Being a female factory worker in 1970s Singapore was pretty tough.

There were bad bosses, uncomfortable working conditions (no aircon), boring work, low pay, and the occasional hysteria or possession to deal with.

Yes, there were at least two separate cases of mass hysteria involving female factory workers reported in the local papers in the 1970s -- one in 1973 and another in 1976.

The first incident in 1973 was the more major one.

Mass hysteria at General Electric factory in 1973

On Jan. 17, 1973, a mass hysteria broke out among 25 female employees, causing the General Electric Television and Appliance's flatted factory to shut down in the afternoon.

The incident was serious enough for The Straits Times to report on it on Jan. 18, 1973.

The article quoted someone from the factory saying that the affected women went into a trance and started screaming.

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This was the third incident of mass hysteria in four days that shut down the factory at Kallang Junction, off Boon Keng Road.

The first had involved about eight women on Jan. 13, 1973, and the second saw 12 affected three days later.

Things did not stop there though.

A news report in New Nation highlighted a fourth incident on Jan. 19, 1973 with 11 women affected.

Naturally, the government took a scientific and pragmatic approach on the matter, as the Labour Ministry was quoted then saying this in another New Nation article on Jan. 20, 1973:

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A ghost involved

A more intriguing explanation for the phenomenon was, of course, ghosts.

Some of the news reports said that a spirit had been lurking at the factory's women's toilet for many weeks. Employees claimed to have seen a teenage girl there on several nights.

Bomohs (Malay medicine man) and Buddhist monks were called in to cleanse the factory by burning incense and sprinkling holy water.

After that, no further incidents from this case were reported, until 1976, when a similar spate of mass female hysteria hit the Varta factory along Chai Chee Road.

A bomoh was called in to take care of that case too.

Present day location where the General Electric factory stood

Here's a present day view of Kallang Junction along which the factory where mass female hysteria occurred in 1973 was located.

You may believe that ghosts were involved or not, but one thing's for sure: The mass hysteria outbreaks were pretty effective in shutting down a factory, probably even better than any strike.

Maybe that's why machines are stealing people's jobs these days.

Top image adapted from NAS, NewspaperSG, and here

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