Clearing Illegal Hawkers In 1960s Singapore | A Frame In Time | Episode 1/3

Singapore 1965. Food was prepared, sold and enjoyed on the streets. Itinerant, illegal hawkers moved around with wooden pushcarts, while temporary stalls were setup along alleys and five-foot ways. But all that was about to change. Post-independent Singapore introduced new laws and much importance was given to food hygiene. The streets needed cleaning up and the illegal hawkers had to go.
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About 'A Frame in Time': Explore life in Singapore between colonialism and self governance, merger and separation and beyond. Helmed by auteur Kelvin Tong, the documentary features the works of accomplished artist Lai Foong Moi, Cultural Medallion winner Chua Mia Tee and social realist Koeh Sia Yong, reflecting on the social issues and propositions the artists have made through their paintings.
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[@christinafidance340]

I live in the US and I just found this channel. I’m absolutely in love with the people of Singapore and interested in learning more about their history and culture. I have a good life living on a small boat in the Chesapeake Bay. However, as with many people in the world, my entire existence is so very small, but through the power of the internet, I have been able to “travel” the world and all during quarantine too!!!

[@RK-xp9oy]

Lovely comment

[@share_accidental]

you’re welcome to visit at any time!

[@meesiam2759]

This series of videos tell the stories of the our SG artist are absolutely awesome. I love them all very much. I had a 3 piece water color I did of the singapore hawker push cart that I have painter as a young man. Hence I can relate to their emotions. SG has come a long way. Onward Singapore!

[@raggedyhaggity250]

its important to relay these moments in history. i wish we have historical stuff like this in borneo so that we will never forget how long we have come. its sadder that newer generations are losing their link to the past

[@conanabang1515]

I love this sort of content. Thank you, CNA, and I am looking forward to watch part 2 and 3.

[@CNAInsider]

Hi Conan, Parts 2 & 3 are already available! Enjoy! kzbin.info/aero/PLkMf14VQEvTY1cT43PwHVNuUxDpdyJ5iI

[@conanabang1515]

@@CNAInsider Thank you.

[@veekwok5611]

This video vividly bring back memories of "tehgu" coming to raid the illegal hawkers at make-shift markets. I was then living with my family at Lorong 17 Geylang which is now the Sims Drive area. All kampongs are gone now and the only place recognizable to me is the old Chinese Temple which still remains. The government acquired our house around 1968 and we moved to a rented HDB flat in Joo Seng Road, off Upper Aljunied Road. Oh yes, we did planted some papaya trees to get more compensation.

[@waffles_1823]

Vee Kwok I used to go to the temple near there to pray

[@veekwok5611]

@@waffles_1823 You still can visit, it is still there but maybe not for long.

[@1aaroncarl]

I loved the two friends. wish they were featured more.

[@christinafidance340]

“He only wished me death 3 times today!” I was rolling!!!

[@richardjones7984]

Thanks for a great film which brought back many memories. As a teenager in 1966 , I lived in Lynwood Grove and amazingly my old house is still shown on Google Maps. Most of the surrounding houses have been replaced by bigger condominiums. At the bottom of our road was Chiltern Street which ran by the side of a Kampong with a duck pond. I have photos of that Duck pond which I used to watch with interest when the ducklings were all swimming about. The cat also took a lot of interest. It was a very beautiful scenery and a window into an ancient way of life that lasted thousands of years. I don't think our present society will last so long.

[@akshaylenin7166]

I feel that life in SG today is much better.We don't have hygiene issues as a threat

[@Haalala]

Just saw the Hawker paintings in Singapore National Gallery. They captured me a lot. So real, so artful!

[@cvimomoy]

A most beautiful and enlightening documentary. Learned a lot of the old Singapore.

[@alexandraboian939]

Don't ask me about cleanliness, we all survived anyway 😂😂😂

[@violetnhz]

Best quote hahhaa

[@mongtkb]

i went to Thailand 3 yrs ago (after living in the US for 13 yrs) when i went to the mall or food courts, it feels like rich people want to eat foods of the poor but don't want to mingle with the poor people

[@limfamily899]

My mom

[@emerveille_]

"we had it as good as you have it today. only in a different way." that's pretty accurate for Singaporean food

[@david888a]

To me as a young boy growing up in Sg, it really was a fun time watching Di Gu chasing these hawkers n we( my friends) will help the hawkers by carrying their goods n run. In the end,the government won. Nice History

[@lucyfiniarel2347]

This is hilarious 😂 y’all were good kids.

