Have you ever heard people address themselves as “Peranakan” or say that they are of Peranakan descent? Well, I have, and I've always wondered what that meant. According to Singapore Infopedia, Peranakan culture is usually described as a hybrid of Chinese, Malay and Western cultures. While specific cultural practices and customs may differ from generation to generation and family to family, there are a few elements common to Peranakan culture such as it’s language, clothing and food.
Focusing more on the clothing aspect of the peranakan culture, our team visited Della from Little Nyonya Batik, located at 1 Coleman Street The Adelphi #02-01. Established in 2011, Little Nyonya Batik started with a mission to bring back quality Peranakan handmade products, and preserve the peranakan culture for current and future generations. Little Nyonya Batik aims to bring the dying traditional culture back to the forefront of markets through their passion for excellence.
Our visit
During our visit, Ms Della, owner of Little Nyonya Batik, was very hospitable and gave us a short tour around her shop, which featured various items such as the kebayas [INCLUDE PIC HERE] , hand drawn batik and even some hand made accessories such as jewellery. She provided us with a brief explanation of how the items were made, and a quick history lesson on peranakan culture. However, what struck me the most, was how passionate Ms Della was about the business and passion behind the trade. While attending to us, a long time customer of hers came in to try on some batik clothing, which he was going to buy and use. Ms Della treated him with utmost respect, and was even able to make some small talk with him and us along the way, which really showed how she prides herself on offering a superior shopping experience and in the long-term relationships she built with her customers.
My thoughts
As someone who did not know much about the Peranakan Culture prior to the visit, Ms Della’s hospitality really inspired me to further my own knowledge regarding the culture and motivated me to learn more about the batik arts. As such, I went on to the Little Nyonya Batik’s website to read more about it, and learnt that Chinese-Indonesian Peranakan batik usually features a bright and bold combination of colors, with motifs influenced by Javanese, Indo-European and Chinese, which fulfills the peranakans fondness of colour. [FEATURE SOME BATIK]. With the word batik originating from the Javanese-Indonesia "amba", meaning draw, and "tik" , meaning dot, each piece is meticulously handcrafted and all encompasses a “human touch” to them, showing how much dedication and passion there is towards this trade.
Last Words
To be honest, I believe that there is still so much more that I can learn about the Batik Arts, and Ms Della has undoubtedly motivated me to do so. As someone who doesn’t know much about the culture to someone who now knows a bit behind it, I am amazed and appalled by the effort put behind each piece, and want to share this amazing experience with all of you. Thus, if you are free, do pay Ms Della’s shop a visit or stay tuned and watch the 4 of us learn more about the batik arts.
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