THE PERANAKANThe Peranakan Museum Announces Singapore’s First Named Curatorial Position
by the Tun Tan Cheng Lock Trust
The Peranakan Museum today announced a new named curatorial position for Peranakan art made possible by a generous $1.4 million gift from the Tun Tan Cheng Lock Trust. The inaugural Tun Tan Cheng Lock Curator of Peranakan Art will be Naomi Wang, Senior Curator (Southeast Asia) at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) and Peranakan Museum, who has been part of the museum’s curatorial team since 2015.Â
The first of its kind in Singapore, the Trust’s gift will enable the Peranakan Museum to expand its team through the appointment of an additional curator dedicated to Peranakan art. This strengthens the museum’s capacity to deepen research into Peranakan material culture, develop new exhibitions, and build sustained engagement with the public and key stakeholders.
The Tun Tan Cheng Lock Trust is administered by HSBC Trustee (Singapore) Limited. It was set up by Agnes Tan Kim Lwi (1920–2021) in memory of her father Tun Tan Cheng Lock (1883–1960), a Peranakan business and community leader who championed equality for all races in Malaya and the movement towards an independent Malaysia, which Singapore was then part of. Peter Lee, scholar and Founding Curator of NUS Baba House and the grandnephew of the late Tun Tan, serves as adviser to the Trust and makes recommendations to the Trustee on donation matters.
“This gift allows the museum to look beyond the confines of the Peranakan community in Singapore to far-reaching networks across Southeast Asia. Deeper investigations into the idea of cross-cultural art and shared heritage are central to Singapore’s national identity,” said Peter Lee, adviser to the Tun Tan Cheng Lock Trust.
“We are proud to support the establishment of the Tun Tan Cheng Lock Trust Curatorship of Peranakan Art, a meaningful contribution to advancing the understanding of Peranakan heritage and preserving it for future generations. As trustee, we are committed to carrying forward the legacy of Tun Tan Cheng Lock and the Trust’s mission by supporting initiatives that preserve heritage, advance education, and make a lasting contribution to society,” said Sharnika Silva, Head of Trust and Fiduciary Services, Southeast Asia, HSBC Trustee (Singapore) Limited.
“I am deeply grateful to the Tun Tan Cheng Lock Trust for this landmark gift. This is a significant milestone that reaffirms the museum’s mission to advance the understanding of Peranakan art and culture through the research and presentation of the community’s material culture,” said Clement Onn, Director of ACM and the Peranakan Museum.
The Peranakan Museum explores the art and culture of Peranakan communities in Southeast Asia and holds one of the most comprehensive public collections of Peranakan objects. Its collection comprises 12,000 works, including ceramics, furniture, jewellery, painting, photography, and textiles, many with rich histories of design, production, and ownership that reflect the diversity of Peranakan communities in Southeast Asia.
Later this year, the Peranakan Museum will present the exhibition “Reshaping the Past: New Acquisitions at the Peranakan Museum” (working title). Objects range from conspicuous luxuries to everyday items, revealing new dimensions of Peranakan material culture. Wang is a two-time recipient of the National Heritage Board Scholarship for undergraduate and postgraduate studies. She developed the jewellery galleries at ACM and Peranakan Museum and co-curated Port Cities: Multicultural Emporiums in Asia (2016), Raffles in Southeast Asia: Revisiting the Scholar and Statesman (2019), and Batik Nyonyas: Three Generations of Art and Entrepreneurship (2024).
