SINGAPORE - Chinatown is welcoming Christmas in a big way this year, with a two-day festive market in December where visitors can buy arts and crafts, attend workshops and get a massage as they enjoy performances by buskers.
In keeping with the spirit of Christmas, visitors will be contributing to a good cause when they spend at the festive market. Members of the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped will be selling arts and crafts they have made, conducting workshops, giving massages and busking, under a partnership with the organiser, the Chinatown Business Association .
There will also be theatrical walking tours by guides acting as fictional characters such as early immigrant Ah Huat and majie Feng Jie. Majie were women from Guangdong who became domestic servants here from the 1930s to 1970s.A gift stall owner, who wanted to be identified only as Robin, said he left Chinatown in 2020 after his business ground to a halt. He returned to Chinatown only a few days ago to restart his business in Sago Street.
Mr George Soo, 56, who sells Chinese souvenirs such as chopsticks and trinkets in Sago Street, said his business dipped by 80 per cent during the pandemic, but has since recovered by 60 per cent due to increased footfall. The optimism comes after a tough two years in Chinatown. Some tenants have closed shop as the Chinese tourists who descended in droves became a distant memory. The iconic Chinatown Food Street, a cluster of popular hawker food carts along a 100m stretch of Smith Street,CBA has been making efforts to help the businesses. Since June 2021, it has supported standalone stall tenants with three rounds of rental relief – of 60 per cent, 40 per cent and 25 per cent.
'If you sell your soul to the devil, you get more grain.'
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Source: IndependentSG - 🏆 9. / 63 Read more »