Smith Street (

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

: 史密斯街 shǐ mì sī jiē) is a small

street A street is a public thoroughfare in a city, town or village, typically lined with Building, buildings on one or both sides. Streets often include pavements (sidewalks), pedestrian crossings, and sometimes amenities like Street light, streetligh ...

running through the heart of the

Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...

district in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. The only road in the area to be named after a

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an, it commemorates the hugely popular Sir

Cecil Clementi Smith Sir Cecil Clementi Smith (23 December 1840 – 6 February 1916),. was a British colonial administrator of the Government, administrator. Background The son of an Essex rector, John Smith, and his wife Cecilia Susanna Clementi (daughter of Muz ...

, then Governor of the Straits Settlements and High Commissioner in 1887 to 1893, who was a Chinese scholar and responsible for most of the work to combat the problems of

secret societies A secret society is an organization about which the activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence a ...

. As is common for roads with English names, it has an informal Chinese name, ''hei yuen kai'', meaning Theatre Street in reference to the Lai Chun Yuen Theatre then located at unit 36 and the centre of entertainment in the

Kreta Ayer Kreta Ayer Road ( , ) is a one-way road located in Chinatown within the Outram Planning Area in Singapore. The road links Neil Road to New Bridge Road and Eu Tong Sen Street, and is intersected by Keong Saik Road. Etymology and history In t ...

area. Its red-light reputation contributed character to the street, which was also known for hawker stalls crowding into the street during its heyday reputation as the main "Food Street". There are attempts to recreate the ambiance today by closing parts of the road and turning it into an outdoor eating area. A local joke has it that the road got its English name when the British asked Chinese locals the name of the road, they given clueless answers "''Si mi''?" (

Hokkien Hokkien ( , ) is a Varieties of Chinese, variety of the Southern Min group of Chinese language, Chinese languages. Native to and originating from the Minnan region in the southeastern part of Fujian in southeastern China, it is also referred ...

for What?) as they could not understand English. Thus they duly recorded the name as "Smith" instead.

References

*Peter K G Dunlop (2000) ''Street Names of Singapore'' Who's Who Publishing Roads in Singapore Outram, Singapore Chinatown, Singapore {{Singapore-road-stub