‘Peranakan identity at the crossroads of Empire, the

Malay World and the Sinophone World, c. 1900-1930.’

Submission for: MPhil in World History

Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge

Date of submission: 30th May 2016

This paper is dedicated to all teachers, past and present.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Print and the spirit of progress and reform 10

Baba as gentleman 27

Opium Reform Movement 46

Nyonya as the site for reform 58

Revisiting the resinification debate 84

Conclusion 97

Bibliography 100
 Introduction

2008 marked a revival of interest in Peranakan culture in Singapore with the

opening of the Peranakan Museum and the Baba House, and the broadcast

of a popular Mandarin television show, The Little Nyonya. This show

dramatized a Peranakan family during the Japanese Occupation. Following its

success in Singapore, it soon won several awards, and was broadcasted in

other neighbouring countries.1 This led to calls for the revival of ‘strong

Peranakan network links.’2 But, the term “Peranakan” mainly referred to the

Chinese Peranakans. Also, the portrayal of Peranakan culture in museums

has largely focused on early twentieth-century, the “golden age” of Chinese

Peranakan culture. This has unfortunately helped establish stereotypes on

Peranakan culture, contributing to its exoticization for the tourist and heritage

industry.3

The popularity of Peranakan culture within the heritage sector has revived

interest and increased scrutiny within academic literature. More recently,

Peter Lee (2014), prominent member of Singapore’s Peranakan Association

and advisor to Singapore’s Peranakan Museum, criticized how an ‘immutable

set of characteristics [of Peranakans] throughout history’ contributed to a

‘notion of exceptionalism’ amongst those who claimed being Peranakan jati –

1
“MediaCorp Blockbuster Drama The Little Nyonya a Hit on Malaysia’s Cable and Free-to-Air
Channels,” accessed May 22, 2016,
http://www4.mediacorp.sg/contentdistribution/news/index.php?id=27.
2
Su Kim Lee, “The Peranakan Associations of Malaysia and Singapore: History and Current
Scenario,” Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 82, no. 2 (December
2009): 167–77.
3
Jackie Yoong, “A History of Peranakan Museum Exhibitions in Singapore 1985-2008”
(Unpublished MA Thesis, National University of Singapore, 2009).

1
the genuine Peranakan.4 “Peranakan” is an ambiguous term used to describe

peoples of Chinese, Javanese, Arab, and Indian descent who were born in

Southeast Asia. This term ‘connotes racial mixing and/or cultural, religious,

and or linguistic hybridisation or creolisation.’ 5 A “Peranakan,” meaning

“locally-born,” is believed to be a result of migrants who married local women.

As such, their Malay differs from others in the Malay world, that of “Baba-

Malay.”6 Gendered terms of “Baba” and “Nyonya” were also common, with

Baba referring to male, and Nyonya referring to female.

This paper seeks to argue against presentist notions of Peranakan identity.

Through the Malay world, the Sinophone world and the British Empire, this

paper seeks to identify the global lexicon of the locally born. Thus, Peranakan

identity was not an inherited ethno-cultural bloodline. Instead, it was a socio-

economic network and standing that was perpetuated through the body,

manners, education, religion and citizen status. The Straits Chinese Reform

Movement juxtaposed itself from its local communities in an attempt to create

a distinct identity, departing from the more inclusive connotations of

“Peranakan.”

This paper focuses on Peranakans of Chinese descent, based on sources

published in Singapore. For the Chinese Peranakan living in the British Straits

Settlements of Penang, Malacca, and Singapore, the term “Straits Chinese” or

“Straits-born Chinese” was commonly used during the turn to the twentieth-
4
Peter Lee, Sarong Kebaya: Peranakan Fashion in an Interconnected World 1500-1950
(Singapore, 2014), 29.
5
Joel S. Kahn, Other Malays: Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism in the Modern Malay World
(Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2006), 32.
6
W.G. Shellabear, “Baba Malay. An Introduction to the Language of the Straits-Born
Chinese,” Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 65 (1913): 53.

