Pulled rickshaw

Main article: Rickshaw
Japanese rickshaws c.1897
Tourists disguising as geisha girls on a rickshaw in Kyoto, Japan

A pulled rickshaw (or ricksha) is a mode of human-powered transport by which a runner draws a two-wheeled cart which seats one or two people.

In recent times the use of human-powered rickshaws has been discouraged or outlawed in many countries due to concern for the welfare of rickshaw workers.[1] Pulled rickshaws have been replaced mainly by cycle rickshaw and auto rickshaws.

Overview

Main article: Rickshaw

Rickshaws are commonly believed to have been invented in Japan in the 1860s, at the beginning of a rapid period of technical advancement.[2][3] In the 19th century, rickshaw pulling became an inexpensive, popular mode of transportation across Asia.[2]

Peasants who migrated to large Asian cities often worked first as a rickshaw runner.[4][5] It was "the deadliest occupation in the East, [and] the most degrading for human beings to pursue."[5][nb 1]

The rickshaw's popularity in Japan declined by the 1930s with the advent of automated forms of transportation, like automobiles and trains. In China, the rickshaw's popularity began to decline in the 1920s.[4][6] In Singapore, the rickshaw's popularity increased into the 20th century. There were approximately 50,000 rickshaws in 1920 and that number doubled by 1930.[7]

Description

The initial rickshaws rode on iron-shod wooden wheels and the passenger sat on hard, flat seats. In the late 19th century and early 20th century. Rubber or pneumatic rubber tires, spring cushions, and backrests improved the passenger's comfort. Other features, such as lights, were also added.[8]

In the city of Shanghai, public rickshaws were painted yellow to differentiate from the private vehicles of the wealthy citizens, which were described as:

... always shiny, were carefully maintained, and sported 'a spotless white upholstered double seat, a clean plaid for one's lap, and a wide protective tarpaulin to protect the passenger (or passengers, since sometimes up to three people rode together) against the rain.'[9]

The rickshaws were a convenient means of travel, able to traverse winding, narrow city streets. During monsoon season, passengers might be carried out of the carriage, above the flooded streets, to the door of their arrival. They offered door-to-door travel, unlike scheduled public bus and tram service.[8]

Country overview

Africa

East Africa

In the 1920s, it was used in Bagamoyo, Tanga, Tanzania and other areas of East Africa for short distances.[10]

Madagascar

Pousse-pousse in Madagascar

Rickshaws, known as pousse-pousse, were introduced by British missionaries. The intention was to eliminate the slavery-associated palanquin. Its name pousse-pousse, meaning push-push, is reportedly gained from the need to have a second person to push the back of the rickshaw on Madagascar's hilly roads. They are a common form of transport in a number of Malagasy cities, especially Antsirabe, but are not found in the towns or cities with very hilly roads.[11] They are similar to Chinese rickshaws and are often brightly decorated.[12][13]

Nairobi

Rickshaws operated in Nairobi in the beginning of the 20th century; pullers went on strike there in 1908.[14]

South Africa

Durban is famous for its iconic Zulu rickshaw pullers navigating throughout the city. These colorful characters are famous for their giant, vibrant hats and costumes. There were about 2,000 registered men who pulled rickshaws in Durban in 1904; Since displaced by motorised transport, there are approximately 25 rickshaws left whom mostly cater to tourists today.[15][16]

Asia

Confucius (transported in a wheeled cart) and children, as imagined by a 17th-century Chinese artist; presumably, the design is similar to the vehicles used at the time. (Illustration from a children's book, Xiao er lun, printed in 1680)

China

In China, from the ancient times and until the 19th century, rich and important people, when traveling overland, were commonly transported in sedan chairs carried by bearers, rather than in wheeled vehicles. This was at least partly explained by road conditions.[17] [18] It is thought that it was from China (or East Asia in general) that sedan chair (a.k.a. "palanquin") designs were introduced into Western Europe in the 17th century. [19] However, wheeled carts for one or two passengers, pushed (rather than pulled, like a proper rikshaw) by human servant, were attested as well. [20]

Rickshaw and driver in Qingdao, c. 1914

The proper rickshaw (pronounced renliche in Chinese) was first seen in China in 1886, and was used for public transportation in 1898. It was commonly called dongyangche for Japanese vehicle or "east- foreign-vehicle."[2][21]

Rickshaw transportation was an important element in urban development in 20th century China, as a mode of transportation, source of employment and facilitation of migration for workers. According to author David Strand:

