The Peranakan Chinese Home

Although tidied up as an exhibition kitchen, this view captures the full range of cabinets, cooking vessels, storage containers, serving items, and stove found in a typical Peranakan kitchen. The altar to the Kitchen God, Zao Jun, hangs on the wall. Baba House Museum, Neil Road, Singapore.

Although no longer actively used and cluttered with objects once regularly handled, this corner underscores the commonality of Peranakan shared by all Peranakan kitchens. Note the open space beneath and the three square holes on the front of the range that were used to store fuel that fed the fire within. Kee family manor, Sungai Bakap, Malaysia. If the Ancestral Hall is the heart, then the kitchen is the stomach of a Peranakan Chinese home, a notion highlighted by Peter Lee and Jennifer Chen as a translation of the Malay term perut rumah in their book about Straits Chinese homes (2006: 105). Yet, it was Helen Campbell, the late nineteenth-century social reformer and home economics lecturer, who first popularized the evocative English term “stomach of the house.” She also declared that cooking itself was “preliminary digestion,” an idea she championed not only because of the tonic effect of good nutrition but also to call for clean, functional kitchens (1897: 156ff). Could it be that Helen Campbell’s influential ideas, which spread to Europe, also reached the European colonies in Southeast Asia and into the language of progressive Anglophones like the Peranakan Chinese? Her ideas for the time were revolutionary as kitchens in America and Europe moved increasingly from dark basements and detached sheds to bright and airy rooms nearer to where the family came together to eat. It is interesting to note that kitchens in homes

throughout China changed little during this period, remaining cluttered, dark, and smoky, while prosperous Chinese immigrants in Southeast Asia, including those who called themselves Peranakan Chinese, quickly adopted these newer ideas concerning the kitchen. It was in countless kitchens throughout the region that Malay women who married Chinese immigrants, as well as their mixed-descent families, experimented with local and imported ingredients and a variety of cooking techniques to create what is heralded today as Peranakan, also called Nyonya, cuisine. Moreover, by employing familiar spices and other ingredients easily available in Malay markets and blending them with imported Chinese ingredients, women could cook with metal woks from China for quick stir-frying and locally made crockery for the slow cooking of stews and soups. The results are a distinctive culinary fusion known for being savory, aromatic, and spicy, with intense flavors that result from the coming together of ingredients such as ginger, chilies, salt, sugar, nuts, shallots, dried shrimp, and other items, that are pounded together in a mortar and pestle to form a paste called rempah. Until recent years, mothers passed down rempah and other recipes to their daughters, a fragile and inexact generation-to-generation transmission, which sadly has meant that much knowledge about food preparation has been lost as the years passed. However, today, home-style Peranakan food is promoted through a proliferating number of cookbooks, cooking classes, websites, blogs, and restaurants in Southeast Asia and even elsewhere in the world. Together, they collectively attest to the increasing awareness of this fusion cuisine. Because of the variety of culinary influences that are specific to different places, there are Peranakan Chinese regional variations that reflect what ingredients are available in local markets. In Penang and Phuket, Thai influences are noticeable, including the use of tart yet sweet tamarind, which differs from cooking farther south in Malacca and Singapore and in Java. Locally available ingredients such as coconut milk, laksa leaf, kaffir leaves, glanga, jicama, lemongrass, and other spices and herbs, extended the range of culinary flavors beyond those typical of Fujian and Guangdong cookery. Given the distinctiveness and popularity today of authentic food worldwide, it is even possible to find restaurants in China itself that serve Peranakan food, a cuisine developed in the homes of migrants living in the Chinese diaspora. Far beyond the Peranakan Chinese hubs in Southeast Asia, Nyonya restaurants are also found in Copenhagen, Dallas-Fort Worth, Dublin, Frankfurt, London, Melbourne, New York City, Paris, Sydney, Tokyo, and Toronto, among other cities worldwide as a distinct regional cuisine. It is a curious fact that the

connection between food, kitchen, and stomach led a restaurant in Penang to adopt the name Perut Rumah—Stomach of the House. KITCHENS AND OBJECTS While visiting Peranakan museums today, it is possible to glimpse what an old- fashioned kitchen once looked like. Although one is not able to sense the aromas and activity that once infused the rooms with life, even tidy museum displays reveal that Peranakan Chinese kitchens incorporate a unique blend of cultures. Restored shophouses sometimes recreate retro-kitchens that evoke the past, but they also include refrigerators, gas stoves, and electric appliances that were unknown as Peranakan Chinese cuisine was evolving. Because kitchens are typically located at the rear of a dwelling, adjacent to a skywell with a back door, they traditionally were areas of great activity, especially since the preparation of Peranakan dishes was a labor-intensive activity involving many steps. With formal rooms to the front and bedrooms upstairs, the kitchen was not only a place for women to cook, it was a space to socialize with other women throughout the day. Here also servants actively participated in the preparation of meals. Furniture was essentially utilitarian. Writers who reminisce about family life in a Peranakan home underscore this: “The spacious kitchen had a sitting area for at least six persons as well as a kitchen table with six chairs. My grandmother’s friends never had to venture beyond the comforting embrace of the kitchen when visiting her. It was here that my grandmother entertained traders, family friends and relatives as the mistress of the house” (Lim, 1997: 41).

