Chinese Peranakan Food and Symbolism in Malaysia

This paper will use the example of the Baba and other Chinese communities in Malaysia to describe the change in Chinese food culture and discuss the change in Chinese food symbolism. The Baba are Malay-speaking Chinese originally descended from the earliest Chinese immigrants to Malacca. Despite cultural change, the Baba has remained Chinese as well as retained most ‘traditional’ Hokkien customs. Their symbolic world is Chinese. The study of Baba food culture and Chinese symbolism is therefore significant for understanding cultural continuity and cultural change as well as cultural form and symbolism.

On the one hand, the nyonya food has become very localised, having incorporated local ingredients and local styles of cooking. On the other hand, their symbolic world with regards to food is ‘traditional’ in the Chinese tradition. The paper will discuss how cultural forms are used and negotiated to express Chinese values and symbolism. In the symbolic context, food and its ritual use are language of symbolic expression. Overall, the paper aims to contribute the study of cultural continuity, transformation and identity. The Baba had lost their Chinese language but they have remained Chinese in identity which is expressed emphatically in symbolism.

We shall describe the offerings and their significance for a domestic rite performed by one Mr Bong’s family in Bukit Rambai on 28 July 1997. The rite is called bikin dua tahun or ‘perform the second rite’. For the Baba, this is the last of a number of post-death rites. Mr Bong’s mother passed away on the 24th day of the 6th Moon in 1995. Last year, on her first death anniversary, the family performed the bikin satu tahun or ‘perform the first year rite’. For the Baba, this is the grandest of the post-death rites, when a Buddhist monk is invited to perform the ceremony, and a paper house as well as lots of paper goods and hell money are burnt for the deceased. The first year rite virtually marks the end of mourning, and so the last part of the rite involves the mourners removing their mourning markers (worn on the relevant shoulder part of dress) and changing into a colourful dress which has some red colour.

After the rite, the picture and statues of deities, which have been kept away during the mourning period, are reinstalled at their usual altar in the living room. In the case of Mr and Mrs Bong, as do most Baba nowadays, they decided not to piara abu (install ancestral altars) at home and so Mr Bong paid for his mother’s tablet to be installed at the famous temple dedicated to Kuanyin in Melaka. The Baba refers to this temple, called Cheng Hoon Teng, as kebun datuk (literally, the deities’ garden). The Baba generally observe a final domestic post-death rite called bikin dua tahun (hereafter the second year rite). This is equivalent to what the Hokkien calls choe sa ni or ‘perform the third year rite’, which is also observed not on the exact third death anniversary but in effect two years after a death.

The second year rite is not so grand and it does not involve hiring any religious specialist. It is more like a death anniversary, but there are more offerings, and siblings including married sisters return to participate in the rite. In fact, early in the morning of 28 July 1997, which was the 24th day of the sixth moon, Mr Bong’s family performed a simple death anniversary rite (siki) before performing the second year rite. Mr Bong’s four sisters (the youngest was already 58 years old) came to his house from other parts of Malacca and Kuala Lumpur. Joined by Mr. Bong’s elder brother’s family next door, the Bong family was busy with activities (preparing food and sweets) two days before the worship, and there was an atmosphere of joyful reunion.

In the late afternoon on the eve of the second year rite, Mr Bong cleared a high table in the middle hall. On this temporary altar table facing the front of the house, he placed an incense pot filled with uncooked rice (as the incense pot is for temporary use only) , a glass filled with water, and a small towel (binpoh) on top. He arranged four teacups in front of the temporary ‘incense pot’ and put a pot of tea on the table. A bamboo joss-stick holder containing new (unused) joss-sticks was placed at one corner of the altar table. Then Mr Bong lit some joss-sticks and went to the porch to pray to the God of Heaven, then to the domestic deities in the living room.

After offering joss-sticks to the deities, he went to the front of the house to ‘invite’ his mother to return for the second year rite. Having done this, he placed the remaining two joss-sticks in the incense pot on the temporary ancestral altar in the middle room. Then he poured tea. He opened the side door of the living room. This was to allow the mother’s companions to enter as they, being not from the family, could not enter the living room from the front door because the deities’ altar was there.

Before the worship began, Mr Bong had switched on the lights in the house, as is the custom when conducting a domestic worship. The ritual of inviting the deceased to return to be worshipped is called chia abu or ‘invite the ancestors’, and this system of worshipping ancestors by ‘invitation’ on the occasion of worship may be called the invitation system, in contrast to the system of installing a permanent altar or altars for regular domestic worship, which the Baba call piara abu. Chia is from the Hokkien word which means to invite while abu (literally ‘ash’ in Malay) is the Baba term for ancestors. Piara means ‘to keep and look after’ in Malay (pelihara) and so piara abu refers to installing an ancestral tablet at home.