[@david888a]

@@lucyfiniarel2347 mischievous

[@akshaylenin7166]

Everything happens for a reason.

[@sadelsor]

Penang Kway Chow was my favorite dish, at the old railway station !!

[@almandovelasquez6125]

I pray that the Philippines could have a leader like Lee Kuan Yew who truly cares about his people.🙏

[@paranoidballoon8190]

Loved It the atmosphere the smells so animated and alive .Singapore should have areas for old style and new..

[@ZackTuNan]

I love this what a date back to history

[@steveyeo3697]

When l was young l helped a fish vender run from 'di gu' by carrying her fish to hide in nearby hdb flat

[@cleejryosores6679]

0:13 I know this ball this is a Rattan ball of Sepak Takraw which were used to be play nowadays we play Takraw with actual Light and hard Plastic Takraw ball

[@fantana9481]

malaysia start doing these from last week, btw local can't be vendor seller simply also.

[@onghockchwee2342]

I Remember It Was A Tough Life For These Hawkers To Earn A Decent Living. Always Look Out For These Government Officials To Run From. I Remember My Brother And Myself Love Eating Satay And When These Hawkers Flee, We Just Grab The Satay And Continue Eating Free

[@leegacy3099]

Oh God I missed this documentary! I had for may years desired to shared an episode in my growing up years when I realized the government were no different from gangsters, that they will use violence when they meet resistance to their hegemony. I was about nine years old growing up in Circuit Road and had seen illegal hawkers fleeing from "Teh Gus." One morning, I witnessed "thugs" employed by the government thashing the stalls between the food center and Block 37. It was a familiar scene of gang clashes which was quite common in "Chicago" of Singapore, a sobriquet, which Macpherson Housing Estate had deservedly earned. When it was over, I observed an aged man with a wide brimmed straw hat covering his head, picking up the for sale chillies that had been ejected into a drain. I could not see his face, but tears were dripping on the chillies he was picking up. I am a sensitive person all my life. That scene etched in my mind till today. I had never voted for the PAP since 21 years of age. Lee Kuan Yew was a great nation builder. But he hurt many people along the way or who gets in his way.

[@akshaylenin7166]

Thalaivar LKY had to use force at that time because he wanted Singapore to develop rapidly.He understood the problems faced by other 3rd World Countries around the world

[@judytam2835]

The hawker’s foods back in the 60s were so much better tasting than now made by these young chaps. Back then I couldn’t afford to eat. Poor family, no moola. 🤑🤑🤑

[@sunchildtine]

the acting is also very good. casting on point. will support hawker food forever, i'm not impressed by current hipster food.

[@ridhobaihaqi144]

That method still available in indonesia

[@doodoofard69]

It's widespread everywhere, especially in Asia. Street food is not an exclusive thing.

[@miiigoreng]

Laws have been passed by people from then till now. These hawkers were illegal, not because they did immoral things to get by. Rather- they likely were named such titles by those who cut and drove a path, through the ambitions towards progress for ALL including us

[@dexterchewy]

nice

[@zeneveopaleva9886]

In indonesia we called it Pedagang Kaki Lima

[@jonxu6856]

These are the real hawkers. Hawkers don’t exist in Singapore anymore.

[@rainielcy]

May I know do we have "dei gu" in Malaysia last time? Thanks for the reply!

[@Lol-ok9kl]

You should make this into a drama

[@share_accidental]

YES!

[@simonsimon2888]

One Chinese educated Member of Parliament called these hawkers 'land cows'. Then, where were the 'land bulls' bullshitting all over the kampong.

[@mongtkb]

from a third world to first world standard of living in 30 yrs Thailand can achieve it if the elite, military, and royalist truly value the lives of the people living outside of Bangkok

[@akshaylenin7166]

That's correct

[@joandtoe]

where can i find the 'here they come!' artwork in Singapore?

