Nyonya Mosaic , livre ebook

MarshallCavendishM - William Gwee

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103 pages

English

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Set in Singapore in the 1910s, A Nyonya Mosaic is the story of a young girl growing up in a slowly changing world. William Gwee Thian Hock relates the childhood impressions of his Nyonya mother through her own eyes - the scenes of happiness, birthdays and weddings; and the inevitable disease and death; the childish passions and fears woven through the mosaic of a strict and sometimes unrelenting culture; as intricate and as colourful in its every detail. Much in the foreground is the family, her matriarchal grandmother, her dogmatic father and her siblings, all with their own stories, but always bonded by their love, their beliefs and superstitions. Illustrated with photographs from the family archive, A Nyonya Mosaic is not merely a chronicle of a passing culture; these are the precious memories of one who loves it. Truly a touching narrative. *This is a reissue of a book first published in 1985 as A Nonya Mosaic.

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Lettres et linguistique

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Publié par	MarshallCavendishM
Date de parution	01 mars 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9789814435529
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

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A Nyonya Mosaic

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 specifically 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
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Requests for permission should be addressed to the Publisher, Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited, 1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196. Tel: (65) 6213 9300, Fax: (65) 6285 4871. E-mail: genref@sg.marshallcavendish.com
The publisher makes no representation or warranties with respect to the contents of this book, and specifically disclaims any implied warranties or merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose, and shall in no events be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
Other Marshall Cavendish Offices: Marshall Cavendish Corporation. 99 White Plains Road, Tarrytown NY 10591-9001, USA Marshall Cavendish International (Thailand) Co Ltd. 253 Asoke, 12th Flr, Sukhumvit 21 Road, Klongtoey Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 10110, Thailand Marshall Cavendish (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Times Subang, Lot 46, Subang Hi-Tech Industrial Park, Batu Tiga, 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
Marshall Cavendish is a trademark of Times Publishing Limited
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.
eISBN : 978 981 4435 52 9
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
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.
Contents
NOTE TO 2013 EDITION
PREFACE
1 Family
2 Staff and Surroundings
3 The Birthday
4 The Preparations
5 The Big Event
6 At Leisure
7 The Tradesmen
8 The Inevitable
9 Growing Up
10 New Year Preparations
11 A New Beginning
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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 identified 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 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

The author at a tender age, with his mother at their Cuppage Road home.
Preface
A NYONYA MOSAIC is my mother s story. It is a collection of reminiscences of her growing-up experiences, spiced with family anecdotes that she has, over the years, shared with myself, her son. These have now been retold here, backed by an intimate knowledge of the Baba cultural heritage. As it is basically a non-fiction, the identities of some of the characters have been disguised as a gesture to avoid any unintended embarrassment.
The story is set about seventy years ago, in the house at Prinsep Street, a colourful cosmopolitan neighbourhood. One savours what life was like then, especially for the Nyonya, behind the doors of a Singapore Baba home.
It is hoped that the majority of the Babas may experience, in the Mosaic the sweetness of nostalgia, and the identification of at least a part of themselves with these memories. I trust that despite the minor variations in Baba lifestyle encountered from family to family, the reader will not find too many moments when these are at odds with his own experience.
The Baba is a unique product of the history of this part of the world. In him flows the blood of the pioneering Chinese migrants mainly from South China who had settled as traders in fifteenth-century Malacca, and many of whom in the early period had taken the maidens of local Malay and Indian Baba (the Chetty Malacca) stock as wives. Their progeny subsequently became known as the Babas, and their resultant culture is a blend of their ancestral Chinese-Malay-Indian origin, the Chinese aspects being predominant. Along with the colonisation of Penang and Singapore by the British, (which with Malacca became known as the Straits Settlements), some of the Babas migrated to these territories.
The language of the Babas, popularly known as Baba Malay, is Chinese in structure, but Malay in lexicon. Because of this blend, those familiar with correct Malay spelling may be disappointed by the distinct Baba spelling of words of Malay origin. The term Baba itself has been used to mean either the singular for the Baba male, or as a collective term inclusive of the Nyonya.
Today, modernisation and changing values in Singapore have exacted a heavy toll on the Babas as a distinct local ethnic group. However, the Babas have had their beautiful moments, which the Mosaic hopes to have captured within its pages, for history and for posterity. The Mosaic is the culmination of such diverse circumstances as a Nyonya mother, who could share so much with her son; a Nyonya wife who has been a pillar of inspiration and who keeps the Baba flag flying high; two young Babas, my sons, who are proud of their heritage; and the various friends and peers who have long urged that it should be committed to paper ; to the following helpful supporters whose different contributions have resulted in making the Mosaic a reality: Messrs Gwee Thian Hoe, Cheo Kim Ban, Huang Tse Yen, Andrew Tan, William Tan, and Peter Wee of the Katong Antique House, Mdms Choo Chye Neo, Choo Huat Neo, Seah Siew Luang, Seow Eng Neo, Josephine Tan, Rahmah bte Abdullah, Mrs Lim Cheng Choon, Rita Balachander and Miss Seow Kim Neo.
To all these kind people and other well wishers, I express my deep and especial thanks, and humbly hope that this effort will do them proud.
Gwee Thian Hock Singapore, 1985
chapter one
Family
I WAS BORN on an August morning in 1912 and was delivered at home by a Malay midwife.
By present-day standards it would be totally unthinkable to have a delivery at home, much less by a midwife whose only claim to a professional qualification was her practical experience. But conditions and beliefs were vastly different then. It was customary in my parents family and in most Baba families to have one s baby delivered at home. Full confidence in the modern ways had not come our way yet. Mother herself would never have wanted it any other way. She had absolute trust in this midwife who had on previous occasions efficiently delivered two of her children before me. In her mid-thirties the midwife was neither too young and inexperienced nor too old, when her eyesight and hands might be suspect for the job. In fact, she was in her prime. It was also desirable to deliver at home as one s elderly folks could be around to boost one s morale and lend a helping hand when the need arose. Thus, mother had the reassuring presence of her mother to grip her hands and wipe the sweat from her brow as she laboured to deliver me, her youngest daughter.
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