Missing the Physical

“You know what we miss most, Colin? We would just love to be able to get together again,” said Baba Francis Chia during one of our catch-up chats on the phone a week ago.

Francis is the choir master of The Peranakan Voices, the 22-strong choir of The Peranakan Association Singapore (TPAS). Since the pandemic started early last year, they have not been able to meet for a single evening of practice.

I am sure it is not only the practice they miss, but also the opportunity to get together and enjoy one another’s company.

This should not be surprising. From the moment we are born, we are most settled in our mothers’ protective arms. That physical touch is an assurance of love, warmth, endearment, togetherness, camaraderie and friendship.

Being around one another is a human need. From birth. No amount of persuasion can possibly convince us that webinars and online talks can replace that in-person experience.

Yet there is a place for digital gatherings. 

In as much as it does not deliver that physical and visceral connection, it does provide a platform for like-minded individuals to meet remotely from anywhere in the world and at low cost!

Going Digital 

Talks

In March and May this year, TPAS organised three online talks:

• Raising the Tok Samkai – the Art of Smayang Tikong by Baba Cedric Tan from Melaka on 16th March
• Sacred Sirih – Traditions and Symbolism in Nusantara by Enchik Khir Johari on 1st May
• Restoration of Heritage Hotels in Penang by Baba Chris Ong from Penang on 22nd May

These three online talks attracted an average of 106 participants each from around the region. This average would have been higher if not for the fact that  we had to turn away would-be participants as we had reached our Zoom limit of 100 for one talk.

Again, on average, the respondents to our post-talk surveys rated each of the talks 4-plus points on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being excellent).

Compare this with the 30 – 40 local participants we attracted to our many successful in-person talks in 2019. Admittedly, we were limited by the capacity constraints of venues then.

More digital talks are in the pipeline. Our next one is on 26th June 2021 by Baba Lee Yuen Thien who will speak on The Peranakan Identity: Staying Relevant in a Fast-Changing World. 

A well-known scholar and practitioner of Peranakan culture, Thien is the manager of the renowned The Baba & Nyonya Heritage Museum in Melaka. SAVE THE DATE!!! 

AGM

It was just as well the General Committee (GC) decided earlier this year to have a fully virtual Annual General Meeting. Safe distancing measures were suddenly tightened from 19th May.

At yesterday’s AGM we had a total of 65 proxies and a virtual turnout of over 30 members. We are thankful that despite the anxiety and stress of the times, members chose to be part of the AGM one way or other.

Personally, I am also especially thankful for the unstinting support of my GC members who have volunteered their time for the community by serving in the association year after year.

But, as always, there will be a time for renewal.

Despite a challenging year, we managed to reach several milestones:

1. We were able to squeeze a surplus of $30k in 2020. Half this amount is the full refund of the deposit we made to a hotel for this year’s convention. The surplus will be used to help fund our convention in November, with the balance set aside for planned operating expenses over the next several years. This is to build a financial buffer for future GCs.
2. Life Membership now stands at 2,147 compared to 1,889 in May 2018 when members elected us to the GC. Junior Membership, launched in late 2019, is 20, below our expectation of at least 50.
3. We successfully navigated the postponement of two key 120th Anniversary events from 2020 to this year – a downsized Virtual Peranakan Dinner to be held in September and the 33rd Baba Nyonya International Convention in November, which will be part in-person and mostly virtual.
4. We got to better understand the workings of the virtual world and are still learning to optimise the use of these digital innovations.

 Silver Lining

But, most of all, we will not forget the understanding, encouraging and beneficent support of members and non-members all this while.

You are the silver lining on the persistent dark clouds that hover over the horizon of what this GC hopes to bring to you as we approach the end of our term in 2022.

May God bless you and keep you safe in these unpredictable days.

Colin Chee
Keeping the Culture Alive
31 May 2021

Click here to send Colin a note

The post Letter From Baba Colin Chee – May 2021 appeared first on The Peranakan Association Singapore.

Join Zoom Meeting on 26 June (Sat) 2021, 2pm: https://tinyurl.com/TPAS-PeranakanIdentity Meeting ID:98214940737 Passcode: 171747Read More →

The post TPAS > Online Talk – 26 June 2021 > The Peranakan Identity: Staying Relevant in a Fast-Changing World appeared first on The Peranakan Association Singapore.

The Perfect Penang Baba

A Tribute to the late Dato’ Seri Khoo Keat Siew by Baba Chan Eng Thai

When I met the late Dato’ Seri Khoo Keat Siew (“KKS”) during one of his many visits to Singapore, I asked him if he had read the book “The Patriarch” by Yeap Joo Kim.

The book had won an ASEAN book award and it was about a very well-known Penang philanthropist and leader in civic society, Baba Khoo Sian Ewe.

KKS replied that not only did he read the book, he was part of it as Khoo Sian Ewe was his father!

Since the announcement of KKS’s passing yesterday in Penang, 10 June 2021, at the venerable age of 91 years, numerous tributes have been written about his life and contributions to Penang’s civic society.

To us, the Babas and Nyonyas of Singapore, KKS epitomized the perfect Penang Baba. Dato Khoo was a lawyer by training and was also the past president of the famed Khoo Kongsi among many other associations in Penang. He always spoke in a measured tone and always had a kind word for everyone.

Whenever the State Chinese Penang Association (“SCPA”), of which he was its past President for many years, hosted the Baba Nyonya Convention, KKS’ s hospitality through the members of the SCPA made the stay of the delegates to the conventions a most delightful, enjoyable and memorable one.

The Baba Nyonya Convention was KKS’s idea and since its inauguartion in Penang in 1988, the convention has been held annually and hosted by the sister Peranakan Associations of the Federation of Peranakan Associations (“FPA”) until 2019, except for the year 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the convention to be held.

