Advanced Search
Missing Threads: Recollections of Nyonya-Baba Life
Chong, Ren-Huang Paul
text
2020-12-16
19 pages
This paper is a summary of interviews and conversations with the author’s grandmother on Singaporean Nyonya/Peranakan culture, centered around the kebaya and how it delimitates cultural borders. It provides an account of a lived Nyonya/Peranakan experience to thereby question certain aspects of contemporary and commercialized portrayals of Nyonyas/Peranakans. It explores cultural changes and inter-generational knowledge transfer. Lastly, it reflects on the role that an “outsider” gaze plays in shaping and stimulating culture. This paper was selected as the first place winner for the 2021 Southeast Asia Digital Library Undergradate Paper Award
English
Peranakan (Asian people)Nyonya
Peranakan (Asian people)--NyonyaSingapore