Chinatown Stories | Updated as of June 2019
Opium dens in Chinatown While these illicit places no longer exist in Singapore, opium dens once had a death grip on many Chinese immigrants during the British colonial period.
A sun-beaten man rests his head on a hard wooden pillow, smoking a long pipe which he holds with trembling hands. Clad only in a pair of rolled-up black shorts, he is all skin and bones, wasting away. Around are dozens of wizened men like him, sharing pipes, laying dazed on threadbare straw mats in filthy, dingy surroundings.
This was the scene of an opium den for the poor up until the early 20th century in Singapore’s Chinatown. These dens could only operate with a government licence, which were restricted and expensive to obtain, so numerous operators set up shop illegally.
Many dens took root at shophouses along Pagoda Street, which was already a thriving place for those in the coolie trade by the end of the 19th century. (The coolies were unskilled Asian labourers who came to Singapore for work.) There were such dens in the area for the wealthy too, though these were gilded, a touch more marbled and much more exclusive.
Such dens for both the moneyed and downtrodden were commonplace those days. In these places, opium or chandu (Malay for cooked opium) was inhaled or smoked. Opium is a highly addictive narcotic drug derived from the opium poppy, which is now an illegal plant or weed and subject to legal restrictions in most countries.
Rich opium addicts owned their own pipes and consumed high-grade opium. Poor addicts, on the other hand, shared common pipes and smoked the dregs of used opium. It was standard for shopkeepers to sell the leftover ash or residue from the smoked opium to impoverished addicts for a cheaper price.
Opium contributed greatly to Singapore’s trade during the colonial era. Huge opium “farms” gave their owners – mainly rich Chinese businessmen – the right to sell opium if they paid a levy. Well- known names in the trade included Lau Joon Tek and Cheang Sam Teo – who formed the Lau- Cheang Syndicate – Heng Bun Soon, Tan Seng Poh and Cheang Hong Guan. Other famous opium traders were Cheong Hong Lim and Tan Seng Poh, who worked with Tan Hiok Nee in opium farming.
The British colonial government earned enormous profits from these opium licences. Opium accounted for half of its revenue in Singapore even at the turn of the 20th century. The trade was a money-spinner – the colonial government supported the practice and most smokers inevitably became addicts.
It was a time of different mores, and in China, smoking opium was legal and an accepted social practice. So ordinary was it that the act of offering an opium pipe to others was like serving tea. So common was the habit in Singapore that by 1850, about 15,000 people, out of a total population of 70,000, were opium smokers.
Chinese immigrants to Singapore took to opium easily. Most of them were unmarried men who toiled as unskilled labourers like coolies and rickshaw pullers.
For them, life in this strange land away from China was difficult. There was little family support, and their work was often harsh and brutal.
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Chinatown Stories | Updated as of June 2019
Many turned to opium smoking as a means of escape. Some were even convinced that this could cure all manner of illness, from malaria to venereal disease.
But the habit was, above all, an addictive one and expensive to boot. Often, an addict squandered his meagre wages on opium, leaving nothing for himself or his family back home in China.
Some smokers took to crime such as theft and burglary to support their addiction. High mortality rates and widespread ill health were also ascribed to this addiction.
In 1910, even as the government took over the manufacture and sale of opium, the tide was turning. Even though opium addiction was still widespread, the global anti-opium movement of the early 20th century had begun to reach Singapore’s shores. Individuals and institutions alike took part in anti-vice activities to fight the trade and counter the dire societal effects.
Still, opium smoking continued to be tolerated by the colonial authorities in the 1920s. It was even estimated that, in 1923, more than 400 government-run shops sold different grades of opium over the counter between 6am and 10pm. (After these hours, opium could be found in brothels until 2am.) These shops openly sold opium-smoking paraphernalia such as pipes and lamps.
The sale was finally outlawed after the Japanese Occupation in 1946. Along Pagoda Street, many of the dens were converted into lodging houses. By the 1950s, textile and tailoring shops took over their spaces.
Yet, despite attempts to control and ban the narcotic, the illegal trade continued in Chinatown and elsewhere. It would take decades more to halt the unlawful use of opium in the country.
Even in the 1980s, a few illicit opium dens could still be found, including in Temple Street. Newspaper reports told tales of how these places would often be fitted with heavy wooden doors – that took time to break through – to keep police officers at bay.
It was only from 1989, when the death penalty was introduced for opium drug dealers and peddlers, that the trade in Singapore came to a complete stop.
References:
Singapore: From Place to Nation by Lee Soo Ann
Travellers’ Tales of Old Singapore by Michael Wise
Chinatown, an album of a Singapore community, published by Times Books International, 1983.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/ex-cnb-field-officer-misses-drug-busts
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/bulletin/bulletin_1958-01- 01_4_page003.html
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Chinatown Stories | Updated as of June 2019
https://www.nparks.gov.sg/-/media/nparks-real-content/gardens-parks-and-nature/diy- walk/diy-walk-pdf-files/pioneers-trail-ann-siang-hill-park-and-telok-ayer-green.pdf
http://www.chinatown.sg/index.php?fx=directory&&g1=precinct&g2=3&g3=5&m=list&tid=7 01#tenantdetails
http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_622_2004-12-16.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5866677/pdf/monjmedsci89768-0028.pdf
http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19860922-1.2.21.22
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