Again, the idea of the various Peranakan associations of the region and Australia coming together as an informal federation, named the FPA, was also KKS’s idea! 

KKS will be remembered by many, and his legacy will continue in the many associations which he helmed. But, most of all, the community will fondly cherish KKS as our “ho peng yew” in Penang!

This is a pantun I composed and recited for KKS at the launch of his book “Rebel with a Cause” on 10th December 2017

Pantun Khoo Keat Siew

Pantai cantik Batu Ferringhi
Angin kencang pohon indah,
Perbuatan baik tinggi tinggi,
Hidopan Keat Siew mula ada!

Apa datang senyum ketawa,
Tulus ikhlas tua muda,
Hidopan dia sungguh mewah,
Kerendahan hati kepada semua!

Beautiful beaches of Batu Ferringhi,
Gusty wind and swaying trees,
Good deeds of various hues,
Then and now, Keat Siew did all!

Whatever comes, he accepts with joy,
Sincere in manner to young and old,
Riches in life may had savoured,
Yet humble is he to everyone!

The post Tribute to the late Dato’Seri Khoo Keat Siew by The Peranakan Association Singapore appeared first on The Peranakan Association Singapore.

33^RD BABA NYONYA INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION ON SATURDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2021

Five Months to Go

We have only five months to November before The Peranakan Association Singapore’s (TPAS) long-awaited convention hits the runway!

And we are especially delighted to announce that President Halimah Yacob has agreed to grace the convention as our Guest-of-Honour.

The Play

We are revving up on key decisions around our one-hour play, The Matriarchs. 

As mentioned in my previous Monthly Letters, The Matriarchs promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience! The recording of this historic play will NOT be posted nor made available on any social media platform. 

It will bring together, for the very first time and ONLY time, two of our most outstanding Peranakan actors. Baba Ivan Heng, the darling of Singapore contemporary theatre, will reprise his epochal English-speaking role as Emily (of Emerald Hill). Also performing will be Baba GT Lye, the only iconic matriarch of wayang Peranakan in the region. GT will appear as the fiesty Baba Malay-speaking Mrs Gan, Emily’s mother-in-law. Mrs Gan’s character, scripted entirely by GT himself, has been specially created for the convention and adapted from Nyonya Stella Kon’s enduring play, “Emily of Emerald Hill”, with the celebrated playwright’s blessings. 

This play extraordinaire is directed by the award-winning Baba Alvin Tan of The Necessary Stage and produced by Baba Colin Chee for TPAS.

The Symposium

The play will symbolically open a three-hour symposium themed “Keeping the Culture Alive”, which will assemble some of the region’s most distinguished deep thinkers, scholars and practitioners of Peranakan culture.

This symposium is not to be missed by anyone with an interest in Peranakan culture. 

The keynote speaker will be renowned historian, author and editor Baba Kwa Chong Guan. Baba Kennie Ting, Group Director of Museums, National Heritage Board (NHB), will moderate the first panel discussion on “Peranakan Culture & Community: Challenges, Pitfalls & Opportunities”. 

Kennie will be supported by panellists including the highly esteemed Professor Wang Gungwu, educator, scholar and historian with the National University Singapore; the urbane Associate Professor Farish A Noor from the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies and School of Humanities’ Department of History, Nanyang Technological University; Dr Vivienne Wee, noted anthropologist and director of Ethnographica; and Chong Guan. 

Assistant Professor Nala H Lee, Department of English Language & Literature, National University of Singapore, will be the moderator for the second panel session on the topic, “Fading Heritage? Language, Literature & Rituals”. Panellists lined up are wayang Peranakan doyen Baba GT Lye; award-winning Peranakan author Nyonya Josephine Chia; well-known Baba Malay writer and language teacher Baba Kenneth Y K Chan; and Baba Pillay P Krishnan, Committee Member, Peranakan Indian (Chitty Melaka) Association Singapore.

Baba John Teo, NHB Deputy Director (Research), will moderate the third and last panel on “Living Traditions: Style, Food and Wayang”. On this panel are the elegant Nyonya Jackie Yoong, Curator (Asian Fashion & Textiles and Peranakan Art), Asian Civilisations Museum and The Peranakan Museum; household name Baba Raymond Wong, kebaya designer and embroiderer; award-winning food writer and author Baba Christopher Tan; and Baba Alvin Teo, President of Gunong Sayang Association (GSA).

Aim of the Convention: A Sustainable Living Culture

In my recent discussions with Chong Guan about the context of his keynote address for the symposium, we realised we shared the same thoughts on the sustainability of Peranakan culture. 

Our culture, as our forebears knew it, reached its zenith in the late 1800s and remained there up to the pre-war years. It has been in rapid decline since the Japanese Occupation though we probably saw some hints of its past glory in the 1950s and ‘60s. But key elements of our culture have been fast disappearing due to rapid socio-economic changes in South-east Asia.

TPAS is not trying to revive the culture; it is just not possible to replicate the circumstances under which it had once flourished. What we are trying to do now is to faithfully record all that we can about it, celebrate it, and bring greater awareness to it.

 More importantly, we can try to gently sustain some parts of the culture, notably the community’s key values and various cultural markers so that they can be transmitted to the next generation. They, in turn, can hopefully find relevance by contemporising the culture.

This is what we aim to do at the convention: to identify these still green shoots of our culture that can be nurtured by our young into a sustainable living culture.

 Your Support is Needed! Tickets on Sale in August

We hope that Peranakans and non-Peranakans alike will rally around the association by being part of this convention when we open for participation in August.

Only a very limited number of tickets will be available for in-person (live) participation at the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre (SCCC), to comply with safe distancing measures. But tickets for our virtual (live streaming) convention will be open to all through a designated ticketing agency.

