The Peranakan Chinese Home

Whether molded in porcelain or stucco, or painted on a wall, the peculiar citron called “Buddha’s hand” or foshou resembles the contorted hands of an old man. It has a homophonous relationship with fu and shou, “good fortune” and “longevity.” Clockwise from left: Chee Jin Siew residence, Jonker Street, Malacca, Malaysia; Johnson Tan residence, River Valley Road, Singapore; Seah Song Seah residence, River Valley Road, Singapore; Tan Cheng Lock ancestral residence, Heeren Street, Malacca, Malaysia; Wee family residence, now Baba House Museum, Neil Road, Singapore. The immortal celestial twins He-He erxian 和合 二仙, one carrying a lotus 荷 and the other a box 盒—are both visual and aural elements that share the sound he for harmony 和. The presence of a ruyi scepter, a box, and a lotus together create the rebus hehe ruyi 和合如意(“May you have a harmonious marriage and may your wishes come true”). He He, the celestial twins, can stand in for the box and lotus to mean the same thing. When the dragon and the phoenix are shown together, especially in the bedroom, they also celebrate the union of a man and a woman. While once they stood in for the emperor and empress, today they are representative of husband and wife, a wedding motif in which the dragon signifies the groom and the phoenix the bride. “Straddling the phoenix and riding the dragon” (跨鳳乘龍 kua feng cheng long) is a metaphor for the union of husband and wife. As the title of a 1959 Cantonese movie, it was translated as “The Happy Wedding.” Pairs of phoenixes or dragons were favored openwork motifs on large brown-and-gold wardrobes made for the bedrooms of Peranakan Chinese during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many shown in Ong Poh Neo’s book (1994: 102–27). Compatibility is emblemized by the narcissus and orchid, symbolic of love, that are usually shown in pairs. Magpies xique 喜鹊 (“joy-bringing magpies”), which are birds of good omen and varied imagery, are linked to the love story of

the cowherd and the spinning girl. Whether perched on branches or in flight, pairs of magpies, which are identifiable by their long tail feathers, signify fidelity. Marital bliss is depicted always as a pair of images: fish swimming in stylized water, geese flying, magpies entwined on a branch or circling around each other, or affectionate Mandarin ducks admiring each other amidst lotus plants. Posterity—Male Offspring Offspring in great number, especially sons to perpetuate the family line, is considered the purpose of marriage and a subject of substantial folk ornamentation. According to Peter Lee and Jennifer Chen, the Peranakan Chinese bridal chamber was “a shrine to fertility,” in which symbolic auspicious motifs served as invocations for male offspring as well as wealth and status (2006: 72–9). The bride’s trousseau of furniture and furnishings provided a variegated range of carved wood, embroidered cloth, filigreed metal, and painted porcelain surfaces to elaborate meaningfully propitious designs. As in China itself, the joy associated with birth was customarily reserved only for the arrival of a son—considered a 大喜 daxi or “major joy”—whereas the birth of a daughter was a burdensome xiaoxi 小喜 or “small happiness.” While Chinese folk symbols referring to children do not always specify gender, sons implicitly are preferred. Zi 子, the Chinese phoneme for seed, also stands for son. Thus, pomegranates, melons, and gourds of many types, and lotus seedpods, all of which contain abundant seeds, evoke the notion of fertility and numerous male progeny. Any of these may be depicted whole or be partially open, exposing their issue. Even the simple teapot, hu 壶, is a homonym for the bottle gourd or calabash, hu 葫, which represents fecundity because of its bulging shape. These objects and their homonymous relationships play on images and words to form auspicious rebuses. At the time of marriage, a Chinese bridal bed is strewn with items that call for a fruitful marriage, among which are lotus seeds and red dates, zaozi 枣子, homophonous wordplay for “early son” 早子. Decorative objects around the home, such as porcelain vases and paintings, often portray numerous boys as an aspirational charm for male heirs. These representations are so common that they are named yingxi tu 婴戏图 (“Boys at Play”) and baizi tu 百子图 (“A Hundred Boys”).

This bronze candle-holder is one of a pair on the altar dedicated to Guan Gong in the shape of a deer, which represents salary and official position as well as longevity. Tjong A Fie Mansion, Jalan Kesawan Square, Medan, Indonesia. The mythical animal qilin 麒麟, sometimes called a unicorn but actually a composite creature very different from the mythical unicorn in the West, is said to bring to childless families many children who will advance to official position. A common phrase, qilin song zi 麒麟送子 (“The qilin presents sons”), includes a medley of other auspicious symbols that vary from representation to representation. In China, a qilin songzi print traditionally was pasted on the door of the nuptial chamber or on the wall near the bed, but prints seem not to have been common in Peranakan Chinese homes where this notion was typically embroidered on pillows or written on porcelain. Bai zi qian sun 百子千孙 (“A hundred sons, a thousand grandsons”) is a felicitous wish for posterity found on many objects. The qilin is sometimes shown bearing a youth who carries a lotus and a reed pipe, sheng 笙, that together form the rebus “May the qilin bring sons

