Politics of Memory

WORK

Apron dress framed behind glass which is covered with a red grid drawing – a reference to an unfolded "Samsui women"* headgear.

* The Samsui women–known as hong tou jin, red headscarves–are Chinese female immigrants who came to Singapore between 1934 and 1949 in search for work. They found employments in tin mines, rubber estates, and households. Mainly from 1950 onwards, they have been hired as construction workers. This work earned them the iconic role of "contributing to build and develop Singapore". As a group the Samsui women have been easily recognised by their uniform of daily (work) wear: the black tunic and pants called samfu, and the remarkable red headgear

POLITICS OF MEMORY

"This apron dress was worn by my great grand-mother and through generations handed down to me. It served my great grand-mother in the kitchen and garden, but on weekends and holidays the same garment was worn with a starched white blouse or with a shorter apron skirt made of natural linen–providing an entire new look. The “cornflower” blue of this apron was a common colour for apron dresses in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s as worn by work maids. (...)

(Such) aprones are often associated with "Trümmerfrauen". There is no accurate equivalent in English– Trümmerfrauen refers to women who collected and cleaned bricks of bombarded cities in Germany and Austria, after the end of the Second World War. These women– similar to the Samsui women in Singapore –became icons in Germany for their help to rebuild the country in postwar times. Despite recent debate which is putting the political background and motivation of Trümmerfrauen into question (see: Leonie Treber, Mythos Trümmerfrauen, Essen: Klartext Essen, 2014) and despite the different cultural and historic background of these women groups, there are some striking parallels: the Samsui Women and the Trümmerfrauen were groups of women working around the same time-period on construction sites in professions that were and still are domains solely occupied by men; they were hard labourers praised and glorified as icons; and they are surrounded by myths-reverberations of the politics of memory.

Text excerpts from Regina Maria Möller "Interrogative Pattern – Text(ile) Weave", in: Bauer, Rujoiu (ed): Place. Labour. Capital. Singapore: CCA; NUS Press, 2017