I would like to close this month’s letter by thanking our partners for this convention – The Peranakan Museum, GSA and the Peranakan Indian (Chitty Melaka) Association Singapore. We also thank our supporters – NHB, Singapore Tourism Board and the SCCC. In addition, Nyonya Gwen Ong, my co-organiser who is TPAS’s Head of Events, and our other volunteers who will make the convention happen!

Until then, please be safe, be of good cheer and keep the flame alight.

Blessings
Colin Chee
Keeping the Culture Alive
30 June 2021

Click here to send Colin a note

The post Letter From Baba Colin Chee – June 2021 appeared first on The Peranakan Association Singapore.

Seah Liang Seah: King of the Streets
 by Baba Shawn Seah.

Date: 25 July (Sun) 2021.
Time: 3pm, Singapore.

Join Zoom Meeting (No registration required)
www.tinyurl.com/Tpas-SeahLiangSeah

Meeting ID: 990 9097 9929 Passcode: 100985

The post Online talk: Sᴇᴀʜ Lɪᴀɴɢ Sᴇᴀʜ – Kɪɴɢ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ Sᴛʀᴇᴇᴛs, ʙʏ Bᴀʙᴀ Sʜᴀᴡɴ Sᴇᴀʜ appeared first on The Peranakan Association Singapore.

The post Members’ invitation for the launch of Heritage Festival on 23 July (Fri) 7pm appeared first on The Peranakan Association Singapore.

HAPPY NEWS
On 16th June, I received a happy and excited announcement from Professor Roger Foo, Senior Group Leader with the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS). 

“Hi Colin, this is a good news email. The paper is finally accepted for publication.”

And no less than in the Molecular Biology and Evolution, an academic journal published by Oxford University Press. The paper in question is GIS’s research report on the genome profiles of Peranakans in Singapore.

GIS has no plans to repeat this study and TPAS is proud to have collaborated with GIS in this ground-breaking Singapore Peranakan Genome Project.

THE STUDY
Blood samples for the study – the Singapore Peranakan Genome Project – were collected from 177 volunteer members of The Peranakan Association Singapore (TPAS) and others in the community in February 2018.

In August 2019, Professor Foo and Professor Wang Chaolong from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, as principal investigators in the project, shared some aggregated findings at the Peranakan Identity: Who Am I? forum jointly organised by TPAS and GIS. 

Out of the 177 blood samples from volunteer donors studied, GIS’s analysis determined that 90 per cent had averaged 90 per cent Chinese DNA and 10 per cent Malay DNA. The remaining 10 percent of the blood samples, a significant segment, showed 100 per cent Chinese DNA. 

SAVE YOUR DATE!!! 23 OCTOBER 2021
Now that the full study will soon be published, TPAS and GIS are planning to jointly organise a second forum in October 2021 to share the full detailed findings. It will be a zoom webinar and it will be free for all who are interested.

If you have any questions relating to the topic, please post them to TPAS by 19 August 2021 at events@peranakan.org.sg. We will collate them and have the relevant and substantive questions incorporated, if appropriate, into the presentation by Prof Chaolong. 

Please note that we will NOT be responding to all these advanced questions individually. During the webinar, as is the practice, you may still post any questions you have for a possible response before the webinar ends.

A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION
The study is a revelation. To TPAS, the project’s findings have, for the very first time, given scientific credence to our community’s family oral histories and the smattering of early travellers’ eye-witness reports that the Peranakans are descended from the mixed unions of early traders from China, India and even Europe with local Malay women in Southeast Asia.

This does not mean those with 100% Chinese DNA are any less Peranakan than those with mixed Chinese-Malay DNAs.

For me and my wife, Linda Chee nee Tan Gek Neo, at a personal level, the findings have been nothing less than eye-popping.

My genome profile is 86.3% Chinese DNA and 13.7% Malay DNA. However, my spritely

95-year-old see ee (fourth auntie) and her 87-year-old sister, my Auntie Florence, insist it is not Malay blood but Dayak. My maternal grandparents lived in Kuching, Sarawak. Hence, it is entirely probable. In any case, my late mother, three aunties and late uncle all had high cheekbones, deep-set eyes and tanned complexion. My paternal grandparents, on the other hand, both emigrated to Singapore in 1893 from Fuzhou, the then court city of Fujian province. 

A portrait of Baba Colin’s maternal great grandparents’ family in Kuching, Sarawak. His maternal great grandfather is seated on the left and great grandmother on the right. The gentleman standing second left is Colin’s maternal grandfather. Notice the mix of modern western suits as well as traditional Zhongshan suits (or Mao suit) worn by the men, and baju panjang by all the women. Photo was taken probably after 1911 when Chinese men could remove their queues hairstyle. Colin’s see ee remembers her grandfather, father and uncles had queues.)

Linda, on the other hand, a seventh generation nyonya whose late parents were from Melaka, has 66.5% Chinese DNA, 27.5% Malay DNA and a not insignificant 6.0% Indian DNA. Where did the Indian DNA come from? Nevertheless, this profile completely reversed her brother’s thinking.  Before this, he had been proudly insisting he and his siblings were Peranakan jati with 100% Chinese DNA (a rare combination) because his family’s jiapu has only Chinese names in the family’s paternal lineage.

How science turns the world around, and sometimes, brings it one full circle!!!

Blessings
Colin Chee
Keeping the Culture Alive
30 June 2021

Click here to send Colin a note

The post THE SINGAPORE PERANAKAN GENOME PROJECT appeared first on The Peranakan Association Singapore.

Learn to play: Cherki (Peranakan card game) for beginners,
online by Nyonya Benita Fong

Date & Time: Aug 8, 2021 02:00 PM Singapore

REGISTRATION REQUIRED:
www.tinyurl.com/TPAS-Cherki-Reg
(Only registered participants will receive the Zoom login details prior to the event date.)
Please register by Wed, 28 July 2021

The post Learn to play: Cherki (Peranakan card game) for beginners, online by Nyonya Benita Fong appeared first on The Peranakan Association Singapore.

