Back from another field trip, this time to Medan, your editors have come up against a definition, different from that used in Malaysia, of “Peranakan” as applied to the Chinese who have long made their homes in Southeast Asian countries to which their forefathers traveled in centuries past. Most Southeast Asian ethnic Chinese today are at least settlers of the 2^nd generation if not more, thus undeniably “local born” (the “anak” in “Peranakan”). And in Malaysia and Indonesia, based on Tan Chee Beng’s studies of Peranakan Chinese in Melaka and Kelantan, he designated them as “the Malay-speaking Chinese in Southeast Asia”.

However, as noted in the first posting on January 23^rd 2008 in this website/blog (http://www.peranakannetworks.com/blog/?m=200801), most of the younger generation now, having gone through schooling in the national language, are fluent in Malay but may choose to converse in a Chinese dialect with family and friends. To them, to be identified as a “Peranakan” may appear strange as they associate it with the older generation whose material culture may reflect the appropriateness of the label.

Currently, aspects of the material culture such as attire and food are the popular markers of the Peranakan, also called the Baba and Nyonya. Nyonya or Peranakan restaurants can be found in most cities while festive occasions such as Chap Goh Meh in Penang, brings out the Baba and Nyonya troupe to perform alongside others celebrating the 15^th night of the Chinese New Year. Weddings in the Baba and Nyonya style are still conducted, with wedding planners around to assist.

As for the furniture and other household items such as the crockery (now the much valued antiques categorized as nyonya ceramics or nyonyaware) and jewellery, also seen as features depicting Peranakan culture, these may be less an indicator of the person’s identity but rather of the owner’s socio-economic status since only the wealthy can afford these expensive consumer products.

Nyonyaware, displayed in The Pinang Peranakan Mansion

(see also the page on Places: http://www.peranakannetworks.com/blog/?page_id=18)

Our Indonesian friends today still distinguish between those who have adopted the local language and no longer able to speak Chinese as Peranakan as opposed to their compatriots who continue to speak in Chinese dialects and hold on to Chinese traditions as “totoks”, with the implication that the latter are less assimilated with the indigenous communities. In comparative terms in Malaysia, the Chinese who have longer roots in the region, some since the 15^th century Melaka Sultanate, were known as “laukhek” (literally old guests) as opposed to the “sinkhek” (new guests) who arrived as part of the massive influx of the 19^th century. So too in Indonesia, the pre-19^th century migrants who married indigenous women, and their children from those mixed marriages, are deemed to be Peranakan while those who came in large numbers from the 1880s are “totoks”. Strictly speaking, totok Chinese were China-born. However, even till recently, despite being “local-born” and some into the 4^th generation, already citizens who are able to speak the Indonesian language in addition to their dialect (hokkien as the lingua franca in Medan) are still not considered Peranakan as they are seen to be culturally Chinese.

Do share with us your views to shed more light on this conundrum.

For more on nyonyaware and Peranakan furniture, here are some links.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/64346675@N00/359416359

http://www.amazingmelaka.com/2006/02/14/baba-nyonya-heritage-museum/

See the section on the Baba-Nyonya Heritage Museum in the following website

http://www.malaysia-trulyasia.com/state_melaka.html

As for Baba and Nyonya style weddings, here are some recent links

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2009/3/29/lifeliving/3556363&sec=lifeliving

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/12/29/nation/2905322&sec=nation

Your editors have just come back from a field trip to Phuket last week. We have found many indicators of the close connections between the Peranakan Chinese in Penang and the Phuket Peranakans, better known as Phuket Babas (this latter term refers to both genders, Thai speakers finding difficulty in pronouncing nyonyas). See the earlier post, dated 17 January 2009.

There is indeed a long list of very visible markers of our shared culture, from architecture, cuisine, attire (e.g. clothing, footwear and jewellery accessories), religious beliefs and practices, language (hokkien dialect), education (schooling in Penang) to place of origin (many Hokkiens, i.e. from Fujian Province).

Future posts will touch on various topics with a view to throwing more light on aspects of our shared history.

For now, a look at the similarities in food, in particular, the nyonya kuih.

A stall set up in a shophouse in Phuket town

Here too is a link to an interview conducted on National News Bureau of Thailand (NBT TV) on Phuket history and its relations with Penang, dated 27 February 2009.

http://thainews.prd.go.th/newsenglish previewnews2.php?news_id=983&news_headline=VDO%20Interview%20-%20

Colin%20Mackay,%20writer%20&%20historian%20of%20Phuket,

%20Loh%20Wei%20Leng%20&%20Neil%20Khor,%20from%20University%20of%20Malaya,%20KL

It is also on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN0EkuIW9Q8