Questions Asked at the 33 rd Baba Nyonya International Convention
(20 Nov 2021)

Being a Peranakan is a cultural identity. Having a Peranakan lineage (family tree of several generations) helps to identify you as a Peranakan. However, if you reject the identity your parents gave you and adopted another, does that make you a Peranakan still? Hopefully, you will want to come back to the culture and identity you were born into. Until then you are surely not a Peranakan. This is exactly a dilemma a young Baba shared with us recently: “Is my father who is born to Peranakan parents still a Peranakan even though he has openly told his wife and children he is no longer a Peranakan because he has rejected this identity and its culture and that we, as his children, are also not Peranakan as a result?” Yes, in respect to the enquirer’s father, being Peranakan or anything else is to some degree one of self-identity. We told the young man who asked the question that he is free to choose the identity he wishes. If he chooses to be a Peranakan and lives the culture, that makes him one. More so if the community accepts him as one.

It is not a prerequisite of being a Peranakan to speak Baba Malay. Having said this, it is important to remember that this is the language of our forefathers and it is still a very recognisable identifier of our identity as Peranakans. In the early days of our forefathers, Baba Malay acted as a bridging language for local commerce across different racial groups. So it was also socially spoken. However, this is no longer the case. In Singapore, other languages such as English and Mandarin have replaced it. This is one key reason for it languishing in our time. It is a language in decline as our community also gets more diffused and as mothers are less likely to transmit the language to their children, assuming they know how to speak it. We have to do better by encouraging formalised teaching of the language to the younger generation and to encourage its use socially and at home. 

This has always been our challenge. We can only build platforms for discussions with the young. How can we get our young interested in their culture and identity? It has to start at home when we tell them stories of our past and present. In all this, do remember that being Peranakan is not an ethnic identity but a cultural one.

TPAS: Increasingly, we must serve as a champion and a pathfinder to help point the way forward without being dogmatic and puritanical about our culture and where it should be going. We must encourage our young to be part of this evolving process - reimagining and reinventing our culture so that it will be relevant to them and for them to want to embrace it as their own. We must also continue to serve as a bridge to the past by faithfully and accurately documenting it and bringing awareness to it. But at the end of it all, our community must want this to happen. The association cannot do it on its own.

Baba Kwa Chong Guan: You have answered the question.  I can only add a rhetorical question:If not a heritage/cultural association like the Peranakan Association to work for the preservation of Peranakan culture, then who else would do it?

Prof Wang Gungwu: Chong Guan is dead right. I have nothing to add.

Yes he is, and he can be contacted at www.BabaMalay.com

We are talking about Peranakan theatre or wayang Peranakan and perhaps even about Baba Malay as a language. Can we get away from this idea that wayang Peranakan must be traditional in its familiar melodramatic family plots, biases, and the language? Because these will limit its popularity and will determine whether actors will want to step up into this profession. Traditionally, in wayangs, young nyonyas are stereotyped to be young, powerless, and submissive; babas are cast as indulgent and lost to leisurely pleasures; and matriarchs are almost always omni-powerful and awful mothers-in-law. These stereotypes do not align with the values of our generation nor that of the younger generation.

As mentioned earlier, being Peranakan is a cultural identity (see Question 2 above).

Our culture of the past is a beautiful one. It is to be proud about. But it may not be fully relevant to the times. We therefore can adapt parts of it to our present and certainly to our future. But for our culture to flourish we must reimagine and reinvent it as a community, both old and young, especially our young as they are our torch bearers and successors.

Technology is one answer. It will bring us closer to one another. Webinars are a great way to get in touch with them and for them to reach out to us. And our recent 20 November 2020 Baba Nyonya convention attracted many overseas participants - from as far away as China and Japan, Norway and the UK, the USA and down to Australia – besides Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand.

Prof Farish Noor: The acceptance (or rejection) of the Jawi Peranakans was always conditional, and dependent on historical factors and the socio-political context of the time. During times when the native communities of Southeast Asia wanted to strengthen their bonds to fellow Muslims in Ottoman Turkey, Egypt, Arabia and the Indian Subcontinent, the Jawi Peranakans were very important and they played the role of mediators. But at other times when ethno-nationalism in Southeast Asia grew more exclusive and particular then their mixed identity was sometimes used against them. Understanding how and why these changes in attitude happened means having to understand the geopolitical realities of the time.