Tickets for the 33rd Baba Nyonya International Convention, 20 November 2021

Last month, we announced that the sale of our tickets for the convention would be launched in August. 

We are hoping to launch it after National Day and the scheduled update by Singapore’s COVID-19 Task Force. It is important we try our best to manage the uncertainties that continue to bedevil our planning.

What is certain is that the convention will be held on 20 November 2021, come what may. 

Last year, we pivoted the event into a hybrid convention – having it for a very limited on-site live audience at the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre (SCCC) while simultaneously live streaming it to a larger online (virtual) audience.

As I have mentioned several times before, the convention comprises two elements – the play, The Matriarchs, and the symposium, themed Keeping the Culture Alive. We have been blessed with a stellar cast of performers, scholars and cultural practitioners. 

However, we are also planning for other possible scenarios should circumstances turn unexpectedly bad as we get closer to November.

If we are compelled to make any last-minute changes, we appeal to you to come alongside us. As with The Peranakan Ball that was downsized, you know we are committed to do the right thing.

We continue to count on your understanding and patience. 

The Passion and Angst of Peranakan Identity

We were pleasantly overwhelmed by the tsunami of interest shown when we announced that the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) would soon share its detailed findings in a joint webinar with TPAS in October.

My letter of 19 July, teasing out some of GIS’s detailed findings, received more than 18,000 views. Quite a record for us. The last record set was over 12,000 views for my 31 December 2020 letter, also about culture and identity.

Peranakan identity is clearly a very big thing for us. We have all been searching for an answer and a shared acceptance of what Peranakan identity is. 

The General Committee has debated and deliberated it, in spurts, for many months. You can imagine that always, when the subject was raised, the sharing was very, very robust.

But we eventually settled on this: It is cultural.

Many scholars who have researched this in the past have reached the same conclusion: It is culture that forms one’s identity. 

One’s DNA profile alone does not a Peranakan make. It is NOT a pre-requisite to being a Peranakan. Our DNA profile only corroborates our lineage and family histories.

It is why we are having this convention themed Keeping the Culture Alive. 

If our culture dies, the community dies with it. Put it another way: If we ever lose our Peranakan culture, we lose our Peranakan identity. It is this simple.

Without our heritage – of Baba Malay, panton and dondang sayang, wayang Peranakan; ayam buah keluak, babi pongteh, babi ngoh hiang; kerosang, kasot manek, delicate hand-embroidered kebayas matched by equally exquisite Pekalongan and Hokokai hand-drawn sarongs; black mother-of-pearl, red and gold and brown and gold furniture; brilliantly coloured ceramics; and rituals and values – how does one distinguish the Peranakan Chinese from the other Chinese sub-groups – the Teochews, Hokkiens, Cantonese, Hakkas and others? And from the Malays, Indians and Eurasians? 

The same applies to our Peranakan Indians, Jawi Peranakans, and other hybrid Peranakan communities outside the former Straits Settlements including those in Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, and possibly the Philippines.

This is why we must keep our unique hybrid culture alive. We and our generations to come must be open to continuous adaption and to changes around us while retaining our key values. We must be prepared to explore the outer edges of our heritage, times and space and see where our creative instincts lead us. If we stay rooted in the past, our culture will ossify and our identity along with it.

Your Support is Needed 

It is therefore important that you be a part of the long-awaited convention that is scheduled on Saturday 20 November 2021. To test, understand and expand your perspective of who we are and can be.

An important aim of the convention is to ascertain where our culture, as known by our forebears, stands today. 

More importantly,  we want to identify those green shoots of the culture that will help sustain it for generations to come. 

Tickets for both the live and online convention will be on sale in a few weeks’ time. They will be available through a ticketing agent. 

In the meantime, please take care of yourselves and your loved ones. Also, please get your two vaccinations done! You will need them for the live convention.

Blessings
Colin Chee
Keeping the Culture Alive
31 July 2021

Click here to send Colin a note

The post Letter from the President: July 2021 appeared first on The Peranakan Association Singapore.

Rajul Mehta, multi-hyphenate artist and founder of cashmere retailer Queenmark, tells Nyonya Joanne Tan-De Zilva that the pairing of pashminas and the Peranakan kebaya is a marriage made in heaven.

Joanne:  What were your first thoughts when you were approached to conduct the Pashminas meet Peranakans workshop?

Rajul: As a Singapore-based brand, and having my children grow up in Singapore, I have seen how the different aspects of the Indian culture converge with the unique Singaporean culture. Some of these influences come together into what is known as the Singaporean culture, include the Peranakan culture, which draws in so many different aspects, from your dressing to your food. As a Singaporean, I am inspired and want to show that fashion isn’t only limited to western and mainstream culture. It could be possible to be bigger, bolder and truer to yourself. Our brand of pashmina shawls fits in nicely as it also embraces the colourful threads present in the Peranakan apparel too.

Joanne: What do you think about pairing pashminas with sarong kebayas?

Rajul: 5 words – The future of pashmina fashion. 

I think that although at first look, putting the length of a regular pashmina shawl alongside a sarong length may look uninspiring (because both are just long pieces of cloth), in reality the versatility of the pashmina shawl is given a brand-new avenue to shine. The same way that clay isn’t only a piece of clay but can also be moulded into a vase or a work of art. The conventional standards of fashion set by society are meant to be broken and transformed. Seemingly regular individual pieces of clothing can be put together to create a new look. A pashmina shawl can do just that too. It can transform, break the norm and even transcend looks. While one may think that pashmina designs or the way of wearing are somewhat standard, one can actually be creative and elevate the look by pairing it with other clothing like the Peranakan sarong.

 Joanne:  Which article of clothing do you think pashminas are better paired with? The kebaya or the sarong? And why?

