Letter from Baba Colin Chee, President, The Peranakan Association Singapore
(This is a monthly column to TPAS members and guests)
Dear Babas and Nyonyas,
THE BABA NYONYA LITERARY FESTIVAL
Late last year, my fellow General Committee member, Nyonya Ngiam May Ling, asked if we should do a Literary Festival around Peranakan literature and writers. I brushed her off. I think I was rather rude.
During that time, the General Committee still busy getting organised and preparing for the Convention in Tangerang, Indonesia. We were studying ways to improve our Association’s constitution to bring in junior members and the AGM was scheduled for end-March 2019.
We were preparing to close our financial accounts for 2018, getting ready for our Christmas Malam Jolly in December and planning events for the first quarter of 2019. We were also busy looking for donors to support us.
I had asked May Ling, “Where are we going to get the money for this? Where are we going to hold it, because we have not done this before?” She quietly went away.
One thing about May Ling: she does not give up. Early this year, during one of our GC meetings, she asked again, “Can we?”
We all relented, because, in spite of our reservations, who could deny it was in fact a good idea. I said, “May, you go form your work team, find your writers, find a venue and we will see how we can fund this without losing money on it.”
One of our guiding principles for events is that they must benefit our members in ways that will help them appreciate our unique culture more. Our events should also be affordable and at the very least, break-even so that the Association does not lose money. The festival had to fulfil this litmus test.
The first hint of good news came from Baba Ray Khoo of The Peranakan restaurant. He asked the Association to support his third annual Peranakan Festival. He generously agreed to sponsor the venue for our inaugural Baba Nyonya Literary Festival in July.
Then just over a month ago, May and her team presented the GC with a stellar list of writers and publishers happy to partner us for just such a Festival. You know them all. They are household names.
Writers, Josephine Chia, Kenneth Chan, Stella Kon, Lee Su Kim, Shawn Seow, Christopher Tan, Sylvia Tan, Vivienne Tan, Walter Woon, Robert Yeo, and Ovidia Yu. And local publishers, Ethos Books, Landmark Books, Marshall Cavendish, and Pansing Distribution.
We are grateful to all them for their support. Their response to May’s idea was overwhelmingly positive. It was just waiting to happen.
When we announced the festival across all our communication channels last week on 25 May, our Facebook post garnered over 15,000 views in 3 days and still continues to be shared.
Tickets to two-day Baba Nyonya Literary Festival have been fully booked, with a long waiting list. We are awaiting payment from those who have made bookings and will release tickets that have not been paid up by a certain date.
We had place for only 110 participants, with priority given to Association members. But it is a lesson for us that, next year, we may have to look for larger premises to meet the demand.
COLLABORATIONS
A Peranakan pow-wow: Association members, we have surprises in store for you! Baba Ivan Heng of W!ld Rice, Nyonya Dawn Marie Lee, Editor, The Peranakan magazine, Baba Colin Chee, President, The Peranakan Association Singapore and Nyonya Violet Oon, celebrated culinary queen.
One of the many intangible rewards about volunteering for any association is renewing friendships with people you may have lost touch with, and making new ones.
I can say this about Baba Ivan Heng of W!ld Rice and Nyonya Violet Oon.
My wife Linda and I have known Ivan for many years, even before W!ld Rice sprung on to the Singapore theatre scene as a little grain.
Our family’s theatre-going diet started with Ivan’s totally entertaining year-end pantomimes and then, later, the serious stuff like Emily of Emerald Hill.
As for Violet, I have known her since our university days at the NUS Bukit Timah campus. We became fellow reporters at the SPH newspapers. When she started her restaurants, I became a regular customer.
It was really good catching up with both Ivan and Violet one late morning in March to see how we could all work together.
Association members: All I can reveal at this point is that we have some good surprises in store for you! I encourage you to please to update us with your current email address so that you will not miss out on all the exciting events and activities we have planned. Please be alert to the emails from your Association, like and follow our Facebook page and check our website regularly.
JUNIOR MEMBERSHIP
The GC would like to thank many of our members for supporting the idea of Junior Membership. Many of you have asked us: When do we start recruiting?
We will start recruitment the day after the Registrar of Societies informs us that it has accepted the constitutional amendments that Association members voted on and approved at our last AGM. This will allow us to recruit junior members from seven to 18 years of age.
We have the membership application forms ready. We have already planned a series of events that will introduce the young ones to our culture in interesting ways, when their minds are still receptive to the diverse palette of our culture.
DEDICATED VOLUNTEERS
It is a matter of deep regret for me to announce that Baba Alan Koh has stepped down as First Vice-President of the Association. He has faithfully served the Association for about two decades.
He had offered to leave the GC as First VP when I finally accepted his invitation to stand for the presidency in April last year. I asked him to stay on for one term to help me and our new team to reorganise the Association. He graciously did, even though he needed to travel to and from Johor Bahru where he now lives.
The GC thanks Alan for his invaluable advice and love for the community and Singapore.
The Association will always need selfless and dedicated volunteers to keep our culture alive. The difficult task is to bond everyone into one working body and mustering and inspiring them to follow the same dream.
As we move into 2020, which is just half a year away, when we celebrate our 120th Anniversary, we will be inviting volunteers into new teams.
They will spearhead and organise our 120th Anniversary Peranakan Ball on 18 July 2020 and the 33rd Baba Nyonya Convention to showcase the region’s cultural best from 20 to 22 November 2020.
More on these in next month’s Letter from the President. In the meantime, keep well, be at peace with yourself, and love much.
Blessings,
Colin Chee
Unity. Stability. Growth
It is not going to be business as usual
31 May 2019