Singapore’s ‘ice cream uncles’ are melting away thanks to old age and red tape: ‘it’s just the way it is’
- The future looks bleak for the city state’s last remaining traditional ice cream vendors as strict regulations on street hawking squeeze them
- ‘I don’t feel any particular way about the industry dying out, it’s just the way it is,’ an elderly seller says
“It stings, but I’m quite used to it,” the man, who prefers to be known only by his last name, Liang, said in Mandarin.
Most hawkers collect their ice cream and dry ice from wholesale distributors around the country.
It’s a windy, overcast Friday morning and Liang, who is in his 70s, is getting ready for work.
Soon, he’ll load his cooler with ice cream from the wholesale distributor next door before selling the treat to passers-by in the sweltering equator heat for about S$1.50 (US$1.10), with only the shade of his bike’s umbrella to keep him cool.
Liang is one of Singapore’s remaining traditional ice cream sellers and part of a bygone era.
Up until the 1960s, Singapore was teeming with street hawkers, selling everything from shaved ice desserts to pork rib soup.