Rajul:  I think that both kebayas and sarongs can be worn well with pashminas as there are so many styles and patterns of lace and shawls. In fact, we have shawls that have designs that would go well with both kebayas and sarongs because of our lace. A lot of our lace have flower designs that range from soft pastel colours to saturated, vivid ones. We also have many gold-accented shawls that would look beautiful on many different clothes.

Joanne:  Any word of advice to fashionistas wanting to pair pashminas with kebayas and sarongs? 

Rajul:  Perhaps one may want to consider shape, conventional standards and the preferred colour palette. But at the end of the day, confidence is key to pull anything off. So long as you think you look your best then you’re good. Also, it would be good to consider the occasion in which you are dressing up for, but make sure to be comfortable and happy with what you’re wearing.

The post The Future of Pashmina Fashion appeared first on The Peranakan Association Singapore.

Accomplished nyonya chef Sylvia Tan shares ideas for evolving our recipes into the future

During my childhood, I only ate Peranakan food, albeit homestyle: simple soups and perhaps a fried fish with the occasional sambal or curry. For special occasions, we had the Hainanese chompors come over to cook a fancy tok panjang meal, with various dishes laid out in bowls (laok mangkok) or on plates (laok piring).

Nobody complained then about how difficult it was to cook such food; it was what we ate daily. I would love to see such times again….

While I am heartened by the fact that everybody seems to adore laksa, mee siam and nasi lemak, few actually cook them at home. Their preparation is tedious – it is far easier to buy them ready for consumption. And yet we need to cook our Peranakan food for it to thrive.

In a way, I blame the nyonyas of old for this state of affairs. Every bibik who cooks seems to wax lyrical about the laboriousness of cooking nyonya food. It’s difficult and lecheh! And woe betide anyone who takes a short cut! “Tak sepekah (not proper)!” came the cry, or heran (strange), they whispered to each other.

But the truth is that we need short cuts, lots of kitchen help (and I do not mean domestic helpers) and a willingness to break away from the past to bring Peranakan food into the modern era.

With women pursuing careers, we must revamp the old recipes and their methods of preparation if we want people to keep cooking them!

This is why I like to test out the old recipes to see if there are steps I can cut, aids that I can use or substitute with store-bought pastes to make things easier.

And I am unashamed about such shortcuts.

In the past, our grandmothers had only the lesong or batu giling to grind the spice pastes so essential in the cuisine.

I remember making sambal chilli in the lesong, and how convoluted it was! I had to wear long sleeves and cover the whole mortar with a plastic sheet with a hole that allowed the pestle to poke through, just to ensure the chilli seeds did not splatter into my eyes.

Today, we have the food processor or chopper, but people lament that this does not grind down the chilli seeds properly. Still, isn’t this a small price to pay for the convenience? I unashamedly make my sambal chilli, sioh rempah, rempah for laksa and such, in a food processor.

Does it also occur to you why so many nyonya recipes such as sioh and babi assam garam, demand a tedious two-step cooking process? My guess is that they never had an oven in the old days, so had to sear the meat by frying to obtain an attractive brown finish after first boiling it to ensure tenderness. Today, I simply use the oven to cook these dishes.

Similarly, I now make my nasi ulam with a herb paste made in the processer. I still keep to the essential five herbs, but reduce them to a paste that can be easily tossed together with the rice and other condiments.

The key point is that these ‘short cuts’ mean I no longer baulk at cooking these dishes. I can turn them out quickly and easily. 

I recall once making a simplified sayor lodeh late at night for a group of friends who refused to go home. I had taukwa and vegetables in the fridge but no rempah. So I opened a bottle of nonya sambal chilli (a larder staple), and boiled that up in a pot of water, together with dried shrimp, added some powdered turmeric, galangal and coriander and finished off with coconut milk to make a pot of lemak gravy for my vegetables and taukwa. I also boiled some eggs to add into the pot.

All my cookbooks emphasise such stripped-down methods. They are based on old recipes, but innovated to simplify or to shorten the time spent in the kitchen. I also suggest readily available bottled condiments to make it easier to turn out Peranakan meals. 

For me, this is the way forward for Peranakan food. 

The post The Future of Peranakan Cuisine appeared first on The Peranakan Association Singapore.

These Hokkien words in bold, with corresponding translation, were often used by many Peranakan families that spoke Baba Malay regularly.

Domestic

Mata hari chik perek, baju pun sua kering;  tolong ut kan baju.
It’s a hot day and the laundry has dried; please help iron the clothes. 

Kamcheng besair tu nampak tak tokoh, baik amek kemocheng pi buang kan abok.
It’s time to dust off the big porcelain rice jar with a feather duster. 

Kat chiwan batu basah, masok baik pakay cha kiak.
The bathroom floor is wet; better to use the wooden clogs. 

Bila pakay kasut, misti pakay boek jugak; kalu tak kaki bau busok.
When we wear shoes, we should also wear socks to avoid smelly feet. 

Kalu ada pi Nam Thian, tolong singgah keday China juair ketak ketik belikan satu chien si , lama mia sua tak boleh pakay lagi.
If you are going to Chinatown, please drop by the Chinese hardware shop and buy me a new kitchen ladle. 

Weddings

Si Bibik Belachan betol homia; suma dia mia anak prumpan kawin kiah sai baik.
Aunty Belachan is indeed fortunate to have all her daughters marry good husbands. 

Dulukala mia kawin, sedara chiah sangkeh um charik kemantin habis tu kasi kian sai tengok.
In days gone by, the matchmaker will be invited to source a suitable bride for the prospective bridegroom. 

Bapak chrita dulu kat dia mia sedara kawin dua belas hari, dia bikin an chng mia golek kat atas ranjang, abis dapat angpow.
Father used to tell us that as a young boy he performed the rollover blessing ritual on the wedding bed ceremony during his elder cousin’s 12-day wedding, and was rewarded with a cash red packet. 

