Source-Based Question 1

 SOURCE-BASED QUESTION

Explain how this source provides us with information on the early lives of Chinese immigrants in Singapore. How useful is this source? (5m)

Description/Inference/Evaluation

This picture shows two men who are rickshaw pullers in Singapore. I think that this job is difficult and tiring as they need to use their physical strength outdoors. Also, these men are poor as they are bare-footed and very skinny. Although they use a lot of strength to transport people from one place to another, they only earn a little bit of money. Therefor, this job is tough.

This source tells us that life in the past was very hard. People were poor and had tough jobs such as being rickshaw pullers. These people were very hardworking, because they use a lot of strength to do their job although they know that their pay is very little. This source is useful in telling us about the typical scenes in early Singapore. The customers are mainly westerners. This tells us that in the past, westerners were wealthier. The two rickshaw pullers are most probably Singaporeans, so this tells us that Singapore was not very successful in the past. The evidence to support this is that the westerners had enough money to pay the rickshaw pullers to transport them to different places.