The Peranakan Museum

This was my Monday tea-time excursion, and I wish I'd left a little sooner, to allow more time here. I really enjoyed this visit. The museum was curated in a really fun, colourful way, and, it turns out coincidentally, there was a whole exhibition featuring one of my family in there!

Peranakan is a Malay term and it refers to the cultures and people of mixed-race heritage derived from intermarriage of traders and local women. Here (Singapore, Melaka, Penang for example) this normally means Chinese traders and local Malay women. But I found out 'peranakan' includes other groups such as the Jawa Peranakan (South Indian Muslim merchants and local women) and Chitty Melaka Peranakan (South Indian Hindu traders and locals). This region had great importance during the days of the Silk Route, so many foreigners put down roots here. (Not much has changed!)

The museum focuses on the unique culture and customs of the Straits Peranakan Chinese. Their wedding ceremony, housing, eating, religion and crafts. The ceramics are beautiful (pink and orange are included as 'lucky colours' in Chinese Peranakan lore, and butterfly, peony and phoenix motifs are also special. So you can tell these colourful pots and dishes apart from 'regular Chinese' ones!) I especially enjoyed the telephones display: three retro phones are lined up and if you listen, you get a conversation from 1950s, 1970s etc, reflecting a typical episode for Chinese Peranakans from those eras.

Also throughout the museum are 'levers' which will prettily emboss any sheet of paper you have with Peranakan symbols - I wish I'd taken some notepaper with me!

Which brings me on to: Emily of Emerald Hill

The current exhibition. 'Emily' is a well known play by Stella Kon, which tells the lifestory of Peranakan Chinese woman during the 20th century. And one of the famous Emily actors featured in the exhibition is my stepmother Pearlly Chua (herself Peranakan Chinese). All very random, but there you are! I really liked the way the museum put together this exhibition too. It wove in fun contemporary illustrations etc alongside historical artifacts relating to the play and character. And I really enjoyed the 'stamping desk' (results above)!

Anyway, here's the typical Blogger-style badly laid-out pix which I can't caption, but click for slideshow! Check out the website below for more info.

 

 

 

Open most days, admission SG$6
39 Armenian Street, Singapore 179941
City Hall or Bras Basah MRT
http://www.peranakanmuseum.sg/home/home.asp

There's also a shop and cool little shoebox cafe on site, which I must investigate next time.