(This is a monthly letter from Baba Colin Chee to members and friends of the Association.)
Dear Babas and Nyonyas,
A MUSICAL CELEBRATION
On 16 August 2020, we celebrated the Association’s 120th anniversary, our choir, The Peranakan Voices, 20th anniversary, and Singapore’s 55 years of peaceful independence.
We shared our musical, Bibik Behind Bars, Kena Again!, commissioned in 2015 and first performed at The Peranakan Arts Festival, on YouTube and Facebook. It turned out to be a very enjoyable surprise for many of our members, our families and friends.
At the time of writing, the musical registered an unexpectedly high 7,000 views, with another two weeks to go on YouTube and Facebook until 19 September 2020. You can still catch the show at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVZ9CURdXMY&feature=youtu.be
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2634437070152856&extid=OzttBoCKZthoYrKr
One useful observation we can draw from this enthusiastic reception is that there must still be much interest in our hybrid Peranakan culture. – from as far away as Spain, Paris, Germany, Texas, Australia and Malaysia according to our viewer data on Facebook. Our Baba and Nyonya diaspora has certainly spread wide and far.
Not only that, but we also have passionate supporters among our non-Peranakan members and friends as well.
We know because we have received complimentary notes and calls from many of you.
To our overseas viewers, we can only say: “Kamsiah (Thank you) for taking the time to keep in touch with us! Do take care and keep our culture alive too!”
And, to you, our loyal Singapore supporters: “You are the fuel for our torch. Kamsiah manyak manyak!”
A well-deserved thanks also to the Creative Director of GenerAsia Ltd, Baba Richard Tan, who wrote and produced the musical. He too received much positive mention in the feedback we received.
General Committee member Baba Tony Tan generously volunteered his time and effort as a cameraman to film the introduction of the video with Baba Richard Tan, Baba Colin Chee and Nyonya Irene Ooi.
THE CHALLENGE
Our challenge must be to keep this interest in our culture burning if not at least lit.
In our fast-changing world, culture invariably will take a back seat in the contest for our time. For many of us, especially the young, it will be career before culture. It will be family and friends before culture. It will be being fashionable before culture. And so many other peer-group distractions before culture.
It seems to me, sometimes, that many of us do not really begin to appreciate our roots and heritage until we are past our mid-forties.
This is also borne out in the profile of our viewers, of the past two weeks, of Bibik Behind Bars, Kena Again!
Based on the viewing data of the video on our Facebook page alone, 70% were female over 65 years old, 25% were males over 65, and the remaining 5% were viewers aged between 13-64. We do not have viewer data for our YouTube channel.
OUR LEGACY
The above notwithstanding, our legacy must still be to identify, encourage and nurture our community’s young cultural torchbearers.
Also, to identify and nurture new leaders from among our young to represent and advance the community and TPAS.
The culture as our grandparents and parents know it and practised will gradually and inevitably drift away with the assault of modernity.
But, hopefully, we and the generations to come will be able to replace it with something new but faintly nostalgic and equally as unique that we can continue to call our own.
We can perhaps draw a golden strand from our past and weave it into the tapestry of our present, for the future.
In the process, we may just begin to light a growing pride in being Peranakan once again.
YOUR HELP NEEDED – GET US TO 1,000 SUBSCRIBERS
In our efforts to reach out to younger Peranakans and ignite their interest in our heritage, we have plans to share more engaging content related to Peranakan culture on our Association’s YouTube channel. Our channel currently has 774 subscribers.
In order to create Community Posts, we need to have a minimum of 1,000 subscribers. This will allow us to share other content related to Peranakan culture, among other additional functions that will make the channel more vibrant and useful a resource for all things Peranakan.
We appeal to you to please subscribe to our YouTube channel here.
https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePeranakanAssociationSingapore
Please ask your friends and families to do so as well.
In the future, we also hope to create interesting content related to Peranakan culture for release on this channel. Subscribe to receive updates.
Many thanks to those who have already subscribed!
Selamat Sambot Hari Tua Seh Jit to our Association!
Blessings,
Colin Chee
Keeping the Culture Alive
31 July 2020