Fresh food as well as leftovers were kept temporarily in a “meat safe,” a small cage-like device with screens on all sides and a door, which was hung from a rafter like a birdcage as protection against insects and mice. Tan Cheng Lock ancestral residence, Heeren Street, Malacca, Malaysia. This “meat safe” is suspended from the ceiling. Like the one above, it has short feet that indicates that it could be set on a table in shallow plates filled with water to keep ants away. Emerald Hill, Singapore.

Examples of traditional Peranakan Chinese kitchens can be seen in the Baba House Museum (Wee family residence) and the Peranakan Museum in Singapore, the Sun Yat Sen Museum (Ch’ng family residence) in Penang, and the Khee family residence in Sungai Bakap, Malaysia. A brick stove along one wall dominates in these kitchens. Stoves of this type are fueled with charcoal and firewood, which is fed from the front, necessitating the use of long tongs and billows to keep the fires burning. Like stoves in China, holes cut into the surface of the stove made it possible for both curved metal woks as well as locally made clay pots to fit snuggly without losing heat. Cabinets of different sizes, some open and some with glass doors, served to store dishes, jugs, and jars. The long red-and-gold low cabinet or bench called a pak ee in the Wee residence is used to store pots and pans inside and could be used also as a firm bed for a servant to sleep on. As shown in the photograph on page 146, it holds two kamcheng and three bamboo trays called gantang and nyiru. Nyiru are large but shallow trays made of lacquered bamboo that are used to dry herbs and spices. Gantang are wooden volumetric measures used to determine an amount of dried rice. Small stacked lacquered baskets called bakul siah, which are used to carry food or gifts, are also on the bench. These are unlike the grand, larger “auspicious baskets,” which are often gilded, that are employed at the time of weddings to transport gifts from one household to another. Above the glass cabinet today is a meat safe, a wooden framed device with cage-like screened sides to keep flies and rodents away; the hook on top indicates that it was usually suspended. When filled with meat and not suspended, the four legs of the meat safe are immersed in shallow dishes of water on a table to keep ants and other bugs away.

This large kitchen, which appears quite cluttered, is used to display a collection of crockery, pots, pans, braziers, stools, storage containers, and other objects commonly found in this important room of a Peranakan home. Ch’ng residence, now Sun Yat Sen Museum, Armenian Street, Penang, Malaysia.

Storage jars varied in terms of their decorative motifs that were related to the kilns that produced them in China. This one is covered with a metal lid and is raised off the floor on a piece of tile. Persatuan Peranakan Cina Melaka (Peranakan Chinese Association of Malacca), Heeren Street, Malacca, Malaysia.

Large decorated jars of this sort were often used as shipping containers for small objects like ceramics and tea that were exported to Southeast Asia from China. After unpacking, the jars were repurposed as storage vessels for rice, water, and other items. Without a lid and with an open top, this one stores water. Wee family residence, now Baba House Museum, Neil Road, Singapore. Also common in most kitchens is a large ceramic storage jar called a tempayan, usually raised off the floor on a low stand and covered to keep rodents at bay from the rice stored inside. Sometimes tempayan were used to store water drawn from a well so that it was handy during cooking. Ornamented ceramic containers of this type arrived in Southeast Asia from China filled with preserved foodstuff, such as salted eggs and pickled vegetables. What the Chinese called weng, these glazed earthen jars, once empty, became marketable as a versatile and prized container with a multitude of household uses. In the Ch’ng residence in Penang, many of the same utilitarian objects can be seen in a great variety of shapes and sizes, as shown in the photograph on page 151. In addition to a folding table with simple bamboo stools, the collection includes a variety of implements used to prepare foods: a wooden noodle press, a pewter steamboat, a copper water boiler, clay curry pots, food covers, and charcoal burners. Because so many of the ingredients used in the preparation of Peranakan food need to be pounded, crushed, or ground, a well-stocked kitchen

will have implements handy to do this work. Most are simple in shape and made of hewn granite: a mortar with its associated pestle called batu lesung (also lesung batu); a mill called batu boh for turning soaked rice into a rice flour paste; and a slightly curved grinder with a cylindrical stone called batu giling. Each of these straightforward devices involves tedious effort to break up large pieces into increasingly smaller ones. Enamel or simple tiffin carriers, brought by the British from India to Malaya in the mid-1900s, are common objects in old Peranakan Chinese kitchens. The word “tiffin” is an Anglo-Indian word meaning lunch or light meal. Each carrier is essentially a lunch box made up of three to five tiers locked into place by a movable handle. In Malaya, as in India, in the past it was common for the midday meal to be prepared at home and then sent to the office of the man of the house in a tiffin carrier. With the bottom tier filled with rice and those above it with prepared dishes, a complete meal could be conveniently eaten. The highly decorated enameled containers are said to keep food hot for several hours.