one after another.” MORAL TALES AND DIDACTIC ORNAMENTATION The discussion above reveals that words and objects not only beautify what would otherwise be blank surfaces on walls, panels, textiles, porcelain, furniture, and other household objects but also proclaim auspicious messages. Some of these messages are in abbreviated form via homophonous associations with rather straightforward meaning while others are abstruse and require interpretation. The sheer number of four-character expressions and the richness of the visual language underscore the powerful role that historical allusion and memory play in shaping the Chinese psyche for those who are educated as well as for the illiterate. Ideas that are more complex are expressed by the use of pictorial puns, or rebuses, that allow thoughts to be expanded. While it is not certain that Peranakan Chinese, or any Chinese for that matter, fully comprehended the extensive range of symbolic vocabulary that proliferated within their homes, shops, and temples, there is little doubt that they sought meaning by multiplying this visual imagery. Indeed, the prevalence of traditional motifs over the centuries within and beyond China underscores not only the degree to which they are ingrained in Chinese culture but also their resilience in the face of momentous cultural change. Moral principles and the deeper components of a harmonious family life traditionally were postulated via admonitory tales and didactic narratives. While homes in China often include many examples of the repertoire to guide right conduct according to neo-Confucian values, the range that we encountered visiting Peranakan Chinese homes was significantly less. Of course, both share the focus on filial piety as represented by the presence of ancestral halls in the home or in discrete buildings established for that purpose, with rituals that venerate forbears and underscore that those living are but a link in an unbroken chain. As will be discussed in the chapter on ancestral halls, the wall behind the altar table that holds the ancestral tablets usually includes a two-or three- character horizontal board as well as a flanking pair or double pair of calligraphic couplets with classical phrases. These include short phrases such as 孝思 xiaosi (“filiality”) and 追遠 zhuiyuan (“to honor one’s ancestors with sacrifices”). These serve to underscore the significance of filial piety, express respect for those who have died, pine for their guidance, and affirm their

continuing relevance to the living. Couplets often make declarations stating the hopes of ancestors for their descendants. In this room, it is common to see portraits of the family’s patriarch and other notable descendants as reminders of the past. Old ancestral shrines are more common in Peranakan Chinese homes in Southeast Asia than in homes in southeastern China that sent migrants abroad a century ago. This is principally due to the destruction when filial piety came under attack during the ten years of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976. The impressive ancestral shrine in the Wee family residence in Singapore serves as a didactic instrument declaring the family’s devotion to a fundamental Confucian virtue with its intricately carved representations of the “The Twenty- four Paragons of Filial Piety,” Ershisi xiao 二十四孝. The doors that swivel open once revealed the wooden tablets of the Wee progenitors arranged on shelves, but these have now been placed in a temple as the residence has been repurposed as the Baba House Museum. Traditionally illustrated as woodblock prints and transmitted via the oral tradition, the “Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety” include two dozen concise tales of filiality illustrated with examples expressing the degree of duty necessarily assumed by Chinese children: enduring suffering, risking danger, performing humbling duties, yet devoting attentive care even under difficult circumstances. Eleven of the tales speak of the relationship between a son and his mother, five between a son and both of his parents, four between a son and his father, two between a son and a stepmother, and two between a daughter and her mother-in-law.

With its brilliant colors, this plaster tableaux, frequently found on the entry to a Peranakan home, includes the common four-character phrase jia guan jin lu, which has the meaning “May you rise in rank and gain emolument.” Soa Hengtai/Posayachinda residence, Bangkok, Thailand.

The two characters yu yue, meaning “the fish leaps,” encourage a promising but struggling scholar to overcome hardship in order to achieve success. Tjiong residence, Parakan, Indonesia. Whether this fish is completing its leap toward success or is simply a wish for prosperity is impossible to determine. Most Chinese recognize the homonymic association between the words for fish and abundance. Persatuan Peranakan Cina Melaka (Peranakan Chinese Association of Malacca), Heeren Street, Malacca, Malaysia. There is an elaborate wood carving above a passageway in the Main Hall of the Wee residence that narrates a fundamental lesson about maintaining a harmonious family over many generations. It depicts the tale of the visit of the Tang emperor Gaozong (r. 649–83) to the home of Zhang Gongyi 张公艺, who lived together with the improbable number of nine generations of his family, expressed by the phrase jiushi tongju 九世同居. With many branches living together peacefully, Zhang had gained renown since he far surpassed the common, but still quite difficult, ideal of five generations living together. When the emperor asked Zhang Gongyi for the reasons that such a larger family could live well together, Zhang Gongyi picked up a brush and wrote the character ren 忍, meaning “forbearance,” a combination of patience, tolerance, compassion, accommodation, and self-control, a hundred times. The Kee Ancestral Hall in Sungai Bakap, a town opposite Penang Island in Malaysia, was built in the nineteenth century by Kee Lai Huat, a sugar baron,

and is well maintained by his descendants who perform periodic rituals that commemorate their forbears in front of several ancestral shrines. One prominent component is a magnificent set of eight door panels located between the front and back halls. On these panels are more than 500 Chinese characters written in gold on a vermilion background that represent the full text of the Zhuzi zhijia geyan 朱子 治家格言 (Maxims for Managing the Home) by Zhu Bolu 朱柏卢, a seventeenth-century moralist whose tracts were popularized among Peranakan Chinese at the end of the nineteenth century. Written in literary style without punctuation, the fifty-three maxims range from the practical to the obscure but all were geared to improving the behavior of family members by stating rules of conduct: 1. At dawn get up immediately, sprinkle and sweep the hall and porch so that inside and outside are tidy and clean. 2. Then go to bed at dusk, and personally close and lock the doors. 3. With each bowl of gruel or rice, you should recall that its production is not easy. 4. With each half-length of silk or hemp, always remember “to make a thing is very hard.” 5. It is good to make preparations before it rains; don’t wait for thirst before you dig a well. 6. Be frugal in your comforts for yourself, and do not prolong the entertaining of guests. 7. If utensils are of good quality and clean, then pottery is better than gold or jade. 8. Drink and food should be simple, and well-prepared garden vegetables are better than precious delicacies. 9. Do not build a gorgeous house. Do not scheme for choice lands. 10. The “three types of nuns and six kinds of procurers” are introducers of promiscuity and theft. 11. When the maids are beautiful and the concubines charming, this is not a blessing in the women’s quarters. 12. For servants, don’t employ handsome boys. 13. Wives and concubines must avoid beautiful clothing.



All eight of the fabled Baxian or Eight Immortals are depicted in figurative scenes on this pair of surname lanterns. Traditionally hung just outside a home’s entry, today many are kept inside and only hung outside on special days, such as at the New Year. Chee Jin Siew residence, Jonker Street, Malacca, Malaysia.

