Baba Nyonya Heritage Museum

The reception hall was where only men were allowed in. Tall panels of Chinese silk-embroidery fill the hall as an intentional display of the Straits-born family’s roots to homeland China. Stories of generals & scholars tell tales of Chinese values that the household endeavoured to uphold. This hall has all the formalities suited for the patriarchal society of the Peranakan-Chinese, where dignitaries would sit and discuss affairs, while the women of the household were only allowed as far as the thia gelap (dark hall) to peer through the holes of the screen. The heartbeat of any Peranakan home is the kitchen. This is where the ladies of the Chan family spent much of their time, and where only close extended family members would have come in. It would also have been the meeting place for female members to catch up on gossip in their local creole language known as Baba Malay. Here, chung po, the chef may have been preparing food for dinner, while the matriarch would be instructing her daughter-in-law on cooking techniques that were unique to the family. For the Peranakan-Chinese community, filial piety is respecting elders and preserving family ties. It is a way for current and future generations to remember where they come from, and to keep bonds between family members close. The Baba & Nyonya House Museum still observes its role as a rumah abu (ancestral home) where sembahyang (prayer) is conducted seven times a year on ancestors birth dates, death dates and before Chinese New Year. Family members will prepare food dishes as offerings. Although not all family members observe ancestral worship anymore, the act of remembering the family’s heritage is still honoured.