Samsui women, artistic agency and the need to protect the luxuries we cannot afford
Hello! Please enjoy this little glimpse into my recent visit to Chinatown in Singapore seen through the lens of my camera. It’s interesting being a tourist in your own country but it does give me a new appreciation and perspective about the place. Sometimes you have to step outside of your head to see what’s in front of you.
For example, the samsui women who feature quite a bit in the photos below is an example of the amazing history of the place. Back in the 1920s, women from Southern China travelled to Malaya to look for work in construction, wearing their red headscarfs and samfoos which made them visually recognisable. This uniform of sorts has now become a symbol of the resilience and strength shown by these women who defeated the odds to work in a laborious and male-dominated field. These women bonded closely, living together into retirement and often not marrying, dedicating their lives to providing for their families at home. In so many way, these women showed some of the most hardcore feminist power without even realizing it.
The mural in the first photo was painted in 2024 by an American artist based in Singapore named Sean Dunston. I personally find it to be a striking representation of the strength of the samsui women, updated for the modern world. Not surprisingly, the government took offence, claiming it sexualized the samsui women and tried to have it removed. For some reason, the mural seemed to be threatening to them but it’s hard to know why. In the end, the public spoke up and it was allowed to stay although the building’s owner was fined for not obtaining clearance before commissioning the mural and an anti-smoking message is now linked to it.
I followed the news stories for this situation as it was happening and while it did not surprise me, it did make me ask again when Singapore will finally allow artists to have the agency to create art that is organic and uncensored? When Lee Kuan Yew said in 1968 that poetry is a luxury we cannot afford, it is a message so deeply ingrained in my parents’ generation that my decision to major in English literature was a source of resentment and pity for my supposedly ‘doomed’ life. Art, like poetry, requires courage in a world that does not respect its value. I still hold out hope that I will be able to see the artists and poets in my country to feel truly free, preferably in my lifetime, but until then, the spirit and strength of the samsui women has blessed our beloved mural and it will continue to stand triumphant against the odds.
