Letter from Baba Colin Chee, President, The Peranakan Association Singapore
(This is a monthly letter to TPAS members and guests)
Dear Baba and Nyonyas,
Selamat Taon Tikus! A Very Happy and Healthy Chinese New Year to you and your loved ones!
Photo by Baba Colin Chee. Styled by Baba John Lee. Design by Nyonya Joanne Low.
The Metal Rat is upon us in 2020. The Chinese horoscope points to a strong, prosperous and lucky year for almost all animals in the Chinese zodiac. The Rat being the first in the 12-animal zodiac cycle, 2020 is considered a year of new beginnings and renewals.
A most auspicious year to celebrate our Association’s 120th Anniversary!
Forebears
Our forebear, The Straits Chinese British Association (SCBA), was one of many early Peranakan clubs. It was founded on 17 August 1900 by well-respected community leaders, among them Babas Tan Jiak Kim, Seah Liang Seah, Lim Boon Keng and Song Ong Siang.
Its aim was to be the voice of the Peranakan Chinese community. Shortly after the SCBA was established in Singapore, a branch was set up in Melaka in October 1900, followed by a Penang branch in 1920.
The SCBA was renamed Singapore Chinese Peranakan Association in 1964, and renamed again as The Peranakan Association Singapore (TPAS) in March 1966. We celebrated our 100th anniversary in 2000.
SCBA had a founding membership of 800. Today, TPAS membership is over 2,100.
120th Anniversary Celebrations
We uphold the same aim from 120 years ago to be the voice of our Peranakan Chinese community. We have also been a faithful historian of our heritage and culture.
Adding on, our Association should strive to be a pathfinder to help keep our culture alive, at a time when our community is encountering fierce headwinds of modernising change.
The Peranakan Ball
Towards these goals above, your Association is raising funds through one key event – our gala dinner called The Peranakan Ball. Part of the funds raised this year will help to meet the costs of our Baba Nyonya Convention coming up in November, as well as other events in the years to come. The rest of the funds will go towards building up our reserves for the future.
The Peranakan Ball 2020 will be held on Saturday, 18 July 2020, at the Island Ballroom, Shangri-La Hotel. This being our 120th year, the gala promises to be a spectacular evening, thanks to the efforts of our Ball Organising Committee Chairperson, Nyonya Peggy Genevieve Jeffs and her energetic team.
Since we began marketing the Ball last October, the response from members, friends and supporters has been unexpectedly overwhelming. We are grateful for your enthusiasm and strong support.
Fifty tables have been committed to. Our $2,000 donation tables are already fully booked with a waiting list. If you would like to join us at this gala, please book the $3,000 and $5,000 donation tables for a good cause. If you have reserved your table or seat, please make payment as soon as possible to confirm your place, otherwise we will have to release it to others who are waiting in line.
33rd Baba Nyonya Convention
The other key event of 2020 is the 33rd Baba Nyonya Convention, themed Keeping Our Culture Alive, from Friday to Sunday, 20-22 November. We expect to host some 500 delegates from 14 Peranakan associations based in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.
The Convention’s primary events are the Symposium, the Peranakan Arts Festival twinned with the Babazaar, and social activities including selected tours.
We have already locked in accommodation for our foreign delegates, the coach transfers from point to point, and the meals including the Convention’s gala dinner have been confirmed.
The Convention venue has been generously sponsored by the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre. There, we will hold the Symposium, jointly organised with The Peranakan Museum, and Babazaar – a two-and-a-half day bazaar of at least 30 stalls showcasing the best of Peranakan craft from Southeast Asia. Concurrently, in the same venue, the Peranakan Arts Festival will be a banner event featuring workshops and demos of Peranakan craft and food, and readings of Peranakan literature. Not forgetting the staged public entertainment.
The Symposium has already been tied up with an exciting line-up of well-known scholars and acknowledged cultural practitioners who have graciously agreed to participate. They will help us identify our community’s issues, along with you, to frame actionable initiatives to take us forward.
The keynote address is titled “Change & The Cultural Resilience of Societies and Communities”. This will be followed by three forum discussions. The first will deal with “Peranakan Culture & Community: Challenges, Pitfalls & Opportunities”. The second forum is titled, “Fading Heritage?: Language, Literature and Rituals”. The third is “Living Traditions: Style, Food and Wayang”. I will disclose details about the speakers and forum panellists in my next President’s Letter in February.
The Matriarchs – A Play
I am especially excited and privileged to reveal a once-in-a-lifetime theatre production specially brought to you by our Association. This is a one-hour play called The Matriarchs that is being written, produced, directed and acted by Peranakans. It will give symbolic meaning to our Convention’s theme “Keeping Our Culture Alive” as it launches the Symposium.
For the very first time – and only one time – it will bring on the same stage two of our greatest living Peranakan actors: Our iconic Baba Ivan Heng, playing Emily of Emerald Hill, and our legendary Baba GT Lye, as Emily’s mother-in-law.
The Matriarchs will juxtapose modern method acting, as exemplified by English-speaking Baba Ivan, against the traditional intuitive acting style of Baba GT speaking in vernacular Baba Malay. The play is inspired by Emily of Emerald Hill, and has been given the very gracious blessings of the writer herself, Nyonya Stella Kon. It will be directed by Baba Alvin Tan of The Necessary Stage. Both Babas Ivan and Alvin are Singapore’s Cultural Medallion recepients.
Under the helm of the Association’s quietly hard-working Head of Events, Nyonya Gwen Ong, we are planning to market the Convention in March this year. So please look out for our announcement. We aim to make the ticket cost to the Convention as affordable as we possibly can in a very high cost environment. As usual, priority will be given to members of our various Peranakan associations.
Nyonya Gwen has already identified her key coordinators and we have begun to look for volunteers from among our members to help in the Convention.
Until then, the members of the General Committee and I wish you Selamat Taon Baru, peace, joy and the best of health! And a huge Kamsiah for your continuing support.
Blessings,
Colin Chee
Unity. Stability. Growth.
It is not going to be business as usual.
24 January 2020