Singapore’s Peranakan Renaissance

World
Europe

From hand-sewing kebaya embroidery to spending hours in the kitchen pounding and frying herbs for a rempah, or spice paste, Peranakan culture is a labor of love.

Singapore’s Peranakan community is mostly Peranakan Chinese, descendants of Chinese traders who settled in the busy ports of Penang and Singapore in the 19th century. They created a rich cultural blend of Chinese and Malay heritage that Peranakans proudly call their own.

But there isn’t always room for tradition in today’s fast-paced modern society, especially when young Peranakans find it time-consuming or old-fashioned. That’s why some artisans have found a way to update their culture, while keeping the most important elements alive.

Kebaya maker Heath Yeo uses a vintage Singer sewing machine to create intricate designs with a 1950s style of free motion embroidery known as Sulam, which means he controls the speed and direction of the stitching. It’s like painting with a needle instead of a brush. And the pictures Heath paints are unique and modern.

“Flowers, you know we see it all the time on the kebaya, like the peony or rose, for example. But there are so many flowers available, there’s hibiscus, there’s orchids, orchids in different style and size, so I’m very motivated to slowly introduce new ideas,” he says.

Heath’s customers are a mix of young and old – like the students at the Gunong Sayang Association’s (GSA) Peranakan language classes. They’re a small but passionate group who attend evening classes at the GSA clubhouse, picking up the near-extinct Peranakan patois through songs, games and conversations.

Until recently, only about a thousand people in Singapore could speak Peranakan fluently. But that number is growing, thanks to what linguistics specialist Dr Nala Lee calls “third-generational regret.”

“Usually, in situations of language loss, it is the third generation that begins to regret the loss of language or culture. At a certain point in time, a lot of them feel like they are bearing the brunt of language loss and feel the need to connect back to the culture,” she says.

Peter Wee has spent the past 40 years growing his collection of Peranakan items. /CGTN Photo‍

Peter Wee, an avid Peranakan collector and president of the Peranakan Association of Singapore, believes that the future of Peranakan culture lies in the next generation.

He says, “Each generation redefines and reinvents what is culture to them. You cannot bring the past into the present. It’s up to this generation to pick it up and reinterpret Peranakan culture.”