About Baba Nyonya The Babas Nyonyas are descendants of the Chinese who intermarried with the local women. The men are known as the Babas and the women are Nyonyas.
Babas is chinese person came from China, Most Peranakan are of Hokkien ancestry, with a few of Teochew or Cantonese descent.Mostly are hokkien,because they stay near by the Fujian(福建省), a coastal province in east China. Nyonya is malay people, but they are not muslim,they eat pork. Some of Nyonyas are actually people who immigrate from Indonesia, Bugis and more. The Babas Nyonyas having a mix culture.The Babas and Nyonyas are said to be very chinese in spirit and tradition but Malay form.They also known as the "Straits-Born" Chinese or "Peranakans".Their race is chinese.
but now, if a malay marry a chinese, their children will not be Baba Nyonya, they are mixed blood, Baba Nyonya Can be described as the world produced a special National. click here (chinese)
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The history of Baba Nyonya In the 15th century, some small city-states of the Malay Peninsula often paid tribute to various kingdoms such as those of China and Siam. Close relations with China were established in the early 15th century during the reign of Parameswara when Admiral Zheng He(Cheng Ho郑 和), a Muslim Chinese, visited Malacca and Java. According to a legend in 1459 CE, the Emperor of China sent a princess,Hang LiPo(汉丽宝公主), to the Sultan of Malacca as a token of appreciation for his tribute. The nobles (500 sons of ministers) and servants who accompanied the princess initially settled in Bukit Cina and eventually grew into a class of Straits-born Chinese known as the Peranakans. click here for english version click here for chinese version
---------------------------- The arguement of Baba Nyonya Some said that,The word Peranakan is also used to describe Indonesian Chinese. In both Malay and Bahasa Indonesia Peranakan means ‘descendants’.click here
But according to the tour guide of the babanyonya museum, said that, they are not consider as a Baba Nyonya.
I found a site, that said the term "Peranakan" may denote other groups of Straits-born people including the Hindu Peranakans who are also called Chitty, the Indian Muslim Peranakans called Jawi Pekan or Jawi Peranakan or Peranakan Kling, and the Eurasian Peranakans, called Kristang.
The word Baba Nyonya is a compound of two words, "Baba" referring to the Straits-born male, and "Nyonya" referring to the Straits-born female. The word Baba itself is said to have originated from Hindustani speakers whereas Nyonya has its origin in Javanese to mean Madam. In both the case with Baba and Nyonya, they were words used to call these Straits Chinese, until eventually it became common vernacular.click here
This statement have not been comfirm yet.
After that, I also found a site that point out, Some historians argued that the inter-marriage was not necessarily the roots of the Baba-Nyonya culture; they claimed that Nyonya is a precisely a word used to describe a Chinese lady who has adopted Malay dressing and cooking while maintaining Chinese culture.click here
According to the tour guide of baba nyonya museum, said that, this statement are not correct, only chinese man who inter-married with the local women can be consider as Baba Nyonya.
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Culture identity 文化认同 Some chinese who were english educated been consider as "baba" by those chinese who were chinese educated, this usage has the meaning of contempt, it means the chinese already forget their culture,ancestors and some of them does not look like chinese. Therefore, there are a word “三代成峇”(Three generations into the Babas), According to the definition of the phrase, but this word have no contempt's meaning, it just means that when chinese reach to third generations, as adapted to local exigencies of the social environment, their culture will be influence by local's culture.
有些受华文教育的华人也称那些从小受英式教育的华人为“峇峇”，这个用法有藐视的意思，表示此华人已经数典 忘祖或者不太像华人了。此外，当地的闽南人亦有 句成语叫作“三代成峇”，根据这句话的定义，所有在马来西亚出生的第三代华人也都成了峇峇，但这句话没有藐视的成份，只是意味到了第三代华人，由于适应当 地的社会环境的原故，其文化难免带有当地色彩。 Generally people who have stronger sense of community has often criticized the Chinese Peranakan have forget their culture and ancestors. However, Malaysian Chinese Association(political party) Founder Tan Cheng Lock in Malacca, itself is native born Chinese Babas, he also think that,"chinese who don't treasure chinese culture, and British people will not admit that he is british, Malay will not admit he is malay, turn out, he will become the non-ancestors people,there are only animals have no ancestors, so the chinese is the brute animal."