A portable clay brazier for cooking. Ch’ng residence, now Sun Yat Sen Museum, Armenian Street, Penang, Malaysia.

Granite grinders as well as mortars and pestles were necessary in a Peranakan kitchen to prepare herbs and spices for Nyonya cooking. Ch’ng residence, now Sun Yat Sen Museum, Armenian Street, Penang, Malaysia. Enameled stacked tiffin carriers provided a tiered lunch box to transport rice and prepared dishes. Alvin Yapp residence, The Intan, Joo Chiat, Singapore.

Stacked lacquered baskets were commonly used by Peranakan women to carry food or gifts and are much simpler than the larger, more elaborate gilded baskets used for transporting wedding gifts. Ch’ng residence, now Sun Yat Sen Museum, Armenian Street, Penang, Malaysia.

Woven baskets came in a variety of shapes and sizes to serve many purposes, including shopping and gift giving. The middle basket with the character for longevity on it may have been used to bring a birthday gift to an elderly person. Ch’ng residence, now Sun Yat Sen Museum, Armenian Street, Penang, Malaysia. The use of woven food covers has a long history in China, enabling cooking to take place early in the day when it is cool and dishes of prepared food saved under the canopy of the food cover to be eaten later. This food cover, called a srekap laok, was made of pandanus leaves in Palem- bang on the island of Sumatra, where weavers fashion the thin leaves into mats, bags, and conical food covers. © Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore.

As earlier chapters have shown, the sequence of altars in a Peranakan Chinese home, as in Chinese homes generally, starts with the household deities in the Main Hall, continues to the ancestral shrine and tablets in the Ancestral Hall, and ends with the less elaborate but still critically important altar on a shelf or in a niche somewhere near the stove in the kitchen. Housed in the kitchen is Zao Jun 灶君, literally the Stove God, but who has no concern for the culinary arts or fire. Instead, as discussed in Chapter 2, Zao Jun is a tutelary deity in charge of the household, who serves as the earthly representative of the Jade Emperor. His role is to observe and take note of both the good behavior and misdeeds of the family throughout the year. While offerings of tea and incense are made to him each day, it is on New Year’s eve that he receives the most attention. In Peranakan Chinese kitchens, it is not common today to see Zao Jun represented as an image on a sheet of paper. Rather, he is represented by a vertical plaque that stands on a red shelf or is affixed to the wall with one of his names carved on it: Si Ming Zao Jun 司命 灶君 (“Zao Jun, Overseer of Destiny/Fate”); Ding Fu Zao Jun 定福灶君 (“Zao Jun, Determiner of Good Fortune”); or a combination of all these meanings. As with Chinese generally and with Peranakans in particular, food is not only a necessity for life, it is a fundamental way to express social relationships within and outside the family. Peranakan homes enjoy a well-deserved reputation for their gastronomic eclecticism that blends Chinese culinary practices and ingredients with those characteristic of Malay cooking. The kitchen is the laboratory where Nyonyas over many generations experimented with a broad range of ingredients to create a unique culinary tradition.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writing of this book on Peranakan Chinese homes has been part of an intellectual journey that carried me from decades of field research in China to multiple field trips into unexplored territory in Southeast Asia that encompasses the extent of the Chinese diaspora. While researching our 2010 book, Chinese Houses of Southeast Asia, we found ourselves puzzling as to how to differentiate residences built and occupied by Peranakan Chinese from contemporaneous homes. It is our hope that The Peranakan Chinese Home will help clarify this. While this book in many ways resembles our 2010 book, a careful reader will see striking differences in both approach and scope of the narrative. The Peranakan Chinese Home takes an explicitly comparative approach, rather than the episodic house-by-house approach of our earlier book, in order to focus on generalizations that help illuminate similarities and differences. Inspired by the organization of Peter Lee and Jennifer Chen’s fine 2006 book, The Straits Chinese House: Domestic Life and Traditions, which updated their 1998 book, Rumah Baba: Life in a Peranakan House, I decided to take a similar room-by-room view of Peranakan homes so that comparisons would be more explicit because of the juxtaposition of images and text. Moreover, this new book expands the geographic scope beyond Malacca, Singapore, and Penang to other areas occupied by Peranakan Chinese, especially Indonesia and Thailand. Chinese Houses of Southeast Asia included a comprehensive Acknowledgments section (pp. 281–4) that expresses our profound gratitude to a lengthy list of individuals and institutions who aided us. While many of these also were extremely helpful as we pursued this new book, some other homeowners and institutions were equally responsive as new questions were raised and new photographs were taken as we carried out additional field work. I am indebted to those who read portions of the manuscript and offered criticisms and suggestions, especially Tan Chee-Beng, Peter Lee, Tan Siok Choo, and Patricia Bjaaland Welch. Whatever shortcomings remain are my own. We are especially grateful for the assistance of Director Alan Chong and Curator Jackie Yoong of The Peranakan Museum who generously made available twenty images of significant objects in their collection that add significantly to the architectural photography done by A. Chester Ong. For permission to use photographs taken at their residences, museums, and archives, as well as those who helped us make contacts, we wish to thank the following: Indonesia: Fon Prawira Tjong (Tjong A Fie Mansion); His Holiness Aryamaitri and Sutrisno Murtiyoso (Prasada Mandala Dharma); Robert Han (Han Family Ancestral Hall); Hartono Trisnohadi (Residence); Tan Tjoan Pie/P. W. B. Dharmowiyono (Residence); Ang Eng Hoat (Residence). Malaysia: Tan Siok Choo (Tan Cheng Lock Ancestral Home); Dato’ Kee Phaik Cheen (Kee Family Manor); Loh-Lim Lin Lee and Laurence Loh (The Blue Mansion/Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion); Loh Joo Eng and Peter Soon (Pinang Peranakan Mansion); Cedric Tan (Residence); Chee Jin Siew (Residence); Khoo Salma Nasution (Sun Yat Sen Museum); Serge Jardin and K. C. Lee (Snail House); Betty Ong (Persatuan Peranakan Cina Melaka); and for wide-ranging liaison assistance, Josephine Chua and Colin Goh. Singapore: Foo Soo Ling (National University of Singapore Baba House Museum); Johnson Tan (Residence); Alvin Yapp (Residence); Chan Tai Peo and Ou Eng Hwa (Nanyang Sacred Union); Asian