[@anthtan]

National Gallery Singapore (former City Hall building, in front of Padang)

[@LoongAqua]

The actors are all wearing new clothes.

[@CNAInsider]

whoops! we'll make them look abit more scruffy the next time :-)

[@yip2454]

so realistic no on actually spoke mandarin. bring back ethnic languages as a 3rd language

[@vincentman7801]

Cantonese Fokine

[@fanyinluen1391]

Tehgou lai liao

[@bluenation3838yoohoo]

what chinese dialect are those actors speaking in ?

[@raydanz]

kamehamewhat I can hear Hokkien from the acting scene.

[@Dhdjksjsnsnsnnsnsna]

mostly hokkien but the customer girls are speaking cantonese.

[@violetnhz]

My dad said it's Teochew

[@TheDavidlloydjones]

" Post-independent Singapore introduced new laws and much importance was given to food hygiene. The streets needed cleaning up and the illegal hawkers had to go." Why? The polio that swept through the Britain of my youth was a disease of cleanliness, crippling peoples in shoe-clad countries. Is it the theory of the government of Singapore that handing our feeding over to McDonald's is healthier than letting a bunch of street cooks sell us a million different things? That doesn't strike me as plausible.

[@MrBoliao98]

The empowered the hawkers and people not cripple. Walk anywhere there's a market or hawker centre nearby. Unlike the volatility of being on the street, you're settled in a guaranteed spot with washing facilities and back in the day low rent. In effect not only you provide a livelihood, you indirectly subsidise food costs. Go look at HK and them chasing all the hawkers off the street with insufficient resettlement, all the ludicrous rent they pay.

[@TheDavidlloydjones]

@@MrBoliao98 That is a very good statement of the bureaucrats' claims. They seem to be succeeding in crushing everybody into the white-collar mould.

[@MrBoliao98]

@@TheDavidlloydjones they have preserved hawker food well. Go to Beijing for yourself, the streets are devoid of life. The breakfast I had were no cheaper than what I had in Singapore. This is the solution, and our markets should be expanded as they are. Going back to that old system doesn't work, go over to Vietnam and see the hawkers, you can take a good look. You really go and work on the street without fan and shelter or washing spaces for 9 hours I see whether you can do.

[@TheDavidlloydjones]

@@MrBoliao98 I'm sure you're right: Singapore's bureaucrats are much cleverer than Beijing's.

[@MrBoliao98]

@@TheDavidlloydjones if you bother to eat in a hawker centre you wouldn't be spouting gibberish

[@asunfeet]

This is a very well-made documentary. I watched part 2 first as I was doing research for my art project. I think there's a general sense of detachment and identity-crisis among young singaporeans, because we don't see these kinds of documentaries in school, just textbooks and our city is constantly changing so we don't remember what singapore was like before all the buildings and globalisation. I was born in '90. I also think it's hard to stay rooted in a place that is constantly changing, even though it's "better". For me, I've always wanted to migrate to another country because I just did not feel like I belong to singapore, even though I was born and raised here. These documentaries made me feel grounded and touched by what our forefathers have been through and made me appreciate what I have. I think it's so important for young people to learn about our history. It's just endearing to learn about what people in the past were like and I agree with one of the speakers in part 2 that we were more multicultural back then.

[@KayDav-q3z]

I felt the same way too, migrate to another country. Did u? In my younger days in Sg, I felt Sg was very restrictive with its many laws, when it implemented the CBD fees, I knew then that Sg will eventually b an expensive place to live. I finished my NS n after NS, one of my army buddies n I hitchhiked to England,US and Europe,that’s in 1972. Fell in love with a canadian girl while hitchhiking n emigrated to Canada in 1977. 72 years old now, still married, 2 adult children n 4 grand children now. Brought my parents and siblings over to Canada too, they hv their own families here. From 1,it grew to more than 30 plus….No regrets.😂😂😂

[@asunfeet]

⁠​⁠@@KayDav-q3z Wow , I can only dream and hope that one day I will migrate to Canada or New Zealand by the age of 72. 🎉 congratulations on leaving sg behind and living a better life in Canada x