We are concerned with food and symbolism, and so we shall only describe this aspect of the rite. We have seen that on the temporary altar table, there is a temporary incense pot. Beside it is a glass of plain water. It is common for the Baba to have a glass of plain water to go along with food. There are two tea pots, one containing tea and the other containing Chinese rice wine. In front of the ‘incense pot’ are laid eight tea cups. There was also a small basin in which stood a glass filled with plain water, and there was a towel (binpoh) folded neatly on top of the glass. This is provided in a Baba ancestor worship. My Baba informants explain that this glass of water and the binpoh is for the ancestors to cuci mulut (‘wash the mouth’ i.e. wipe the mouth clean) while some say that it is for cuci muka (‘wash the face’) which serves the same purpose of cleansing before, during or after a meal.

Halfway through this ‘second year worship’, Mrs Bong reminded her husband that they had not yet offered cigarettes and betel leaf. Mr Bong then placed two saucers on the temporary altar tables, one containing three unlit cigarettes, while the other had a betel leaf (daun sirih), gambier (gambier), betel nuts, some lime (kaput), and a lit cigarette. Mr Bong’s mother used to smoke cigarettes and chew betel leaves. In contrast to the other Chinese in Malaysia, the offering of betel leaves reflect Baba identity, as the non-Baba Chinese are not associated with chewing betel leaves, a habit associated with the non-Chinese indigenous people but also with the Baba and other more localised Chinese.

In front of the high ‘altar table’ were placed two square tables which served as offering tables, and they were lower than the altar table. The offerings were laid out neatly in rows. The Baba are always proud that they lay out their offerings neatly, unlike the non-Baba Chinese, who they claim, do not arrange their offerings neatly. This is an important Baba rhetoric to emphasise pride in their identity, both as Baba and as Chinese, and that they, rather than the mainstream Chinese, take worshipping more seriously.

We shall begin our description with the first table, that is, the table in front of the ‘altar’ table. We shall refer to the rows in relation to the position of the ‘altar’. Thus the first row on the first table is the row closest to the altar. The first row consisted of eight pairs of chopsticks, each of which was placed beside a saucer which held a spoon and a small wine cup.

Wine is offered to ancestors on special occasions. In their daily life, the Baba generally use fork and spoon or at times fingers to eat their meals. However, in the context of offerings, usually chopsticks rather than forks and spoons are arranged on the offering table. This practice of conforming to traditional Chinese cultural practice in the ritual context, although not reflecting their actual social practice, is also reflected in the practice of offering tea to deities and ancestors. In their daily life, few Babas drink Chinese tea.

In the second row, there were eight small bowls of rice. Although the focus of worship was Mr Bong’s mother, it was believed that the mother might bring along some of her friends from the underworld, so there was a need to offer more than one share, hence the eight bowls of rice, eight pairs of chopsticks, eight cups of wine and eight cups of Chinese tea.

In Baba custom, before the post-death one-year rite is performed, the deceased is offered only one bowl of rice, and so only one pair of chopsticks is laid out. The belief is that a newly-dead person cannot bring along his or her underworld companions when invited to an offering. Only after the mourning period marked by the one year rite can a new ancestor bring along his or her underworld companions to attend the ‘feast’, hence more bowls of rice are offered. Generally, the number of bowls are four, eight or twelve. Six is avoided as it is half of twelve, the full number, hence symbolically not good. Thus eight is the number adopted by most people.

Offerings given to the dead and ancestors are always in even number, following the Yin principle. The Yang numbers are odd numbers. Thus the number of joss-sticks offered to deities are always one (in daily worship) or three or more (special days as the first or fifteenth of each Chinese month). The number of joss-sticks offered by each person to an ancestor is always in even number, usually two.

Rows three and four comprised the major items of offerings, arranged behind the bowls of rice. The number of bowls indicated the scale of offering (there were usually four, eight, or twelve). In our case, there were six in the third row and six in the fourth.

In the third row there were:
Chapchai or mixed vegetables. Before cooking, the dried kimcham (lily buds) were soaked and tied, two to a bunch. A nonya explained that ‘masak kimcham, tak ikat, mati sesat’, that is, ‘if one does not tie the kimcham before cooking them, one will go astray after death’. We can take this to mean that the act of tying the kimcham symbolises unity.