Civilisations Museum; National Museum of Singapore; National Archives of Singapore. Thailand: Poosak Posayachinda (Residence); Jaroonrat Tandavanitj (Chyn Pracha Mansion). In addition to the names above, a large number of anonymous individuals invited us into their homes to look around, talk, and take photographs, some of which appear in this book.

INDEX Note: Numbers in bold refer to illustrations Alcove bed, 2, 139, 139, 141, 142, 143 Amulets, 4, 6, 41, 42, 42, 56 Ancestral altars, 45, 55, 92, 99, 100, 101, 101, 102, 102, 103, 104, 104–5, 110– 11, 114–15 Ancestral charts, 117 Ancestral Halls, 16, 38, 70, 73, 77, 81, 96–111, 96–111, 120, 124, 126, 134, 145, 148, 154 Ancestral tablets, 61, 98, 99, 100, 102, 111, 111, 114–5, 115 Armenian Street, Penang, 76, 150, 154–5 Art Deco, 25, 140 Asian Civilisations Museum, 39, 47, 49, 78, 85, 106, 107, 121, 124, 138, 143, 145, 155 Auspicious motifs and meanings, 36–68, 36–68, 84, 90, 93, 99, 101, 103, 104, 109, 115, 115, 141, 141, 144, 145, 150 Baba, 6–13, 45 Baba House Museum, Singapore, 2, 12, 14–15, 23, 23, 46, 51, 54, 58, 59, 61, 64, 68–9, 71, 81, 93, 99, 100, 118–19, 121–3, 140, 140, 142, 143, 145, 146–7, 150, 152 Baba Malay, 8, 10, 11, 34, 66, 141 Baba Nyonya Heritage Museum, Malacca, 44 Bagua 八卦 (Eight Trigrams), 40–1, 41–2, 42–3, 54 Bai zi qian sun 百子千孙 [“A hundred sons, a thousand grandsons”], 60 Baizi tu 百子图 [“A Hundred Boys”], 60, 66 Bangkok, 8, 40, 50, 55, 61, 99 Batavia, 10, 27, 33 Bats (and butterflies), 46–8, 48–9, 51, 83, 89, 123 Baxian (Eight Immortals), 56–8, 63, 73, 115, 123, 126 Baxian table, 45, 58, 71, 76–7, 76, 77, 101, 101 Beadwork, 11, 13, 38, 39, 143 Bedrooms, 136–45 Bird, Isabella, 32, Bird’s nests, 26 Blackwood: 2, 72, 74, 76, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 81, 82, 99, 100, 108, 111, 123, 124, 128, 134 Blair Road, Singapore, 20, 23, 25, 27, 29, 30, 64 Blue Mansion, Penang (also known as Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion), 4, 16, 40–2, 41, 42 Blussé, Leonard, 27

