Peranakan Museum Singapore

My colleagues and I visited the Peranakan Museum yesterday.

Although some of my friends are peranakan, I never really knew much about the peranakan culture.

This trip was really informative and it was so because we had a very friendly and enthusiastic guide to explain the details to us.

There are three groups of peranakan, the Chitty peranakan, the Jawi peranakan and the chinese peranakan. Chitty peranakan are the Indian hindus who married the local malay ladies at the strait of Melacca. The Jawi perankan are the Indian muslims who married the local malay ladies and the chinese perankan are the union of the China chinese and the local malay.

And because of the cross ethnic marriages, there was assimilation of the different cultures and also the british influence was very strong then. Thus that gave birth to a very interesting and rich cross-culture practices and life styles.

I'm not really a museum person, but the trip was made interesting because the volunteer guide was able to narrate the history and traditions of the peranakan in a very vivid and interesting manner. It is definitely worth a visit, though the place was not very big compared to the one I've visited in Penang.