TPAS: We are sure while there were those in the Malay community who welcomed and accepted them, there were also those who spurned them. But it would seem that the majority did welcome the Jawi Peranakans into their ranks. It will always be this way when different groups of people are competing for influence and space or even to try integrating or assimilating into other groups.

A nice idea worth developing. I am sure there are small groups that are beginning to do that, as there are now different Peranakan groups focussed on different subjects of cultural interests and matters on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. They are to be encouraged. Will the young among you with social media skills be it video and podcast production etc please step up and help the association as volunteers. You may write to secretariat@peranakan.org.sg

We fully agree with you that stories are a “great entry” into our culture. We should have more of these, whether written in Baba Malay or any other language, or oral. As parents we should let our children and grandchildren have access to these stories. Tell them. Read to them. TPAS is also organising a hybrid Baba Nyonya Literary festival on 19 - 20 March 2022 featuring some of the community’s best writers and teachers. Among them is Baba General Winston Choo who will make a guest appearance for his just-published memoir “A Soldier at Heart” and also as our festival’s Guest-of-Honour. Join us when we start marketing this second edition of the festival in January/February 2022.

Baba Christopher Tan: Food Writer Christopher quickly picked this snack, Bak Kueh. The recipe for it is on page 156 of his award-winning book, ”The Way of Kueh”. 

Nyonya Elizabeth Ng: Sesagun or Sagun Sagun.  Another snack. Cooking Instructor Elizabeth says: “It is one of my favourite childhood snacks that is hardly seen nowadays.  It could partly be because of the amount of work involved to prepare it.  If one is prepared to put in the effort, one would get to appreciate this tasty treat.” One recipe can be googled here http://fazzyfoodparadise.blogspot.com/2010/08/sagun-sagun-or-sesagun-or-sagun-kelapa.html

We think we should all collaborate more. We don’t yet know what treasures we can find. As we work together we will know one another better and this can only lead to good and creative exchanges.

To be a Peranakan you have to live and enjoy the culture. Blood line alone only helps to identify you as one but it does not make you one.(See Question 2 above)

It is a challenge we all face. There has to be full and consistent community support. Also government support. These days, when something has no value it gets side-lined and dies. But most importantly, wayang Peranakan and Baba Malay have to continuously evolve to stay relevant to each generation. Cultural Medallion winner Baba Alvin Tan of The Necessary Stage has already kick-started this process and should soon be staging something truly interesting for all Singaporeans, not just Peranakans. But, in a way, Gunong Sayang Association may already have cleverly fused the contemporary to the traditional with its 2018 wayang “Lu Siapa”, about caring for our elderly suffering from dementia.

As maker and embroiderer Baba Raymond Wong says: There should be no rules. Yes, there are accepted ways of wearing a kebaya. If we treat it as fashion, we can be more creative.

Perhaps we should ask this question: Can Felix Chia’s play Pileh Menantu be performed in English or even Singlish? Perhaps, then, we will find more actors interested to perform in wayang Peranakan and more English-speaking Peranakans attending these performances. Alvin Tan of The Necessary Stage is now in the process of seeing how we can evolve Peranakan theatre in this direction. You will hear more of this in the months to come.

This is an insightful question. When our tangible culture reached its pinnacle during the mid-1800s to the early 1900s it would seem only the wealthy could afford it. Nothing to be apologetic about. Because for thousands of years, in any civilisation and society, only the rich could afford the finest, the best, the most ostentatious, the most experimental, and the gaudiest of fashion, jewellery, ceramics, crafts and the arts – all the tangibles. From the days of the Egyptian pharaohs, the Indian maharajahs, the Chinese emperors, and European royalty. This is reality. Today, market place commercialism calls the shots.