Bungalows and villas: 17, 20, 32–4, 34–5, 35, 70, 89, 120 Butterflies, see Bats Cai Shen 财神, 56 Cameron, John, 21 Chang Pi-shih (Zhang Bishi 張弼士), see Cheong Fatt Tze Chang, Queeny, 28, 102–3 Chaozhou 潮州 (also Teochew and Teochiu), 8, 23, 32, 93, 110–11, 128 Charms, see Amulets Chavannes, Edouard, 43 Chee Family Ancestral Hall 徐氏宗祠, Malacca, 50, 51 Chee Jin Siew residence, Malacca, 7, 36–7, 38, 44, 59, 63, 68–9, 79, 104, 106 Cheong Fatt Tze (also Zhang Bishi, Chang Pi-shih) 張弼士 and Mansion, Penang, 4, 16, 40–2, 41, 42 Ch’ng Eng Joo (Zhuang Rong Yu) 莊荣裕, 150, 150–1 Chia, Felix, 12 Chien-nab, also called chanab, chien hup, and beet-chien [hexagonal storage box containing a tiered ritual object], 83, 85 Chiku nailao 吃苦耐劳 [“bear hardship and endure hard work”], 9 Chunqiu feixie 春秋匪懈 [“never slacken throughout the year”], 115 Chyn Pracha (Tan Ma Siang 陳威儀) and residence, 35, 58, 94, 95, 100, 104, 128, 132–3 Colors, 17, 19, 24, 25, 26–7, 38, 38, 43, 46, 60, 94, 101, 123, 134, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144 Conservation, see Historic Preservation Coolie kuli 苦力 [“bitter work,”], 10 Courtyard (see also Skywell), 16, 20, 27–32, 42, 44, 86–95, 86–7, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 120, 122, 128, 134–5 Courtyard mansion, 20, 27–32, 32, 34, 35, 92–3, 94, 95 Craftsmen, 23, 27, 32, 56, 79, 111, 128 Dado walls, 81, 81, 83, 83 Daji 大吉 [“good luck”], 48, 50 Davison, Julian, 19, 22 Day, Clarence, 56 Deities, 74–6 Didactic Tales, 60–5 Eight Immortals, see Baxian Emerald Hill, Singapore, 18–19, 20, 22, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28–31, 43, 44, 52–3, 90, 91, 128, 130–1, 149 Ershisi xiao 二十四孝 [“The Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Virtue”], 61, 67 Façades, 14–35, 18–19, 20, 34, 35 Feizhao 飞罩 (arched decorative frieze), 73 Fengshui 风水, 38–9, 40–2, 41 Filial piety (xiao 孝), 58, 61, 67, 99, 103, 103, 104, 106, 117

Five-foot way, 18, 21, 23, 29 Food, 44 Foshou 佛手 “Buddha’s Hand,” (homo-phonous with good fortune and longevity), 54, 59, 65 Fu 蝠 (bat), 38–49, 48, 49, 84 Fu ru donghai, shou bi nanshan 福如东海, 寿比南山 [“May one’s fortune be as vast as the Eastern Sea, one’s longevity as long as the Southern Mountain”], 53, 57 Fu Xing 福星 [Stellar God of Good Fortune], 54, 56, 60 Fu yin bao yang, bei shan mian shui 负阴 抱阳, 背山面水 [“yin at one’s back and embraced by yang, with ridges to the back and facing water”], 41 Fu zai yan qian 福在眼前 [“good fortune before your eyes”], 51 Fu, Lu, Shou (Stellar Triad), 36–7, 50, 55–6 Furniture, 32, 76–81 Goh Keng Swee, 12 Goh Sin Koh, 16, 32 Gongji 公鸡 [“rooster”], 48, 50 Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, 38, 61 Guan Gong 關公 (also Guan Yu 关羽), 60, 71, 73, 74–6, 74, 75, 81, 135 Guan Yin, 27, 73, 75 Guifu 桂馥 [“Fragrant cassia”], 72, 73 Gwee Thian Hock, William, 12 Hakka, 8, 29, 40, 94 Han Ancestral Hall, Surabaya, 31, 53, 98, 116, 117 Han Bwee Kong 韓尾公 (Han Boeij Ko 韓 尾哥), 115, 117 Handler, Sarah, 81 Hang Li Poh, 9 Heeren Street, Malacca, 20, 21, 50, 54, 59, 62, 65, 74, 75, 78, 91, 92, 96–7, 124, 125, 126–7, 149, 152 He-He erxian 和合二仙 [“immortal celestial twins”], 59 Hehe ruyi 和合如意 [“May you have a harmonious marriage and may your wishes come true”], 59 Historic Preservation, 25–6 Ho Wing Meng, 78–80 Hokkien, 8, 10, 13, 34, 70, 94, 123 House forms, 14–35, 14–35 Iconography, 36–67, 36–67 Indische-style architecture, 29, 35 Ironworks, 4, 30, 32, 130 Jakarta, 27, 33, 40, 43, 50, 53, 54, 77 Jewelry, 11, 13