Sixty thousand men took as many as a half million fares a day in a city of slightly more than one million. Sociologist Li Jinghan estimated that one out of six males in the city between the ages of sixteen and fifty was a puller. Rickshaw men and their dependents made up almost 20 percent of Beijing's population.[22]

Shanghai's rickshaw industry began in 1874 with 1,000 rickshaws imported from Japan. By 1914 there were 9,718 vehicles. The pullers were a large group of the city's working poor: 100,000 men pulled rickshaws by the early 1940s, up from 62,000 in the mid-1920s.[23]

Most manual rickshaws, a symbol of oppression of the working class,[24] were eliminated in China after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Hong Kong

Outside the Lion Pavilion Lookout in 2011 on The Peak, Hong Kong, can find this last licensed rickshaw ride in this ex-British colony.

Rickshaws were first imported to Hong Kong from Japan in 1880. They were a popular form of transport for many years, peaking at more than 3,000 in the 1920s. However, their popularity waned after World War II. No new licenses for rickshaws have been issued since 1975, and only a few old men—four as of 2009[25]—still bear a license. It is reported that only one of them still offer rickshaw rides on The Peak, mainly for tourists.[26]

India

Kolkata rickshaw, 2004

Around 1880, rickshaws appeared in India, first in Simla.[27] At the turn of the century it was introduced in Kolkata (Calcutta), India and in 1914 was a conveyance for hire.[2]

Service availability

Though most cities offer auto rickshaw service, hand-pulled rickshaws do exist in some areas, such as Kolkata,[28] "the last bastion of human powered tana rickshaws".[29][nb 2] According to Trillin, most Kolkata rickshaws serve people "just a notch above poor" who tend to travel short distances. However, in a recent article by Hyrapiet and Greiner,[33] the authors found that rickshaws also transport middle-class residents who use their services out of convenience and for short distance trips to the local marketplace. Rickshaws are used to transport goods, shoppers, and school children.[nb 3] It is also used as a "24 hour ambulance service."[31] Also according to Hyrapiet and Greiner, rickshaw pullers have acted as peer-educators for the Calcutta Samaritans prodving critical information on HIV/AIDS because of their access to marginalized groups within Kolkata's red light districts.

Rickshaws are the most effective means of transportation through the flooded streets of the monsoon season.[29] When Kolkata floods rickshaw business increases and prices rise.[34][nb 4]

The pullers live a life of poverty and many sleep under rickshaws.[29] Rudrangshu Mukerjee, an academic, stated many people's ambivalent feelings about riding a rickshaw: he does not like about being carried in a rickshaw but does not like the idea of "taking away their livelihood."[1]

Motor vehicles are banned in the eco-sensitive zone area of Matheran, India, a tourist hill station near Mumbai so man-pulled rickshaws are still one of the major forms of transport there.

Legislation

In August 2005, the Communist government of West Bengal announced plans to completely ban pulled rickshaws, resulting in protests and strikes of the pullers.[35] In 2006, the chief minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, announced that pulled rickshaws would be banned and that rickshaw pullers would be rehabilitated.[36][nb 5]

A Chinese man posing next to his rickshaw, Medan, Indonesia 1936

Indonesia

Edward, Prince of Wales disguising himself as Jinrikishafu (Japanese ricksha men) at a party in 1922.

Japan

There are several theories about the invention of the rickshaw. Japan historian Seidensticker wrote of the theories:

Though the origins of the rickshaw are not entirely clear, they seem to be Japanese, and of Tokyo specifically. The most widely accepted theory offers the name of three inventors, and gives 1869 as the date of invention.[7]

Starting in 1870, the Tokyo government issued a permission for Izumi Yosuke, Takayama Kosuke, and Suzuki Tokujiro to build and sell rickshaws.[37] By 1872, they became the main mode of transportation in Japan, with about 40,000 rickshaws in service.[6]

The rickshaw's popularity in Japan declined by the 1930s with the advent of automated forms of transportation, like automobiles and trains. After the World War II, when gasoline and automobiles were scarce, they made a temporary come-back. The rickshaw tradition has stayed alive in Kyoto and Tokyo's geisha districts[4][6] only for tourists as well as in other tourist places. The tradition completely disappeared once, but a few people revived jinrikisha (human-powered rickshaws) for tourists in the 1970s-1980s[38][39] and the rickshaws became popular as a tourism resource in the 2000s.[40][41][42] The modern rickshaw men are a kind of tourist guide, who take their clients to some tourist spots and explain about them.[43] Many of them are part-time working students and athletes who like running or exchanging cultures.