Malaysia's chinese in order to avoid the others races question to their loyalty, they has been adopted Gregorian calender.There are some level that show Babas still with the Chinese consciousness.
according to tour guide of the Museum baba nyonya, point out that, Baba Nyonya's consider chinese races, they do argue for it, baba nyonya said that they are bumiputra, but government mention the Babas are from China, that's why they can't be accept as a bumiputra.
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Religion of Baba Nyonya Although some Straits Chinese converted to Islam (the religion of Malays) or Christianity (brought by the British), most Peranakans retain their traditional Chinese beliefs. They primarily practice Buddhism and ancestor worship. Places populated by the Baba Nyonya tend to have many ornate Buddhist temples where active worship still takes place. Peranakans also celebrate traditional Chinese festivals, such as the Chinese New Year and the Dragon Boat Festival. click here
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Costume of Baba Nyonya Instead of changing their religious beliefs, the Peranakans adopted Malay clothing.
The women (Nyonyas) have taken to wearing the baju kebaya (a Malay dress, seen most notably as the uniform of Malaysia Airlines’ female flight attendants). click here
According to another website, is said that, the men adopt the western style of clothing mainly for daily wear. They wear Chinese style tunic for special occasions. The ladies, on the other hand, have a lot of choice in fashion.
One set of attire that is associated with the Nyonyas is the kebaya. This item of clothing originally came from the royal Indonesian court. The intricate embroidery that is embedded in the design makes each of the kebaya unique. The patterns are normally inspired by nature, intertwined vines or tropical birds and butterflies. They are truly beautiful and it is a dying art too since there are not many skilled artisans left to sew the kebaya the old way. click here
For costume, 19th century, Babas like gown,cloth shoes, montera,having a pigtail, it is the chinese style dressing, but beside that, some babas will wear suit and tie, with a foreigner style. Nyonyas is wearing malay dress.But the Nyonya's malay dress is not same as the traditional malay dress.The top of traditional malay dress, the front and back are same length, usually without decoration, color mostly is more darker, like black,red, and any other darker color.The top for Nyonyas's malay dress the front and back are different length,front are longer, front are with more embroidery patterns,color are mostly light and elegant.The skirt are with the Malay (sarong) dressed in sarong and similar to the Chinese costume.
在服装上，１９世纪峇峇的服饰，男人喜欢长袍披身，穿布鞋，戴布帽，留辫子，完全是中国式的打扮，当然也有穿西装系领带，一身光鲜的 洋人装扮。女子“娘 惹”则穿马来服。马来亚“娘惹”的马来服与传统马来服又略有不同。传统的马来女上衣，前后对襟一样长，平常无装饰，颜色较深，多黑色、红色或其他深色。 “娘惹”装前长后短，前多绣花纹，颜色多浅、淡、雅。下服则用马来裙（纱笼）装束，纱笼与中国古装相似。click here
Between AD 1910 to 1920,Nyonya shirt change,they not only the use of traditional Chinese Hand Embroidery and Openwork Law.And imported from the West Indies the lace decorated at the gown of Dutch clothing is called Kebaya.The cutting full display waist,it show that girl even more charming, young, at the same time show the girl even more gentle and kind, but not that publicize.After 1930, some christians nyonya started to dressing like western.
Nyonyas costume can not do without jewelry.
Stitch slippers with beads, with a deep sense of Rococo art style,overelaborated, affectation, but showing the undeniable noble, it is just folk wearing, but not feeling the simplicity of folk art.
公元1910至1920年间，娘 惹衫发生变化，不仅运用中国传统的手绣和镂 空法，而且从西 印度群岛引来荷兰衣服的蕾丝花边缀在长衫上叫“可峇雅”，剪裁充分显示腰身，再配上峇迪沙笼裙，使姑娘少妇愈加娇媚、婀娜，同时显得娴淑，丝毫也 不张扬。从1930年以后，一些信仰基督教的娘惹就开始改穿西式服装了。娘惹的身上离不开首饰，项链上镶着珠宝，耳坠垂在耳边，胸前的扣牌用金银围裹珍珠 宝石，做出精致得不能再精致的花纹。 用珠子缝 缀的拖鞋，有浓浓的罗可可艺术风格。繁缛、矫饰，但又显示着不可否认的高贵与骄逸，它是民间穿用的，但感觉不出民间艺术的质朴和纯真。click here
according to tour guide of musuem Babanyonya,girl costume are changing in this way long dress + sarong → Loose Kebaya → embroided kebaya
sarung + kebaya is the most popular
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Shoes for BabaNyonya There are 2 kind of shoes that Nyonyas are wearing. Terompah and kasut manik manik. Terompah is the earliest shoes for Baba Nyonyas. They usually wear at home only.Kasut manik manik is more advanced, previously had to velvet woven This need a very good embroidery skill, but the result is very nice.As the emphasis on clothing and shoes match, every nyonyas has several pairs of different Nyonya beads shoes, including patterns, color to match the color of KEBAYA or the SARUNG.