Chabe or lean pork cooked with soya-bean paste, ginger and garlic. Chabe is probably derived from the Hokkien word chia-bah for lean meat. Not all Babas know this word. A nonya whom I know calls it bah isi lidah, as the meat strips hung at the market stall look like tongues (lidah in Malay).

Bah chin (or babi chin), a dish of stewed pork, chicken and potato. The belly pork (sam chan) is cut into two square blocks, one big and one small. The skin of the bigger piece is marked with two squares by a knife, one square within the other. Inside the small square is a sign of a cross. The smaller block of pork is marked with only one square which also has a cross within it. The smaller block is placed on top of the bigger one in the centre of a big bowl which is then filled with pongteh, a dish of pork, potato, chicken pieces and mushroom. The word bah means pork and babi is Malay for pig. Chin is probably derived from the Hokkien chhin for ‘close in relationship’. An old Nonya explained to me about the symbolism of the squares and crosses on the pork blocks as ‘tanda kasi adik beradik boleh baik’, a sign for siblings to be close. Thus this dish expresses a wish for the family to be close.

Kaki babi or pig’s leg. A common dish for offerings.Bahwan or pork meatballs Angkua char. This is fried Chinese round turnip called pangkuan in Hokkien. Char is Hokien for ‘to fry’. Kari ayam or curry chicken.

The fourth row consisted of the following dishes:
Perut masak peh-kuih or pig’s intestines cooked with ginko nuts (peh kuih in Hokkien). Perut in Malay means ‘stomach’. Masak means ‘cooked with’. Ayam chin, which is similar to bak chin and also symbolises closeness of relationship.

Chapchai chin (vegetarian). This carries a similar symbolism. The difference from the other chapchai dish is that this dish had carrot and bahwan (pork balls) and the cabbage was not cooked. Instead, a few raw cabbage leaves were arranged in a big bowl and the cooked chap chai was poured into it. The symbolic ingredient, the cabbage, is pau chai in Hokkien, and pau can mean both ‘surround’ (togetherness and closeness) and ‘guarantee’, thereby symbolising “guaranteed closeness in relationship’ or pau chhin in Hokkien.

Pongteh. The term is of unknown origin. Although it sounds Hokkien, I cannot associate it with any known Hokkien term. The style of stewing is described in Hokkien as hong. I suspect it may be derived from the Hokkien description of stewing pig’s trotters, known as te. The mispronunciation of hong as pong then explains the origin of the term pongteh.

Ikan ruan masak lemak kuning or local Malaysian carp cooked in coconut milk and turmeric. It can be any kind of fish dish. In actual fact, unlike other Chinese, the Babas seldom offer seafood (the dried cuttlefish being an important exception) in their worship.

Of the twelve bowls of offerings in rows three and four, the most significant are the three chin dishes. Symbolising solidarity in the family, they are placed in the middle of the two rows of offerings.

Rows five and six on the first table and row seven on the next table were offerings put on plates, comprising mainly several kinds of kuih, and also other cooked food. There were altogether twelve plates, not counting smaller items placed in saucers. These were:

Suana char lapcheong or leeks fried with Chinese sausage. The name is derived from Hokkien and is a very Chinese dish.
Saucer of tauyou or soya sauce, usually with cut chillies, for dipping.
Saucer of achar chili or stuffed, pickled long chillies.
Saucer of achar timun or pickled cucumber.
Saucer of chuka alia or ginger vinegar.
Tauhu char or fried beancurd.
Bowl of water with an onion plant. This is for the ancestors to chuchi tangan or ‘wash fingers’ before eating, which reflects Baba food ways. However, the onion plant symbolises cleanliness and life, as the Chinese word for onion can also mean luxuriousness.

Plate of twelve wrapped pieces of tape, with the one on top opened. A dish of fermented rice wrapped in banana leaves. As the final result of tape making may be unpredictable (they may be sour rather than sweet) many Babas observe some taboos when making them, such as not making any comment about their final result or not eating oranges or pineapples before preparing it, as these can be sweet or sour. Two days before, Mr Bong burned some kemenyan (benzoin) in an incense container and took it to where his sister-in-law was making the tape, and then quickly took the burning incense to the front of the house. It was believed that the incense would purify the atmosphere and ensure the success of tape making.

Plate of twelve ku merah or red ku. This is Chinese kuih made from glutinous rice with mashed green-pea filling. However, the Baba may add some local ingredients such as santan or coconut milk. As Mr Bong’s family had already ended their mourning, it was alright to offer red ku in this ‘second year worship’. The Babas also make black ku for ancestral offerings. The black colour is derived from the leaves of a plant called rame-rame in Baba, or ramai-ramai in Malay. These black ku are especially popular for worshipping ancestors during the Hungry Ghost Festival in the seventh month.

