Nyonya Cynthia Wee-Hoefer walks down memory lane to the Baba Convention of 2002. 

The Baba Convention 2002 was the first to be held at the newly-opened Asian Civilisation Museum at Empress Place thanks to Kenson Kwok, then Director of the ACM. I am pleased to share two videos of this Convention in the links below. They were kindly digitised by Galen Yeo from DVDs supplied by Thomas Tan. The Convention marked the first time The Peranakan Association Singapore welcomed a big delegation from the Baba community of Phuket Town.

Among the items for the programme that we initiated were the publishing of three Peranakan plays that have since been read out loud by the Chakap Baba-Nyonya play-reading group. The plays are “Pileh Menantu” and “Laki Tua Bini Muda” by Felix Chia, and “Bibiks Behind Bars” by Richard Tan.

The mission, or duty, of the group is to document and digitise the old scripts for preservation and archiving. The group is seeking volunteers to transcribe more plays into written scripts. One of the segments seen in the videos is the salute to the individuals who contributed to the promotion of the culture. You may recognise Kenny Chan, Felix Chia, Datuk Khoo Keat Siew, Lee Kip Lee and others onscreen. Sadly, many have left us.

It is with some urgency that our Peranakan members should single out dedicated people and recognise their contribution to our culture in a “hall of fame.” As group leader, I am urging members and friends to cherish and save family photos, portraits, reels, recordings, recipes, wedding invites, birth certificates, death announcements, and other important documents in a dossier to share with family members or to deposit with the archive or library.

One day, these will become historic reminders of our Peranakan identity.

(left) A screengrab from the videos showing attendees of the 2002 Baba Convention in Singapore.

Watching the videos and the question of Peranakan identity, material culture and ongoing developments, we keep repeating that our mother tongue is doomed, our identity diluted and such concerns, but we take consolation that we are actively gathering and extolling our heritage. We are resilient Peranakans who will never go away. Betul Kah?

Watch the videos from the Baba Convention 2002 at these links here and here!
DVDs supplied by Thomas Tan. Digitised by Galen Yeo.
Photo credit for play-reading session: courtesy Chakap Baba-Nyonya group members.