2
century. This was also a period of the Straits Chinese Reform Movement (c.

1900-1910), often credited to the Straits Chinese Magazine (1897-1907). Its

editors, Lim Boon Keng and Song Ong Siang sought to foster a moral

revolution, retaining essential cultural values, while abandoning outdated

ones.7

This study will be illustrated with other publications such as The Eastern

Illustrated Review (1918), and other published pamphlets and speeches

during World War I. The Straits Chinese Magazine has dominated academic

attention when it comes to investigating Peranakan identity and the Straits

Chinese Reform Movement. This will be complemented by Baba Malay

publications such as The Friend of Babas (1906-1908), Kabar Slalu (c. 1924),

and Kabar Uchapan Baru (c. 1926).8 Baba Malay, as the “mother tongue” of

the Chinese Peranakans, deserves greater scholarly attention. This is to avoid

simplifying Chinese Peranakans as mere Anglophiles.

Although the editors of the magazines and newspapers were based in

Singapore, this study will not be confined by a narrow geographical

delineation of the Straits Settlements. Instead, the social networks of the

Peranakans will form the boundaries of this paper. Although “Straits Chinese”

may be a more specific term to use, “Peranakan” is used to emphasise that

the public sphere, political awareness and socio-economic influences were

7
Neil Khor, “Imperial Cosmopolitan Malaya: A Study of Realist Fiction in the ‘Straits Chinese
Magazine,’” Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 81, no. 1 (June
2008): 36.
8
The British Library catalogue records Kabar Uchapan Baru as Kabar Ucapan Baru, despite it
being spelt in the former way in the newspaper. This paper will use the spelling as intended
by the editors of the newspaper to better reflect its historical-linguistic context.

3
much broader than the Straits of Malacca, traversing between the Dutch and

British empires, and beyond Southeast Asia.

Earlier studies of the Chinese Peranakan attempted to define them as a

cultural-ethnic group. John Clammer (1980) posited that the Chinese

Peranakan experienced “resinification.” The Chinese Peranakan became

Chinese again with their renewed interest in Confucian thought, and

involvement in Chinese revolutionary socio-politics of the early twentieth-

century. Clammer even distinguished “Straits Chinese” from “Straits-born

Chinese,” as the latter had the ‘well-known exterior markers of a Baba’ while

the former ‘retain all or most of his mainland Chinese characteristics.’ 9 This

was strongly objected by Tan Chee-beng (1982), who argued that Chinese

Peranakans have always been Chinese.10 His work compares the Chinese

Peranakan with the “non-Baba” Hokkien. 11 Nevertheless, both Tan and

Clammer agree that the Chinese Peranakan or Straits Chinese identity can be

defined. The Chinese Peranakan is frozen in time, perpetuating the idea of a

genuine Peranakan. The common identification of oneself as fourth or fifth

generation Peranakan today is a result of this frozen-in-time vision of

“Peranakan,” rather than recognizing how the definitions and boundaries of

identity moved with social-demographic changes over time. The resinification

debate is also problematic in subsuming Chinese Peranakans as a

subcategory of overseas Chinese (华侨 hua qiao) identity. This makes China

9
John R. Clammer, Straits Chinese Society (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1980).
10
Chee Beng Tan, “On Baba Literature, Kinship, Religion and the Weather in Malacca: A
Rejoinder to Dr. Clammer,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 13, no. 1 (March 1982): 178–
83.
11
“Hokkien” refers to peoples of Fujian descent, a province in Southern China, where people
mainly speak in Hokkien; Chee Beng Tan, The Baba of Melaka: Culture and Identity of a
Chinese Peranakan Community in Malaysia (Petaling Jaya: Pelanduk Publications, 1988).

4
as the point of origin in studying the Chinese Peranakans. 12 Thus, the

“resinification” debate assumes that one can never lose his/her

“Chineseness,”13 and that one can be “Chinese” after having lost his/her

“Chinese” traits. This is a refusal to recognize the agency of individuals in

carving their own identities based on their local experiences.