Sometimes the Daoist Eight Immortals are seen clustered in friendly revelry but not as often as a scene showing them crossing the sea with each displaying his or her way of doing so. Khoo Ancestral Hall, Leong San Tong, Penang, Malaysia. 14. Although ancestors are remote, they may not be worshipped insincerely. 15. Although children and grandchildren be simple, they must read the Classics. 16. Personal habits must be simple; children must be taught by righteous methods. 17. Do not covet wealth beyond what you earn or drink beyond your capacity. 18. Do not take advantage of a vendor as he carries his wares on a shoulder pole. 19. On meeting relatives and neighbors who are poor or in distress, show kindness and compassion. 20. A family founded in meanness will not long prevail. 21. When human relationships are perverted, destruction instantly follows. 22. Among brothers, uncles, and nephews, those with much should help those with little. 23. Between old and young, women and men, decorum should be strict and speech dignified. 24. Listening to a wife’s talk and harming one’s own kin: how can this make one a good husband? 25. Valuing wealth but slighting parents is unbefitting a son.

26. In marrying off a daughter, choose a good son-in-law; do not demand a heavy bride price. 27. In wedding a wife [to your son], seek a virtuous girl; do not count a heavy dowry. 28. A person who fawns before the rich and noble is most contemptible. 29. One who is haughty before the poor is mean beyond measure. 30. A respectable family avoids lawsuits, for lawsuits in the end are evil. This pair of mythical phoenixes, which are symbols of virtue and perfection, are carved on the ornamented openwork of a Peranakan sideboard. Alvin Yapp residence, The Intan, Joo Chiat, Singapore.

This pottery vessel, which has lotus floating in water, and a door panel both display a pair of mandarin ducks as a symbol of conjugal fidelity since they mate for life. When depicted beside a lotus blossom and a lotus pod, there is a wish also for “sons one after the other.” Johnson Tan residence, River Valley Road, Singapore; Blair Road, Singapore. 31. In social intercourse, avoid excessive talking; excessive talking causes losses. 32. Do not rely on your position to oppress orphans and widows. 33. Do not so lust after fine food that you needlessly kill cattle and fowl. 34. Obstinacy and self-approval result in many regrets. 35. Among the lazy and self-indulgent, it is difficult for a family to succeed. 36. Associating with evil youths, one must eventually be implicated [in their evil]. 37. To be humble before the people who are older and more experienced will serve in time of trouble. 38. How is one to know words lightly heard are not other people’s slander? One must be patient and think two or three times. 39. If you quarrel over something, how do you know it is the other who is wrong? One must rethink things with a calm heart. 40. Don’t think about your own acts of benevolence; but never forget kindnesses received. 41. In all things, allow spare ground. Having obtained the objective, don’t go further. 42. When others celebrate happy occasions, do not be envious. 43. When others suffer misfortunes, do not rejoice. 44. Good done so people can see it is not a good deed. 45. Evil done that fears exposure is truly great evil. 46. To have a lustful heart on seeing a beautiful woman will bring retribution on one’s wife and daughters. 47. To take secret revenge when one has a grudge will bring disaster upon sons and grandsons. 48. If a household is harmonious, then although breakfast and supper may be scanty, there will still be great happiness. 49. If taxes are paid early, then, although one’s purse be light, one will feel great satisfaction. 50. In study one should aim at [the level of] the saints and worthies, not merely at a degree. 51. As an official, one’s heart should be with one’s lord and country; how can one plan to advance oneself and one’s family? 52. Keep in your social position and accept your fate. Follow the times.

53. Lead your life in this way and you will approach [the sages]. Jordan (Translation by David K. http://weber.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/chin/chtxts/JuBorlu.html) The four characters kua feng cheng long, meaning “straddling the phoenix and riding the dragon,” is a metaphor for the union of husband and wife. This evocative blessing is here written on a pair of “sliced” porcelain pomegranates, whose seeds suggest fecundity and whose name, shi liu, implies “continuing generations” because of a homophonous association. Cedric Tan residence, Tranquerah Road, Malacca, Malaysia. This single pomegranate is paired with a citron or “Buddha’s hand” (foshou) on a wall leading to a bedroom. Together they visually intimate “May you have many sons who will be successful [in the civil service examinations].” Tan Cheng Lock ancestral residence, Heeren Street, Malacca, Malaysia.

This complex wood carving narrates how to maintain a harmonious family over many generations as it tells the story of Tang emperor Gaozong and his visit to the home of Zhang Gongyi, who lived together with nine generations of his family. Zhang wrote the character ren 忍, meaning “forbearance,” a hundred times to express how the family ensured their happiness. Wee family residence, now Baba House Museum, Neil Road, Singapore. Qilin song zi (“The qilin presents sons”) often appears as a phrase, but is also depicted as a motif, such as on the crest of this tall Peranakan wardrobe. Johnson Tan residence, River Valley Road, Singapore.



On this porcelain vase is the popular motif called “One Hundred Boys,” which represents an abundance of male descendants, a truly exceptional blessing. Closer examination reveals a broad range of auspicious emblems. Ang Eng Hoat residence, Padang, Indonesia. Above the eight vermilion panels in the Kee Ancestral Hall is a carved and gilded horizontal board with four characters, min zhi suo hao 民之所 好, the initial words in a phrase in the Daxue 大學 (The Great Learning), which quotes the even older Shijing 诗经 (Book of Poetry) linking familial ethics with political ethics: “When a prince loves what the people love, and hates what the people hate, then he is what is called the parent of the people.” Ceremonies related to marriages and funerals—red celebrations and white celebrations—both are weighted with symbolism and representational practices.

Annual observances, such as at the fifteen-day Lunar New Year and the single- day Qing Ming (Cheng Beng) grave sweeping, are opportunities to express lineage solidarity with respectful customs. In the past through storytelling and the performance of operas, the young and those older came to know the stories of filial sons, dutiful daughters-in-law, virtuous women, and brave men who inhabited well-known tales where they narrated moral principles. This level of reinforcement was less common in Southeast Asia than in villages in China. Yet, for some Peranakan Chinese from the later part of the nineteenth century to well into the 1930s, they were able to learn of Chinese historical and legendary tales through translations into Baba Malay, the lingua franca of Peranakan Chinese. “The Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety”or Ershisi xiao are evoked in many ways, often as a well-crafted scene. Here, fourteen-year-old Yang Xiang wrestles a ferocious tiger to save his endangered father, thus showing himself to be a heroic, filial son. Alvin Yapp residence, The Intan, Joo Chiat, Singapore.