kasut manik manik
Terompah
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Language They speak the Malay patois which is Malay mixed with Chinese phrases. In Malacca, they speak Baba Malay, which is the Malay language with Hokkien loan words.click here
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Wedding of Baba Nyonya
The wedding ceremony of the Peranakan is mostly Chinese, and is one of the most fascinating wedding ceremonies in Malaysia.
According to tour guide of Babanyonya said that,the wedding ceremony can last for 12 days.Girls who 20 years old still haven't marry is consider old bride, and they will not be marry.Mostly Baba Nyonyas got a lot of kids, this is because they marry early.
The 19th and 20th centuries, although there is no express provision, but nyonya don't marry to malay's man, they marry with Babas only.They think that perfect match is important.This intermarriage not only to each other more closely related by marriage,Can also be a link between economic cooperation.Some nyonya also willing to marry with chinese who came from china, to maintain pure chinese descent.click here
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Baba Nyonya's finanacial
Early Babas，because of they are hard-working and also good financial management,most of them are very rich.Nyonya's clothing is so noble,one very important reason depends on the Nyonya her family and her husband's economic conditions.click here
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Food
The most notable aspect of Baba Nyonya culture is their rich food heritage, which is a blend of Chinese and Malay cuisine. It is called Nyonya cuisine (after the women who make it), and making this food is very labor-intensive. Typical spices used include chili peppers, lemongrass, and turmeric. Some notable Nyonya dishes are asam laska (hot and sour fish and noodle soup), popiah (spicy prawn and veggie spring rolls), and cendol (a shaved-ice dessert with beans, jelly noodles, and coconut milk). To truly experience Baba Nyonya culture, one must taste their unique cooking.click here
They are using fingers to having their meal.different color of the wares have different meaning.
blue and white is using when someone pass away.
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Taboos or Pantang-Larang for Baba Nyonya
Having grown up with a Nyonya or Peranakan grandmother, there’s a lot of taboos and pantang-larang that you have to follow since young. The pantang-larang list ranges from the daily life activities up to special occasions. Let me share with you some of the taboos or peranakan marriage pantang-larang which I still remember:
Pregnant women are prohibited to touch the items (gift, stuffs, wedding beds etc) or join in the preparations for the marriage ceremony. They are also strongly prohibited from entering the wedding chamber!
If you have just given birth and have not celebrated the baby’s full moon, the mother and baby are not allowed to join in the marriage celebration or should I say they are not allowed to step in the front door of the groom and bride to be’s house! Even the family members staying in the same house are not welcomed as they are also deemed as “not cleansed“ yet until the baby’s “Full Moon“ celebration.
Family members who are still mourning the passing away of their family member are also not allowed to join the Peranakan Marriage ceremony as it was deemed very inauspicious to the marriage couple.
It is a major offences to the peranakan family during the olden days if the guests are wearing a whole black attire or white attire while joining the marriage ceremony as these attire are strictly mend for “sorrow occasion“ or funeral attire.
--------------------- Building and Furniture for Baba Nyonya
Their building and furniture of Baba nyonya are with few diferent country style. But the overall mood are chinese style, their room mostly are with yellow-ish and orange's color. The furniture's design are chinese style but influence by other country style also, example, like victoria,england,malay.
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Others These are the sketches i sketch for the baba nyonya research, with some of the notes took down when the tour guide giving the information, and some answer for the question i asked that day, some notes already in take at the top, here is the others that i didn't cover, but it is a good information.
so far, this is my overall information of Baba Nyonya.It spends me a lot of time to arrange the information, and research.I hope my effort will help u guys, more understand their culture.Have a nice day.
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Baba Nyonya 峇峇娘惹
Terompah 
