Baba vs the Minions

So, apparently the "Minions" from Despicable Me are the latest in-thing, as is their rendition of the Beach Boys' hit, "Barbara Ann". 

But the Peranakans have their own version!  Check out "Baba Nyonya" by Alvin Oon:

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Of course, this song is not just made up of meaningless syllables like the Minions', as it is actually in Baba Malay.  Aside from repeating "Baba Nyonya" many times, it weaves in references to clothing ("sarong kebaya") and food ("otak otak" and "buah keluak").  Yes, we are all indeed happy eating yummy nyonya cuisine!

For photos on Peranakan houses, you can check out my Katong photo set on Flickr.

Penang Roots

I had the pleasure recently of returning to Penang together with my extended family, to visit relativees there.  I had  earlier written about my previous visit to Penang.  This time around, our extended family trip made it easier for my cousin and I to get in touch with our Penang relatives.

My great-great grandparents
and my great-grandfather (on the right)

It was also a good opportunity for me to find out more about my paternal  grandmother and her family. According to family lore, it was my great-great-great grandfather who came to Penang.  His portrait hangs in the family home, dressed in the robes of a Mandarin.  His son, my great-great-grandfather, had a few children.  How many, I am not sure - but this photo (on the left) shows my great-great-grandparents with two of their sons - one of whom was my great-grandfather.  His  daughter would become my grandmother.  (Incidentally, the photo in the picture is actually a replica of the original - why it is relatively unfaded still.  The original, much  faded, is displayed opposite to this replica.) My great-great grandparents also had (at least) one daughter.  She would become my paternal grandfather's mother - as mentioned previously, my paternal grandparents were first cousins.

Front door

My great-grandfather married a KL girl.  She had three children, one boy and two girls.  But sadly, he died young, leaving his wife to bring up the children.  Two of them would stay in Penang, but my grandmother moved down to Singapore after her marriage to my grandfather.  But whilst she may have left physically, she would retain her Penang nonya upbringing all her life - always wearing her sarong kebaya.  And of course, according to her children, she was an excellent cook!

It was thus a nostalgic journey back to Penang, to revisit our family home, with its portraits on the wall of my ancestors.  It is not a magnificent mansion like the Pinang Peranakan mansion, just the home of a more humble Baba merchant and his family.  It is a traditional home, with the carved wooden doors opening into the reception room, containing the family altar, and ornate peranakan furniture, some of which are still there today.  (Supplemented by the desktop computer and printer in one corner of course).

Behind the reception room, the house opens up into the family areas, lit up by the airwell which lit up the interior of the home.  The plants and water feature bring the outdoors indoors, a quiet oasis in busy Georgetown.

My great-grandmother's pillow

My Penang uncle has spent quite a lot of time and effort restoring his home and also in supplementing his collection of antiques and curios - many displayed in his cabinets and on his shelves.  Some have sentimental value - in particular this little leather pillow, which was used by my great-grandmother for many years.  Hmmm... I must say give me my nice soft fluffy pillow anytime!  Note also the little pair of slippers on the right.

I venture to think, that if my great-grandfather were to come back today, he would still feel that he was in familiar surroundings.  A homecoming indeed.

More photos together with others of my Penang visit(s) here.

Growing up in Katong

I was surfing on the Perankan Association website and was immensely pleased to find a rather charming article by Cynthia Wee-Hoefer on Katong in the 1950s and 60s!

Just my kind of thing, and a very nice article to link to from this blog. 

But there is also a link from this article to this blog.  Cynthia mentions that she used to live in an obscure little lane off East Coast Road ‘after the Joo Chiat traffic lights, the small lane on the right, opposite the Shell station.’ Well, am pleased to say that  I have in fact written an earlier short post about the very same street!  She describes it also much better than I did, with her description of

"...neat rows of raised terrace houses with curlicue frescoed fronts, patterned mosaic steps and a narrow veranda. The houses were pretty and deep to accommodate three bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen covered by a zinc roof. There was a toilet (originally of the bucket system but modernised years later), a bathroom, and an airy basement that worked as an additional storage space, sleeping quarter and hide-and-seek playground."

For more on Cynthia's story, do read her article on Growing up in Katong.

Conservation Houses, East Coast Road

To me, growing up in the East Coast, I never knew there was anything particularly unique or wonderful about the shophouses in the area. They were there, and had always been there and that was that. Today, I find that I really appreciate the timeless charm and quiet prettiness of these old homes.

I took my cat for sterilisation today, at the Mt Pleasant Clinic on East Coast Road. Just alongside the clinic is a small, narrow little road, lined on one side with the most charming little single-storey houses. Like many old houses in this once flood-ridden area, they are raised off the ground by a short flight of steps. The front of the house is decorated with detailed plaster mouldings, the sort one would normally see on the ceiling of a stately home somewhere in England...

Going past the houses, it truly feels like yesterday once more.

Peranakan Houses

One thing which I feel gives Katong its distinctive atmosphere is its buildings, in particular the charming Peranakan buildings in the area. The Peranakans settled in Katong many years ago, as did the Eurasians. The Eurasians tended to stay in single-storey bungalows but the Peranakans built their unusual, charming east-west fusion homes and these line parts of East Coast, Joo Chiat and surrounding roads.

The houses are painted in pastel colours, with elaborate floral or animal moulding or decorative tiles adorning the facade. The roofs have wooden fringes, painted in matching colours. The houses appear deceptively narrow from the front - but once inside, the building stretches well beyond the front facade. Apparently, property taxes in Malacca were based on the length of the house fronting the street. So buildings were built narrow but long, and this particular architectural design spread also to Penang and Singapore.

Peranakan houses typically have a little veranda in front. The front entrance typically has two doors - the first is a half door, or pintu pagar (this literally means door fence, or a gate, but in this context is a half door), and the second is a proper door. The pintu pagar allows for ventilation, whilst at the same time maintaining privacy.

On entering a Peranakan house, there is a small front entrance room - a parlour, for receiving guests. In my relatives' home in Penang, this had the family photos in it - a large photo of our revered ancestor who had come over from China, a picture of the extended family many many years ago (I'm not in it). But just behind this room is the large family room where all the action would take place. Here is where the dining area is, and the family living area where (today) people watch television, listen to music etc. Here is where also the inner courtyard is located, letting sun and light into the middle of the house. The kitchen lies beyond that. On the second floor, the front room would typically have a little peephole in the floor. Looking down through the peephole, the residents would be able to check out visitors to the house before going downstairs to let them in. The shortcoming of these old houses is that often they live with old plumbing systems, so the bathrooms are in the back of the house and maybe there would be only one, on the ground floor....

Many Peranakan houses have been put to other uses these days. Along Joo Chiat Road, they hold coffee shops, karaoke bars, hotels, and in some cases, art galleries. Following complaints that there was too much, um, street action taking place in the area, pub licences have not been renewed. The ladies of the night are moving out and the creative crowd, slowly coming in. Which is all very well but it is also nice to see that the 60 year old bakery is still going strong at one end of Joo Chiat Road. Together they create the unique blend of old and new, of tradition and innovation, in this charming corner of Singapore.