Malaysia

Rickshaws were a common mode of transport in urban areas of Malaysia in the 19th and early 20th centuries until gradually replaced by cycle rickshaws.

Pakistan

Pulled and Cycle rickshaw (qinqi) have been banned in Pakistan since November 1949.[44] Prior to the introduction of auto rickshaws in cities, horse-drawn carriages (tongas) were a main source of public transportation.

Singapore

Singapore had received its first rickshaws in 1880 and soon after they were prolific, making a "noticeable change in the traffic on Singapore's streets."[2] Bullock carts and gharries were used prior to the introduction of rickshaws.[5]

Many of the poorest individuals in Singapore in the late nineteenth century were poor, unskilled people of Chinese ancestry. Sometimes called coolies, the hardworking men found pulling rickshaws was a new means of employment.[45] Rickshaw pullers experienced "very poor" living conditions, poverty and long hours of hard work. Income remained unchanged from 1876 to 1926, about $.60 per day.[46][47][nb 6]

Rickshaws popularity increased into the 20th century. There were approximately 50,000 rickshaws in 1920 and that number doubled by 1930.[7] In or after the 1920s a union was formed, called the Rickshaw Association, protect the welfare of rickshaw workers.[49]

North America

United States of America

A tourist "Ricsha" ride in Chinatown, Los Angeles, 1938

From A History of the Los Angeles City Market (1930-1950), pulled rickshaws were operated in Los Angeles by high school teenagers during that time period.[50][51]

Canada

Foot-driven rickshaws have enjoyed several decades of popularity in Halifax, Nova Scotia; in addition to providing tours of the historic Waterfront, rickshaws are also occasionally used for transportation by local residents. The city is home to the oldest rickshaw company in Canada.[52]

Rickshaws are a popular mode of transportation in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, providing tours of historical Byward Market, in the summer. Ottawa's rickshaws stay true to the traditional foot-driven rickshaw model, but feature modern sound-systems.[53][54]