Bila kawin dua belas hari, kemantin sama kiah sai misti bikin cheo thau kasi suma orang tengok dia orang bukan budak lagi tapi jadi orang besair.
During the 12-day wedding, the bride and bridegroom must go through the hair combing ceremony to symbolise their transition from child to adult. 

Social

Si Ba Francis dapat harta, tengok amcham dia tunjok dia mia tai yet.
Now that Francis has become rich, he is showing off his status. 

Bila chuay kau bulan satu taon baru, kita misti semayang Ting Kong.
On the 9th day of Chinese New Year, we celebrate the Jade Emperor’s birthday. 

Penyapu, lu berani ambek duit gua tak kasi gua tau!!
Expletive @#*^~ (Teochew) You dare take my money without my knowledge!!

Paseh Mak sua kuan si sama keday mia towkay, kita boleh hutang dulu, bayar buntot bulan.
Mother is a regular customer, so the provision shop owner allows her credit till the month’s end. 

Bini si Hock Chye tu panday kansin pujok laki beli kan chin chin berlian kasi dia.
Hock Chye`s wife is coquettish enough to persuade her husband to buy her a costly diamond ring. 

Ancestral Worship and Funerals

Taon taon Cheng Beng, kita pi tek chua charik kubor semayangkan nenek moyang.
Tek chua is a traditional practice where the family visits the graves of their ancestors on All Souls Day. 

Bila Cheng Beng misti pi charek kubor;  kubor mia bong pai kasi kita tau sapa sapa nama kita mia nenek moyang. During the Tomb Sweeping Day, people visit the cemetery; the central tombstone tells us who our ancestors are. 

Ni slama Bachik slalu sakit sakit, baik pi Mah Cho Kong pi sohnjoh buang suay.
Recently the youngest seems to be sickly, let’s hasten his recovery by praying at the temple to dispel bad spirits. 

Kita mia Ku Kong sua naik naik kereta, lu ingat brapa pek kim kita misti kasi?
Our second grand uncle has passed away, how much condolence offering should we give? 

The post More Samplers of Hokkien in Baba Malay appeared first on The Peranakan Association Singapore.

VIEW RECORDING →

The post TPAS > Online Talk – 26 June 2021 > The Peranakan Identity: Staying Relevant in a Fast-Changing World appeared first on The Peranakan Association Singapore.

Zoom Details 

Saturday, 28 August 2021
3pm, Singapore 

Join Zoom Meeting
www.tinyurl.com/PS-2808

Meeting ID: 955 1668 8974   Passcode: 696573

The post Online talk: Patterned Splendour – Textiles evident on medieval Javanese sculpture appeared first on The Peranakan Association Singapore.

The post Save the date: 33rd Baba Nyonya International Convention on 20 Nov 2021 appeared first on The Peranakan Association Singapore.

Tickets for PHYSICAL CONVENTION now available for $120 nett each via GoogleForm Balloting at http://www.tinyurl.com/Tickets-Ballot

The post Tickets for 33rd Baba Nyonya International PHYSICAL Convention now available for ballot! (To be submitted by 25 August 2021, 2359h) appeared first on The Peranakan Association Singapore.

Dear Nyonyas and Babas

TICKETS FOR VIRTUAL CONVENTION ON SALE 8 SEPTEMBER

Tickets for the virtual (livestreamed) 33rd Baba Nyonya International Convention, to be held on 20 November 2021, will go on sale on 8 September at SISTIC (www.sistic.com.sg).

As previously mentioned, this is a hybrid physical-cum-virtual convention, during which the physical convention is concurrently livestreamed to an online audience.

For more details on the convention programme, please click on this link https://www.peranakan.org.sg/33rd-baba-nyonya-intl-convention 

Join us as we bring the best of Peranakan culture to you. 

For the very first time and ONLY time, two of our most outstanding Peranakan actors – Ivan Heng, the darling of Singapore contemporary theatre, and GT Lye, the only iconic matriarch of wayang Peranakan in the region – will take to the stage in a one-hour performance titled The Matriarchs. 

The play is directed by award-winning Alvin Tan of The Necessary Stage and produced by The Peranakan Association Singapore.

It is adapted from the enduring play, Emily of Emerald Hill, and presented with special permission from Stella Kon Pte Ltd.

Following the play is a three-hour symposium featuring the cream of Peranakan thinkers and cultural champions as they deliberate on the theme, Keeping the Culture Alive.

The keynote address by historian and scholar Kwa Chong Guan will deal with the survivability of Peranakan Chinese culture and the community’s identity. 

Three forums will follow after, featuring distinguished scholars and practitioners. The first panel will comprise Kennie Ting, Prof Wang Gungwu, Kwa Chong Guan, Prof Farish Noor, Dr Vivienne Wee; the second panel, Asst Prof Nala Lee, GT Lye, Josephine Chia, Kenneth Chan, Pillay Krishnan; and the third panel, John Teo, Dominic Low, Raymond Wong, Christopher Tan and Alvin Teo.

The panels will respectively reflect on three symposium sub-themes: Peranakan Culture & Community: Challenges, Pitfalls & Opportunities; Fading Heritage? Language, Literature & Rituals Living; and Traditions: Style, Food and Wayang.

SOLD OUT!!! TICKETS FOR PHYSICAL (IN-PERSON) CONVENTION 

The limited tickets for the physical (in-person) convention were ‘snapped up’ three days after they were released for ballot on 21 August. Interest continued to flow in until the closing date on 25 August. 

We balloted the tickets and seats soon after. Successful applicants have been informed by email. SISTIC will contact them to complete the purchase of tickets for the physical convention by mid-September. 

We have put the unsuccessful applicants on the waiting list. Please be patient. We will keep you updated.

THE PERANAKAN MAGAZINE & THE PERANAKAN DINNER

As I write, our mid-year issue of The Peranakan magazine is scheduled for mailing out in early September in time for The virtual Peranakan Dinner on Saturday, 25 September 2021.