Literature on Chinese Peranakan cultural identity has mainly been written by

Babas who saw it in their duty to preserve their heritage, providing supporting

national narratives, or in showcasing the material culture and rituals. 14

Chinese Peranakan identity has been assumed as a fixed entity that is

captured through photographs, memories and materials, and has even been

considered as a fixed cultural or ethnic group; this did not change over a 50-

year period from the 1950s to 2000s. 15

From the 1990s, the Chinese Peranakan began to be utilised in studies

pertaining to Chinese diaspora or Sinophone studies. The Chinese Peranakan

was always evaluated against markers of “Chineseness” as could be seen in

the debate between Clammer and Tan. Scholars tended to utilise the Chinese

12
For more definitions to overseas Chinese and the different categories of overseas Chinese,
see, Gungwu Wang, China and the Chinese Overseas (Singapore, 1992), 17–35.
13
Ien Ang, “Can One Say No to Chineseness? Pushing the Limits of the Diasporic Paradigm,”
in Sinophone Studies: A Critical Reader, ed. Shu-mei Shih, Chien-hsin Tsai, and Brian
Bernards (New York, 2013), 57–73.
14
Some active members and committee members of the Peranakan Association of Singapore
have published books such as Peter Lee, Peter Wee, Felix Chia, Lee Kip Lin and Lee Kip
Lee. Ho Wing Meng published a series of books on Peranakan material culture for collectors,
while Ming-Yuet Kee showcases her personal porcelain collection. The National Heritage
Board of Singapore has also published several books in collaboration with Peter Lee.
15
The assumption of a ‘Peranakan’ way of life can be seen in the following titles: Rosie Kim
Neo Tan, “The Straits Chinese in Singapore: A Study of the Straits Chinese Way of Life” (BA
Honours Thesis, University of Malaya, 1958); Peter Lee, Junk to Jewels: The Things
Peranakans Value (Singapore, 2008); Peter Lee and Jennifer Chen, The Straits Chinese
House: Domestic Life and Traditions (Singapore, 2006).

5
Peranakan as a diaspora that contests “Chineseness.” 16 This continual

evaluation of the Chinese Peranakan as a subset of the Chinese diaspora is

problematic. This continues to posit that the Chinese diaspora can never ‘say

no to Chineseness’ regardless of generations who lived and were born

outside of China.17

Although academic literature has since expanded beyond Chinese Peranakan

cultural identity, academic works remain focused on “Chinese” networks or

“Chinese” local politics. This can be seen in Leo Suryadinata’s Peranakan

Communities in the era of decolonisation and globalisation (2015) that

examined decolonisation in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore specific to

Chinese Peranakan interests. The struggle to maintain Chinese Peranakan

economic precedence and political leadership dominated the book. 18 In an

earlier book, despite its title, Suryadinata’s Peranakan Chinese in a

Globalizing Southeast Asia (2009) focused on the issue of struggling with

Chineseness rather than the intersections of global ideas or cultures. 19

Jürgen Rudolph’s Reconstructing Identities (1998) was a breakthrough in

redefining the methodology of how to investigate and define Peranakan

identity. By forgoing the definitive approach, and choosing to base his

research on the memories of his interviewees, Rudolph showed the

16
In ‘Lu Xun, Lim Boon Keng and Confucianism,’ Wang showed the ‘Chineseness’ problem
that Lim Boon Keng faced when in China; In ‘The Study of Chinese Identities in Southeast
Asia’, Wang posit how Chinese identity have to be broken down into historical, Chinese
nationalist, ethnic, cultural and national (local) identities; Wang, China and the Chinese
Overseas, 147–165, 198–221.
17
Ang, “Can One Say No to Chineseness? Pushing the Limits of the Diasporic Paradigm.”
18
Leo Suryadinata, ed., Peranakan Communities in the Era of Decolonisation and
Globalisation (Singapore, 2015).
19
Leo Suryadinata, ed., Peranakan Chinese in a Globalizing World (Singapore, 2009).

