A Nyonya Mosaic: Memoirs of a Peranakan Childhood

217 Pages·2013·1.587 MB·English

by  William Gwee Thian Hock

A Nyonya Mosaic
Memoirs of A Peranakan Childhood
William Gwee Thian Hock
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A Nyonya Mosaic
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A Nyonya Mosaic
Memoirs of A Peranakan Childhood
William Gwee Thian Hock
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Design by Adithi Khandadai Shankar
Cover: The author’s mother, Mdm Seow Leong Neo, aged sixteen.
(Artefacts courtesy of Katong Antique House.)
All photographs used in the book are provided by the author.
The photographs illustrating this volume do not show the family described in the
story unless specifi cally indicated.
© 2013 Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Pte Ltd
Published in 2013 by Marshall Cavendish Editions
An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International
1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196
All rights reserved
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International (Asia) Private Limited, 1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196.
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National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Gwee, Thian Hock.
A nyonya mosaic : memoirs of a peranakan childhood / William Gwee Thian
Hock. – Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2013.
p. cm.
ISBN : 978-981-4408-40-0 (pbk.)
1. Seow, Leong Neo, 1912- – Childhood and youth 2. Gwee, Thian Hock – Family.
3. Peranakan (Asian people) – Social life and customs. 4. Peranakan (Asian people)
– Singapore – Biography. – Singapore. I. Title. II. Title: Memoirs of a peranakan
childhood
CT1578.S55
959.57030922 — dc23 OCN824815400
Printed in Singapore by Times Printers Pte Ltd
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To
My mother, Seow Leong Neo
– thanks for your memory
My wife, Rosie Tan Chwee Neo
My sons, Gwee Boon Kheng and Gwee Boon Kim
My daughter-in-law, Caroline Lee Kim Sweet
My grandchildren, Marc Gwee Eng Meng
and Joan Gwee Eng Neo
My god-daughter, Carolyn Lim Swee Lian
and all my friends
– thanks for your inspiration.
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Contents
NOTE TO 2013 EDITION 8
PREFACE 11
1 Family 15
2 Staff and Surroundings 35
3 The Birthday 55
4 The Preparations 73
5 The Big Event 89
6 At Leisure 112
7 The Tradesmen 132
8 The Inevitable 150
9 Growing Up 168
10 New Year Preparations 185
11 A New Beginning 199
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 215
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Note to 2013 Edition
THE FLOURISHING SINGAPORE Baba community was
dealt a heavy blow when the full force of the economic
downturn brought about by the Wall Street crash of 1929
reached Singapore. Babas and Nyonyas of this community had
hardly begun to pick up the pieces following world economic
recovery after the early 1930s when World War 2 struck in
December 1941, which eventually led to Singapore’s fall into
the Japanese army invaders’ hands seventy days later.
During the ensuing 3.5 years of existence under the harsh
Japanese government termed the Japanese Occupation, the
Baba community suffered enormous hardships, which gravely
eroded their once elite status. Much of their colourful way
of life failed to survive this setback. When world peace was
restored in 1945, the postwar Baba community appeared on
the brink of losing their very unique identity.
Unexpectedly, when their culture was at its nadir, interest
in their culture began to revive three decades later leading to a
proliferation of Baba stage productions, pageants, exhibitions,
lectures, media articles, academic papers and books pertaining
to various aspects of the ‘Peranakans’ as the Baba were now
widely identifi ed to the masses. Around this period the 1985
edition of A Nonya Mosaic came into being which proved
immensely popular with the postwar generation of Babas and
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Nyonyas who found the long-searched background of their
roots in this book.
It has been 28 years since and two more generations of
Babas and Nyonyas have come into existence. Due to the still
ongoing interest in all things Peranakan, these new members of
the community are regularly fed with doses of Nyonya recipe
books, Baba cultural entertainments and static displays of their
ancestral cultural artefacts as sources of sustaining their interest
and connection with their glorious past.
Thus, this 2013 edition of A Nyonya Mosaic with the word
‘Nyonya’ conforming to modern spelling is timely. This time
round, it seeks to additionally guide the new Baba generation
to discover and identify meaningful cultural gems in their
foreparents’ way of life recorded in the book, with the hope that
they will eventually tailor a modern identity which will be in
tune with and not an anachronism amidst the changing times
and values of 21st century cosmopolitan Singapore.
William Gwee Thian Hock
2013
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