The magazine promises to be a visual treat and content-rich. It marks the interim return of former editor Nyonya Linda Chee to the helm.

More importantly, it is a special issue that doubles up as the programme for the long-delayed dinner. 

This approach has flavoured the magazine’s design concept, enabling us to present it as a memorable gift particularly to dinner guests who are not yet members of The Peranakan Association Singapore.

We are grateful to the more than 200 dinner guests for their patience and understanding of the constant shifts in arrangements. 

The organizing committee, very ably led by our First Vice-President Peggy Jeffs, is closely monitoring the variability of COVID-19 and is on its toes to adapt to and comply with any last-minute changes in the government’s Safe Management Measures.

The virtual Peranakan Dinner will NOT be postponed nor cancelled.

To all our Babas and Nyonyas, kamsiah manyak manyak for your continued support. Please take care of yourselves and stay healthy.

Blessings
Colin Chee
Keeping the Culture Alive
31 August 2021

Click here to send Colin a note

The post President’s Letter: 31 August 2021 appeared first on The Peranakan Association Singapore.

This convention is organised by The Peranakan Association Singapore (TPAS).
It is open to all who are interested in Peranakan culture. 
Singapore has the privilege of organising the 33rd BABA NYONYA INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION IN 2021. It is being presented as a hybrid physical-cum-virtual event to promote the Peranakan culture to a global audience. In spite of the constantly changing challenges laid by the pandemic, the Peranakan Association of Singapore has lined up an exciting and thought-provoking event to be graced by the President of Singapore, HALIMAH YACOB, as its Guest-of-Honour. 

Venue: Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre
Far East Organization Auditorium, Level 9
1 Straits Boulevard, Singapore 018906
(Subject to Safe Management Measures)  
Date: Saturday, 20 November 2021 
Time: 9.00 am to 1.00 pm

It will feature a one-hour play titled “The Matriarchs“ and
a three-hour symposium themed “Keeping the Culture Alive”.

Click below to find out more:

The Play

The Symposium

Programme

Ticketing

The Play
Reading at a rehearsal. (From left: Alvin Tan, GT Lye, Ivan Heng, Colin Chee)

The play will bring together, for the very first time and ONLY time, two of our most outstanding Peranakan actors. 

Ivan Heng, the darling of Singapore contemporary theatre, will reprise his epochal English-speaking role as Emily (of Emerald Hill). Also performing will be  GT Lye, the only iconic matriarch of wayang Peranakan in the region. GT will appear as the feisty Baba Malay-speaking Mrs Gan, Emily’s mother-in-law. 

Mrs Gan’s character, scripted entirely by GT himself, has been specially created for the convention and adapted from Nyonya Stella Kon’s enduring play, “Emily of Emerald Hill”, with the celebrated playwright’s blessings. 

This play extraordinaire is directed by the award-winning Alvin Tan of The Necessary Stage and produced by TPAS.

The Symposium

Anchored by the theme of Keeping the Culture Alive, the symposium will feature some of the best minds and practitioners from the world of Peranakan culture. 

First and foremost, their aim is to take stock of the Peranakan culture that our forebears knew and practised. Then, to identify the green shoots that will help sustain our culture for generations to come. 

Renowned historian and scholar Kwa Chong Guan will speak on “Change & the Cultural Resilience of the Peranakan Chinese” followed by three forums that will discuss the survivability of Peranakan culture and identity – with particular focus on the community’s tangible and intangible heritage of language, literature, rituals, style, food and wayang (theatre). 

Moderators and panellists include, Kennie Ting, Professor Wang Gungwu, Professor Farish A Noor, Dr Vivienne Wee, Kwa Chong Guan, Asst Prof Nala Lee, GT Lye, Josephine Chia, Kenneth Chan, Pillay Krishnan, John Teo, Dominic Low, Raymond Wong, Christopher Tan and Alvin Teo.

PROGRAMME

33rd Baba Nyonya International Convention
Saturday, 20 November 2021 (9.00 AM to 1.00 PM)
Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre

Time

Programme

07:30

Registration of Guests
(Auditorium Foyer, Level 9, Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre)

08:45

Guests & delegates to be seated (Auditorium, Entrances at Levels 9 & 10, SCCC)

08:50

Arrival of Guest-of-Honour, the President of Singapore, Mdm Halimah Yacob

09:00

Opening Address by TPAS President Colin Chee

09:05

Baba Chan Eng Thai recites a panton for the Convention

09:08

President Halimah Yacob inaugurates the Convention
Presentation of beaded gift by Nyonya Jackie Sam and framed panton by Baba Chan Eng Thai

09:15

Start of Play, The Matriarchs

• Starring Baba GT Lye, wayang Peranakan actor and Baba Ivan Heng, actor & Founding
• Artistic Director of Singapore Theatre Company W!LD RICE
• Directed by Baba Alvin Tan, Founder & Artistic Director, The Necessary Stage

10:15

Playwright, director and actors are invited on stage to receive bouquets

10:25

President takes her leave

10:30

Keynote Address on “Change & the Cultural Resilience of the Peranakan Chinese” by Baba Kwa Chong Guan, historian and co-author of Seven Hundred Years: A History of
Singapore & co-editor of A General History of the Chinese in Singapore

10:55

Nyonya Theresa Tan (Head, Communications, The Peranakan Association Singapore) and
Baba Ivan Heng to introduce the moderators and panellists

11:00

FORUM 1: “Peranakan Culture & Community: Challenges, Pitfalls & Opportunities”

• • Moderator: Baba Kennie Ting, Group Director of Museums, National Heritage Board
  • Panellists: Baba Kwa Chong Guan, historian, author & editorProf Wang Gungwu, educator, scholar & historian, National University of Singapore
    Prof Farish A Noor, Professor of History, University of Malaya (UM) of Humanities’ Department of History, Nanyang Technological University
    Dr Vivienne Wee, anthropologist and director of Ethnographica Pte Ltd

