Baba Nyonya

There is something I want to share about Baba Nyonya .

Baba Byonya (Peranakan, the term used popularly for descendants of early Chinese immigrants to the Nusantara region, including both the British Straits Settlements of Singapore, Malacca and Penang, and the Dutch controlled island of Java among other areas, who have partially adopted Malay customs in an effort to be assimilated into the local communities.

The word of Peranakan, is also used commonly to describe Indonesia Chinese. In both BM & Bahasa Indonesia, Peranakan” means descendant.

Baba refer to the male descendants and Nyonya the female. Most Peranakanare of Hokkein ancestry, although a fair denomination of them are of the Teocheww or Cantonese descent. The language of the Peranakan, Baba Malay (Bahasa Melayu Baba), is a dialect of the Malay Language which contains many Hokkein works.

The Nyonya Baba were partially assimilated into the Malay culture, especially in food, dress and language used, while retaining some of the Chinese traditions and culture, like religion, name, folk medicine and festival celebrations, thereby creating a new kind of mixed culture of their country of origin with local, among those, like “Nyonya cuisine “ has developed the spices of Malay cuisine, examples are curry recipe cooking, Inchi Kabin, Chicken Kapitan, fried or cry chicken & sea foods, with local spicy & spicery. Wearring the Baju Kebaya. Most of the Peranakan are not Muslim, but have retained the ancestral worship tradition of the Chinese, especially of their wedding ceremony is largely based upon the Chinese tradition.

Credit to: http://www.jonker88.com/?q=history_of_nyonya_baba

Some of the beautiful, art work in a Baba Nyonya House

The altar..

' Kam Cheng'- means love in hokkien, used when a Baba & Nyonya's Wedding.

it's use to put red and white glutinous rice balls (tang yuan).red symbolises joy, and white symbolises purity.It is believed that after husband and wife eats the tang yuan from the kamcheng, they will never part...

The Peranakan Museum in Penang.

The peranakan culture is very unique and beautiful to me, as I'm also a "Nyonya" but the modern one..hehe; ) My late grandmother is a Nyonya from Melaka, and she cooks Nyonya food very well, It's too bad that I did not learn how to cook her style since she passed away when I was 10, But luckily I know how to cook her " Chap Choi" . I learn it from my mom who learns from her. Usually, all Nyonya is a good cook, but in my family, my sis, Kelsey (the other Nyonya in my family ; ) ) is the best cook. She knows how to cook the "Babi PongTeh" and more.. aihh! too bad I don't like to eat pork, haha! but I will learn to cook " Chicken Pong Teh" then..

Recently the drama "Little Nyonya" is aired in the whole Asia to promote the Peranakan culture starred by Jeanette Aw(Ou Xuan), Dai Yang Tian, Qi Yu Wu and more.. I really like that drama because it teached my a lot of peranakan culture and of course because Dai Yang Tian is so handsome in the drama. ; )

I'm proud to be a "Nyonya"! and I will always...

Do I look like her in the photo?

BUT..where is my baju kebaya, my Kam Cheng and My Dai Yang...no! My Ji Hoon..haha!