A little bit of History

I was born into a Baba-Nyonya family, otherwise known as Peranakan family. As a child, I never understood how lucky I was to be a part of such a family, being able to enjoy both the cultures and cuisines of Malays and Chinese. You see, the Peranakan community has been in Malaysia since the 15th century, and originally immigrated from China. We have assimilated many customs in the Nusantara (Malaysia and Indonesia) and have become part of the local communities. As such, many of our customs are based on Malay and Chinese origins. The cuisines, for one, uses many spices found only in this region.

The language that the Baba-Nyonya community uses is far different from the normal, accepted, from-the-book Malay. Sadly, I never really understood it and thus never really learnt it. It is a dying language, and its contemporary use is mainly limited to members of the older generation. A mix of English-Malay has now replaced this as the main language spoken amongst the younger generation, with English being more widely used and a few Malay words slotted in between.

Touching on clothing style, there isn't a distinct attire for the Babas(Men) to wear. However, the Nyonyas'(Women) clothes is very similiar to the Native Malays. For example, their clothing consists of a long dress, a batik skirt, gold brooches and beaded slippers.

My favourite part, the food. Many of the Baba-Nyonya foods are based around Chinese cooking techniques and Malay ingredients. As such, most of the foods are generally spicy and uses many herbs. Ingredients such as coconut milk, laksa leaves, pandan leaves, belacan(belachan), tamarind juice, lemongrass, ginger, star anises, cinnamon sticks and so on. Another special ingredient is the cincaluk; a special species of small prawns with a very, very strong taste and smell. Many Nyonya dishes take a long time to prepare, and as such taste the best when served at home. You can't say you've tried proper Nyonya food like Buah Keluak, Pong teh, Babi masak cuka, babi asam, itek tim, and so on until you've actually been to a Baba-Nyonya family and eaten at their house. Those stuff at the shops? Poor, poor renditions with profit in mind, cutting costs and corners while also cutting the taste. Many tourists have been cheated, actually, into eating these second grade dishes and leaving to think they've actually tasted the real Baba-Nyonya specialities. I'm very lucky, because both my mother and my grandmother are masters at Baba-Nyonya dishes, and I've grown up with such dishes as an almost everyday thing. The thousands of tastes that the cuisines have make me always want to eat more, and whenever there's some curry around, oh boy, the rice just won't be enough.

All good things come to an end, though. The Peranakan culture is slowly dying out with marriages between the Peranakan and mainstream Chinese or Malay becoming more and more common. Many of the younger generation Peranakans do not learn to speak Baba-Nyonya Malay anymore and thus also do not carry out various cultural rituals mainly due to government policies such as "Malay as the National Language" in Malaysia, and since Peranakans are considered as Chinese politically, the Mother Tongue Policy in Singapore also contributes to the dilution of this culture. But who am I to blame? I, as a pure Baba, have not put in any effort at all to carry on this colourful culture to the next generation.


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