The Little Nyonya

It has been a while since Ping watched Singapore drama series. It is easier to get access to Taiwanese drama than S'pore drama since the piracy regulations there are a lot tighter. The last S'pore drama Ping watched is the Parental Guidance 2, which was two years ago now or some where there. Lately, Ping started checking back to see what's going on (since the Taiwan drama going on now is not as entertaining). Found a new drama that Ping will most likely continue to follow - The Little Nyonya (小娘惹).

The story revolves around the life of a little nyonya who went through all the hardship during 1930s through the World War II. They bring up the issues of interracial marriage, complicating family trees, the exchange of young girls for money and so forth. Unlike unrealistic Taiwanese dramas, S'porean dramas tend to relate more to the lifestyle people actually experience. Just watching the first episode broadcasted a few days ago, Ping remembers all the story that ahmah told Ping - how she escaped the chaotic WW2 from Penang to Malacca, the complication in her family with family members being sold to other relatives, the unique lifestyle of a nyonya and so forth. While at times, it was annoying have her talk non-stop, Ping acknowledge that those are the information that is pretty rare to come by.

Some of you must be wondering what is Ping talking about. What is nyonya? Let's start with Peranakan. It is a Malay word, literally meaning 'descendents'. Peranakans refer to the descendents of Chinese immigrant from Fujian province, China, (mostly) who married local Malays (mostly within the region of Straits Settlement - Malacca, Penang [at that time known as Prince of Wales Island], Singapore). Ping is not too sure how the British fit into the whole Peranakan origin but it all started when Emperor Yong Le (永樂) of China sent his daughter, Princess Hang Li Poh ( 汉丽宝) to marry Sultan Mansur Shah of Malacca (unreasonable, but I guess people at that time thinks that this is okay, especially since female is almost invaluable to the family...hmm...wonder why her last name is Han...or does all the Hans have Han as their last name?). Does that mean that we are somehow related to her since she is part of the source of Peranakans? Hmmm...

Peranakans typically still maintain their Chinese culture (they celebrate all the traditional festivals like Chinese New Year, Moon Cake Festival, etc.) but adopt the local Malay language and customs to try to fit into the local community. During 'adopting the language', a new dialect evolved - the Peranakan language (or is there an official term for it???), which is a combination of Malay and Hokkien (since most of the Chinese were from Fujian province who speaks Hokkien). So Nyonya refers to the females while Baba refers to the male. Ping loves listening to the language. Like the Chinese language of the olden days, they love to use poetic terms...can't think of any right now though. Ahmah has a book written in the peranakan language somewhere in her stash of stuff that Ping used to love flipping through just to know the language. Hopefully she/daddy (although more like daddy..hehe) still keeps that book since it is a treasure now. The easiest way to pick the difference between the current spoken Malay and the peranakan language is the way they address themselves - saya (or the more commonly use, although rude - aku) for Malay while Peranakan calls themselves 'gua'. 'Gua' actually has a Chinese origin - from 'wa' (我) in Hokkien. Besides Hokkien and Peranakan, most Peranakan can also speak fluent British English since the Straits Settlement are regions where the British have residential officials. So Ping's ahmah can actually speak pretty fluent English (although her pronounciation can be a little off sometimes) and she reads the English newspaper everyday too!

So how does Ping fits into this culture? Err...not too sure actually. If not mistaken, Ping's paternal grandma is a nyonya with 50% peranakan...and Ping's maternal great-grandma (ah chor) has a little bit of it??? But since both Ping's parents are not, Ping is more chinese than peranakan. Ping loves the food and the culture, but no idea how to speak the language, although Ping can understand it to a certain point. Ping does look like one though since Ping is often mistaken as a Malay. Chinese typically has a fairer skin tone while the Peranakans have darker skin tones, looking more like a Malay.

Due to the combination of background, Peranakans have a rich culture. Ping loves their 'baju kebaya', which usually consists of a 'sarung', an inner tank top (wonder what they used to call this?) and an outer blause that is typically slight transparent. Ping is still hoping to get one for herself someday. They are mostly on the higher end of clothing choice these days. Everytime Ping walks into the store, Ping can only manage to nudge mum and say, "mummy ar, that one nice hor". Another thing that is unique to the Peranakan is the 'chiki pai'. It is similar to mahjong, but in the form of cards. Ahmah used to teach us (ahboy and Ping) how to play them but Ping can barely remember how anymore. Definitely one thing to make sure we learn from ahmah. Wonder if the cards are still available in the market. Of course, not to forget the lovely manik shoes that mum makes. Just from the details on manik shoes, one can tell the amount of effort the nyonyas spent on their apparel. By the way, mum is really good at sewing maniks and making new designs. She's working on a hand bag currenty so if anyone wanna get a pair of manik shoe or want to learn how to make them, she's the person to go to!! They might be more expensive than some simple high heels but comparing to what people 'normally' pay for a pair of factory-made shoe, the manik shoe is definitely more worth it.

Thinking about it now, it seems like Peranakans might be have pretty upscale lifestyle...not too sure though. Anyway, that's Ping's spill of Peranakans. Will definitely be looking forward to the drama. By the way, why is it called 小娘惹? Is 娘惹 the translation for Nyonya?