Peranakan fashion in an interconnected world

Vincent Villemin

 

During the Textile and Fashion history lesson of the 11th of March 2025, the focus was on the Peranakan culture, its roots and cultural influences as well as the modern challenges faced by the community today. Firstly, this review will synthesis today’s information and secondly further the research with additional outside sources focusing on the struggle to maintain their culture alive.

 

Peranakan culture has its roots in the 15th century, when Chinese traders began settling in the regions of Malacca, Penang, Singapore, and Indonesia. These Chinese immigrants married local women, giving rise to a ethnically mixed community known as the Peranakan. The term "Peranakan" means "descendant" in Malay, reflecting their mixed heritage. This culture is a unique blend of Chinese, Malay, Indonesian, and European colonial traditions. This cultural mix reflects the unique cosmopolitan aspect of this costal merchant community. This fact is evident in various aspects of daily life, including language, cuisine, clothing, and the arts. For example, the Baba Malay language is a creole that combines Malay, English, and a Chinese dialect. Peranakan men are known as Baba (an paternal title with Persian origins), while the women are called Nyonya (from the Portuguese dona). Peranakan cuisine is another consequent example of this cultural fusion. It integrates Chinese, Malay, and Indonesian ingredients and cooking techniques, creating unique dishes found nowhere else in other communities in Asia. Clothing is also a key point in Peranakan life. It is a blend of crafts and techniques also reflecting its diverse heritage. For instance women wear a typical hand embroidered and printed Sarong Kebayas and Batiks, typical clothing from Malay and Chinese influences. However, most of the wedding dresses from the community are white European style dresses most likely  influenced by the colonial presence in the region. It is also interesting to notice that the men attire is a colonial/European inspired, usually monochrome suit accompanied by a beige helmet resembling the Pith Helmet of the British settlers. This community seams to be a unique society of many different influences that thrived from the differences in its own community. I believe that it is an example and inspiration for  the modern global societies where, in so many cases, people persecute the differences and advocate for a uniform society. Yet the Peranakan people are facing a brutal struggle to maintain their culture alive in the new generation. 

 

 

The Peranakan Cultural Preservation struggle

 

One of the major challenges facing Peranakan culture today is the preservation of its traditions. With modernisation and globalisation, many young Peranakans are adopting more Western lifestyles, neglecting their multi cultural roots. This trend is particularly concerning in large cities like Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, where the pressures of urban life and the pursuit of material success can overshadow the importance of cultural traditions.

Indeed in the article on Chanel New Asia Singapore, the Peranakan writer Lam Shushan tells the story of the  rediscovery of her Grand Mother’s traditions and origins through her old kebayas.  

 

« SINGAPORE - From what I remember of my late grandmother, she was a petite Nyonya woman with a fiery personality -. She was also very vain, and made sure that all her sarong Kebayas, which she wore every day, were tailor-made to fit her perfectly. As fastidious as she was about certain cultural practices, no one from the next generation really carried on the tradition. So a few years ago when I discovered a stack of her old Kebayas, I decided to start wearing them again as an homage to the culture that my grandmother once practiced. » 

 

This quote illustrated clearly the fact that some of the members of the old generation Peranakan society in Singapore have not transmitted their knowledge of the culture to younger generations, and it is nowadays a struggle to keep what is left alive. Indeed, Harold Goldmeier writes in EBSCO 2025, 

 

« Peranakans worry that their passions for traditional foods, arts and crafts, languages, and dialects are not enough to keep their cultures from disappearing ».

 

However a new group of Peranakans are nowadays standing up for their rich cultural heritage and way of life . For instance on social media like the instagram « all things Peranakan,( https://www.instagram.com/all.things.peranakan/ ) broadcasting peranakan culture across the world. 

"Culture must be alive" proclaims performing arts expert Tan Sooi Beng. Seeking to revitalize a Penang Peranakan street culture that featured festive performances forms of Malay and English songs and dances. The art expert has gone viral and called for « a living Peranakan Centre with regular workshop activities for the younger generation, such as storytelling, rhyme chanting, craft making, dancing, and music making. ». 

 

This public call shows the eagerness of a new generation to reconnect with the roots of their community through learning its traditions. On top of this it also shows that strong public figures like Tan Sooi Being are willing to speak and stand up for their heritage. Dr Anne Pakir from the National university of Singapore writes in her paper « Peranakans in Plays: Culture record or Compelling drama ».

 

 

« The strong revival of interest in the Peranakan language, culture and community in Singapore and also in Malaysia in this decade is plainly evident. In 1983, Kuala Lumpur had a Warisan Baba exhibition at the Muzium Negara In October 1988, the National Museum in Singapore organized the Peranakan Heritage Exhibition and Lecture Series. In December of the same year, Penang organized a Peranakan Heritage week, including a seminar on the Heritage of Peranakan Cina (Chinese Peranakan). In December 1989, Malacca hosted the 1989 Baba Convention. The convention had for its theme, "The Future of the Peranakans". The frenzied activities revolving around Peranakan life and language in this decade could perhaps be seen as the frantic last throes of a dying or declining community. Perhaps not. But the Peranakan community seems determined to re-assert its identity in the face of encroaching modernity and loss of traditional culture and within the context of language shift and re-acculturation »

 

I believe that this quote is particularly interesting and reflects the many future possibilities for the Peranakan society. Despite many articles saying otherwise, the Peranakan culture seems endangered but alive with thriving members willing to broadcast and practise Peranakan rich and Muti cultural way of life. However this culture seems still very much to struggle to keep the young generation interested, a situation seen in many different part of world directly linked to industrial globalisation.

 

Bibliography:

Bibliography:

Peranakan wedding in Singapore in western style clothing, 1920-30.

Peranakan couple from Singapore wearing traditionnal attire. The woman in an emroidered Kebaya and the men in colonial suit with the helmet. Beige is also a typical colonial clothing color. 2019. Singapore.

Example of Kebaya embroidery 2020.