Rokok or cigarette? : a historical survey of the tobacco industry in Singapore from 1920s to 1930s

• Main Author: Muhammad Hafiz Mohamad
• Other Authors: Michael Stanley-Baker
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::History
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/76602
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This paper examines the economic and social history of tobacco in Singapore from 1920s to 1930s. The history of tobacco and their networks are broad and beyond that of a single entity. The paper will first trace the history of tobacco from the perspective of the British American Tobacco Company and how they, along with other international tobacco companies marketed their products. The paper will then survey the Kallang Rokok, a village that specialised in making nipah wrappers for indigenous smoking and link their production to the region. Through this, we will attempt to understand the various socio-economic changes that led to the transition from indigenous smokes to the consumption of mass produced tobacco, and how these changes led to the imbrication of ethnic identity and cultural heritage towards mass produced cigarettes.