Keeping you updated on what we have accomplished...
PROJECT UPDATES
22 October 2015 (Week 10)
What is Marginalisation?
We are now on the 10th week of the semester and 8 weeks since we started on this social movement for the hawkers in Singapore. It has been a great journey where we learnt things beyond the classroom. We did not only get the opportunity to speak to real people who are facing real challenges on the ground, but we also get to apply the concepts and theories to aid us in our interactions with the hawkers. More importantly, we are doing something for a community that has indirectly been marginalised over the years.
The main takeaway, as mentioned before, is that marginalisation does not necessarily refer to commonly held perceptions of society or what we often believe. While groups like the Rohingyas in Myanmar, and LGBTQ people are known to be marginalised, there are some groups of people that are not seen as one. Their silence and acceptance might be some reasons that contribute to society’s dismissal. From our many interviews, we find that the hawkers do not find that they are discriminated against. Yet, they recount instances when people would not patronise their stall any longer after they raise food prices, as a result of market forces that are beyond their control. Our survey also shows that many young people are not keen in joining the trade as they feel that does not fit their ideal modern outlook and that there is a common impression that working at hawker centres reflect one’s failure in the real world.
There is a clear gap between what the hawkers feel and what society thinks of them. The hawkers’ contentment just shows that these hawkers are sincere in their craft and trade and they are not seeking any privileges or benefits; yet this is problematic as they are bearing the consequences of society’s ignorance.
We sometimes feel that the hawkers are naïve and that they are living in their own little bubble. However, it is unfair to them because they are so busy with trying to meet their daily business needs that they simply do not have the opportunity to understand the position they are in.
28 September 2015 ( Week 7)
Light through the Fog
The team is doing well again with more interviews scheduled for the next two weeks. We are now seven weeks into the semester and have a clear idea and direction for our project now. Our position is further reiterated with the help of an expert in the field. As mentioned before, we managed to secure an interview with Dr. Leslie Tay, a food blogger and influencer, to give us more insights into the field and topic. Although it was a telephone interview, we are still grateful that he took time off to speak to us.
Dr. Tay gave us the assurance that the hawkers are a marginalised group. Agreeing with us, he said that hawkers are taken for granted by Singaporeans in a sense that we are always demanding for low food prices without the consideration for the quality of food. This struck a chord with us as we feel guilty for complaining endlessly about the small rise in hawker food prices while we have no qualms in paying an exorbitant price for café foods, which arguably require less skill compared to hawker fares. Believe it, or not.
Dr. Tay also told us about the problems that these hawkers are facing especially with the rising rental costs and the prices of raw ingredients. Additionally, with little incentives for people to become hawkers, the hawker heritage might actually die out in the future. He suggested special grants and efforts such as giving out ‘heritage status’ to stalls that have been around for a very long time. These, in one way or another, help to prevent this gem to our identity from being swallowed by modernisation.
We are very appreciative of Dr. Tay’s responses to our questions for we are able to see through the fog that has been surrounding our project.
15 September 2015 (Week 6)
Nobody said it was Easy
Just when we thought we are doing well, we met with some difficulties. We have slowed down exponentially in finding hawkers to interview and now it is an uphill battle to look for more hawkers while juggling our schoolwork and other obligations. On top of that, we are starting to second-guess the feasibility of our topic and whether the hawkers are truly marginalised.
It is getting more difficult to get hawkers to be interviewed because understandably, they are extremely busy. While they toil from morning to the evening in their little cooking cubicles, they would be too exhausted after to be interviewed by a group of college students. On our part, we feel like we are troubling them. It dawned upon us the difficulty of working with marginalised groups because of the many limitations. If it’s not about privacy and confidentiality issue, it has got to do with their livelihood and time. Evidently, building rapport and trust with these people are of essence.
A bigger concern is that the team is starting to second-guess the status of hawkers as marginalised people. Our interviewees appear to be very happy and contented on the surface; it seems like their passion in their craft overshadows everything else. All of them seem to downplay the challenges that they face. At one point, their positivity appeared to be so strong that we felt that we were wrong about hawkers being marginalised. However, after closer observation of our interview transcripts and after considering their non-verbal cues, backstory, and our survey findings, we find that they are indeed marginalised. While we are not sure if it is internalisation, there is a definite sense of acceptance in these hawkers that nothing can be done to alleviate the problems that they are facing and that they are meant to be face the same challenges over and over again to the point of numbness; that it is a part of life. For that reason, they have accepted their ‘fate’.
From this little insecurity, we realised the importance of understanding interview techniques to pick out subtle nuances that can make a huge difference to implications and findings. It is now time to keep our heads up and assure ourselves that we are on the right path and from here, we have to keep working hard to find more interviewees to learn more.
9 September 2015 (Week 5)
The Discovery
The results of the survey which we disseminated two weeks ago are in. The number of responses that came in is encouraging; while we aimed to get 150 responses, we received 180 responses. The results that came provide us with further insights into the hawker culture in Singapore from the perspective of outsiders. The detailed findings and review of the survey can be found in the ‘Research’ tab.
