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How was life like for the Samsui Women in the 1920s to the 1940s? - Coggle…
How was life like for the Samsui Women in the 1920s to the 1940s?
Living Conditions
Source E
Question:
How tolerant were the samsui women to their lack of luxuries?
Inference:
From this source, I can infer that samsui women were very used to their poor living conditions, and accepted it.
Evidence/Explanation
: The samsui women’s accommodations “were typically comprised of sparsely furnished rooms with make-shift beds that were formed by putting together wooden planks.” The samsui women had to sleep on these wooden planks which were used as beds, which must be very hard and uncomfortable. However, they made do with what they had and used them as their beds.
Question:
How luxurious were the samsui women's houses?
Inference:
From the source, I can tell that the samsui women had a very small space to themselves.
Evidence/Explanation:
It was so small that after eating, they had to “fold back the table, then sleep there.” Their rooms were described more as ‘cubicles’ than ‘rooms’.
Source A
Question:
How poor were the Samsui Women and how did they spend their money?
Inference:
From this source, I can infer that the samsui women were usually very frugal, and were very poor, living in poor living conditions
Evidence/Explanation:
“They lived in rooms above shophouses…” and “ A room was further subdivided into cubicles, with at least four women sharing one single room”. They were willing to live in such cramped spaces just to save money for rental. Furthermore, “They mostly travelled to work on foot to save money.” They also saved money on food as “Their meals were sparse and usually consisted of cooked rice, some bean cheese and a bit of pickled or fresh vegetables.’ They also combined their breakfast and lunch into one meal, willing to eat less just to save money. “After a short lunch break, they sometimes gathered wood to bring home as fuel for cooking.” hence they saved on firewood. They had hardly any social activities apart from chatting with other samsui women close by and smoking cigarettes and thus did not spend much on after-work entertainment.
Question
: How were the samsui women’s social lives?
Inference
: The samsui women were close to each other, but did not socialise outside the samsui community.
Evidence/Explanation
: They kept mostly to people of their own kind from the same hometown and were wary of strangers. They were not willing to try new things or ways of life but found comfort in the familiar.
Question:
How small were the samsui women's homes?
Inference
: From this source, I can tell that the samsui women had a very small space to themselves.
Evidence/Explanation
: They lived in rooms above shophouses…” and “ A room was further subdivided into cubicles, with at least four women sharing one single room”. They lived in such small rooms, which still were shared among the samsui women and subdivided. Thus, I can tell that their living environment was small and cramped
Dressing
Source B
Question
: Did the Samsui women wear more than one type of clothes?
Inference
: There was no exact standardised colour of samfu the samsui and any shade of dark blue was fine.
Evidence/Explanation
: Two of the women had darker coloured samfu while the other two had lighter coloured samfu. The samfu's exact colour was probably not standardised as it would be hard for a samsui woman to find the right colour and might waste money buying a wrong colour.
Source A
Question
: What is unique about the Samsui women’s working attire?
Inference
: The Samsui women’s red headdress is unique to them.
Evidence/Explanation
: “Samsui women wore a red, or sometimes blue, headdress that became their trademark feature.” Most construction workers during the 1920s to 1940s mostly did not care about reducing the chances of accidents and modern construction workers use reflective plastic strips to reduce the chances of accidents. Hence there were unlikely to be other entire groups of construction workers who wore red headdresses so the red headdress is unique to the samsui women.
Question
: Why did the Samsui women dress like that?
Inference
: The headdress had many uses (such as being red as it was eye-catching so as to reduce the chances of accidents happening on the construction site, shading them from the Sun and being used to store matches cigarettes and other small items) and was made to suit the needs of a samsui woman. Their samfu and sandals were made to help them save money. (as the sandals were made from used rubber tyres to save money on material since used rubber tyres were quite cheap or even free and the dark colours of the samfu meant that the women could save money as the samfu could be washed less often.