Jia guan jin lu 加冠晋禄 [“promotion and salary will be bestowed on you”], 54, 61 Jiho [zihao] 字号 (wooden board above entry), 14–15, 16, 25, 33 Jinyu 金鱼, gold fish, 54 Jinyu mantang 金玉滿堂 [“Gold and Jade Fill the Hall”], 54, 100, 101, 103, 106 Jiushi tongju 九世同居 [“nine generations living together”], 64, 65 Johnson, David G., 44 Jonker Street, Malacca, 7, 18, 36–7, 44, 59, 63, 68–9, 79 Joo Chiat, Singapore, 6, 18–19, 23, 25, 30, 64, 86 Kamcheng, 47, 121 Katong, Singapore, 17, 23, 25, 34, 35 Kee Lai Huat 纪来发 ancestral home, Sungai Bakap, 61, 62–5, 67, 99, 110– 11, 114, 114, 115 Khaw Bee Gek 许玉适, 99, 114, 115 Khouw family residence, Jakarta, 27, 40 Kitchen, 146–55, 146–55 Knapp, Ronald G., 21, 27, 29, 38, 42, 44, 58, 110, 117 Kua feng cheng long 跨鳳乘龍 [“Straddling the phoenix and riding the dragon”], 59 Lanfu guifang 蘭馥桂芳 [“Fragrant Cassia, Fragrant Orchids”], 72, 73 Lantern Festival, Yuanxiao 元宵, 46, 48 Lee Cheng Yan, 17, 34 Lee Ho Yin, 18 Lee Kip Lin, 20, 23, 25, 33, 34 Lee Kuan Yew, 12 Lee, Peter, 8, 10, 16, 17, 34, 60, 145 Lingzhi 灵芝 [“fungus of immortality”], 51, 56 Liu liu da shun 六六大顺, [a phrase related to the six-stacked hexagrams of the Yijing that can be loosely translated as “smoothness with every effort”], 41 Liu, Gretchen, 24, 34 Living Areas, 118–35, 118–35 Li yue Longmen 鲤躍龙门, also li yu tiao Longmen 鲤鱼跳龙门 [“carp overcoming Longmen”], 54, 61 Long fei feng wu 龙飞凤舞 [“the dragon flies, the red bird (phoenix) dances”], 41, 42 Lotus, 54, 59, 60, 64, 81 Lu 禄 [“emolument”], 54–5 Lu Xing 禄星 [Stellar God of Emolument], 54, 60 Lunar New Year, 43–6, 48, 83 Luoshu 洛书 [“Luo Diagram”], 42 Magpies, see Xique Main Hall, see Reception Hall Malacca, Malaysia, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 13, 17, 18, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24–5, 26, 32, 36–7, 43, 44–5, 44, 45, 46, 49, 50, 52, 54, 59, 62, 63, 65, 68–9, 70, 73, 74, 75, 75, 77, 78, 79, 79, 80, 84, 91, 91, 92, 94, 96–7, 104, 106, 108, 120, 124, 125, 126–7,

