When did Chinese first immigrate to Singapore?

From19th century to the beginning of 20th century, Chinese who came to Singapore from China were called "new visitors". At that time, Singapore was still a British colony, and "new visitors" were generally just "foreign workers", not immigrants. They mainly come from the southern coastal areas of China, such as Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan. I became attached to Tangshan (another name for China) and considered myself an overseas Chinese. After Singapore's independence, its descendants became Singapore citizens, and their sense of identity and belonging to China weakened. They call themselves "China people", but they don't consider themselves "overseas Chinese" at all, and they rarely call themselves "China people".