Evidence/ Explanation
: “The colour red was used because it was eye-catching and thus reduced the chances of accidents occurring at the construction site. Besides sheltering the samsui women from the sun, the hat was also used to store items such as cigarettes, matches and money,” and “They usually dressed in dark-blue or black samfu … The dark colours ensured that the clothes would not stain easily. The footwear they typically wore were pieces of rubber cut out from used tyres, which they made into sandals by adding straps.”(such as being red as it was eye-catching so as to reduce the chances of accidents happening on the construction site, shading them from the Sun and being used to store matches cigarettes and other small items)
Source C
Question
: What was the purpose of the samsui women's headgear being red?
Inference
: The samsui women wore red headdresses to be able to be spotted more easily to reduce the chances of accidents happening on the construction site.
Evidence/Explanation
: This is supported by the Samsui Women in the painting being much more easy to spot than if they were not wearing their headresses. The colour red is very striking as shown in the painting where their dark blue samfus are hard to spot from afar but the red headdresses are very obvious.
Question
: What is unique about the Samsui women’s working attire?
Inference
: The samsui women's working attire is made of mostly cloth unlike the working attire of 21st century construction workers who have reflective strips made of plastic on their attire.
Evidence/Explanation
: The samsui women's headgear and samfu was made of cloth
In the 21st century, construction workers have plastic reflective strips sewn on their attire to let them be easily seen while the samsui women use their red head gear made of cloth to be seen clearly.
Working Conditions/ Types of Work
Source A
Question:
How were the Samsui Women's working conditions like?
Inference:
The Samsui Women took on various types of jobs, including laborious and manual ones.
Evidence/Explanation
: Source A provides evidence as it states that "Some of the women found employment as laborer in tin mines and rubber estates; others became domestic servants (known as amah) in wealthy households" and "Most were hired as general laborer on construction sites to carry building materials and clear debris". This means that the samsui women could work as laborer, domestic servants, etc., and would seize the opportunity to find employment and they did not just stick to one job.
Source C
Question
: How were the Samsui Women's working conditions like?
Inference: I can infer from Source C that the Samsui Women were hardworking and worked in harsh working conditions. They were upright and did not chose to earn quick money through prostitution.
Evidence/Explanation:
This is supported by “they worked in the brutal heat and toil of construction, and hard labor jobs, avoiding the vice trades of prostitution, opium and drugs. Most were illiterate and wanted to escape the poverty of the farms to earn a stable-enough salary. Most hoped to send enough money back to China for their families”. This means that they were willing to put in hard work to earn money just to support their families back in China and they upheld their moral values as they did not choose to earn quick money through prostitution.
Source B
Question:
How were the Samsui Women's working conditions like?
Inference
: The Samsui Women's work was tiring and tedious.
Evidence/Explanation:
Source B provides evidence as it shows multiple Samsui Women working on a construction yard and are carrying construction materials in several buckets that hang from shoulder poles. This means that the Samsui Women's work was difficult as carrying buckets of construction materials was heavy.
Languages Spoken
Source E
Question:
Did the Samsui Women speak many languages?
Inference:
From Source E, I can infer that Samsui Women spoke many languages.
Evidence/Explanation:
“Cantonese-speaking Samsui region of Guangzhou” and “phase out the use of “dialects” and dissociate people from Chinese dialect groups with distinct identities. Languages like Cantonese and Hokkien/Teochew”.This is because they spoke different languages such as Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka and Cantonese. This is because they spoke different languages such as Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka and Cantonese
Source A
Question:
What was the main dialect the Samsui Women spoke?
Inference:
I can infer that most Samsui Women spoke Cantonese.
Evidence/Explanation:
“Most of them belonged to the Cantonese dialect group, but the dialect was spoken with a heavy accent”. The majority of people that come from there speak in Cantonese. The heavy accent could also suggest that they came from China.
Question:
What are the languages spoken?
Inference:
I can infer that the Samsui Women had their own dialect.
Evidence/Explanation:
“Their dialect is not unlike Cantonese, although some consider it Hakka, but it is spoken with a heavy accent that is difficult to pick up and is seldom understood by other Chinese. "Some people consider it Cantonese. However, some people also consider it Hakka. This is also caused by their heavy accent that is difficult to pick up and is rarely understood by other Chinese.