Underneath the four-character phrase min zhi suo hao, which links familial ethics with political ethics (“When a prince loves what the people love, and hates what the people hate, then he is what is called the parent of the people”), are the fifty-three maxims of Zhu Bolu, a seventeenth- century moralist whose tracts stating rules of family conduct were popularized among Peranakan Chinese at the end of the nineteenth century. Kee Ancestral Hall, Sungai Bakap, Malaysia. As with Chinese families generally, the ideal Peranakan Chinese family was one with many sons that was blessed with good fortune fu, longevity shou, perhaps even supported by a generous income lu, and experiencing joy xi. Those Peranakan Chinese families that acquired great wealth through hard work,

creative enterprise, arranged marriage, good luck, and fortuitous inheritance often built great manors, only some of which are still standing. For those with less means, ideals remained the same. In the past, however, the complexity of family relationships that arose from multiple wives living separately, even sometimes together, as well as supporting parallel households inevitably compounded patterns of inheritance and kinship. Extravagance, self-indulgence, and profligacy sometimes eroded status and led to the dissolution of fortunes over time. Yet, as research has revealed, some tycoons actually built retirement manors back in their home villages in China, with expansive wings in which they optimistically looked forward to living harmoniously with their wives and the families of their sons and grandsons.

The Main Hall in Chee Jin Siew’s home on Jonker Street in Malacca includes a fine assemblage of traditional furniture and calligraphic ornamentation with a focus on the altar table. While this and the offering table in front of it are set in the middle between a pair of doorways, there is no screen wall. The three lanterns are temporarily being stored within the Main Hall, a precaution against thievery, which sometimes occurs if they are hung outside.

The restored Wee family residence in Singapore, which is now the Baba House Museum, is entered through an ornate pintu pagar half-door. Whether called the Main Hall or the Reception Hall, the formal room just inside the entry of any fully formed Peranakan Chinese home is a space that expresses identity and status, both for the family itself as well as to those who visit. Literally “big hall” or thia besar, a Hokkien-Malay neologism, this front room is where guests were welcomed and entertained among the splendor of the family’s prized possessions. For the most part, the Main Hall in a Peranakan Chinese home is a formal room with conventional features arranged in a prescribed order that echoes fine residences in southeastern China. In many homes, this room also accommodates a substantial altar dedicated to the family’s deity or deities. Represented by ceramic, clay, or wooden figurine statues, or even a large hanging scroll painting, each deity faces the front door. A lower square table placed in front of the altar table accommodates ritually important votive objects, such as candleholders and a joss stick holder.

The best Peranakan Chinese examples, which date from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, still can be seen in private terrace-type row homes, some of which have been converted to museums, in Malacca, Penang, and Singapore. In Indonesia and Thailand, variant forms of the Main Hall are found within freestanding mansions and bungalows as well as in terrace homes. Within mansions, the Main Hall may be located deeper in the home or even on a second level, while a less formal but still large Entry Hall is immediately inside the front door. Just as in the Ancestral Hall, discussed in Chapter 5, Chinese-style elements dominate Peranakan Chinese Main Halls, which proclaims connections with a heritage often several generations removed from the immigrant homeland.

Facing the entryway and in front of the perforated screen wall is the altar holding a statue of Guan Gong. In front is a lower square table used for votive objects.

With restoration complete but before the placement of furnishings, this exquisitely carved screen wall is gilded in gold. Immediately behind the screen wall is a transitional space leading from the Reception Hall to the

living space beyond. Perforated windows and mirrors help keep this area bright. In Peranakan Chinese homes of those with means, the Main Hall is entered through an ornate, often gilded pintu pagar, literally a “fence-door,” whereupon the eye of a visitor is drawn forward to an imposing ornamental wooden partition screen called a zhao at the head of the room that frames an equally magnificent set of altar tables. Passageways through the zhao on the left and right enter an elongated transitional space with an opening at center back that leads to the family’s residential area, which, unlike the Main Hall, is busy throughout every day. The disposition of these three openings ensures that visitors to the Main Hall cannot easily view the private family spaces beyond. Each zhao is unique in terms of the array of carvings that comprise it. While the Main Hall of the Wee family residence, now the Baba House Museum, in Singapore, has Chinese-style blackwood chairs along its perimeter, a round wooden table in European style with a bevel-edge marble top takes pride of place in the center, an Anglicized break from the traditional Chinese pattern of a round table accompanied by four barrel-like low stools. Surrounded by six light beech-wood chairs, the setting offers an eclectic and highly personal mixture of styles. This grouping of chairs is said to copy a highly popular design by the Austrian furniture maker Michael Thonet, who gained fame in the nineteenth century for the modernist simplicity of his bentwood style. A different type of mass-produced curvilinear Thonet-style chair is said to have exceeded 50 million in sales worldwide by the 1930s. They were readily available in shops in the Straits Settlements for purchase by those desiring to modernize their homes.

