Saturday, October 11, 2008

Peranakan Museum.

The quest is on for anything Peranakan. (Thank you Wikapedia). A newly opened museum to the local born descendants of the original settlers brought by the trade between East and West. Most made their fortunes and returned home. These are the guys who stayed to make Penang, Malacca or Singapore their home, marrying local girls. Humm, sounds familiar. My interest is in the Chinese settlers, no prizes for guessing why! Most Chinese Peranakan are of Hoklo (Hokkien) ancestry, although a sizable number are of Teochew or Cantonese descent. Gek is a Teochew. A lot of her friends are Teochew.



The museum has some nice sets showing the typical contents of the Peranakan Chinese homes. These include shrines to both the Deity of the home and the ancestors, related to Taoism principles.


Characters representing Fu (Good Fortune ), Lu (Prosperity), and Shou (Longevity), concepts from Taoism.


Sun Wukong, the Monkey God. I was a big fan of the original TV series Monkey. It was aired in Singapore during my original stay here. Watched avidly every week. With the children, of course. Most recently Monkey has been staring in the opening credits of the BBC's 2008 Olympic coverage, with his friend Pig.

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