128, 140–1, 149, 152 Mandalay Villa, 17, 34 Mandarin ducks, 59, 64 Medan, Indonesia, 8, 10, 16, 20, 27, 29, 31, 34, 40, 48, 60, 81, 82–3, 84, 86–7, 94–5, 102–3, 104–5, 131–5, 134–5 Menshen 门神 [“Door Gods” or “Guardians of the Gate”], 43 Min zhi suo hao 民之所好 (the initial words in a phrase in The Great Learning), 66, 67 Monkey God 猴王, 73 Moral Tales, 60–5 Mother-of-pearl, 74, 77, 79, 79, 80–1, 80, 81, 81 Nanyang 南洋 [“Southern Seas”], 9, 20, 38, 39, 54, 81 Neil Road, Singapore, 14–15, 21, 23, 46, 51, 54, 58, 59, 64, 70–1, 81, 93, 100, 121, 122, 123, 140, 142, 145, 146–7, 152 Nyonya, 6–13, 38, 44–5, 81, 121, 128, 142, 148–9, 153, 155 Nyonya cuisine, 6, 10, 11, 45, 148–9, 155 Oey Djie San, 27–9, 35, 40 Ong Poh Neo, 59, 139, 140 Ong Tae Hae (Wang Dahai), 11 Opium, 9, 93 Padang, 42, 42, 62 Peranakan Association Singapore, 13 Peranakan Chinese, 6–13 Peranakan Museum, Singapore, 6, 23, 38, 39, 47, 104, 107, 108, 150 Peranakan, meaning of, 7–8 Persatuan Peranakan Cina Melaka (Peranakan Chinese Association of Malacca), 20, 74, 74, 78 Phuket, 8, 10, 13, 23, 25, 26, 32, 34–5, 58, 94, 95, 101, 104, 128, 132–3, 140, 141, 149 Piaktu [bichu] 壁橱 (recessed wall cupboards), 122, 123, 131 Pinang Peranakan Mansion, Penang, 55, 128–9, 136–7, 140, 141, 145 Pintu pagar (ornamented half-door), 14–15, 16, 24, 25, 30–1, 33, 53, 70, 71, 72, 73 Porcelain, 11, 17, 21, 32, 38, 46, 48, 50, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 65, 66, 75, 79, 81, 83, 84, 100, 101, 107, 121, 122, 124, 128–9, 131, 141, 144 Posayachinda family residence, Bangkok, 50, 51, 54, 61 Poshyanonda family, 40 Prasada Mandala Dharma, 72–3, 73 Protective screens [yingbi 影壁 or zhaobi 照壁], 42 Pursuit of Good Fortune, 38, 43–67 Qilin 麒麟 [mythical unicorn], 60 Qilin song zi 麒麟送子 [“The qilin presents sons”], 60

Quest for Harmony, 38–43 Ranjang loksan, also ranjang kahwin (Peranakan bridal bed), 136–7, 139, 141, 142 Reception Hall, 68–85, 68–85 Ren 忍 [“forbearance”], 62, 65 River Valley Road, Singapore, 23, 25, 25, 30, 33, 59, 64, 66, 88–9 Rooster, see Gongji Ruyi 如意 [“May You Have Whatever You Want”], 56, 59 Sam kai 三界 [“three realms altar”], 83 San yang kai tai 三羊开泰 [“the three rams ushering in a change of fortune with the coming of the New Year”], 46, 46 Sarong kebaya, 11, 13, 143, 144 Seah Cheo Seah, 32 Seah Eu Chin 佘有进, 9, 19 Seah Song Seah residence, 59 Shophouses, see also Terrace houses, 21–3, 26, 89, 120, 149; Malacca, 12, 19, 20, 90–1; Penang, 109; Singapore, 18–19, 20, 23, 25, 28, 33–4, 90–1 Shou 寿 [“longevity”], 48, 50–4, 52–3, 55, 84 Shou bi nanshan 寿比南山 [“May you live as long as the Southern Mountains”], 53 Shou Xing 寿星 [Stellar God of Longevity], 50, 56 Shuangxi 双喜 [“double happiness”], 53–4, 58, 144 Si da cuo 四大厝 [“Four Mansions”], 32 Si shui gui tang 四水归堂, also si shui dao tang 四水倒堂 [“the four waters return to the hall”], 40, 90, 95 Siek family residence, Parakan, 57, 72–3, 73 Sin-kheh 新客 [“new guests (immigrants)”], 12 Sixiaoyuan 思孝遠, [“thinking of filiality of bygone years”], 104 Skywell (tianjing), see also Courtyard, 21, 40–1, 73, 81, 88–9, 89–93; 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 102, 111, 120–1, 122, 123, 124 Song ju you cun 松菊猶存 [“the pine tree and the chrysanthemum outlast (all things)”], 53 Song Ong Siang, 11 Souw Tian Pie residence, Jakarta, 27, 54, 77 Straits Chinese, also Straits-born Chinese, 8, 13, 16, 23, 139, 148 Sun Yat-sen, also Sun Yat Sen 孫逸仙, 孫中山 and Museum, Penang, 76, 150–1, 153, 154 – 5 Sungai Bakap, Malaysia, 43, 50, 62–5, 67, 98–9, 110–11, 114–5, 114–15, 148, 150 Suryadinata, Leo, 8, 157 Syed Alwi Road, Singapore, 23, 26–7, 28 Symbolism, 36–67 Taiji 太极 (Supreme Ultimate), 42, 43 Tan Chee-Beng, 7, 8, 11, 12 Tan Cheng Lock 陈祯禄 and ancestral residence, 12, 13, 23, 50, 54, 59, 65, 73–4, 75, 75, 84, 91, 92,

