04/02/2019
Good read with first hand storytelling of Malacca's Peranakan history that is knit with Singapore's Peranakan history.
SHERMAN ONG, Ujong Pasir, Malacca.
Peranakans are class conscious. The prominent ones had ancestral houses on Heeren St [now Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock] and spent weekends at Klebang where they had bungalows. But not all Chinese were successful. There’s an old Peranakan community in Batu Berendam, where the old Malacca airport is. They speak and sound very Malay. The ones who stayed outside were called “Cina Bukit”, meaning country bumpkins. Bukit Rambai was “rendah”, Heeren St was rich. “Timun” was poor. “Durian” meant rich.
“Cina gerk”: the term “gerk” means just off the boat, because people just off the boat would carry their worldly possessions in a bundle on a stick. “Singkek” means newcomers from China, who are considered lower class. In return, those Chinese would call us Peranakan “Baba siao” meaning Chinese who couldn’t speak Chinese. Or “anak chapcheng”, meaning mixed breed.
Growing up in Malacca I realised there was a class difference. The rich Peranakans lived on Heeren Street where backs of houses used to face the sea. Jonker Street [now Jalan Hang J***t] had second place, and was mixed. Kg Pantei didn’t have Peranakans, it had carvers, tradesmen. Kg Pantei and Jonker Street would service Heeren. And the streets perpendicular to Jonker and Heeren also made [status] very clear: “First Cross St”, “Second Cross St”.
The British worked with the business class and the ruling Malay aristocrats. Babas became British subjects. Then more Chinese came over from China. Cheng Lock and other lobby groups wanted this larger group of Chinese to also be given citizenship, but this was seen as a betrayal by the Babas.
So class consciousness came about because of the different waves of people. The Hokkiens were the earliest. Teochew, Hakka and Cantonese were also around the same time. The last wave was the Hainanese, who tended to work as domestic helpers for the Peranakan. (My grandmother would call them “the servant class”.) Peranakan would not allow their kids to marry them.
I was born in what’s now the Tun Tan Cheng Lock Centre. It used to be a maternity home. My mother was from Kg Belanda, Heeren St. My dad’s side was from Batu Berendam. My parents met in Alor Gajah. Both were civil servants.
The first day at kindergarten, I saw these other kids who looked Chinese but I couldn’t understand them, because at home we spoke Peranakan Malay. The term they used for people like me was “OCBC” – orang Cina bukan Cina. Growing up, I continued to be a bit embarrassed about it. Only when I went to Singapore did I begin to be more comfortable in my own skin, to be able to say “I come from the Baba Nyonya culture”.
I went to Sekolah Rendah Banda Hilir then Malacca High School. I got an ASEAN scholarship to study in Singapore, and read law at NUS. While there I did photography and developed initial videography skills. After university, I got a job as a video editor, then joined MediaCorp as a producer/editor, then TCS [ Television Corporation of Singapore]. After 3 years I got a bursary to study cinematography at Ngee Ann. I didn’t complete it, I just wanted to learn the technical side. Then I did projects on my own. Now I'm a visual artist working in the medium of film and photography. I look at migrations and notions of the diaspora, in particular within the Nusantara. Yes, this is partly biographical.
My paternal grandfather was a rubber estate manager for the British. So they were quite anglophile, with social dances and tea dances in these estates. On the other side, my maternal grandfather came from a family which is not well to do. He married my grandmother, from a prominent Peranakan family in Malacca, the Tan Kim Seng family. They have landmarks, the clock tower and the Tan Kim Seng bridge (near the Hard Rock Café). My maternal grandparents separated. He resided in Singapore and had a second family there.
My maternal grandfather had 3 kids born in the Tan Cheng Lock Centre, then the Yeoh Maternity Home. My grandparents split when mum was 8 years old; the first time I met my maternal grandmother was when I was 11or 12 years old. When my grandparents split, one child (my auntie) went with my grandmother, two went with my grandfather, including my mum. They stayed at 88 Heeren St. My maternal grandmother and my auntie stayed in the house opposite.
Those days there was “mak piara” (nanny), who would take care of the kids. They were often relatives. My mum was taken care of by my grandfather’s relative. She was not allowed to communicate with her mother, even though she lived just across the road and could see her. My mum would only meet her sister in school, and they would have fights.
When in Singapore, I went deeper into my family history. I found Tan Kim Seng’s will in Singapore’s National Archives, as well as correspondence between the family in Singapore and Malacca, written in Baba Malay.
As I looked further, I learned many Singapore pioneers had roots in Malacca. When the British opened up the port of Singapore, they invited Malaccan merchants to go there. I realised there were so many links between Malacca and Singapore. The histories of Malacca are hybrid, very diverse.
Singapore is also a migrant society. People in Singapore were not just from Malaya; it had people from Riau, Bencoolen, Java. Then there is the group of Straits Chinese who are not Peranakan.
The Peranakan in Singapore were seen as the power-brokers of the day, and to understand the personal histories of Singapore Peranakan families also meant looking into Malacca’s history. For instance, Tan Kim Seng’s family history in Malacca went back to the 1700s. The history of Modern Singapore which initially started from more modern times was revised to include a Singapore history that stretched back more than 700 years (through the academic research of Prof John Miksic) and now culminates in the Singapore Bicentennial commemoration.
Actually, you can’t understand Singapore’s history without looking at Malacca.
When the British left Malaya, the rich “King’s Chinese” who could afford it became British subjects, same as with Hong Kong in 1997. Today the diasporic communities hold the wealth, in Australia, Singapore. What remained in Malacca was the ancestral homes.
I feel that people who have drive and ambition would not be in Malacca, they would move to KL or Singapore. The older generation remains, and of course the business communities still have their businesses. But a lot of Malacca’s money today comes from children sending money back to their parents. Malacca on weekends is a totally different place from Malacca on weekdays. Nothing happens during the week.
When the Dutch left Malacca, Heeren Street was bought by the Peranakans. Now you have the Singaporeans coming to buy, making boutique hotels.
[10 January 2019]
