Samsui Woman

The challenge to needle felt 50 iconic or representative items of Singapore had led me to a journey of discovering Singapore's heritage. As I gather information and google for pictures of some items, I realize I have very little knowledge of some of the pieces I am crafting. It piques my curiosity further and I research more. It becomes my learning adventure of knowing Singapore in depth.

One of my newly acquired knowledge was the Samsui women - they were typical of Singapore's past. Samsui women were immigrants from China's province of Guangdong (Sanshui, hence the name Samsui) in 1930s & 1940s to work in construction or industrial sites of Singapore (some others work as domestic servants for the wealthy households). These women were clothed in dark blue loose shirts and pants with an apron. What's striking about them was their headgear - crimson red flattish bandana atop their weather beaten faces. They were referred as 红头巾 in Chinese. My daughter learnt in school that the samsui women wore 红头巾 as it was eye-catching and would reduce occurrences of accidents at the work site.

I had never seen a samsui woman in my life. They would be in their 90s by now, not many alive, some had left to return to their hometown in China. I remembered a popular TV drama series of 红头巾 in the 1980s and that was my first ‘encounter’ of samsui women but didn’t leave much imprint in me. As I dug out more information about the samsui women, I feel a deep respect for them. They were a thrifty, hardworking and sacrificial lot! Their main purpose for working in Singapore was to earn money to send back to their families in China. Most of them vowed never to marry. They toiled hard in the construction sites, digging and carrying sand under tropical heat, labouring long hours. They lived in cramped quarters, ate spartanly and patched up old clothes, saving every cent they could. Some even took up hawker jobs beyond their long hours at construction sites to earn a little extra for savings. They were also known to be women of integrity and not engage in vices - opium, prostitution, etc despite their hardship.

Whenever I read about women of hardship (or children in disadvantaged circumstances) it is always heart wrenching, wish I could do more to help them... Also, these reads made me count my blessings, that I am fortunate to be born in a modern era and in Singapore!

Here's to the samsui women whom contributed to Singapore’s nation building!

SG50

2015 is Singapore's 50th birthday since independence in 1965, there will be massive celebrations to mark this special anniversary coined as SG50. Many organisations, whether private or public driven, have lined up various programs and events in the name of SG50. The Ministry of Manpower declared an additional public holiday for residents to bask in the celebration, in hope that everyone gets a chance to commemorate National Day one way or another. I am certainly thrilled ;p

In conjunction with SG50, I decided to come up with my personal SG50 needle felting challenge, meaning I will needle felt 50 items that are either iconic or representative of Singapore leading up to National Day, August 9.

It will be a challenge for 3 reasons. Firstly, compiling a list of 50 items is a task. Singapore is a very young nation, with rather weak heritage and culture teemed with non existent natural resources, it is relatively difficult to list 50 icons that uniquely identifies Singapore. I cracked my brain real hard and merely coughed up with 30 plus names. I had to broadcast an appeal for ideas from friends on my Facebook to boost my list.

Secondly, the feasibility of the ideas that poured in. The synergy of brain power yields wonderful contribution :-) However, not every suggestion is viable to be needle felted in this challenge due to intricacy of details, which ties in with the third reason - time constraint.

Essentially any idea may be needle felted so long as one has the imagination and patience. The craft of needle felting is a time consuming process, a project involving complex and intricate details will command man hours in weeks or even months. The 1st item for my SG50 challenge was The Merlion, a project I started last July, hoping to complete in time for last year's National Day. It was supposed to be a mini Merlion of height 5 inches but as I poked, it turned out bigger and bigger due to the detailing. It became tiresome and boring, I dropped it last August and only picked it up again this March to finish it off.

Thirdly, as aforementioned, time constraint. I could only needle felt during my free time, which mounts up to an average of 2-3 hours daily. It is 15 weeks to my dateline of 9 Aug, translating to an average of 3 features per week. It means I have to be selective in my choice of items, that they have to be simple and quick enough for me to complete. Thus friends, if I do not needle felt your contributed idea, it is not because I do not like the idea but due to time constraint. My apologies in advance!