Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Visit to the Peranakan Museum

Haha, somehow or rather I consider myself 1/2-peranakan and have always wanted to view the museum, so here's some pictures that I took for your viewing pleasure.

You will find more details on their website here.

Peranakans are generally the descendants of foreign immigrants taking on local chinese wives in Singapore during the colonial period. Basically a foreign dad with a local chinese mum.

In both Malay and Indonesian, 'Peranakan' is defined as 'descendant' with no connotation of the ethnicity of decent unless followed by a subsequent qualifying noun, such as for example Cina (Chinese), Belanda (Dutch) or Jepang (Japanese). Peranakan has the implied connotation of referring to the ancestry of great-grandparents or more distant ancestors.

The word is a Javanese loan honorific word from Dutch Nona(grandma) meaning: foreign married Madam. The term for Straits-Chinese addressed as nyonya originated as Javanese at the time had a tendency to address all foreign women (and perhaps those who appeared foreign) as nyonya.

Straits-Chinese are defined as those born or living in the Straits Settlements- a British colonial construct of Penang, Meleka and Singapore constituted in 1826. Straits-Chinese were not considered Baba Nyonya unless they displayed certain Sino-Malay syncretic attributes.

The language of the Peranakans, Baba Malay (Bahasa Melayu Baba), is a dialect of the Malay language (Bahasa Melayu), which contains many Hokkien words. It is a dying language, and its contemporary use is mainly limited to members of the older generation. English has now replaced this as the main language spoken amongst the younger generation.

Entrance

Peranakan and Baba-Nyonya are the descendants of late 18th Century Chinese immigrants to the Nusantara region during the Colonial era, especially the British Straits Settlements of Malaya and the Dutch-controlled island of Java and other locations, who have adopted partially or in full Malay customs.

While the term Peranakan is most commonly used among the ethnic Chinese for those of Chinese descent also known as Straits Chinese, there are also other, comparatively small so-called Peranakan communities, such as Indian Hindu Peranakans (Chitty), Indian Muslim Peranakans (Jawi Pekan) (Pekan a colloquial contraction of Peranakan.) and Eurasian Peranakans (Kristang)

In peranakan culture, the ladies are referred to as "nyonyas" (also commonly misspelled nonya) and the males as "babas".

Marriage

It was not uncommon for early Chinese traders to take Malay women of Peninsular Malay or Sumatera as wives. Consequently the Baba Nyonya possessed a synergistic mix of Sino-Malay cultural traits.

Peranakan men usually took brides from within the local Peranakan community. Peranakan families occasionally imported brides from China and sent their daughters to China to find husbands.

Marriages within the community and of similar stature were the norm. Wealthy men prefigured to marry a chin choay: or matrilocal marriage where husband moved in with wife's family.

The headpieces and jewelry worn in peranakan weddings

Wedding gifts in peranakan culture

Head-pieces for the women

wedding gifts of jewelry and ang-baos

Traditional family hall in a peranakan home

Exquisite Chinese-culture inspired peranakan furniture.

A peranakan dressing table

A peranakan wedding-bed for newly-weds.

peranakan beaded-purse

peranakan baby clothing

hand-woven baby booties

Clothing

The Peranakan retained most of their ethnic and religious origins (such as ancestor worship), but assimilated the language and culture of the Malays. The Nyonya's clothing was identical to that of the native Malay's: baju panjang (long dress), batik sarung (batik wrap-around skirt) and kerongsang (brooch).

Beaded slippers called Kasut Manek were a hand-made made with much skill and patience: strung, beaded and sewn onto canvas with tiny faceted glass beads from Bohemia (present-day Czech Republic). In modern times, glass beads from Japan are preferred. Traditional kasut manek design often have European floral subjects, with colors influenced by Peranakan porcelain and batik sarongs. They were made onto flats or bedroom slippers. But from the 1930s, modern shapes became popular and heels were added.

peranakan chinese-culture textbooks

An ancestral altar

Religion

Baba Nyonya subscribed to Chinese beliefs: Taoism, Confucianism and Chinese Buddhism, celebrated the Lunar New Year and the Lantern Festival, while adopting the customs of the land they settled in, as well as those of their colonial rulers. There are traces of Portuguese, Dutch, British, Malay and Indonesian influences in Baba culture.

peranakan dining culture

Food

From the Malay influence a unique "Nyonya" cuisine has developed using typical Malay spices. Examples are Chicken Kapitan, a dry chicken curry, and Inchi Kabin, a Nyonya version of fried chicken.