Unfortunately, one important point we tend to overlook is our intangible culture that is accessible to everyone in the community. This is clearly elucidated by Baba Christopher Tan in his essay for the convention’s publication, “Suara Baba” : “The display of a culture is a profoundly different thing from the lived practice of a culture. To be sure, it is almost always the tangibles – jewellery, clothes, furniture, porcelain – with which Peranakans are identified and associated by non-Peranakans. But rooting Peranakan identity in these touchable, collectible things creates more issues than it solves. It draws lines between the haves and the have-nots, leaving out in the cold those of us who might have impeccably Peranakan genetics and adat, but who have not inherited or who cannot afford these physical – and let’s not be coy about it, expensive – signifiers. When you really think about it, it is in fact the intangibles of Peranakan culture which are potentially everlasting, if faithfully lived out and passed on by verbal and practical means. They are the most trenchant, the most subtle and persistent propagators of Peranakanness: our manners, our customs, our beliefs, the way we navigate our family relationships, our perspectives on life, the way we see and respond to the world.”

A living language that is used pervasively or regularly will inevitably evolve. Baba Malay is endangered because of its disuse as a language of a marginal community. It is not mainstream. But how to evolve it? Even if spoken only among a few, if this community is dedicated, the language can still flourish if efforts are made to make it relevant to the times with the adoption of new words and phrases, and if it is also taught in a more structured manner as is being done by people like Baba Kenneth Chan and propagated in social media as in various Facebook chat groups like Baba Malay and Baba Malay Sayings at https://www.facebook.com/groups/596384517207183

What is reality and what is romance? If things of utter beauty are romantic, so be it. And the reality is that government agencies in our region have begun to see Peranakan culture as something beautiful and unique to us yet with a cosmopolitan aesthetic and sensibility that make it attractive and more than acceptable to many other countries as well. So they leverage it for every tourist dollar. “Is it wrong to do this?” we may ask. It will really depend on where the tourist dollar takes it. If the culture degenerates because of this then we should be concerned and want to reverse the trend.

Peranakan culture has always been inclusive. It cannot be otherwise because the culture is an amalgam of many influences – Malay, Arab, Indian, Portuguese, Dutch, and British – with Chinese culture at its root. “Baba” (of Persian origin) and “Nyonya” (of Portuguese origin) are honorific terms used by the community for anyone being addressed. It is a matter of good manners ie. adat.

This is our problem is it not? It is inevitable when families are nucleated and making a living gives us less family time to transmit our culture. But I would like to take this discussion to another tangent. What are Peranakan traditions? For instance, in the area of ancestor worship, which is based very much on Taoism, must Peranakan families which have been Christian for many years engage in this ritual, which is against their belief? Must all Peranakans engage in ancestor worship regardless of their beliefs in order to be Peranakan? Or should Peranakans be able to not pursue ancestor worship and various other traditions if it is against their beliefs or if they do not have the time and/or inclination for them, but yet enjoy and practise other aspects of the culture, and also continue to honour their ancestors?

Not that we have noticed this. But certainly more Peranakans speak English and even Mandarin these days than they do Baba Malay and dialects like Hokkien and Teochew. It is all part of the reality of the market place and the socio-economic environment we live in.

This is a thoughtful question. If Baba Malay is to be a living language relevant to the times, it has to evolve with new words and phrases. But we do not think this the problem of the language’s diminished use. The problem is that it is not a mainstream language, and the community is not helping by not speaking it and transmitting it to the next generation as much as it should. Baba Malay has always been the community’s mother tongue and our mothers (mostly) have always been the chief transmitter of it. No longer. Hence, for this language to survive, we must support Baba Malay teachers like Kenny Chan and use the one unique Baba Malay dictionary, “A Baba Malay Dictionary”, and phrase book, “Mas Sepuloh – Baba Conversational Gems”, both by Baba William Gwee Thian Hock. And be active participants in social media chat groups focussed on the language and at least speak socially among ourselves.

The spoken Baba Malay of our parents and grandparents is indeed in decline from neglect. But we believe it can still be resuscitated if the community comes together to bring it alive. There has to be that will and desire to make it so. But, must Peranakans speak only Baba Malay among themselves? It would be nice to, but certainly not a must do. However, if we care enough about it, let’s come together and make that happen.

Please contact The Peranakan Association Singapore at secretariat@peranakan.org.sg, with any idea(s).

We must all try to find a way. In Singapore we have Gunong Sayang Association leading this. I am sure any interest group can get it started in Penang for the Penang Nyonya Hokkien version, and anywhere else, from bare but riveting performances to sophisticated staged events!

