Peranakan Culture

 

What’s a ‘Peranakan’? It’s not a word you’ll see outside the former Straits Settlements. In Singapore, Peranakan (locally born) people are descendants of immigrants who married local women who were mostly of Malay origin. The result of hundreds of years of immersion and the meeting of foreign and local customs has resulted in an intriguing hybrid culture that’s recently experienced a revival.

ORIGINS

The earliest records show a marriage between Hang Liu, a Ming dynasty princess, to the Malacca Sultan Mansur Shah around 1446. Larger waves of immigration in the 17th and 18th centuries formed the backbone of the Peranakan culture.

It’s acknowledged that the Peranakan fall into three broad categories: the Chitty Melaka and Jawi Peranakan are descended from early migrants from India, while the Straits Chinese Peranakan are of mainland Chinese origin. No matter which group, there’s a fierce sense of roots and traditions within.

In Singapore, the largest group are the Straits Chinese, a reflection of the population breakdown at large. The term ‘Straits Chinese’ originated within communities in the former colonial Straits Settlements of Singapore, Penang and Melaka. The focus here will be on the Straits Chinese because they’re the ones with the most overt cultural influence, be it on TV, through its cuisine or via the numerous local tourist sights.

PERANAKAN CULTURE TODAY

These days, Chinese and Peranakan culture tend to overlap and it’s some-times hard to distinguish between the two. Peranakan men, called Babas, and the women, Nonya, primarily speak a patois that mixes Bahasa Malay, Hokkien dialect and English, though that’s changed over time, along with the education system in Singapore. Most of the current Peranakans speak English and Mandarin. Looks-wise, Peranakan are indistinguishable from people of Han Chinese descent, but traditional families still cling on to their customs and traditions and are proud of their heritage (some say they are proud to the point of being haughty).

In 2008, the local Chinese TV station broadcast The Little Nonya to record numbers of viewers. The drama series focused on a Peranakan family across a 70-year period and was filmed with authentic costumes and locations that included the Baba House in Singapore and the famous Blue Mansion in Malaysia. Coincidentally, the Peranakan Museum in Singapore opened the same year. This sparked off   a revival and interest in the lineage, food and traditions of the Peranakan. For visitors in particular, the food and wedding ceremonies are of interest.

WEDDINGS

A traditional   Peranakan wedding puts most other weddings to shame. It’s an elaborate 12-day affair that seems to go on longer! The weddings are heavily steeped in Chinese traditions from the Fujian province in China, mixed with some Malay customs. These days, such elaborate affairs are few and far between though they are making a comeback, albeit in a severely truncated one-day affair.  Traditionally, once a couple was been matchmade and a sinseh pokwa (astrologer) consulted to pick an auspicious date, the engage-ment would be sealed with gifts. Elaborate gifts of jewellery and other items were delivered to the bride’s parents in a bakul siah (lacquered bamboo containers). Other gifts included kuih ih (glutinous riceballs in syrup), ham hock, wedding dresses and two pairs of red candles.

Red bunting and lanterns were traditionally hung over the door of the house. The bridal chamber, being the centrepiece of the wedding, was decorated with embroidery and beaded hangings declaring fertility and good fortune.

A whole host of rituals would have been conducted prior to the wed-ding. Some of the stranger ones included a young boy rolling across the bed three times in hope for a male first-born; pregnant or menstruating women being barred from entry (bad luck), or bunga rempai (potpour-ri) being placed on the bed to ward off  spirits.

On the first day, the groom would dress up in Qing dynasty scholar garb and the bride in a similarly embroidered gown and hat piece, along with intricate jewellery. Rituals were performed and a tea ceremony conducted for the couple. On the second day, the couple took their first meal together, where they fed each other 12 types of food, to symbolise the 12-day process and the care they will take of one an-other. On the third day, they offered tea to parents and in-laws as a sign of respect. The subsequent days would be filled with visits from friends and younger relatives, lots of feasts (whole suckling pig features heavily on the menu) before the dua belah hari (12th day ceremony) where the marriage was sealed and proof of the consummation confirmed with a discreet sighting of the stain on the bride’s virginity handkerchief by the bride’s parents and the bridegroom’s mother.

These days, Peranakan weddings tend to be compressed into a single day where all the garb, rituals, ceremonies and, of course, the feast are conducted. Thankfully, the virginity handkerchief is now banished to the history books.

FOOD

As descendants of early Chinese immigrants who married Malay women, the Straits Chinese Peranakans developed a unique cuisine that blends Chinese ingredients with Malay sauces and spices. It is commonly   flavoured with shallots, chillies, belacan (Malay fermented prawn paste), peanuts, preserved soybeans and galangal (a ginger-like root). Thick coconut milk is used to create the sauce that flavours the prime ingredients.

In the past decade there has been a resurgence of interest in Per-anakan cuisine, which was once confined to the home, and there are numerous excellent Peranakan restaurants.

Typical dishes include  otak-otak (a delicious sausage-like blend of fish, coconut milk, chilli paste, galangal and herbs, wrapped and grilled in a banana leaf) and ayam buah keluak (chicken stewed with dark nuts imported from Indonesia to produce a rich sauce – the black, paste-like nut filling, eaten in small amounts with each mouthful, has an unusual, earthy flavour).

Also don’t miss out on slurping the distinctive Peranakan laksa (noodles in a savoury coconut-milk gravy with fried tofu and bean sprouts).

 

Peranakan Culture