Peranakan

By: Aroon


Introduce to Peranakan

Who are Peranakans?

Peranakans are a group of people who have mixed marriages of Chinese and Malay. We can especially see their life style and culture in Singapore. Peranakans are creative and hard working people it shown on the houses they live in which are magnificent and detailing.


(Peranakan village, Chinatown)


Peranakan women are very obey to their parents and traditional. They are excellent housewife; they have special talent in cooking and handicraft. Peranakan men are smart to do trading and business, in other side they are traditional and family men. Overall, Peranakans are rich people, they rich in culture, rich in helping people, rich in creating and rich in love. The Peranakan culture is a unique hybrid culture that is still part of Singapore’s living heritage.




(An elderly Peranakan grandma showing her sewing skill, she looks very kind.Picture taken from Peranakan Musuem)


Peranakan History

The Peranakans are descendants of an early Chinese community that settled in the Malay Archipelago at least since the 17th century. Many members of the early community were seafarers who traded between the ports of southern China and those of Southeast Asia. The oldest Chinese communities can be found in Malacca. As Chinese women were by law not allowed to leave their native country until the middle of the 19th century, many of these early traders married non-Muslim natives of the Malay Archipelago, such as Balinese or Batak slaves.


In the 18th and 19th centuries the Peranakans were involved in opium, sireh, nutmeg and liquor farming, pepper and gambier cultivation, tin mining, commodity trading and property. In the early 20th century, many Peranakans invested in rubber.
They also worked as compradors for big Western companies and banks. As a Chinese community that always considered Malaya home, many Peranakans were involved in civic projects and local government, and numbered among the key players in Malaysia and Singapore's road to independence.