We would think that Nyonya kebayas are probably more colourful with embroidered human figures, flowers, animals, insects and sea life in their elaborate sulam. 

It is good that we have jewellers like Foundation who are willing to contemporise Peranakan jewellery and be more experimental. Diamonds are more affordable these days too. They boast finer cuts than intans which are sometimes described as the “skin” of diamonds. Itans were more popularly used for jewellery during the pre-war years because they were cheaper than berlian, which are diamonds, and also very popular during the pre-war years among wealthy Peranakans. However, the old intans have a certain raw asymmetrical beauty that still attracts many collectors then and today.

It also simplifies the arguments surrounding what makes for Peranakan identity and empathises with the idea of self-identity. Don’t forget: our national identity is Singaporean or any country that we are born in or have naturalised into; our ethnic identity is Chinese or Indian or whatever; and our cultural identity is Peranakan Chinese, and this heritage is what differentiates a Peranakan Chinese from his Teochew, Hokkien, Hakka etc cousins.

In the old days, culture had patrons among royalty, the ruling class, and the wealthy merchant class. These days, arts and cultural funding has largely come from the government, which has other competing needs, and also wealthy private patrons and foundations which tend to be less culturally inclined, because evaluations more often than not are based on the rate of return of any given initiative that asks for funding. This metric is also a yardstick for governments although the application is less stringent because it has to take a more macro view. As in the past, education and health research continue to account for the bulk of both private and government funding.

It is quite understandable if much of the traditions of the past do not appear relevant to the young of today. Which is why we are encouraging the young to be our community’s path-finders and torch bearers. Join us and help the community to reimagine and reinvent the culture so that the young can embrace it and call it its own. But if you wish to find your own path know that we will be behind you.

There will always be well-meaning people in our collecting community, or for that matter in any community, who will hold the view that older is better and therefore should be pricier when we talk about material culture such as jewellery and ceramics. But the fact is reproductions today, such as our uniquely glazed ceramics, if made and fired extremely well, must one day in the future surely become much sought after as fine antiques and collectibles. If we are serious collectors, perhaps, we should start looking at these extremely well-crafted and well handmade pieces as art rather than as reproductions. Why should these cost any less than averagely mass produced or poorly made antiques?

Our keynote speaker, Baba Kwa Chong Guan, was speaking about Baba Tan Jiak Kim’s mansion, Panglima Prang House. It has nothing to do with TPAS, which has not inherited any building nor acquired one.

As mentioned earlier, it depends on whether the mixed family practices the culture. When we talk about Peranakan culture, we tend to think in terms of Peranakan Chinese culture, because the latter represents a majority. But we must not forget that we also have Peranakan Indians, Jawi Peranakans, Phuket Babas, and Peranakans from Myanmar and the Philippines. And Indonesia’s Peranakan community is the largest in the Nusantara, numbering in the millions, lest we forget.

This is true for many of us. The fact is, as explained by Prof Farish Noor during the symposium and in his essay for the convention’s publication, Suara Baba, a very large part of the Jawi Peranakan community has identified with the mainstream Muslim Malay community as bumiputras in Malaysia. The same is gradually happening to the Peranakan Chinese community as we increasingly become more sinicised as our children and grandchildren marry out into the much larger mainstream Chinese community, not to mention other ethnicities.

It wouldn’t be viable economically. Why not, instead, join Baba Malay classes conducted by teachers like Kenny Chan? 

I suppose everything is a state of mind, wouldn’t you agree?

Must a Peranakan only speak in Baba Malay. Can a Peranakan not communicate comfortably in any other language?

This is such an interesting idea. If you can’t beat them, let’s seduce them by whatever means. ☺☺☺ 

Must Peranakan literature only be written in Baba Malay? In the same way we can ask: must Peranakans be able to speak Baba Malay to be accepted as one? It would be nice to have Peranakan literature written in Baba Malay, but it must not be a pre-requisite. How many Peranakans speak or read and write Baba Malay? Award-winning author Nyonya Josephine Chia and not a few other nyonyas have written stories about our heritage for adults and children using the English language. Can we count these as Peranakan literature too? Having said this, the latest self-published book in Baba Malay is “Bibik-Ni Mak Nenek” by Nyonya Rosie Tay. It has found ready buyers. It is printed by language teacher Baba Kenneth Chan’s company, Wolf et al.

