Ancient Chinese Secret -- InsideOut Hawaii

By Simplicio Paragas

The Chinese have migrated throughout the globe over the centuries, creating enclaves of Chinatowns where their old world ways, flavors and language persisted. Not so, though, for the Peranakans, a group of descendants who first settled in Malacca and coastal areas of Java and Sumatra as early as the 15th century.

In an interview with the New York Times, Kenson Kwok describes the Peranakans as very open-minded toward other cultures. ?They took the best from everywhere," says Kwok, director of the Asian Civilization Museum and the Peranakan Museum in Singapore, which has partnered with the East-West Center Gallery to stage the ?Peranakan Chinese Heritage.? ?They were able to operate in a multicultural world, something we all need to be able to do today. We all need to speak different languages and operate in different cultures, and that?s something the Peranakans were doing back in the 19th century."

The exhibition offers a snapshot of Peranakan communities, which are often referred to as Straits Chinese or baba nyonya (baba refers to the males and nyonya to the females). Marrying their Chinese heritage with the local Malay influences, the Peranakan developed a distinctive hybrid culture that became quite cosmopolitan. This exhibit reflects this unique aesthetic and highlights many of the distinctive arts and customs of this community. Photographs and videos focus on wedding and marriage rituals, hospitality customs, funeral customs, and birthing traditions. A wide variety of textiles, clothing, beaded slippers, cooking utensils and ceramics are included.

East-West Center Gallery, John A. Burns Hall, 1601 East-West Road (corner of Dole St. & East-West Road), arts.EastWestCenter.org

Source: http://www.insideouthawaii.com/August-2013/Ancient-Chinese-Secret/

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