A webinar titled “The World of the Peranakan Babas and Nyonyas” was
organised by the
UTAR
Tun Tan Cheng Lock Centre for Social and Policy Studies (TCLC) on 9 December
2020 via ZOOM and UTAR Facebook Live.
With its unique hybrid culture, the Peranakan community has enjoyed a
resurgence of
interest globally for the last few decades. Hence, the event aims to create
a shared
platform for scholars to interact and to share the knowledge of Peranakan
Baba and
Nyonya.
Invited to be the speaker was Dr Lee Su Kim. She is a former Associate
Professor at the School of Language Studies and Linguistics in Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia. She has lectured and researched for more than 30 years
on language, culture and identity. She is the sixth generation of Nyonya
with ancestral links to both Malacca and Penang Peranakan communities. The
webinar was moderated by UTAR Faculty of Creative Industries
Department of Modern Languages Assistant Professor Wee Kim Peck.
“I am sure you all quite aware that the Chinese are everywhere. We can find
Chinatown in San Francisco, London, Sydney, New Zealand or even in Norway.
In most of the societies where the Chinese are, they are sort of
assimilating into the main culture or there are Chinese who still keep their
very much distinctive lifestyle of their own. But for Baba and Nyonya, they
ended up starting a whole new culture,” said Dr Lee.
Dr Lee shares a wedding photo circa 1900, showing a very interesting hybrid
culture
She then talked about the origins of the Baba-Nyonya community and how the
culture had evolved from more than 700 years ago, “As far back as the 14th
century, the Chinese sailors were already sailing down South, coming down to
the Coast. They came towards Southeast Asia to do some trade. They came
towards the Malaysia Peninsular as well as the Indonesian Archipelago. There
were no nations formed during that time. Many of them settled in Malacca
which is one of the famous ports. Besides, there were many Chinese traders
who settled in other parts of the Nusantara region, down South to
Batavia over in Manado, parts of Kalimantan and Borneo, Medan in Sumatera as
well as some ventured to Phuket, Thailand and Yangon, Myanmar. Because they
relied on wind power, they have to wait for the wind to change and bring
them back to China. They were not allowed to bring the womenfolk along, so
while waiting for the wind to change, they surgent the state on this region
for about six months before they could travel back and there were some
intermarriages with the local women. The local women could be Malay,
Javanese, and Balinese, to name a few. Some of them probably never even
marry, they just cohabitated together. So this is how the wonderful
intermingling of culture comes. Chinese with the local, as well as there
were even more complex because Malacca was ruled by various colonial
powers.”
She then continued, “There was so much discussion on this word “Peranakan”.
It is quite complex because it changes from country to country. In Malaysia,
we call them ‘The Peranakan Chinese’ also known as ‘Straits Chinese’ or
‘Straits Born’. The Peranakan Chinese who originated from Malacca, Penang
and Singapore, the Straits Settlement which was form in 1826, called
themselves the Babas and Nyonyas. There also have Peranakan Chinese in
Phuket. In Indonesia, they called themselves ‘Peranakan Tionghoa’. Over in
Terengganu and Kelantan, some of the oldest Peranakan Chinese community
called themselves ‘the people who wear the Sarong’. There are Indian traders
who intermarried with the local women, so we have ‘the Peranakan Chitty’. We
also have the ‘Peranakan Jawi’, where Indian-Muslims who intermarried with
the local women. The Peranakan is very gender-specific; ‘Baba’ is for the
men, probably originated from India and ‘Nyonya’ is for the women,
originated from Java. Some scholars said that there is Portuguese influence;
it could have come from the word ‘Dona’ from Portugal.”
Meanwhile, while sharing her family portrait she also encourages the
audience to do their research on their family tree earlier so that they will
be able to trace their generation. “The Peranakan is a very unique culture.
It is a very rare historical and geographical convergence of circumstances
and factors that resulted in a blending of many cultural influences and yet
it is not a potpourri, it is not of bits and pieces. It sort of evolves and
became a genuine synthesis from all the various root cultures, it
transcended the root; the component parts and became another uniquely
different culture entirely on its own,” said Dr Lee.
She then continued, “Before the great depression and World War II, the Babas
made a lot of money in the 19th and the early 20th
century. But when World War II came along and with Japanese occupation, a
lot of the fortunes were decimated. But, interestingly over the past three
decades, there has been a great interest in the culture and usually the
interest is in the wonderful and resplendent material culture and ironically
focusing on Nyonya aspects of the culture, the wonderful embroidery
including the food.”
Some of the Straits Chinese Porcelain
Explaining on the Straits Chinese Porcelain, she said, “If you owned a Straits Chinese Porcelain, they are very valuable today. They were commissioned by rich Babas and were specially made for the dining table, kitchen and household in the Straits Settlement. Although they came from China, but they did not follow the usual patterns of China, instead they have their very own specific design and came in all kinds of colour.”
Dr Lee introduce some of the rich material cultures of Peranakan Baba and
Nyonya
On top of that, she also shared various aspects of the Baba Nyonya heritage
such as Nyonya Cuisine, the Sarong Kebaya, the Baba Language, and the
Straits Chinese House.
Some of the Nyonya cuisine cooked by Dr Lee
Young Nyonyas wearing vintage Sarong and Kebaya
Sarong Kebaya which made with swiss voile cotton rubia
“If you would like to ask me the things that are still exist, I would say
the Nyonya food and the Nyonya Sarong Kebaya. Sarong mainly comes from
Indonesia. But today, many of the batik makers do not make very detailed and
colourful Sarong anymore. Those days, the Kebaya was made in swiss voile
cotton rubia. But now it is hard to find the beautiful swiss voile cotton
rubia and also a very skilled Kebaya maker who can actually sew based on our
customised liking,” said Dr Lee.
Dr Lee explains the three types of Kebaya namely, Kebaya Biku, Sulam and
Renda
Sharing on the Baba Language, Dr Lee said, “Those days the Chinese traders
who came from Southern China, they had to sort of pick up the lingua franca.
They probably picked up the Bazaar Malay which was being used in the market
or in the trading places. Eventually as they settled down, they sort of
developed a kind of lingua using Baba Malay which became a patois and
eventually it involved into a Creole. So there might be some Malay words
which they may not know, so what they do is to put in the Hokkien words.
There are also many loan words from Portuguese, Dutch, Tamil and English.”
She also demonstrated some examples of words of Chinese origin in Baba Malay
for instance, “Gua” meaning “I” and “Lu” meaning “You”, to name a few.
Scholars describe the Straits Chinese house as “Straits Eclectic”
“Today, there are two places which have declared as a UNESCO World Heritage
Site in Malaysia namely, George Town and Malacca. It is a good thing to have
the UNESCO World Heritage Site in the hope that these resplendent material
cultures will be carefully preserved,” said Dr Lee. Meanwhile, she also
talked about the design, the structure and the dimension of a Straits
Chinese house which includes the reception hall, the ancestral hall, living
and dining halls, the kitchen and Bridal Chamber and bedrooms.
Dr Lee during the short story reading
Dr Lee concluded the webinar with a short reading on the story titled, “The
House of Smells and Noises” which was adopted from her second book titled,
“Sarong Secrets: Of Love, Loss and Longing”. The webinar then ended up with
an interactive Q&A session followed by a group photo-taking session.
https://www.facebook.com/UTARnet/videos/892495464898231
Wholly owned by UTAR Education Foundation Co. No. 578227-M LEGAL STATEMENT TERM OF USAGE PRIVACY NOTICE