Visited the Peranakan Museum today~ Located near SMU and National Museum of Singapore, the entrance fee is $6 for adults, half price for students and NS men and totally free for NUS students. If you want to know more about the Peranakan Culture, you could make a trip there.
Sad to say, the building looked more impressive than the exhibits inside. Most of the electronic displays were not working, unfortunately.
KK surely looked surprised. In case you dunno, there were 4 fleets of staircases inside the building.
The musuem used to be the old Tao Nan School. In case you were not aware, Peranakans were not only created by cross-racial marriages between Chinese and Malays, there were also Indian Muslims, Indians..... There were also different types of Perenakans; Hokkien, Malaccan, Hindu and many more. The first floor exhibited some photos of famous people in Singapore whom belonged to the Peranakan heritage (Dick Lee was Hokkien Peranakan btw).
One of the most common traits of Peranakan was they do not speak Mandarin. I remembered when I was in Primary One, my tutor married a Peranakan whose mom always cook curry at home. They spoke English and were Catholics. And one of their daughter married an Ang Moh. You really can't blame them for not able to speak or understand Mandarin because their ancestors do not speak the language. Back in their days as traders, the Chinese spoke dialect and from the mixed-marriages, the language was infused with Melayu, similar to our Singlish. When they learned to trade with the British, the rich families sent their children to English schools, thus they spoke Good English.
Sometimes I would think the Peranakan Culture to be quite a "Rojak" (btw, the rojak dish was invented by Peranakans.) But as time goes by, when you mix everything up, you formed an unique identity. That's what Perankans are. Peranakans were certainly proud of their identity. One thing I have to admire for their culture are the dishes they've created, certainly the best in South-East Asia! From Sambal curry, Nyonya rice dumplings to kuehs, these mouth-watering dishes .... the time spent in the kitchens by the nyonyas had certainly paid off!
For more info, do visit
http://www.peranakanmuseum.sg
BTW, there is free entry for all on New Year's Day.
The "kuching" sculpture at the entrance.
Coincidentally, we spotted another "kuching" near Hill Street.
With quite similar pose somemore.... =)
