Samsui women

Other areas of origin include Shunde and Dongguan, Fujian and Chao’an, although labourers from these regions were relatively few in number.

The footwear they typically wore were pieces of rubber cut out from used tyres, which they made into sandals by adding straps.

[4] Samsui women were the traditional source of manpower supply in the construction industry, in order to support their families in their homelands.

Samsui women typically commenced their work at 8 am, undertaking physically strenuous tasks such as digging soil and transporting earth, debris, and construction materials using buckets suspended from shoulder poles.

During the evenings, they engaged in friendly conversations with fellow Samsui women along the five-foot-way corridors outside the shophouses where they resided.

As a result, they gave up the prospect of marriage and children, living very simply to save money to support their families, whom they might never see again after they left home.

They often shared accommodation and ate simple food, such as cooked rice, some bean cheese and a bit of pickled or fresh vegetables.

Samsui women dug soil and carried earth, debris and building materials in buckets hung from shoulder poles.

Despite the long working hours, they only had short lunch breaks, during which they had to gather wood to bring home as fuel for cooking.

During the 2018 Singapore National Day Parade, a short film depicted the real-life stories of five Singaporeans, including Mdm Woo herself.

[12] There was also a theatrical play by The Finger Players, called Samsui Women: One Brick at a Time, held at the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay.

[14] In April 2024, a mural of portraying a Samsui woman taking a smoke break and holding cigarette was painted on an external wall of a conserved shophouse in Chinatown by Singapore-based American artist, Sean Dunston.