The main takeaway from the survey is that the younger generation is not willing to enter the hawker trade. They are generally and relatively more well-educated and they have a different outlook in life. They want to hold more prestigious positions in a big companies, and they want to have better paying jobs. These are things that the hawker trade is not able to provide them with. Ironically, the survey also showed that the hawker culture is one of the few hallmarks of Singapore and these hawker centres have become a major part of the Singapore identity.
This leaves us with the gripping fear of the looming extinction of the hawker heritage.
At this point, we have conducted four interviews with different hawkers and out these, three are elderlies. Clearly, there will be a point when these hawkers pass and new ones have to take over. However, with the mentality prevalent from our survey, there will be no one to take over the baton of keeping the hawker heritage alive. The government can build more hawker centres and food complexes but if no one is taking over, what is the point?
At the same time, our interviews have shown that the main concern is not even the longevity or survival of the hawker heritage. The hawkers that we have interviewed said that hawkers are facing stiff competition from coffee shops, foodcourts, and other eateries, while facing many other challenges including the high costs of ingredients, rising rents, and labour shortages.
Where then are the millions that they are said to be making?
We hope to find out more as we interview more hawkers along the way and we will continue to let their voices be heard on this blog.
1 September 2015 (Week 4)
Taking Flight
One of the biggest fears we have about working on a social-cause project is the difficulty of getting participants and subjects. We are afraid that the hawkers are not willing to be interviewed because they fear that their voicing their opinions might cause them to lose their livelihood or that their opinions might affect their business. However, we are very heartened that the hawkers that we have approached have been enthusiastic and willing. Hitherto, we have secured three interviews that are scheduled for this week and the next. One of them is a young hawker that has decided to go into this line of trade. We are extremely elated and excited because his opinions would help us understand the hawker culture from a different perspective.
We believe that their willingness is partly due to our approach. Although we are budding academics, we do not appear to them as one. Before we approach the hawkers to request for permission for an interview, we ordered their food. Our appearance and demeanour were also befitting of a typical local; we were not dressed up too nicely and we were very casual and informal. Perhaps, this created a sense of sincerity and genuineness that make these hawkers believe that we are all for them. And they are right, we are! In retrospect, this is what participatory-based approach is all about. It is to gain the trust of our subjects and disinhibit their insecurities. While this might be an academic project, we really hope that our effort to foreground their voices will lead to something bigger and tangible to expedite positive change for the hawkers!
Apart from the interviews with the hawkers, we are also excited that we have secured an interview with Dr. Leslie Tay, the owner and founder of I Eat, I Shoot, I Post, a famous and popular food blog. Dr. Leslie Tay, similar to figures such as K.F Seetoh, is very passionate about the food culture in Singapore. Inevitably, he has great interest in hawker food and the trade. We are also extremely excited to get the opportunity to interview him; we know that with his vast experience in the field, he can provide us with some great insights as well.
It seems like our project is in good stead and we hope to maintain this momentum for the next few weeks!
25 August 2015 (Week 3)
The Beginnings
It is the third week of the semester and the team has finally decided on a topic: to foreground the voices of hawkers in Singapore. The hawkers are not the first that people think of when it comes to the marginalised in society, perhaps a result of circulated myths that hawkers are closeted millionaires. We have definitely heard from some friends who say that the hawker trade is unglamorous but hawkers earn a lot of money in reality. Incredulous. ‘How true is this?’ we asked ourselves. This might be true for some famous hawkers that are well-known for their food; even then we feel that the myth is grossly exaggerated. Browsing the web, we find many articles that talk about the endangering and slow extinction of the hawker culture. It sounds pretty awful, considering that we have all grown to love these open-air food complexes where we get to eat our favourite hawker fare to our heart's’ content at affordable prices. Marginalisation is an outcome of modernisation and the hawker trade and its people are victims of this phenomenon.
For that reason, we want to know more about the hawker trade and the life of a typical hawker. Just like any other profession, we are very sure that these hawkers experience a set of challenges and problems that many do not know of. As a matter of fact, these problems might even be serious but due to the lack of avenue to voice their opinions and concerns, these hawkers have to bite the bullet.
Before diving into the project proper and start scouring for hawkers to be interviewed, the team is disseminating a survey to find out the general perception of Singaporeans toward hawkers and the hawker trade in Singapore. Some questions in the survey revolve around the importance of hawker culture to the Singaporean identity, the good and the bad of hawker centres, and people’s motivations to be part of the hawker trade. We are looking forward to the results and we are hoping to receive some interesting findings. We will be putting up the findings under the tab ‘Research’’.
It is now time for the team to delve into the age-old hawker trade which has witnessed drastic changes. From the streets to sheltered food complexes, we now embark on an eye-opening journey together with our hawker friends to find out more about their job, their life, and their concerns. We cannot wait to hear their stories! Wish us luck!