Recently, my friend brought me to the Peranakan Museum! Frankly speaking, I didn’t even know one existed and after the whole wave of the local drama 小娘惹, I was pretty excited to find out more about the Peranakan tradition!
The Peranakan Museum has just been newly revamped and reopened only last year! So do check it out if you are interested! (:
If you are interested, here is the location of the museum and the respective charges:
39 Armenian Street Singapore 179941
Opening Hours: Monday – 1pm to 7pm
Tuesday to Sunday – 9.30am to 7pm (to 9pm on Friday)
Admission Charges: $6 for adults, $3 for full time students and those aged above 60 years. Free admission to visitors aged 6 years and below and also NYP students (me!!)!!
Very nice museum exterior, looks very much like a British building, extremely regal and grand on the exterior.
There are 3 stories in the whole place and a total of 10 galleries. You are allowed to take pictures without flash which is really appreciated by many I guess.
I didn’t really go in order from gallery 1 to gallery 10, so the pictures I post are really jumbled. Plus, I didn’t take photos everywhere I went.
If you feel intrigued by the photos in here, then maybe you would like to visit the place for yourself! (:
Sorry for the blur picture. This is a picture of the Ranjang Kahwain, known in English as the Wedding Bed. It’s built in the late 19th to early 20th century.
I like this bed alot, because the bed has alot of carvings around it which are really nice. Along the way, I saw alot of items with dragon carving and many others which were extremely intricate and nice.
Another thing to appreciate is the beadwork that hangs from the bed. Its very nice and this bed is usually found in the houses of wealthy Peranakans!
An interesting face about this bed, is that the person who donated it actually gave birth to 7 out of her 11 children right on this very bed!
Again, the carving on the mirrors are extremely intricate and very well built. Sturdy yet elegant is what describes alot of the Peranakn furniture we saw there.
Needless to say, beautiful craftmanship.
Proof that we were there! Haha.
Alot of the cutlery, like plates, cups, kettles etc used during the wedding were usually made of gold or silver which were very impressive and well made.
Some items which were handsewn which shows off how Perankans are very good at their beadwork and stitching.
Its truly amazing when you see for yourself how small those beads are and just imagine how much time and effort must have gone into making these little purses.
These are the items that the groom with give to the bride’s family as dowry. Pigs leg, jewellery, unused cloth, alcohol and oranges.
These items were picked to show that the groom was wealthy and able to support the bride and give her a good life.
In return, the bride is to give the groom’s family, clothes that were sewn using the unused cloth, beaded slippers, oranges and alcohol, thigh of a pig and jewellery!
These were used to bear the gifts during the wedding procession where the gifts, like the pig’s leg etc were exchanged between the families.
The 2nd picture, is known as a pagoda tray and it was crafted especially for a Peranakan family in Singapore!
Headgear and jewellery donned by the couple to get married. If you think it looks heavy, guess what? Its roughly around 1kg and sometimes it gets even heavier.
Forget about pre-wedding jitters, try wearing that thing on your head for a few hours. Not to mention, the tons and tons of jewelery!
A small interative corner, where you can dress the Peranakan family in two different sorts of attire.
As you can see, Peranakan homes actually look very much like the olden Chinese homes you would see in China where those rich officials lived.
Needless to say, Peranakans were considered the more wealthy race among others.
This was taken from the ‘dining area’ in the gallery. And in order for you to feel like you were really witnessing a real life Peranakan family’s dinner, the museum actually plays the sounds of a real Peranakan family dining. You can actually hear the chitter chatter of the family and the clanging of the plates!
The cutlery used by the Peranakans mostly have motifs of the phoenix on them. And as with all things Peranakan, the plates were very well made.
Photo of a typical Peranakan kitchen.
Photos of us outside the kitchen. Hahaha.
Baby clothes and booties which I found extremely adorable. They surprisingly had a Chinese ‘qipao’ look to them which I found intriguing.
One of the many Nyonya attires on display.
Very old and ecletic phones used in the old days. When you pick up the receiver, you can hear actual Nonyas talking to you!
Headed over to the religion corner where I didn’t take pictures because I didn’t find it appropriate.
But one piece of exhibit I found extremely interesting was a Cathloic Altar.
Formerly a Daoist alter, when the family converted their faith to Catholicism, they actually added the painting of the Holy Family into the altar.
It was very very well built, there were dragon engravings on the altar with a painting of the Holy Family in the centre.
It was intriguing to note that Peranakans weren’t all Daoist, or Buddhish but several of them were Catholics as well.
Proof that we visited the various galleries that day!
I actually fell from this mighty fine looking flight of stairs!! I landed on my knees in a typical I’m asking for forgiveness position in front of two tourists!
I was madly ashamed and had to make a quick escape after that.
Guess the stairs didn’t appreciate the cam-whoring.
So we said byebye to the Peranakan Museum! (:
Just to end off with some interesting facts. There are actually many types of Peranakans!
There are Hokkien Peranakans, Jawi Peranakan etc.
And Dick Lee, the famous song composer in Singapore is actually a Peranakan as well! Who knew! (:
No wonder he is so well spoken. Ah well.
Hope you enjoyed the entry on it. And if you are interested in the Peranakans, do pop by the museum for a visit.
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