As early as the 10th century, there was evidence of Chinese people trading and settling in Singapore, [5] [6] with various Chinese records documenting trading activities and Chinese residents on the island up until the 14th century.
There was only a significant number of Chinese residents permanently settling in Singapore during the early to mid-twentieth century, forming the bulk of the Chinese Singaporean population in existence today. Many Chinese Singaporeans can trace their ancestry to provinces of southeastern China that mainly include speakers of Hokkien, Teochew, and to a lesser extent, Hakka and Cantonese. As early as the 10th century, there was evidence of Chinese people trading and settling in Singapore [5] [6] and there were also various Chinese records documenting trading activities and Chinese residents on the island from the 10th to the 14th century.
There was only a significant number of Chinese residents permanently settling in Singapore during the early to mid twentieth century, forming the bulk of the Chinese Singaporean population today. Archaeological excavations of artefacts such as Chinese coins or ceramics in Singapore, which dated back to the period of the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song — and Emperor Renzong of Song — , indicated that Chinese merchants or traders had already visited Singapore by the Song dynasty.
The Chinese record Annals of various foreign states Zhu fan zhi written by Zhao Rushi in clearly described Chinese merchant ships arriving in Singapore from Quanzhou and various Chinese trading activities. Following the decline of Srivijayan power, Temasek was alternately claimed by the Majapahit and the Siamese, but the invasion of and caused Singapore to be destroyed. Following that, there were little Chinese records of the visiting of Chinese to Singapore. This may suggest that from to , some Chinese had settled, lived, died and were buried in Singapore.
From the founding of modern Singapore by Stamford Raffles until the Japanese occupation in , Singapore was ruled as a colony by the British. When the British first arrived in Singapore, most of the inhabitants on the island of Singapore were fisherman, seamen or pirates, living in small houses. There were about people; a majority of Malay and 30 minority Chinese.
