Inference: Letter writing was a highly attractive job for the literate Chinese immigrants who moved to Singapore. In the source, a seemingly well-fed Chinese letter writer is waiting for his customer to express the words she wanted to have in her letter. His customer is noticeably skinnier, showing that letter writers were more well-off compared to other Chinese immigrants in Singapore. As most Chinese immigrants in Singapore were uneducated and had to depend on the letter writers as their sole contact with their families back in China, letter writers were often employed and earned a lot of money. Thus, the literate Chinese in Singapore worked as letter writers. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Source 2: An oral account of a rickshaw puller Previously, the fare was either 12 cents or 5 cents. The minimum fare I charged was 5 cents. If we collect 3 cents more, the passenger would pick up a fight with us. Sometimes the fare was 15 cents, sometimes 20 cents. It was not fixed.
Inference: The source states that the Chinese immigrants who worked as rickshaw pullers often were taken advantaged of and their prices were not fixed. By only charging 5 cents a ride, they were not able to earn a lot of money. Also, that meant that rickshaw pulling was not a stable job for the Chinese immigrants as their income changed with the situation and there was high competition. Although rickshaw pullers were poor, Chinese immigrants still worked as them as they were mostly uneducated and could not get a high-paying job. Moreover, they had to support their families back in China, so rickshaw pulling was an attractive job for Chinese immigrants. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Source 3: A picture of a chinese storyteller enthralling his readers during the colonial period of Singapore
Inference: Chinese street storytelling was a popular form of entertainment in Singapore during the colonial period, thus being an attractive job for Chinese immigrants. The source shows a lot of people sitting around a storyteller, stating that the popular Chinese storytellers probably earned a lot of money. Chinese storytellers had to adapt to their listeners’ desires too. The Chinese storytellers were often aged people who could not do menial labor anymore and thus had to take on another job to support themselves. Thus, Chinese immigrants worked as storytellers. .______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________