Books, films, television, music and modern art

Rickshaw in a museum in Japan

See also

Rickshaws
Other human powered transport

Notes

  1. ↑ In China, coolies performed rickshaw pulling. Other hard or demeaning jobs included being night soil cleaners and dock workers.[5]
  2. ↑ Several major streets have been closed to rickshaw traffic since 1972, and in 1982 the city seized over 12,000 rickshaws and destroyed them. In 1992, it was estimated that over 30,000 rickshaws were operating in the city, all but 6,000 of them illegally, lacking a license (no new licenses have been issued since 1945). The large majority of rickshaw pullers rent their rickshaws for a few dollars per shift. They live cheaply in hostels, trying to save money to send home. (Eide, 1993) Each dera, a mixture of a garage, repair shop, and dormitory, has a sardar that manages it. Pullers often pay around 100 rupees (around $2.50 United States dollars) per month to live in a dera.[30] Hindu and Muslim pullers often share housing.[31] Some pullers sleep in the streets in their rickshaws. As of 2008, many of the Kolkata rickshaw pullers originate from Bihar, considered to be one of the poorest states in India.[31][32]
  3. ↑ Trillin added that pullers told him that children enrolled in schools were the "steadiest" customers. Many middle-class families contract with rickshaw pullers to transport their children; a rickshaw puller who transports children becomes a "family retainer."[31]
  4. ↑ A Kolkata writer told Trillin, "When it rains, even the governor takes rickshaws."[34]
  5. ↑ Calvin Trillin of National Geographic stated in a 2008 article that the city government has not decided how rickshaw drivers would be rehabilitated, nor has it settled on a date regarding when the government would decide. Trillin added that many high West Bengal officials made statements saying that rickshaws would be banned from 1976 to 2008.[1]
  6. ↑ 80% of rickshaw pullers were addicted to opium and many gambled and purchased the services of whores. These activities locked them into a state of poverty, but the remaining group of pullers might be able to improve their lot over time and "strike into new lines of business as the opportunities arose." Rickshaw pullers could become repairers or owners of rickshaws or bicycles.[47][48]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Trillin, Calvin. "Last Days of the Rickshaw." National Geographic. Volume 213, Number 4. April 2008. 104.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 James Francis Warren. Rickshaw Coolie: A People's History of Singapore, 1880-1940. NUS Press. p. 14. ISBN 997169266X.
  3. ↑ David Diefendorf (2007). Amazing . . . But False!: Hundreds of "Facts" You Thought Were True, But Aren't. Sterling Publishing Company. p. 223. ISBN 1402737912.
  4. 1 2 3 Boye De Mente (2010). Demetra De Ment, ed. The Bizarre and the Wondrous from the Land of the Rising Sun!. Cultural-Insight Books. p. 95. ISBN 1456424750.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Leo Suryadinata (1992). Chinese Adaptation and Diversity: Essays on Society and Literature in Indonesia, Malaysia & Singapore. National University of Singapore. Centre for Advanced Studies. NUS Press. p. 37. ISBN 9971691868.
  6. 1 2 3 "Japanese rickshaw". Powerhouse Museum. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  7. 1 2 3 Hanchao Lu. Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century. 1999: University of California Press. p. 348. ISBN 0520215648.
  8. 1 2 Hanchao Lu (1999). Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century. University of California Press. p. 69. ISBN 0520215648.
  9. ↑ Hanchao Lu (1999). Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century. University of California Press. pp. 69–70. ISBN 0520215648.
  10. ↑ Werner Voigt (1995). 60 Years in East Africa: The Life of a Settler. GeneralStore Publishing House. pp. 32, 34–35. ISBN 1896182399.
  11. ↑ Hilary Bradt. Madagascar (10 ed.). Bradt Travel Guides. p. 98. ISBN 1841623415.
  12. ↑ Jay Heale, Zawiah Abdul Latif (2008). Madagascar, Volume 15 of Cultures of the World Cultures of the World - Group 15 (2 ed.). Marshall Cavendish. pp. 75–76. ISBN 0761430369.
  13. ↑ Madagascar Travel Guide (7 ed.). Lonely Planet. 2012. ISBN 1743213018. Retrieved 2013-04-13.
  14. ↑ A. Adu Boahen, Unesco. International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of Africa, ed. (1985). Africa under colonial domination 1880 - 1935: 7. UNESCO. p. 666. ISBN 9231017136.
  15. ↑ Ethekwini Municipality Communications Department, edited by Fiona Wayman, Neville Grimmet and Angela Spencer. "Zulu Rickshaws". Durban.gov.za. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
  16. ↑ Mary Fitzpatrick, Kate Armstrong (2006). South Africa: Lesotho & Swaziland (7 ed.). Lonely Planet. p. 308. ISBN 1740599705.
  17. ↑ Murray, Hugh (1836), An Historical and Descriptive Account of China: Its Ancient and Modern History ... 1, Oliver & Boyd, pp. 344–345
  18. ↑ Staunton, Sir George (1797), An Historical Account of the Embassy to the Emperor of China, Undertaken by Order of the King of Great Britain: Including the Manners & Customs of the Inhabitants & Preceded by an Account of the Causes of the Embassy & Voyage to China. Abridged Principally from the Papers of Earl Macartney..., J. Stockdale, pp. 279–280
