The beads are the size of a dot. Blow a breath and they will fly off. These glass beads, sourced from the Czech Republic have fashion history, having embellished shoes once worn by Peranakan women. Peranakans are people of mixed Indonesian and Chinese ancestry and created a unique aesthetic that characterised old Singapore of William Somerset Maugham, and the last tiger shot under a table at Raffles Hotel. Now, like the tiger, the beaded slippers named kasut maniks have all but disappeared, to be found only in museums, select shops and adoring the feet of Peranakan culture. Like Angeline Kong’s.
Kong conducts tours at the Katong Antique House, a two-storeyed, 100-year-old shophouse, created by the late Peter Wee. Katong is named after a species of sea turtle which has all but disappeared from the area. Kong’s tour begins with an exhibit of the beaded shoes, which Peranakan women wore daily, sewing on the beads themselves. Kong stitches her own shoes and also teaches others to do it; part of her desire to foot the legacy of her small community.
The Katong museum is chock-full of antiques and photos. The kitchen area is full of painted vintage tiffin boxes. Old wedding photos crowd the walls. Upstairs are clothes and patterned batik sarongs and kebayas (blouses), and jewellery. Kong keeps up a running commentary: “After a death, people would only use white and blue porcelain to eat or drink; a typical wedding lasts 12 days and the heaviest costume is worn on the first day; women wear a layer of bamboo inside to prevent sweating; typical attire doesn’t have buttons and is secured with brooches; the furniture contains many carvings of bats; a phoenix is a symbol of good fortune. Gold is for happy occasions, pearls and silver for mourning. When a person passes, we put a pearl under the tongue or on their lips because pearls have natural light and will guide them on their onward journey.”
A few blocks away, in Joo Chiat, is another museum run by another passionate advocate of the hybrid culture. Alvin Yapp’s home moonlights as a museum called The Intan. The two-storeyed shophouse is what Yapp calls an “accidental museum”, filled with over 5,000 items including porcelain, enamel wear, silver and furniture, beadwork, embroidery and even a ceremonial wedding bed. Post the tour, Yapp invites guests to drink herbal tea and snack on kueh lapis (rice-flour pudding layered like a Goan bebinca).
The tours with Kong and Yapp offer an introduction into Peranakan life: men are called Baba (an honorific term), the women Nyonya; they speak a blend of Malay and the Chinese dialect, Hokkien. And, the food is distinctively delectable. Down the road from Katong Antique Museum is Kim Choo Kueh Chang famous for their rice dumplings and kueh or bite-sized snacks like ondeh ondeh (soft roundels coated with desiccated coconut and filled with gula melaka). True Blue Cuisine is almost like a museum in itself filled with books, pictures and antiques, wedding lanterns and food that includes the typical Peranakan dish, ayam buah keluak or chicken stewed with candlenuts. The Oriental cultural transmigration of tastes is seen in laksa, a noodle soup popularised by Tibetans and Nepalis in India. The difference here is that the Singaporean version is creamy with strong flavours. And, there’s the Candlenut, world’s first Michelin-starred Peranakan restaurant, serving a contemporary take on Straits Chinese food. All high ceiling, bamboo and rattan, the look is classical colonial Singapore. Malcolm Lee, the young chef who is influenced by his mother and grandma, is a maestro of traditional Peranakan fare which got him the coveted star, but also cheats a bit by creatively playing with flavour compositions and adding a brave Indonesian touch. Peranakan cooking is a moveable feast of rich and intricate flavours created with an array of ingredients. The spicy and sour flavours of tamarind, galangal, and lime are comforted by the coconut flavours.
Much of Peranakan’s culture and heritage is a melting pot of Malay, Indonesian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, and Indian influences. This is most visible in the architecture. The candy and pastel-hued houses have louvred windows, coloured tiles, Corinthian plasters, French shutters or intricate Islamic lattice work. The best examples of these shopfronts are in Joo Chiat and Katong, both fashionable neighbourhoods. The ornamental facade of a boutique restaurant, Rumah Bebe in Joo Chiat is well-known. People go here to pick up a brightly patterned sarong or kebaya or sign up for a crafts class. The restored NUS Baba House in Blair Plain is a blue three-storeyed townhouse that once belonged to a Peranakan Chinese family who owned mother-of-pearl Blackwood furniture, an impressive ancestral altar, and a lacquered wedding bed. The house is only open to tours and over the course of an hour, you learn interesting things—diagonal floor tiles are only used in rooms for celebration and worship; holes bored into the wooden floors allowed people to see what was going on in the hall downstairs; every house had one or more altars and air wells that allowed in natural light.
The term Peranakan is mentioned first in the 15th century AD, when according to legend a Chinese princess married the Sultan of Malacca; now a Malaysian port city 150 miles south of Singapore. The men who were part of her entourage settled down in Malacca, married local women and had children who were called “peranakans,” or “local born” in Malay. Some of these early Peranakans eventually relocated to Singapore and Penang. The colours and vibrant sights and tastes of an ancient culture graces modern Singapore, hinting that the place had a culture, class and grandeur that went far beyond the imperial glory of King George.