From Streets to Stalls: The History and Evolution of Hawking and Hawker Centres in Singapore

Singapore is renowned for the delightful cuisines that can be found in its hawker centres. Travellers herald from across the globe simply to taste dishes like chicken rice, laksa, and chilli crab. In 2020, "Hawker Culture in Singapore" was selected to be on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, a firm acknowledgement towards the impact and influence of hawking in Singapore's history. Less widely known is this—though now synonymous with Singaporean culture, the fate of hawking once hung in the balance.

From Streets to Stalls traces the longue-durée history of hawking in Singapore and how it has evolved. This book highlights the challenges hawkers had to overcome before achieving their celebrated status in Singapore and around the world. It also delves into the policies implemented to enact hawker reform and regulation, and explores how hawker centres have been transformed into essential third spaces that promote social mingling and support Singapore's founding principles of multiculturalism.

Taking readers through time, From Streets to Stalls investigates the origins of hawking in ninth-century Singapore and ends with a commentary on the present-day sociocultural importance that it retains.

Ryan Kueh is a Singaporean who is passionate about the intersection of consumption culture and history. He holds a master's degree from Tsinghua University under the Schwarzman Scholars programme and completed his bachelor's at Yale-NUS College, reading Politics, Philosophy, Economics (PPE) and History.

For his next passion project, Ryan is researching the evolution of Singaporean Chinese/Nanyang Chinese cuisine. Specifically, he aims to uncover why and how local delicacies have evolved vis-à-vis their Chinese origins, unpacking the idiosyncrasies and uniqueness of local culture.