It is always good to honour one’s parent. Perhaps you and your siblings who might be interested could ask your father about your heritage, assuming he is Peranakan. Our heritage is also easily accessed, whether through family stories, books and social media. Even neighbours and friends. Thank you for sharing.

This is so true. If you can get your hands on Baba William Gwee’s book, Mas Sepuloh, you will acquire many of these gems.

Certainly yes. But let’s not break the rules just for the sake of breaking them. If you google Indonesian fashion houses you will be astounded by the exquisite creativity of designers there around the kebaya.

Peranakan Chinese of Hokkien, Teochew and Hakka lineages seem to be the most mentioned.

Who can possibly predict the next incarnation of Nyonya Stella Kon? But we certainly hope there will be many more Stella Kon reincarnations to carry pour culture forward as part of its evolution!

Sometimes we wonder whether we should be fixated with what makes for Peranakan literature. Can we not see it as simply Singapore literature in whichever language it is written and for whichever community it is written because Singapore is such a hybrid, multi-racial, and multi-cultural cosmopolitan society.

You are absolutely right that in evolving any culture it must always be kept top of mind, especially among the young of our various communities. This has been and will always be a challenge as globalisation continues its relentless course of gradually homogenising the world with one global language - English - and with it, one western culture. There is now however a countervailing force - that of Chinese, perhaps, as China becomes a global economic and technological powerhouse. Or even India one day?

Kenneth Chan, our very own Baba Malay language teacher has embedded William Gwee’s  dictionary in his website www.BabaMalay.com

This is such a dangerous question. Taste is so individual. We are keeping out of this. ☺☺☺

Thank you. We share the same views.

If we practise the Peranakan culture faithfully we need not worry about melting into the mainstream Chinese culture. But the latter is increasingly a very real option for many Peranakans who marry out, or who are the offspring of such unions, or, sadly, who have given up or chosen to neglect the culture for whatever reason(s).

All you have to do is google and you will find much there. Also, if you visit The Peranakan Association Singapore website, our digital magazines will be of great help and interest. https://www.peranakan.org.sg/

In the context of the Peranakan community, as it is defined, the historic mixed unions leading to these lineages practising the Peranakan culture would be Chinese-Malay, Indian-Malay, Muslim Indian-Malay, Chinese-Thai, and many other mixes in between, including Chinese-Chinese who have adopted the culture. On the other hand, Eurasians are of mixed European and Asian descent. However, over the generations, our respective food cultures and preferences appear to have deliciously and delightfully crossed one over the other. 

There is another community, known as Kristangs, also originating from Melaka. From Wikipedia: “The Kristang (otherwise known as "Portuguese-Eurasians" or "Malacca Portuguese") or Serani are a creole ethnic group of people of mixed Portuguese and Melakan descent based in Malaysia and to some extent in Singapore. People of this ethnicity have, besides Portuguese, a strong Dutch heritage, as well as some British, Jewish, Malay, Chinese and Indian heritage due to intermarriages, which is common among the Kristang.”

Hmmm. Blame it on over-exposure to social media. We have stopped thinking and reflecting deeply. It is a universal disorder. Having said this, it is fun to be able to celebrate all cultures in general, don’t you think?

Hybridity is the way going forward as the world globalises and technology erases physical borders. 

It is how we use it and adapt it that will keep it alive and well.

An idea indeed. We hope Baba Alvin Tan of The Necessary Stage will soon bring this to fruition. He has been working on this for the past two years. Question of funding and community support. Perhaps there are also others who will also take up the challenge.

We don’t need to. The world is large enough to accommodate the traditional and the new.

Another dangerous question even angels will fear to tread. Be brave. Experiment and be surprised by the results.

Ahhh. Ask any of our Peranakan Chinese and Peranakan Indian who eat with their fingers. Even the simplest of food becomes heavenly. It is an immersive experience. But do wash your hands first and then after eating. More so when you enjoy tok panjang with your hands in any large enough Peranakan restaurant worth its sambal.

No lah. It is just fashion. Fashion is always timeless.

Really? There is nothing quite like eating perot ikan goreng (from ikan parang) with chinchalok mixed with lime juice, shallots and chilli (and maybe a sprinkle of sugar to taste).