World News Engine: Kebaya exhibition kicks off

Kebaya exhibition kicks off

The culture and food of Straits-born Chinese -- or Peranakans -- have always held a fascination for many.

Now, a 10-month exhibition on the kebaya worn by their women, is attracting the spotlight.

The "Sarong Kebaya, Peranakan Fashion and Its International Sources" exhibition features more than 130 pieces of kebaya to showcase the hybrid nature of Peranakan culture.

Guest curator Peter Lee said: "One of the directions for the exhibition is to show that everybody was sort of Peranakan in the pre-modern age.

"Funnily enough, nowadays, Peranakans have gotten back into a kind of boundary
of its own, which it shouldn't have, because in itself it is such a hybrid construct.

"So this is to re-establish the fact that Peranakans were not unique and that it shared many common elements with other cultures".

Assistant curator Jackie Yoong agrees.

"There is this... perception that the Peranakans' sarong kebaya is always brightly coloured; sometimes they say it features clashing colours; they always talk about bright motifs, and big motifs, and contrasting colours in that sense.

"In this show, we try to show that this style that is popular with Peranakans today actually dates back to the 50s and 60s.

"And so, in this show, we have shown the earliest forms of Peranakan fashion, which has been a surprise to some visitors. For example, lace kebayas -- some of the local Peranakans they have given feedback to me that it's actually Indonesian.

"But in this show, we have tried to show how actually, through photographs, very importantly, we can see that in Singapore, the Nonyas were wearing lace kebayas as well."

The kebayas were sourced from collectors in Singapore and also from three Dutch museums - reflecting the European nation's link to South-east Asia during colonial times.

The exhibition also explores new theories on the origins of Peranakans.

But Mr Lee said the origins are shrouded in myth.

"The famous story of a Chinese princess coming to Malacca -- when you look at Dutch records, the arrival of the Chinese in the 17th century, it's becoming increasingly clear that the Chinese men were finding spouses in freed slave girls.

"The slave trade was very rife from the 16th, 17th century.

"People went around in ships carting whole kampongs to the colonial ports and selling them.

"The bulk of them came from Bali, from north Sumatra - there were a lot of batak slaves from Thailand, and South India - various places.

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