11:40

FORUM 2: “Fading Heritage?Language, Literature & Rituals”

• Moderator: Asst Prof Nyonya Nala H Lee, Department of English Language & Literature,
  National University of Singapore
• Panellists: Baba GT Lye, wayang Peranakan actor
  Nyonya Josephine Chia, Peranakan author
  Baba Kenneth YK Chan, Baba Malay writer and language teacher
  Baba Pillay P Krishnan, member, Peranakan Indian (Chitty Melaka) Association Singapore

12:20

FORUM 3: “Living Traditions: Style, Food and Wayang”

• Moderator: Baba John Teo, Deputy Director (Research), Heritage Research & Assessment
• Panellists: Baba Dominic Low, Curator (Peranakan), Asian Civilisations Museum and The Peranakan Museum
  Baba Raymond Wong, kebaya designer & embroiderer
  Baba Christopher Tan, food writer & author
  Baba Alvin Teo, President, Gunong Sayang Association

13:00

Wrap up by Baba Ivan Heng & Nyonya Theresa Tan
End of Convention
Guests take their leave

Tickets

Do not miss this landmark  33rd BABA NYONYA INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION IN 2021! BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW!

We are grateful for the strong support from our Peranakan Association Singapore members and friends both at home and abroad. Tickets for the PHYSICAL CONVENTION are SOLD OUT. 

As this is a hybrid physical-cum-virtual convention, the physical convention will be concurrently livestream to an online audience (virtual).

Tickets for the virtual (livestream)  33rd BABA NYONYA INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION, to be held on 20 November 2021, will go on sale on 8 September 2021 at SISTIC (www.sistic.com.sg).

This event will comply with the government’s most current Safe Management Measures.
“The Matriarchs” has been adapted from the play, Emily of Emerald Hill which was written by Stella Kon in 1982 and is a copyrighted work owned by Stella Kon Pte Ltd of Singapore. “The Matriarchs” is presented with special permission from Stella Kon Pte Ltd.

The post 33rd Baba Nyonya International Convention appeared first on The Peranakan Association Singapore.

Making dinner with pineapples: Udang Lemak Masak Nenas & Sambal Nenas Timun by Baba Alexius Wong

Date & Time: 25 Sep (Sat) 2021.  Time: 10:00 AM Singapore

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://www.tinyurl.com/Tpas-Cooking2509

The post Online cooking demo: Making dinner with pineapples -udang lemak masak nenas & sambal nenas timun by Baba Alexius Wong appeared first on The Peranakan Association Singapore.

A REMEMBRANCE

Red Candles* for a Grand Dame: Agnes Tan Kim Lwi (1920 – 2021)
by Baba Ronney Tan Koon Siang

The Peranakan community has just lost a leading nyonya who quietly gave much to Peranakan culture and Singapore society at large. 

Blessed with looks, fortune and longevity, Nyonya Agnes Tan Kim Lwi was born in the lap of luxury. But her upbringing was nothing of the sort. Her father, the august Tun Dato Sir Tan Cheng Lock, was austere yet had a kind heart.   

Though a sedara (relative), I never met her even though my mother and Agnes share the same progenitor ancestor, Tan Hay, going back eight generations. 

As she finished the line at 101, we pause to remember her many altruistic contributions to the Straits-born Chinese community, including The Peranakan Association Singapore (TPAS). 

Together with her late sisters, Nyonya Nellie and Nyonya Alice, Agnes had contributed much to education (National University of Singapore scholarships and SUSS study grants) and various other causes, including a $16 million gift to the Institute of South East Asian Studies (ISEAS). 

But, Agnes’s most visible legacy in Singapore must surely be the faithful restoration of the late-19th century three-storey residential townhouse on Neil Road now known as NUS Baba House. No other building in Singapore can match this beautifully conserved townhouse as a magnificent showcase of a typical wealthy Peranakan family home before the war. 

It is part of large donations Agnes made in 2004 and 2005, in her father’s name, to NUS to acquire respectively two adjoining Dutch-style houses on Heeren Street (now Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock) in Melaka and the Neil Road property for the purpose of building awareness about our Peranakan heritage and enabling conservation studies.

As a benefactor of TPAS, Agnes funded the publication of the Peranakan community’s first comprehensive compendium of Baba Malay terms and expressions. Baba William Gwee’s A Baba Malay Dictionary, published in 2006, has become a much-used out-of-print classic.

She also funded a cutting-edge play titled Bedrooms produced by TPAS in 2009. It garnered both acclaim from contemporary theatre goers and shrieks of consternation from bibiks who are more used to the melodramas of traditional Wayang Peranakan.

Remaining single to the end, Agnes lived the life of a woman seeking independence.

The end of the world war opened up opportunities for the two sisters Agnes and Alice. They went to America and then to the United Kingdom to further their studies before returning home to Melaka. 

As a philanthropist, Agnes’s gifts complemented the generosity of her illustrious forefathers, Tan Choon Bock, a founder of Straits Steamship (the predecessor to Keppel Corp), and Tan Cheng Lock, the widely-respected business and political figure who sparred with the British for the common man and independence. (In 1959, her brother Tan Siew Sin became the second finance minister of the newly-independent Malaya.) 

Key values Agnes’s father inculcated in her must have been thrift with a generous heart and a sense of right and wrong. They served her well in her giving. These are values our community still holds dear.

*It is a Peranakan Chinese (and Chinese) funerary custom for red candles to be lit at the wakes of those aged 80 years and above as a celebration of longevity.

The post A REMEMBRANCE: Red Candles* for a Grand Dame: Agnes Tan Kim Lwi (1920 – 2021) appeared first on The Peranakan Association Singapore.