Street vendors were a common sight in Chinatown during the first half of the 20th century. For the poor and illiterate, this was one of the ways they made a living, selling snacks, drinks or peddling their wares. There were also those who turned to grinding coffee, telling fortunes or pulling rickshaws. A permanent background for this hustle and bustle of activities were the rows of shophouses, which had been built in Chinatown to recreate the lifestyle that the Chinese immigrant was used to back home in China. The idea of Chinatown first came into being in Sir Stamford Raffles' 1822 layout plan for the Town of Singapore, which separated the various groups of immigrants into racial quarters for easy administration. The Chinese were assigned the southwestern part of the Singapore River, where they would be settled according to the provinces they belonged to in their homeland.