The bilateral symmetry of the altar complex in the Siek family residence, now Prasada Mandala Dharma, in Parakan, Indonesia, is apparent in this view of the apex of the inverted T-shaped Reception Hall. The zhao in the Wee family residence is made up of an array of carved panels, some filigreed in delicate patterns while others are arrayed in repeating geometric patterns. Above each of the initial pair of passageways is a carved feizhao, a somewhat arcuate-shaped ornamental panel with pendant-like sides replete with auspicious ornamentation and a historical tale. Central to the carved feizhao on the left, as discussed in Chapter 2, is a depiction of the tale of Zhang Gongyi, who lived together with the improbable number of nine generations of his family, made possible by his accommodating attitude of ren 忍 (“forbearance”). Today, on the substantial altar in this room is only a small statue of Guan Gong, who is discussed more fully below, but family members report that in days past there also were statues of Guan Yin and the Buddha on the altar and one of Tudi Gong, the Earth God, or the Monkey God in a small shrine beneath the altar. The Main Hall in the rambling home of the Peranakan Chinese Siek family in Parakan, Indonesia, which is now a retreat for Buddhist meditation called Prasada Mandala Dharma, is actually an inverted T shape with a pair of side alcoves. Instead of a pintu pagar, a portable screen is placed in front of the open entryway to block any view by passers-by of the altar and the zhao, which have

pride of place facing the front entry. The zhao is notable for the quality of its shallow carved panels that depict four of the symbolic attributes of the Baxian or Eight Immortals, as well as an intricate floral composition on a panel above. Along the top of the zhao are openings that facilitate the movement of hot air from this room. The heavy set of tables in front of the zhao now holds a seated Shakyamuni Buddha, but it is not known what family deity was there when the Siek family owned the home. Instead of open doorways, a pair of panel doors with a simple lattice design swivel open or closed according to need. Above each of the doorways is a rectangular panel with two Chinese characters, guifu 桂馥 and fanglan 芳蘭, which peculiarly reverses the more common phrase lanfu guifang 蘭馥桂芳 (“Fragrant Cassia, Fragrant Orchids.”). Because of the expansive nature of the inverted T-shaped floor plan, the symmetrical seating for guests takes place in the side alcoves. As with other Peranakan Chinese homes, the two doorways lead to a narrow passageway that opens to the family area. In this passageway today, there is a statue of the Thousand-armed and Thousand- eyed bodhisattva Guan Yin. Behind the altar and screen wall is a narrow table holding a Buddha figure, which is looking out

toward the courtyard. In some homes there is no zhao, just a relatively plain partition wall decorated with paintings, calligraphy, and hangings, and with the obligatory high altar table and another square table in front of it, with Guan Gong as the principal deity. A fine example is the grand ancestral home of Tan Cheng Lock in Malacca. Tan Cheng Lock was a fifth-generation descendant of an eighteenth- century immigrant from China, but this residence only became occupied by the Tan family in 1875, a hundred years after the progenitor Tan Hay Kwan arrived from Fujian. While the structure was originally built for immigrants from Europe, the Peranakan Tan family employed Chinese artisans who modified the structure to meet their needs, including embellishing the residence with calligraphic and pictographic ornamentation that is quintessentially Chinese. An exquisite ornamental lattice screen runs from wall to wall between the Ancestral Hall and the first skywell, which will be illustrated later, in Chapter 5. In addition, following styles that were popular in the late Victorian era, European embellishments were added to the interior and to the exterior. Although it is not possible to know clearly the sequencing in which these objects were obtained and deployed, mirrors and glass from Italy as well as Western- style furniture came in time to complement the heavy layers of Chinese furnishings in the residence. While not comparable in scale or elaboration to Tan Cheng Lock’s ancestral home and just a short distance away, the headquarters of the Persatuan Peranakan Cina Melaka (Peranakan Chinese Association of Malacca), reveals similar patterns for its Main Hall. Occupying a modest terrace dwelling that is both narrower and shallower than the Tan residence, the walls and doorways of this building, like others in Malacca, are nonetheless well ornamented. The formal furniture lining the walls of the Main Hall of the Persatuan Peranakan Cina Melaka building is made of teak and is of an eclectic style that mixes Western and Chinese motifs. However, just as with a set of blackwood furniture with motherof-pearl inlay, two armchairs with their backs to the wall are separated by a tea table with a marble top. In addition, here, as in the Wee family residence, there is a marble-topped round table with bentwood-type chairs in the center of the room, Unlike the seating along the wall that follows Chinese convention, where adjacent individuals had to turn to face one another, the array at the center encourages informal face-to-face conversation.

DEITIES As many of the illustrations in this chapter reveal, an assortment of deities that spans Buddhism, Daoism, and Chinese popular religion are found on the altars in Peranakan Chinese homes. No figure is more prominent than Guan Yu, a popular historical figure and general during the Three Kingdom’s period (ce 220–80). Although spanning only a relatively short period two millennia ago, Guan Yu has been celebrated in folk stories, operas, novels, and more recently in films and video games. Guan Yu’s exploits and those of Liu Bei and Zhang Fei, who together took an oath as sworn brothers and are known as the Three Brothers of the Peach Orchard, are heralded in the fourteenth-century Ming dynasty epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms, one of China’s four great classical novels. While their many-layered exploits are part historical and part legend, separately or together they exemplify brotherhood, loyalty, and righteousness in popular lore. Guan Yu was deified by Buddhists and Daoist several centuries after his exploits, and is known also as Guan Gong (Lord Guan), and Guan Di (Emperor Guan). Guan Gong is said to bless those who are upright and provide protection from those who are dishonest. Whether depicted alone or in a trio in a painting or standing as a sculpture, Guan Yu/Guan Gong is immediately recognizable because of his red face and lush beard. The bold, two- character phrase 義氣 yiqi, meaning “Righteousness,” which is associated with him, is often seen hung above his representation in a painting, a redoubled declaration of his power. Moreover, beyond being a prominent protective deity on a household altar, Guan Gong is the pivotal deity in many temples and shrines; and among some businessmen in China and in Southeast Asia, he is also worshipped as a God of Wealth.

Although narrower than many Reception Halls in larger residences, the one dominating the headquarters of the Persatuan Peranakan Cina Melaka (Peranakan Chinese Association of Malacca) on Heeren Street nonetheless maintains similar characteristics, with a mixture of Chinese and European furniture. Above the altar, the two characters yi qi translate as “righteousness,” which epitomizes the character of Guan Gong.

