The Peranakan Association Singapore
The Peranakan Website serves to promote, preserve and sustain Peranakan culture
Babi Masak Garam Asam Timun (pork and cucumber in garam asam sauce) is a comfort dish that I grew up eating often at home. We had an aunt who ran a vegetable business in the 1950s who frequently gave us loads of cucumber, which made my mother concoct various ways of serving it. Mother used to cook with fatty samchan (belly pork), but I prefer the leaner cut of ribs. I love the spicy, … [Read more...]
The late former President of Singapore, Wee Kim Wee, was a dear personal friend with whom I had for many years been in constant contact with. I first met him through a mutual friend, my classmate Khoo Teng Soon, who was then the managing editor of The Straits Times. Kim Wee was his colleague. However we only got to know each other better when I became a committee member of … [Read more...]
It was an occasion theatre lovers would die for. The Peranakan magazine scored a coup by bringing together in a single frame, five luminaries of contemporary Singapore theatre who, ahem, so happen to be Peranakans. The seed of this historic moment for the magazine was the flurry of theatre performances at the start of the year and the many more shows coming up. It sparked an idea that … [Read more...]
The third Tan Tock Seng family reunion began with a Peranakan high tea at the Golden Bell Villa in Singapore on 26 July. The stately and grand mansion located at 10 Pender Road on Mount Faber was built in 1910 by Tan Boo Liat, a great-grandson of Tan Tock Seng. He named the mansion “Golden Bell” in memory of his father, Tan Kim Ching, the eldest son of Tan Tock Seng. Kim hing in Hokkien … [Read more...]
An Email Interview with Desmond Sim, Jun 11, 2011 How would you sum up the first 40 years of your life? ( before the shift) What are the main influencers that shaped your views today? I think the first 40 years of my life was spent trying out things - to find out if I was, indeed, good at anything. You never know. Most of us have a secret suspicion inside that we might actually be … [Read more...]
Cynthia Wee-Hoefer reminisces on her personal encounters with an artistic genius I met the late Mr Gwee Peng Kwee during the twilight of his life. He was 81 years old, trapped with weakened limbs and dimming eyesight but his mind was brilliant with memories of his youth, his passion for music and dance, and most of all, his superlative gift of composing dondang sayang verses. It started with … [Read more...]
The chronology of the Peranakan Association Presidents is still not certain but references from the Straits Times and other publications have to date endorsed this provisional list- by Baba Peter Lee 1900-1904 Tan Jiak Kim 1905-1907 Lim Boon Keng 1908-1912 (For further research) 1913-1916 Koh San Hin 1917 Lee Choon Guan 1918-1919 (For further research) 1920 Lim Boon … [Read more...]
