My Asian Heritage

Last week, after church, mom got me to snap an old pic of Grandma Susan. You see, there's an old Peranakan Shop/ mini Museum on East Coast road , just before Chapel Road where Holy Family Church is. The owner, Peter, who is this really nice (and I am assuming very rich too... seeing that collecting bits of Peranakan history and culture and having your own mini museum is not something the average Joe can afford) man, pointed out to mom that he had just acquired a very old photo of her mother (My grandma Susan Chan).

Grandma Susan (Girl on Far left)

Stepping into that mini museum of Peranakan Heritage inspired to do a post on my own heritage.



PERANAKAN? What's that?

My Asian heritage. The Peranakans (meaning Descendants) were the Straits Chinese, they were the very early Chinese immigrants to the Straits of Malaya. My Chinese ancestors were of Hokien origins and they settled in the Portuguese Settlement in Malacca, Malaysia.

The Peranakans had to adopt Malay customs and language in order to assimilate into the local cummunities. This is why they eventually lost the hokkien dialect and now I cannot understand a word of chinese. (There's always someone to blame other than myself for the lost of heritage and culture isn't there...)

My Grandma Susan is Peranakan, born and raised in Malacca. But as a young woman, she ran off and came to Singapore. I remember her stories as a child of being restricted and brought up strictly because she was a girl, and did not have equal rights.

But I am not Peranakan, I am Eurasian.


EURASIAN? Now.. What's That??

A mix of European and Asian ancestory. Boy did I hate the term Eurasian when I was a kid in Primary school! Such a minority, an oddity and in the clique-filled-surroundings of a government primary school... I found it hard to find a place. Malay girls ate together during recess, Chinese girls picked chinese counterparts to be in their project groups, Inidan girls (also a minority among the chinese and malays) knew who they were and stuck together. But me... I was the only one. (Maybe I would have had an easier time if mom had sent me to Katong Convent instead where all the Eurasian girls went to school... where mom herself went to school...but I think perhaps,I would not be who I am today).

I remember my first horrific day at school when it was time for "mother tongue" class, and all the pupils assembled in lines of chinese, malay and indian. I stood there looking at everyone and for the life of me... did not know where go. Then the teacher looked at me curiously (whe couldn't tell what race I was) so she asked me - "What are you?" and I said "I am Eurasian".

And she looked at me as if I were stupid and did not understand her question, and asked rather impatiently, "Are you Malay , Chinese or Indian?!"

"I am Eurasian" (By this point, I was almost in tears.. very confused and traumatised)

"What is your race? Chinese, Malay or Indian?!"

I think the bitch did not even know what Eurasians were.. fancy her being employed to Educate!

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Anyway, the first Europeans to land in Asia were the Portuguese, followed by the Spanish, British, Dutch, etc. They married asian women and their descendants were Eurasians.

When Malacca was colonized by the Portuguese, the men were encouraged to marry local women as portuguese women were barred from travelling overseas due to supersition as well as practical reasons.

My heritage is a mix of Portuguese (from the Portuguese settlement in Malacca) and
Peranakan. This group of Eurasians are collectively known as the Kristang (Cristão), or Serani (from the word Nasrani, meaning followers of Jesus the Nazarene), or Gragok (because the majority of the Malaccan Portuguese were shrimp fishermen).
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So there you go. Bit of education for ya ;)