Above the altar in Tan Cheng Lock’s residence in Malacca, this painting shows Guan Gong and Zhang Fei, two warriors from the Three Kingdoms period. Guan Yin, although not as prominent as Guan Gong, is also found on many altars as an unmistakably female white-glazed figure with a multiplicity of forms and meanings. Guan Yin, who originated as a male named Avalokiteshvara in early Buddhism in South Asia, eventually took on a variety of feminine forms in a series of transformations as devotees adopted her. Daoists also revere Guan Yin, a Buddhist bodhisattva known in English as the Goddess of Mercy and Compassion, as an immortal. Guan Yin is also popular in syncretic folk beliefs and the focus of legends that vary from region to region throughout China. Seen especially as a guardian of women and children, Guan Yin is viewed by many also as a fertility goddess capable of responding to supplications by those wishing to have children. As a Blanc de Chine porcelain figure holding a boy baby on her lap or in her arms, the purity of Guan Yin is said to resemble the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus, a plausible convergence that arose with the arrival of Christian influences along China’s southeastern coast. Moreover, Guan Yin has a long history as a protector of fishermen and seafarers in this region, where she functions as an alternate focus of devotion to the even more popular Mazu.

The domestic altar in Tan Cheng Lock’s ancestral home on Malacca’s Heeren Street includes a high rectangular altar table accompanied by a square offering table. Matched sets of chairs and tables line the walls. Above the hanging painting of Guan Gong and Zhang Fei is a plaque with the two characters yi qi (“righteousness”), which exemplifies Guan Gong’s character. Whether Guan Gong, Guan Yin, or some other figure is the household’s principal protective deity, they, either separately or together, are accompanied on the altar by ritual paraphernalia that is required for daily as well as less periodic use. Objects made of ceramic or metal, including joss stick holders, censers, lamps, cups, vases, and lamps are arrayed along the top of most altars. Offerings of tea in tiny cups and lighted joss were usually made twice a day in the past, once in the early morning and again later in the evening. Moreover, some families today continue to offer fresh fruits and flowers as well. Offerings and ornamentation during the New Year and at other periodic festivals, as discussed later, were usually a great deal more elaborate. Although the frequency of offerings may be less today, this ritual pattern can still be observed in many Peranakan Chinese homes, just as in the homes of others in Southeast Asia whose ancestors migrated from China. FURNITURE While the wall-to-wall wooden ornamental screen, the altar, as well as paintings and couplets dominate the Main Hall, other furnishings also stand out, as

suggested in the earlier paragraphs. Overall, the placement of these furnishings is symmetrical and formal, following conventions seen in residences and garden halls throughout southern China. The preferred pattern with formal blackwood furniture was to have a suite of two pairs of chairs, each separated by a small square matching table, along each wall, that together provided seating for eight people, a lucky number. If the depth of the Main Hall was shallow, then only two sets of chairs and matching tables were arrayed along the walls. Unlike a Western arrangement with the chairs askew so that those sitting could easily face one another, the formal Chinese arrangement has the chairs with their backs firmly against the wall. It is also common to place a round table with low stools in the middle of the room to complete the suite of matching furniture. The formal furniture types and arrangements discussed and illustrated below within the Main Hall are also often found in the Ancestral Hall, which will be presented in Chapter 5. Within bedrooms and other living areas, including hallways, both upstairs and down, the furniture is arranged more casually than it is in both the Main Hall and the Ancestral Hall, most often on the ground floor. The golden touches on the surfaces of the blackwood altar tables and full-width screen walls are today subdued in comparison to the hue when they were new. Instead of deities on the altar, old photographs of Sun Yat Sen are on display. Sun Yat Sen Museum, Armenian Street, Penang, Malaysia.

A matching set of three blackwood tables, which still serve as a focal point for family ritual, before a statue of Guan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy. Souw Tian Pie residence, Jakarta, Indonesia.

Gilded namwood carved altar tables with offerings on them. The two characters ci yun state a Buddhist wish, “immeasureable kindness and energy.” A close-up of the brilliant carved bat on the apron of the altar table is shown on page 49. Cedric Tan residence, Tranquerah Road, Malacca, Malaysia. A high rectangular altar table and a lower square table, which can be pushed under the elongated altar table when not in use or pulled forward when required, form an obligatory set in each Main Hall. Together these tables serve as both a place to display and to make offerings to the household’s deity or deities. Most of these solidly built tables are dark in color and made of blackwood or namwood, with squared corners and straight legs. Altar tables often have elongated spandrels that accentuate their height. It is rare to find an altar table

inlaid with motherof-pearl or glowing in a bright color. While most are subdued in color, they are almost all uniformly heavily ornamented with through-carved aprons. Although most appear as a matched set, as some of the illustrations here reveal, matching is not always the case. The repeating and symmetrical openwork carving, such as cloud scrolls, is highly geometric, with little intimation of the symbolic vocabulary found on other pieces of Chinese furniture. They differ significantly from the lighter altar tables of earlier dynasties that are well known to collectors of antique Chinese furniture. There are three kinds of woods that were used in making the distinctive furnishings found in old Peranakan Chinese homes, two of which were used by carpenters in China and in Southeast Asia, while the third was used principally in the British and Dutch colonies because of its easy availability there, and thus not widely used in China. The names of these woods vary from place to place and often are in conflict with the usage employed by connoisseurs of Chinese furniture around the world. Hongmu is a dark wood that literally means “redwood,” but is usually called in English “blackwood,” an all-encompassing term often used in Southeast Asia to include other hardwoods such as zitan (“purple sandalwood”), richly hued rosewood, and huali (“pearwood”). Hongmu was a wood favored by carpenters in the provinces of southeastern China from which a majority of the immigrants came, and it follows reasonably that Peranakan Chinese families during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries preferred imported blackwood furniture, especially as we will see, with profuse and glittering ornamentation added. Chairs, tables, altars, cabinets, stools, and frames, as well as smaller movable pieces, all were made from this versatile, beautiful, and naturally smooth wood whose surface was made lustrous with the addition of a tung oil or clear lacquer finish.

