This is a set of two 1.75 metre long daching [大秤] weighing scale rods, which were used to weigh live pigs on a family farm in Kampong San Teng (present-day Bishan, Singapore) between approx. 1930s to the 1970s. They are accompanied by two stone weights, one measuring 10cm in diameter and 13.5cm in height, and another 11 cm in diameter and 14 cm in height. They originally belonged to Mr Tan Yu (陈于), a first generation migrant from Xiamen, China, who arrived in Singapore in the 1930s. As an immigrant in pre-war Singapore, Mr Tan turned to rearing livestock as a livelihood, eventually overseeing a small family farm that, at its heyday, reared between 500-600 pigs and a few hundred chickens and ducks.
