shiu Free Hospital, the only large-scale community-led charity hospital in 20th-century Singapore that allowed patients to be hospitalised. It set the local precedent of integrating Chinese and Western medical techniques, and provided free childbirth services to pregnant women of Cantonese origin, as well as outpatient services for all. Today, Kwong Wai Shiu is a community care hospital that remains a Serangoon Road landmark.

Supporting education

Founded in 1905, Kwong Shiu School (now Yangzheng Primary School) was the first and largest school set up by the Cantonese. In the early 20th century, Nan Hwa Girls’ School and Cheng Fong Girls’ School were established to support education for girls. Various Cantonese organisations, such as clan associations, also set up schools like Kwong Fook School and Kwong Wai Shiu Peck Shan Ting School, which educated the children of workers and rural residents respectively. Today, schools such as Yangzheng Primary School, Nan Hua Primary School, and Nan Hua High School continue to have Cantonese leadership on their advisory committees.

Did you know?

• Singapore’s early Guangdong immigrants were mostly from the prefectures of Guangzhou, Huizhou, and Zhaoqing. They were collectively known as the Kwong Wai Shiu community (a reference to the first characters in the Cantonese pronunciations of these prefectures).
• The lion dance troupe of Kong Chow Wui Koon combined Foshan and Heshan lion dance movements, creating the localised Fo He lion dance.
• In the early 20th century, female immigrants from Guangdong included those from Sanshui county, who found work at Singapore’s construction sites. They were known colloquially as samsui women (a reference to their place of origin), and hong toujin (meaning red headscarf, a reference to the headgear they wore at work).