  19. ↑ Reichwein, A. (2013), China and Europe, Routledge, p. 35, ISBN 1136204628
  20. ↑ Colby, Fred Myron (1888), "Locomotion in the Olden Time", Granite Monthly: A New Hampshire Magazine 11: 64
  21. ↑ Hanchao Lu (1999). Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century. University of California Press. p. 68. ISBN 0520215648.
  22. ↑ David Strand. Rickshaw Beijing: City People and Politics in the 1920. p. 21.
  23. ↑ Hanchao Lu (1999). Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century. University of California Press. pp. 65–66, 68. ISBN 0520215648.
  24. ↑ Hanchao Lu (1999). Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century. University of California Press. pp. 66, 73. ISBN 0520215648.
  25. ↑ Section 3 Registration and Licensing of Vehicles and Drivers
  26. ↑ 被遺忘的公交 The Forgotten Transportation: Rickshaw ride in Hong Kong
  27. ↑ Pamela Kanwar (2003). Imperial Simla: the political culture of the Raj (2 ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 176. ISBN 0195667212.
  28. ↑ Pippa de Bruyn, Keith Bain, David Allardice, Shonar Joshi. Frommer's India (Fourth ed.). 2010: John Wiley and Sons. pp. 15, 57, 156. ISBN 0470645806.
  29. 1 2 3 Joe Bindloss. India (2 ed.). 2009: Lonely Planet. p. 135. ISBN 174179319X.
  30. ↑ Trillin, Calvin. "Last Days of the Rickshaw." National Geographic. Volume 213, Number 4. April 2008. 101-104.
  31. 1 2 3 4 Trillin, Calvin. "Last Days of the Rickshaw." National Geographic. Volume 213, Number 4. April 2008. 100.
  32. ↑ Trillin, Calvin. "Last Days of the Rickshaw." National Geographic. Volume 213, Number 4. April 2008. 96.
  33. ↑ Hyrapiet and Greiner, 2012. "CALCUTTA'S HAND–PULLED RICKSHAWS: CULTURAL POLITICS AND PLACE MAKING IN A GLOBALIZING CITY" Geographical Review. Volume 102, Issue 4, pages 407–426, October 2012
  34. 1 2 Trillin, Calvin. "Last Days of the Rickshaw." National Geographic. Volume 213, Number 4. April 2008. 101.
  35. ↑ WebIndia, 2005.
  36. ↑ Trillin, Calvin. "Last Days of the Rickshaw." National Geographic. Volume 213, Number 4. April 2008. 97.
  37. ↑ Boye De Mente (2010). Demetra De Ment, ed. The Bizarre and the Wondrous from the Land of the Rising Sun!. Cultural-Insight Books. p. 94. ISBN 1456424750.
  38. ↑ Jinrikisha in Kamakura Youfuu-tei
  39. ↑ Jinrikisha in Hidatakayama Gokurak-sha
  40. ↑ 3-Day Model Trip Day1 / Kakunodate - Lake Tazawa-ko - Morioka Japan National Tourism Organization, 31 Jan 2002
  41. ↑ 京都観光 ＩＳＦＪ政策フォーラム２００９発表論文 12 – 13 Dec. 2009
  42. ↑ Rickshaw TV Show "Sekai Tsukai Densetsu" 2002-2003
  43. ↑ Hataraku Ikemen JoshiFuji Channel 2013/04/29
  44. ↑ Pakistan bans cycle rickshaws in 1949
  45. ↑ James Francis Warren. Rickshaw Coolie: A People's History of Singapore, 1880-1940. NUS Press. p. 15. ISBN 997169266X.
  46. ↑ Suryadinata (1992). p. 39.
  47. 1 2 James Alexander (2006). Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore. New Holland Publishers. p. 435. ISBN 1860113095.
  48. ↑ Leo Suryadinata (1992). (same). pp. 39–40.
  49. ↑ Suryadinata (1992). p. 45.
  50. ↑ Tara Fickle. "A History of The Los Angeles City Market: 1930-1950". Chinese Historical Society of Southern California (previously published: Gum Saan Journal, Volume 32, No. 1, 2010. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
  51. ↑ Iris Chang (2004). The Chinese in America: A Narrative History. Penguin. p. PT155. ISBN 1101126876.
  52. ↑ "Halifax Rickshaw Tours". 2013. Retrieved 2013-07-19.
  53. ↑ Hilary Davidson, Paul Karr, Herbert Bailey Livesey, Bill McRae, Donald Olson (2006). Frommer's Canada: With the best hiking & outdoor adventures (14 ed.). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0470044578.
  54. ↑ "Downtown Ottawa Rickshaw Tours". Ottawa Rickshaws. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  55. ↑ "The Phantom Rickshaw". Online Literature. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  56. ↑ Rickshaw Boy: A Novel. Translated by Howard Goldblatt. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Chinese Classics. 2010. ISBN 9780061436925.
  57. ↑ "Luo tuo Xiang Zi (Rickshaw Boy), 1982". IMDb. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  58. ↑ "Most Played Juke Box Records". The Billboard (Nielsen Business Media, Inc.) 59 (4). 25 January 1947.
  59. ↑ "Muhomatsu no issho (Rickshaw Man), 1958". IMDb. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  60. ↑ "Do Bigha Zamin, 1953". IMDb. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  61. ↑ "City of Joy, 1992". IMDb. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  62. ↑ Stacy Lavilla (9–15 July 1998). "'Seinfeld' Edits Out Anti-Asian Joke: 'Chinaman's nightcap' schtick won't run in reruns". Asian Week. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  63. ↑ Pearl S. Buck (2004). The Good Earth (reprint ed.). Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0743272935.
  64. ↑ Banksy - Inside
  65. ↑ "Backstage Pass (15 May 2001)". IMDb. Retrieved 13 April 2013.

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