In those harsh and perilous times, jewellery could make the difference between life and death. My mother, Mrs. K.T. Koh, 82, says, “I ate her jewellery. A whole diamond kerosang set paid for only a tin of milk powder for me, and piece by piece was given up for food at black-market prices”
Learn more about the Peranakan personalities behind streets & institutional names.
Ms Dee Huat Guan visited our website in March 2000, and was inspired enough to contribute this insight to the Chinese Filipino experience.
The first Chinese junks arrived in the Philippines around the 9th century A.D. When the Spaniards settled in the kingdom of Maynilad (today the city of Manila) in 1571, there were only about 150 Chinese settling with the natives. Upon the establishment of the Spanish colony, the number of Chinese drastically changed, and, by 1600, their number had increased to 15,000.
It was a rather dusty lane, leading to the original Marine Parade, a seaside promenade, on one end, and to the main East Coast Road on the other. This is where I grew up, and I recall a childhood swirling with the language, habits and culture of the Peranakans who lived alongside the Eurasians, China-born Chinese, Boyanese Malays, Jews and an exotic parade of Indians of all castes and colours. This was Singapore at the end of British rule and the dawn of independence.
Cynthia Wee-Hoefer reminisces on growing up in the Peranakan heartland during the 50s and 60.