96–7, 108, 124–6, 126–7, 140, 149 Tan Hay Kwan 陈夏观, 73, 98 Tan Kim Seng, 20 Tan Ma Siang 陳威儀 (Prapitak Chyn Pracha) and residence, Phuket, 35, 58, 94, 95, 128, 132–3 Tan Seng Poh, 32 Tan Siew Sin 陈修信, 12, 13 Tan Tiong Ie, 102, 103 Tan Yeok Nee 陈旭年 and Mansion, 16, 32, 40, 93, 94 Tan, Agnes (Tan Kim Lwi 陈金蕊), 12, 13, 23 Tan, Alice (Tan Kim Yoke 陈金玉), 12, 13 Tan, Cedric, 20, 45, 45, 49, 77, 80 Tan, Johnson residence, 25, 30, 33, 59, 64, 66, 121 Tan, Lily (Tan Kim Tin 陈金珍), 12, 13 Tangerang, Indonesia, 35, 40 Terrace houses, see also Shophouses, 6, 16–17, 18–19, 20, 20, 22–6, 32–3, 33, 34, 70, 74, 89, 91–3, 120, 124, 128, 130–1, 138 Thia besar, see Reception Hall Tian Guan cifu 天官赐福 [“May the heavenly official (Deity of Heaven) bestow blessings”], 48, 50, 51 Tianjing 天井, see Skywell Tiles, wall and floor, 24, 28–9, 32, 84 Tjiong 钟 family residence, 8, 62, 108, 108 Tjong A Fie and Mansion, 10, 11, 16, 29, 31, 34, 40–1, 48, 60, 81, 82–3, 84, 86–7, 94–5, 102–4, 104–5, 131–5, 134–5 Tok panjang (a neologism tok [H] for “table” and panjiang [M] for “long”), 118–19, 121, 123, 130 Tokwi/zhouwei [altar cloth], 83, 101 Totok [“full-blooded”] (not of mixed descent), 12, 27 Tudi Gong [“Earth God”], 73, 103, 104 Tusheng Huaren 土生华人 [“locally born Chinese”], 8 Wan 卍 [“longevity”], see also Shou, 50–1, 54 Wedding, 38, 53 Wee Ah Hood, 32 Wee Bin, 100 Wee Boon Teck, 143 Wee family residence 黄府 (now Baba House Museum), Singapore, 2, 12, 14–15, 23, 23, 46, 51, 54, 58, 59, 61, 64, 70–1, 71, 81, 93, 99, 100, 120, 122–3, 123, 140, 140, 142, 143, 145, 146–7, 150, 152 Wee Kim Wee, 12 Welch, Patricia Bjaaland, 38, 54 Woods, 78–81 Wu fu 五福 [“Five Good Fortunes”: shou 寿 “longevity”; fu 富 “wealth”; kangning 康宁 “health; youhaude 攸好德 “love of virtue”; and kaochongming 考终命 “to die a natural death in old age”], 48,

51, 55 Wufu pengshou 五福捧寿 [“the five good fortunes grasp longevity”], 51, 51 Xiao 孝 [“filial piety”], 58, 61, 67, 99, 103, 103, 104, 106, 117 Xiaosi 孝思 [“reflecting on filiality”], 61, 104 Xique 喜鹊 [“joy-bringing magpies”], 59 Yangon, 8, 32 Yapp, Alvin residence: 84, 85, 121, 153 Yingxi tu 婴戏图 [“Boys at Play”], 60 Yong Si Tang 永思堂 [“Hall of Eternal Remembrance”], 104 Zao Jun 灶君 [Stove, also Kitchen, God], 44, 44, 56, 146–7, 149, 155 Zhang Bishi 張弼士, see Cheong Fatt Tze Zhang Gongyi 张公艺, 62, 64, 65, 72 Zhongsheng 種盛 [“The Glory of the Lineage”], 14–15 Zhuang Rong Yu (Ch’ng Eng Joo) 莊荣裕, 150, 150, 152, 153, 155 Zhu Bolu 朱柏盧, 62 Zhu Bolu zhi zhijia geyan 朱柏盧之治 家格言 [“Maxims for Managing the Home”], 62–5, 67 Zhuiyuan 追遠 [“to honor one’s ancestors with offerings”], 61, 104 Zhuisi 追思, [“to recollect the deceased”], 104

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A wraparound Javanese batik sarong decorated on either side of an invisible diagonal line with a pagi sore (morning/afternoon) design. By reversing the folding of the sarong, a woman could use the darker side during the day and the lighter one for evening. © Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore.