History of Peranakan

The word “Peranakans” meaning “descendents” is colloquially used to refer to the descendents of the early Chinese community that settled in the Malay Archipelago around the 17th Century. Also known as “Babas” (the males) or “nonyas” (the females), they are typically of mixed parentage (between the Chinese men and native women), as Chinese women were by law not allowed to leave their native country until the middle of the 19th Century, many of these early traders married non-Muslims natives of the Malay archipelago. 

These communities lived and engaged in trade within the Straits settlements of Singapore, Malacca, Penang and even Dutch-controlled Java resulting in another name being commonly used to describe them – the “Straits Chinese”. Many of these “Babas” were involved in opium, sireh, nutmeg and liquor farming, pepper and gambier cultivation, tin mining, commodity trading and property. They also worked as compradores (Chinese middlemen) for big Western companies and banks. 

The Peranakan culture has evolved over the years into a unique blend of customs and traditions with traces of Portuguese, Dutch, British, Malay, Indonesian and Chinese influences. This includes their own special language – mixture between “Bahasa Melayu” (the native language of the indigenous people) and various Chinese dialects.