This section is the dining area. During festive time or a celebration, the table will be filled with lots of peranakan food. The dinnerware used are very beautiful and precious.
I like the designs on the dinnerware.
Oh did I mention that I love peranakan food - yum yum
Part of our visit involve this little activity where we go round the museum collecting motifs from the stamping stations and stamp onto the card. The motifs are in the shapes of dragons, phoenix, qilin,butterflies,flowers,insects,ang ku kueh or red tortoise shaped cake, etc
The beliefs of these motifs are:
Dragons make sure only good things can happen. Whenever phoenix appears, good news will follow. Wedding beds were decorated with butterflies to make sure the new couple had many children. The qilin brings peace and happiness. Peranakan girls loved the peony and wished to bloom like the king of flowers. Bowls painted with insects will overflow with food just as insects fill the garden in good weather. Ang ku Kueh or the red tortoise shaped cake promises a long life of good fortune. Peranakan Ladies would fasten their blouses with a set of 3 brooches called kerosong.
A short video showing my little niece getting help from her mother to stamp the motifs on her card. I am the one videoing them. The following artefacts are wedding gifts from the bride's family to the bride as part of her wedding dowry. Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.
This section of the museum showcase the wedding custom of the Peranakans. The set of jewellery were wore by the ladies, belts were used to fasten the sarong (a kind of long skirt), the brooches were used to fasten the blouses. Zoom on the gold belt - very beautiful designs on it. The gift of the pig's leg by the bridegroom's family symbolise that the bride was a virgin. For chinese weddings, the whole roast pig will be used. If the bride is not a virgin , they would cut off the ears of the pigs .
A tray of gifts with jewellery and dowry money in the red packet will be given to the bride's family. Normally they will discuss what to give before the actual wedding and negotiations of the amount of dowry money will be discussed first.
Gifts of a pair of candles, liquor and some oranges will be given to the bride's family too for offering to the God.
Gifts of cloth given to the bride, nonyas were expected to be very good in sewing during the olden days.
Gifts will be returned to the bride's family and bead slippers normally sewn by the bride herself.
After receiving from the bridegroom's family the liquor, fruits and candles, the bride's family will return new sets of about the same gifts.
The bride's family will return a portion of the pig's leg to the bridegroom's family.
The bride's family will accept the gifts of jewellery from the bridegroom's family and return some gifts to the bridegroom's family.
There are three levels in the museum. Jewellery belonging to a peranakan lady on loan to the museum. Wedding headdress and jewellery wore by the bride. Wedding baskets and trays used during a wedding. Glided Pagoda Trays - these pagoda trays are used to transport jewellery during a wedding. It is not common cause they normally used by wealthy families. Bakul Siah are wedding baskets used mainly by the wealthy family to deliver wedding gifts from the bridegroom to the bride. Gifts can be silk, beadwork, jewellery and fruits. My mom had one of this basket but is of cheaper quality. It is still in my brother's home and is very old.
Admission Charges to the museum is $6 for adults and it is free for full time students and senior citizen above 60 only for Singapore Citizen. 50% discount for foreigners aged 60 and above. There's a promotion going on now for men, free admission for men and 50% discount for accompanying female. Promotion ends 3rd July 2011. The promotion is to encourage more men to visit the museum. The above photo shows a woman with her 3 kids, her kids visit the museum free of charge as they are students and she only pay one ticket for herself. Been a long time since I contribute to Pink Saturday cause I dont have much pink photos. My contribution for this pink saturday must be this huge pink pot decoration in the middle of the museum. More photos coming up about the culture and collections of the Peranakan. For more pinky participants, please visit Beverly of How Sweet The Sound.
After all the walking from the Bras Basah MRT Station to the National Museum of Singapore and passing by The SubStation and we finally arrived at The Peranakan Museum about 10 to 15 minutes depending on how fast you walked. I was slower cause I stop to take photos along the way. This reminds me that I forgot to post photos of the Bras Basah MRT Station...lol. The museum showcase the culture and collections of the Peranakans.
Peranakan Chinese and Baba-Nyonya are terms used for the descendants of late 15th and 16th-century Chinese immigrants to the Nusantara region during the Colonial era. Members of this community in Melaka address themselves as "Nyonya Baba" instead of "Baba-Nyonya". Nyonya is the term for the ladies and Baba for the gentlemen. You can find out more about their culture and history from Wikipedia. A VISIT TO THE MUSEUM: TAKING THE PAST FORWARD (2000) by Chern Lian Shan.
The sculpture is that of an old man holding a young girl and there is a third figure, a woman installed on the second floor balcony of the building. The girl is pointing to the woman. Can you spot the woman in the below photo (circled in red). Sorry, forgot to zoom on the woman sculpture.
The family represents a three generation family. From 26 May till 3 July 2011, there's a promotion which gives free admission to the museum for all men aged between 1 to 100 years old. Accompanying women will also enjoy a 50% discount on the usual museum admission of $6. You can read more from the official website
More photos on the peranakan museum coming in later post. Very interesting museum.
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Continuing walking towards Peranakan Museum, I passed by The Substation which is just next door to Peranakan Museum. The Substation is a home for the Arts. I did not go in cause I was with my little niece who is so excited about going to Peranakan Museum. Saw these rows of paper crane hanging outside The Substation. Side view of the building which houses some restaurants beside the substation.
I was on my way to the Peranakan Museum when I passed by the Singapore National Museum. Saw these scultpures that were sitting infront of the museum. The sculptures were the works of Taiwanese artist Ju Ming. It was done in 1986. You can read or view more of his works in his official website These displays infront of the museum looked like trumpets. The Domescape was by Butterpaper Designs, BusyBody and Lin Zihao (Singapore). I guess it worked like a telescope to view the museum.
It was part of the display for the June School holidays. You can read more about it in here. The museum was undergoing some painting works when I was there. You can view more about the Singapore National Museum in my earlier posts. Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.
