Everything Peranakan

Many museums are open for free for a certain period of time in lieu of ‘Heritage Hop-About” for a period of time and one of the museums Jhon and I interested in was Peranakan Museum. Peranakan culture has similarities to Malay culture so I thought of exposing Jhon to it. Plus, they have cultural dance 'Gambang Kromong' and batik painting activity which I have always wanted Jhon to try.

We came in early so the crowd was very little and as soon we arrived, I zoomed in to the batik painting area and painted. I forgot how fun it was!!

The Museum consists of 10 different types of galleries, from Origins to Weddings to Feasts to Religion. We had 20 minutes to spare before their cultural performance starts so we explored the origins of Peranakan first. Jhon shared that there is also a big community in Philippines of just Peranakans.

As soon as we were done with the first gallery, the cultural performers started. There were songs sang and dancers danced. I absolutely love it when they performed “Sirih Kuning” which is a song about a girl turning into a woman.

I made jhon record some snippets of the performances. =)
You can skip to 0:47 for awesome dancing and music because I know the sound quality during the singing is unclear.

After the performances, we continued with the other galleries.

I love all things cultural. They always make so much effort in details, colours and meaning and Peranakan culture is no different.

Just look at their authentic wedding gear and the picture on the top right corner is actually trays stacked up and they are to be used when exchanging gifts.

Peranakan Deco.

Can you spot me? haha

This is the perk of attending early when there are not many people, the place seems to be all yours and you can act all artistic.

Under feasting gallery, me dining with my invisible peranakan friends.

Me chatting with my peranakan friend on an old school phone.

Religion idols.

More vintage stuff and when we were almost done with the last gallery, another performance started. This time, much more modern compared to the first performance.



After thoroughly explored the museum, we exited and made another beeline to the batik painting area! We spent 30 minutes painting and completing other people's painting area. I seriously could spend the entire day just painting in the colors.

Look how much we had done!

We had an awesome and enlightening day!
*dance like a peranakan*