Years ago , i had watched a singaporean movie which is about baba nyonya. I found that it's very interesting especially the architecture, manik shoes , and cuisine of baba nyonya. and i would like to know more about it . But too bad , i have no chance to pay a visit to melaka, penang and singapore's baba nyonya house before this . Finally ,i've got the chance to visit baba nyonya museum which is located in Melaka with my lecturer sweii, tutor yiwei and classmates. It was a nice and memorable trip with them .By the way , we're going there to research about baba nyonya herritage. I've learnt alot of thing from this field trip.
First of all , what is baba and nyonya ?
Peranakan and Baba-Nyonya(Chinese: 峇峇娘惹; pinyin: Bābā Niángrě; Hokkien: Bā-bā Niû-liá) are terms used for the descendants of late 15th and 16th-centuryChinese immigrants to theNusantara region during the Colonial era. This community in Melaka, they address themselves as "Nyonya Baba" instead of "Baba-Nyonya".Baba are for gentleman and Nyonya for ladies.
I like the structure of baba nyonya house.The architectural style of the Peranakan’s townhouses also borrowed freely from other cultures, fusing Victorian, Chinese and Malay elements. It looks very small from outside . Actually it's very long and wide.
From the victorian era lamp to floor tiles, we know that they were influenced by western too. The interior design of the house is very chinese style. The room has been separated by chinese traditional crafting wall .
There are two living room to serve their guests, one for friends and the other is for someone closer to them like relatives.
Female that unmarried are not allow to go to the living room and chat together with guests, there is a big wooden wall blocking the living room and the inner living room. So those girl will peep from the hole on the wooden wall.
The staircases that done without using nail is full with craft will close and lock at night, so that those man back at late night can't go to upstair. The master bedroom is at front of the second floor. They had a small hole that been cover. therefore They can peep their visitor from there. If they not going to entertain the guest and do not like them, they can just pour water from there.
There is a well and that area is not cover with roof. The water paip that connect from the roof to the well area had also been design, the paip been cover by a decoration of fish, when raining, the water from roof will come out from the mouth of the fish. This design is done according to the chinese sentence, 如鱼得水 and also 肥水不留外人田.