Char mee or fried yellow noodle. Hokkiens always like to have noodles in their offerings as they symbolise long life.

Four moon-cakes. This was offered as the Mid-Autumn Festival was approaching (in the eighth Chinese month) and moon-cakes were already available in the shops.

Another plate of twelve wrapped pieces with tape.

The offerings continued on to the second table in front of which the family members performed their worship.

There were five plates of assorted kuih, which included a plate of kuih koci, with the one on top opened, symbolising serving the ancestor. This nonya kuih has coconut filling sweetened with coconut sugar called gula tuak in Baba Malay. Kuih koci, wrapped into a conical shape in banana leaves, is associated with offering for ancestors.

Rows Eight and Nine comprised eight plates of a variety of fruit. There were always oranges and apples, because the orange colour symbolises prosperity, while the word for apple in Chinese is homonymous with the word for peace.

Row Ten, which was the front row from the position of the worshippers, comprised important items of offerings. The important item was the big plate of offerings called sam seng, always placed in the centre of the front row. It comprised a piece of blanched pork arranged in the centre of the tray, flanked on its left by a whole blanched duck, and on its right by a whole blanched chicken. In the offerings observed, a chunk of pig’s leg (kaki babi) rather than an ordinary piece of pork was offered. This indicated the significance of the occasion.

A pig’s leg is considered to be an offering of the deceased’s son, while a pig’s head is offered by married daughters and sons-in-law, who have to provide it only for the ‘first-year’ rite. The term sam seng is Hokkien, and means three animal sacrifices. If the sam seng is offered to an ancestor, it is arranged such that the head of the fowl faces the altar. When it is offered to a deity, it is arranged the other way around. In Baba worship, this is an important symbolic arrangement to differentiate between making an offering to an ancestor or to a deity. A round ‘cake’ of dried noodles and dried cuttlefish (juhi) were placed on top of the pig’s leg. Ju hi in Hokkien sounds like another word meaning ‘as one wishes’.

To the left of the sam seng is a plate of ten sugarcane sticks tied with a red strip of paper. The sugar canes are cut into sticks of around one-foot long. To the right of the sam seng is a plate of bananas. The comb of bananas symbolises a pongkis which is a flat open basket.

Sugar cane, because of its sweetness and long stem, symbolises good life (sweet and long life) but it also symbolises kandar, which in Hokien is pin-ta, a shoulder pole for carrying things at its two ends. The whole offering was explained by an informant as follows: ‘Samseng dia tak makan, bawa balik, tebu sebagai kandar, pisang sebagai pongkis.’ (‘The ancestors do not consume the sam seng here; they take them back (to the underworld), the sugarcanes are used as shoulder poles, and the bananas are used as a pongkis basket.’) My other Baba informants concurred with this.

Like the sugar canes, the bananas have other specific significances too. By rule, the Babas use the kind called pisang raja, because the Malay word raja means ‘king’, and ‘king’ in Hokkien is ong, which is homonymous with the word for ‘prosperous’, as we have seen in the case of the pineapple. Here is an interesting case of Baba translating a Malay word into Hokkien to make it symbolically significant. It reflects both innovation and the continuity of Hokkien symbolism in a transformed context.

From the above, we see three important principles of specific Chinese symbolism, namely colour symbolism, symbolism by linguistic association, and symbolism by physical association.

The Babas identify themselves as Chinese, and even claim to be more Chinese than the other Chinese through their neat and serious religious observation. They observe cultural principles from the Hokkien heritage, but have certain locally developed cultural features which on the surface may not appear traditionally Chinese. On the one hand, there is the wish to conform to an essentialised ‘traditional’ Chinese cultural life such as arranging chopsticks for the deceased who in real life used fingers or fork and spoon rather than chopsticks to eat; on the other hand are the non-Chinese items such as betel leaves offered, as the deceased when alive loved to chew betel leaves.

Their food contains cuisines developed from past Chinese cultural traditions (including the concept of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ food) as well as food developed from their knowledge of the local environment, including their exposure to Malay and other cuisines.

Chinese foodways are always changing, but continuity is found in both the cuisines and food symbolism of the Baba. In many ways, they have tried to observe more of the ‘traditional’ Chinese religious practices. Despite innovation and transformation in forms, the symbolism of their food have remained Chinese.