Signs Of The Times

Bubble Tea was a Taiwanese import, a flavored drink concoction added with "pearls". But the two manning the hole-in-the-wall outlet were obviously mainland Chinese.

When queried whether both came to Singapore specifically to be hired to peddle drinks, the more conversant in English answered "yes". Couldn't they be doing same in Beijing? She went on in Mandarin to explain that China has winters, so they cannot sell the cold drinks all year round.

The difficult part to swallow was that no Singaporeans were available for the easy job of manning a beverage counter in airconditioned comfort.