A glance toward the entryway of this Reception Hall reveals chairs, side tables, and a mirror that blend Chinese craftsmanship with European designs. They were probably handmade locally rather than imported. Persatuan Peranakan Cina Melaka (Peranakan Chinese Association of Malacca) headquarters, Heeren Street, Malaysia.

Set on a Chinese-style namwood base carved as a grimacing lion-dog supporting a flower basket is a European molded glass goblet that together served as an ornate lamp. Oil lamps with cotton wicks have a long history as an alternative to candles. They were used on the altar as an element during ritual offerings. Early twentieth century. © Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore. Nanmu, usually called namwood in Southeast Asia, is a multipurpose wood with the properties of cedar. It is especially suitable for making cabinets and chests, although it is given to shrinkage and changes in color with age. Most of the nanmu furniture seen in Peranakan Chinese homes is covered with layers of red, brown, or black lacquer, a practice that “preserves” the wood while offering a finish that is durable and which does not show the grain of the wood. Because some of the raised surfaces of the furniture are gilded or enhanced with gold paint, such furniture is referred to as red-and-gold furniture even when the coloration is essentially black or brown. Youmu is better known by its English name teak, which is derived from the Malay word tekka. While this wood is not indigenous to China and thus not used by carpenters there, it has a long history of use in Southeast and South Asia. Indeed, in Southeast Asia, local cabinetmakers as well as those sojourning artisans from China in Southeast Asia sometimes used this local wood, which was not only cheaper but also more readily available than nanmu. Ho Wing Meng reminds us that the type of wood used in the making of carved screens, cabinets, beams, and other wooden pieces often only became clear “when repairs and restoration work had to be carried out, and the old lacquer and giltwork had to be scraped and stripped to reveal the wood beneath” (1994: 72). Much of this furniture arrived via the Chinese export market during the

waning years of the Qing dynasty at the end of the nineteenth and first decade of the twentieth century. Other eclectic furniture pieces mixing Chinese artisanship with European features were produced locally by immigrant craftsmen in the Straits Settlements of Malacca, Penang, and Singapore, as well as the Dutch Indies, and even Thailand. These variant styles appealed to affluent Peranakan Chinese and others who found full suites for sale in import shops or in family cabinet-working establishments. Since it was customary for complete sets of ornate furniture to be provided by parents for their newly wedded children as they set up a new household, the market at the time was quite buoyant. Peranakan Chinese, especially “traditional Babas were more catholic and adventurous in their tastes than their counterparts in China, namely the mandarins,” according to Ho (1994: 19ff). Those who were more conservative typically matched ornate altar tables with a suite of blackwood chairs inlaid with motherof-pearl or carved reddish-brown lacquered pieces made of namwood that usually were gilded to some degree. The variations in style of these two types, which are delineated in part by connoisseurs in terms of the nature of the showy ornamentation and lacquer, will not be discussed here. Ho refers to blackwood motherof-pearl furniture as “literally showroom pieces, specifically made to look grand and eye-catching” and lacquered namwood furniture in various colors as “exuberant” and “showy, richly coloured and resplendent with carved and gilded panels and border trimmings” (1994: 47, 77, 78). Both of these types were commonly imported from the southeastern provinces of China that were the former homes of immigrant families, although some were made by hand by artisans from China who either sojourned to or resided in Southeast Asia. For those Peranakan Chinese who considered themselves more cosmopolitan, custom-made chairs and tables were made that either faithfully copied Western styles or were eclectically “Chinafied” by incorporating Chinese ornamental motifs. Just as with porcelains and textiles, Chinese decorative motifs such as dragons, phoenixes, bats, peonies, plum blossoms, and evergreens, in addition to Buddhist and folkloric symbols, proliferated along the surfaces and edges of what appeared to be European-style furniture.

With tapered legs and fashioned out of teakwood, these side chairs with woven rattan backs accompany an elaborate European-style side table with Chinese accents. Chee Jin Siew residence, Jonker Street, Malacca.

This Chinese-style blackwood settee, which has both motherof-pearl and marble inserts, is set beside chairs and beneath a mirror that mimic Western styles. Chee Jin Siew residence, Jonker Street, Malacca.

Blackwood ensemble with motherof-pearl and marble inserts. Decorative accents include a

layered beveled mirror as well as Chinese couplets and paintings. Cedric Tan residence, Tranquerah Road, Malacca, Malaysia. Connoisseurs of Qing arts generally remark on the increasing ornamentation and coloring of decorative objects of all sorts as the centuries passed, a trend away from the refinement that was characteristic of earlier furniture making. Beside the stark but ornamented altar tables, as many of the illustrations reveal, Main Halls were usually furnished with classic sets of heavy blackwood furniture inlaid with patterns of motherof-pearl fragments and marble panels. This is an ostentatious type that first began to gain some popularity in southeastern China in the eighteenth century during the Qing dynasty, differing significantly from the more structurally elegant furniture of the just-concluded Ming dynasty, which today are still seen as classical forms. While Sarah Handler writes of pre-Qing classical furniture as having an exceptional beauty due to the “austere luminosity” of its wood, blackwood furniture with inlaid motherof-pearl is solid in form and spark-lingly iridescent because of the inlaid motherof-pearl shards (2001: 1). Merchants and traders, rather than the educated gentry, in China favored this rather flashy aesthetic, and thus it is not surprising that the same ostentatious forms found their way through the trading networks that linked coastal China with the Nanyang or Southern Seas. As a photograph taken early in the twentieth century in the two-storey mansion of Tjong A Fie in Medan, Sumatra, shows, the grand Entry Hall is arrayed with four sets of facing blackwood furniture and a round table with matching stools, all inlaid with motherof-pearl and marble in the center—all in front of a magnificently carved filigreed partition wall, with the skywell, Ancestral Hall, and private quarters beyond. The absence of an altar for the household deity in this public space does not indicate any lack of devotion. Instead, a large room on the second floor, just above the Ancestral Hall, is devoted to the worship of Guan Gong and includes an array of auspicious ornamental objects that are discussed in Chapters 2 and 5. This expansive Chinese-style Entry Hall is part of an inverted T-shaped room that has a pair of adjoining side alcoves furnished with Western-style furnishings. English encaustic tiles arranged in alternating clusters of blue and ochre colors in fleur- de-lis and ivy patterns cover the floor, while the dado or lower portion of the walls is stenciled with a linear pattern of repeating images of clumps of lotus flowers and a single lotus bud that together symbolize the union of marriage and fertility. SURFACES

