From Streets to Stalls traces the longue-durée history of hawking in Singapore and how it has evolved. This book highlights the challenges hawkers had to overcome before achieving their celebrated status in Singapore and around the world. It also delves into the policies implemented to enact hawker reform and regulation, and explores how hawker centres have been transformed into essential third spaces that promote social mingling and support Singapore's founding principles of multiculturalism.
Taking readers through time, From Streets to Stalls investigates the origins of hawking in ninth-century Singapore and ends with a commentary on the present-day sociocultural importance that it retains.