Letter from Baba Colin Chee, President, The Peranakan Association Singapore
(This is a monthly column to TPAS members and guests)
Dear Babas and Nyonyas,
Forming Partnerships
Two weekends ago, The Peranakan Association Singapore, together with NUS Museum, successfully soft-launched a series of collaborative cultural and heritage events.
The first event was held at NUS Baba House on Neil Road. This was a potong kertair merah (red-paper cutting) workshop – a fast-fading home craft among Peranakan families – which enthused visitors to Baba House as well as TPAS members who signed up.
The craft was expertly demonstrated by my dear wife, Nyonya Linda Chee, in her early sixties, and teenage Nyonya sisters Samantha and Simone Tan. They are separated by a multiple of years.
Not only this. Linda had learnt her craft from her late father. He would paper-cut intricate designs to be pasted on gifts of Chinese New Year cookies and kueh kueh which he had ordered from Melaka. The sisters, on the other hand, learnt the craft by browsing the internet! They shared a deep appreciation of the craft and a passion for its continuance.
More of such collaborative events are in the pipeline with NUS Museum for 2019.
Slated for February, to coincide with the Lunar New Year, is a talk on the God of Wealth, to be rounded off by a very Singaporean Lo Hei. During Qing Ming in April will be a presentation and re-enactment of ancestral worship in a Peranakan home. September will have a very special demonstration and workshop on floral arrangement in a Peranakan home by a renowned Ikebana sensei who is a Baba.
We are also planning events with other partners. These include The Peranakan Museum, Asian Civilisations Museum and Heritage Conservation Centre; People’s Association; Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre; Gunong Sayang Association; Peranakan Indian Association Singapore; and Singapore Tourism Board. We plan to get in touch with other stakeholders such as the Eurasian Association, National Library Board and quite a few other organisations as well as tertiary institutions and schools.
The basis of our thinking is simple. Firstly, no single entity has a monopoly on any culture, least so when our hybrid Peranakan folk culture draws from so many other cultures.
Secondly, we should always be leveraging on and working with other like-minded organisations – not only to share resources but also to develop a deeper understanding of the cultural and traditional diversity that bind us all in our Singapore society.
Finally, if our culture is to survive and even flourish after us, we must keep it alive among and relevant to our young!
Constitutional Review
It is for this reason that the General Committee agreed on 8 January 2019 to table a constitutional amendment at our scheduled Annual General Meeting on 31 March. This amendment will enable TPAS to create a new category of Junior Membership for children aged 6 years to under 18 years, through a parent, sibling, grandparent or guardian who is already a TPAS member.
We plan to organise separate and special events for this important category of members. We believe culture and traditions are best imbibed by the young. We are aware that this effort can be a double-edged sword. We will either win them over or lose them. But if we can make the experience a fun one, we will win the day.
Other constitutional amendments agreed to by the GC are essentially to clarify the process of nomination and election of candidates. We will share these changes with you in the AGM package that we plan to mail out to you at the end of February.
The AGM will be held on 31 March 2019 at Joo Chiat Community Club Auditorium, as The Peranakan Museum will be closed for renovation from end-March till mid- 2021.
Singapore Bicentennial
We have been working with the Bicentennial team from the Prime Minister’s Office to celebrate various aspects of our Peranakan heritage this year. One of them is our partnership with the Peranakan Indian Association Singapore in early June. Please look out for our announcements on Facebook, our website and email.
The Peranakan magazine – Silver Anniversary Issue
Within February you will have in your hands a bumper 72-page magazine to celebrate its Silver Anniversary in 2019. I will not say more in order to keep it a pleasant surprise for you. We hope you will enjoy reading it.
I would like to thank especially our Magazine Editorial Team, now capably led by editor Nyonya Dawn Marie Lee, for still diligently carrying the torch and upholding its legacy as a recorder and documenter of our culture and community happenings. More important, it stands for all that TPAS is, as the beacon of our Peranakan identity.
I cannot thank enough the previous editors – Baba Lee Kip Lee, Baba Peter Lee and Nyonya Linda Chee – and contributors who have made The Peranakan magazine what it is today. From four pages of cyclostyled paper to an award-winning, much-loved magazine in lavish colour, made possible largely by volunteers.
I must also reserve a special thanks to our loyal advertisers who continue to stick with us through thick and thin – Foundation Jewellers, George Town Heritage Hotels, Guan Antiques, Timeless Treasure, Aster by Kyra, Rumah Kim Choo, Katong Antique House, and Jan Tan & Chan. They are still with us, even now, when social media becomes the preferred, even if perplexing, medium for advertisers.
At this juncture, I would also like to thank Nyonya Ngiam May Ling for heroically working to bring in new advertisers and staunch the leaks in advertising revenues. May Ling has stepped down as the magazine’s Advertising Manager. We are now looking for another brave new volunteer to fill this role.
A White Knight
As I have mentioned before, advertising revenues are still grossly inadequate to fund the cost of publishing the magazine.
However, we are deeply grateful to a donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, for fully funding the magazine this year. We are hopeful this support will continue when the magazine celebrates, with another bumper issue, the Association’s 120th Anniversary in 2020, and in the years to come.
The significance of this funding is that it has, in one fell swoop, almost plugged the persistent annual deficit that your Association has had to struggle with – by drawing down on its reserves over the past several years.
More of this in next month’s letter.
New GC Member
I would also like you to join us in welcoming a new member to our General Committee. He is none other than Baba Christopher Tan, a psychology graduate turned award-winning writer, cooking instructor and consultant, cookbook author, cuisine researcher and photographer.
Happy Chinese New Year! Selamat Taon Baru!
On behalf of your 2018-2020 General Committee, I wish for each of you and your loved ones, in this Lunar New Year, rich blessings of good health, happiness, kindness, and loving relationships. For these are the true markers of personal success and wealth.
Sincerely,
Colin Chee
Unity. Stability. Growth
It is not going to be business as usual
31 January 2019