Besides the variant furniture styles, the tables, walls, and floors in the Main Hall all provided surfaces for displaying the characteristic hybrid nature of the Peranakan Chinese aesthetic that mixed traditional Chinese and more modern European elements. As can be seen in many of the photographs above, the altar table typically held ornate and brightly colored porcelain pieces, including matching sets of shallow, footed dishes to hold offerings of fruit and other food, candleholders, oil lamps, incense burners, and cylindrical joss stick receptacles. More subtle devotional objects made of brass were also common. Tall vases and jardinière with curved or baluster-shaped bodies were often placed in the corners and adjacent to side chairs or, if small, on an altar or table. Under the side tea tables, it was common to place colorful porcelain or enameled spittoons. While functional Nyonya wares for daily and special use were kept in the dining room, pots and cups on eccentric shallow trays were brought into the Main Hall to serve tea to guests. The decorative motifs of these porcelain pieces, like those found in other rooms, focus on flowers and birds with only a rare appearance of human figures. Birds, both real and imaginary, include the mythical phoenix, crane, peacock, magpie, swallow, thrush, and mandarin duck. Animals include dragons, bats, butterflies, and crickets. Among the common flowers are the peony, chrysanthemum, prunus, and bamboo (Kee, 2009: 52–68). On special occasions, the lower square table would be covered with a tokwi, a richly ornamented altar cloth with auspicious motifs.

Softened by light blue walls, this corner of the Wee family residence, now Baba House Museum, is highlighted by the textured dado walls, painted door, and window panels, and blackwood chairs. Neil Road, Singapore.



Photos taken a hundred years apart portray a magnificent room-width four-panel screen with gilded carvings and lattice panels. The earlier photo reveals parallel rows of blackwood chair and table sets in addition to a round table with stools in the center. Embroidered wall hangings run the length of the room. Tjong A Fie Mansion, Jalan Kesawan Square, Medan, Indonesia. An eclectic mixture of styles, including imported stained glass and traditional barred windows along with painted dado walls and imported floor tiles, all accompany locally made hardwood furniture in this alcove of a T-shaped Reception Hall. Tjong A Fie Mansion, Jalan Kesawan Square, Medan, Indonesia. Contrasting with the pure functionality of an enameled spittoon set adjacent to elegant furniture was the elegant sam kai 三界 altar, which acknowledges the “three realms” of Heaven, Earth, and Man. Installed periodically in the Main Hall on special occasions, such as for the chiu thau ceremony during a wedding or on the ninth day of the New Year, which is the birthday of the Jade Emperor, the double-tiered sam kai altar held incense and other offerings. A special votive feature found on the sam kai altar of wealthier Peranakan Chinese is the ornate chien-nab, also called chanab, chien hup, and beet-chien. Either a rectangular or hexagonal storage box containing a lavishly ornamented tiered ritual object, chien-nab were crafted of common pinewood and covered with layers of black lacquer with painted scenes in gold or gilded carvings. While the outer box is itself a handsome object that is quite different in appearance from what it is hiding inside, the ritual object within is a multilayered form with elaborately carved faces that rise from a footed base. Once separated, the inner ritual object is placed on top of the box to heighten its prominence as an elegant ritual vessel

on the sam kai altar. While the walls of the Main Hall inside most homes are bare except for the objects hung on them, the lower walls of the Wee family residence in Singapore are exceptional in terms of decorative treatment. Some homes have a dado or special lower wall or a chair rail fitted along the wall to preclude damage from the chairs and tables in front of them. The dado wall in the Wee residence is noteworthy because of the variety of lime plaster ornamentation in low relief that comprises it. Spanning the full length along the sides of the Main Hall and continuing into the transitional space beyond the zhao partition is a decorative treatment that includes geometric and pictorial compositions with auspicious meanings. Because of harm done by dampness and the growth of salt crystals over the years, restoration work was not able to reveal all of the motifs. Those that are visible include vases, the Chinese character shou, meaning “longevity,” and bats, which symbolically represent fu or “good fortune” through a homophonous association. The upper walls of the residence occupied by the Persatuan Peranakan Cina Melaka, Malaysia, and the lower walls of the Tjong A Fie Mansion in Medan, Indonesia, have repeated stenciled patterns as ornamentation.

In the past, a spittoon was a necessary receptacle placed nearby for those seated on chairs in the Reception Hall who were chewing betel leaves stuffed with areca nut and lime paste, or even tobacco. The enameled metal ones found in Southeast Asia were imported from Czechoslovakia while others made of porcelain usually came from China. Alvin Yapp residence, The Intan, Joo Chiat, Singapore. Upper wall surfaces usually display a collection of prized family heirlooms arrayed in a manner that contrasts with the more structured placement of Chinese-style furniture. Chinese paintings, photographs, poetry rendered in bold calligraphy, and Venetian wall mirrors are commonly found on the walls of Peranakan Chinese homes. In many homes, the eclectic mixing of forms relates less to a specific aesthetic than simply the accumulation of objects worth displaying over a lengthy period. In the case of Tan Cheng Lock’s ancestral home, there is an abundance of calligraphy, much of which was presented as gifts to Tan Cheng Lock or his son Tan Siew Sin, who was Malaysia’s Finance Minister for fifteen years. Both also had been President of the Malayan/Malaysian Chinese Association. Although neither Tan Cheng Lock nor Tan Siew Sin could speak or read the Chinese language, the presence of so many