Dear Nyonyas and Babas,
FROM OUR HEARTS TO YOURS**
“From our hearts to yours.” This pretty much sums up how we felt when The Peranakan Association Singapore finally served its first-ever virtual Peranakan Dinner in an 11-dish tok panjang tengkat last Saturday 25 September.
The Dinner was especially meaningful for us in the General Committee. From 520 guests who had fully paid up for our grand 120th Anniversary Peranakan Ball to be held in July 2020, our final tally of 240 supporters endured with us through the ups and downs of COVID 19 in 2020 and the first half of this year till last Saturday. We are so grateful to ALL of them.
Thankfully, it was a virtual fund-raising dinner that Wowed!
We were on tenterhooks through the late afternoon of last Friday. We nursed nascent doubts that the dinner in separate groups of five guests (excluding hosts) in homes could go on. Daily infection numbers were at record levels by then.
It was only by God’s grace that the dinner was spared by a hair’s breadth from an unknown fate. The two-person social gathering rule announced early Friday evening was to take effect from Monday 27 September.
That evening, one could feel the overwhelming wave of relief with a very un-Peranakan Heng, ah! It swept across our WhatsApp chat groups when the news broke. Never did bad news sound so good!
I cannot thank enough the Dinner Committee Chairperson and TPAS’s First Vice-President Nyonya Peggy Jeffs and her team, in alphabetical order, comprising Pauline Chan, Linda Chee, Gwen Ong, Shia Ai Lee, Bryan Tan, Anne Than, Raymond Wong and Philip Yeo for putting this event through its paces. And Josephine Tan for her super quick turnaround of design collaterals for the dinner.
Especially our steady, steely, clear-minded Peggy who, the morning after the dinner, sent the General Committee and Dinner Committee this text message: “MORNING AFTER!! The feeling is relaxed. Anxiety is over. Sweet feelings with a smile on the face. This is how I wake up!!”
Indeed. She said it for us all.
In lieu of the live fashion catwalk that we had planned to have at Shangri-La’s Ballroom, we commissioned a special video programme to bring the fun to the homes of our guests.
Please click on this link to access the dinner’s streamlined video https://youtu.be/fyaXp9fqdrw and on this link to bring you to the dinner’s photo gallery https://www.facebook.com/theperanakanassociationsingapore/posts/10159387800390279
Please enjoy them.
** I have shamelessly borrowed this phrase from cookbook writer Baba Christopher Tan. These were his closing remarks when he had the last say in the virtual dinner’s streamlined video. He was describing how he, together with Nyonya Sylvia Tan and our dinner’s curator Nyonya Violet Oon, created a tok panjang feast that would still look beautiful when delivered to the homes of guests, be food safe, and taste delicious even at room temperature. Special thanks to the chefs of Shangri-La Singapore and its logistics and delivery teams, all these check boxes were fully ticked!
UNRAVELLING THE PERANAKAN CHINESE DNA
After a reflective pause on Sunday, imagine our excitement when The Straits Times came out on Monday with an unexpected full-page story on Peranakan ancestry!
The paper’s Science Section editor and reporter brilliantly told a science-human interest story. Understandably, the story very quickly disseminated through social media the same day not just in Singapore, Malaysia and Australia but also as far away as Las Vegas, Washington DC, Seattle and Vancouver.
We thank SPH Limited for permitting us to share the story here.
The gist of the story is that science, based on findings by the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), has confirmed that the Peranakan Chinese have Chinese-Malay ancestry. What has also emerged is that being Peranakan is cultural not ethnic.
On 23 October at 2.00 pm, a free webinar on The Peranakan Identity: What’s in Our Genes? jointly organized by TPAS and GIS, will go deeper into the institute’s genetic findings. Mark your date.
At the same time, please join our virtual 33rd Baba Nyonya International Convention on 20 November before the e-tickets run out. We are now evaluating whether a cap should be placed to limit access to the virtual convention. This will help to mitigate possible technical glitches and should ensure a smoother delivery of the livestreamed convention. Tickets are still available at SISTIC on this link https://www.sistic.com.sg/events/slperanakan1121
Blessings
Colin Chee
Keeping the Culture Alive
30 September 2021
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