6
complicated facets of identity through the use of discursive analysis. Rudolph

also tackled the limitations of “Chineseness” or “Baba-ness” as parameters in

his discussion of, ‘Was Dr Lim Boon Keng a Baba?’ 20 However, Rudolph

focused mainly on the Baba, and failed to highlight the importance of the

Nyonya in contributing to a Baba’s identity and standing. Considering the

importance of marriage unions in the creation of the Peranakan community,

the Nyonyas played a role in establishing Peranakan networks across

Southeast Asia as business and marriage came hand-in-hand. As mothers,

Nyonyas were simultaneously the supposed carrier of the Malay-indigenous

blood, and bearers of the next generation. Current literature mainly shows

how the ideal Nyonya reflected broader concerns on women, or sought to

understand the Nyonya’s role and identity. 21

“Chinese Peranakan” will be used to acknowledge that there were

Peranakans of other ethnic descent, and the specificity of the case study for

this paper. The term “Peranakan” remains important in acknowledging the

different Peranakans’ relationships with each other, and with their local

networks. The first section will evaluate how modern ideas permeated into this

region. This will be investigated through an evaluation of the impact of

Christian missionaries that brought in print technology and increased access

to English-medium schools. Enlightened ideals that these Christian

missionaries brought were important to the Straits Chinese Reform Movement

– a lens that current literature has yet to consider.

20
Jürgen Rudolph, Reconstructing Identities: A Social History of the Babas in Singapore
(Hants: Ashgate Publishing, 1998), 380–400.
21
Bee Leng Seah, “Phoenix Without Wings: The Negotiation of Modernity Among Straits
Chinese Women in Early Twentieth Century Singapore” (MA Thesis, National University of
Singapore, 2005); Hwei-Fe’n Cheah, Phoenix Rising: Narratives in Nyonya Beadwork from
the Straits Settlements (Singapore: NUS Press, 2010).

7
The second section will evaluate how these developments helped spread

Victorian and Edwardian notions of respectability, health, and etiquette. This

was not lost on the Baba. Being a gentleman based on Anglo-Saxon ideals,

was crucial in reflecting the Baba as British subject. However, the Baba could

never become a British gentleman, being unable to shake off his

Chineseness. Dress and western-centric ideals became markers of

Britishness, but the Baba’s Chineseness remained an uncomfortable

distinction from the white British. With the Opium Reform Movement as case

study, this section will investigate how the political context, the social ideals

and perceptions of race intersected.

The Baba gentleman could not be identified without the Nyonya. As the carrier

of the Malay blood, the duties of the Nyonya were to be reformed to counter

the inheritance of “Malay” traits and behaviours.22 This was crucial as her

womb and motherly duties were key to changing the course of the subsequent

generation of Peranakans. Current literature does not adequately recognise

the important role that Nyonyas played in establishing Chinese Peranakan

familial and business networks, relegating her as the cultural symbol of

“Peranakan-ness”.23 The third section argues that the body of the Nyonya and

the roles expected of her are important to the understanding of the Straits

Chinese Reform Movement.

22
Christine Doran, “The Chinese Cultural Reform Movement in Singapore: Singapore
Chinese Identities and Reconstructions of Gender,” Journal of Social Issues in Southeast
Asia 12, no. 1 (1997): 100.
23
Frost posited that Straits Chinese helped re-define Chinese identities with their familial and
business networks. Mark Ravinder Frost, “Emporium in Imperio: Nanyang Networks and the
Straits Chinese in Singapore, 1819-1914,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 36, no. 1
(2005): 29–66.

8
The final section shall revisit the “resinification” debate between Clammer and

Tan. Chinese revolutionary fervour was not exclusive to the birth of the

Chinese nation. Rather, it was a transnational event that impacted other

localities. By understanding how this changed the local situation in Singapore,

signs of “Chineseness” were not signs of nationalism or a blind embrace of all

“Chinese” cultural symbols. With greater consideration to the continued use of

Baba Malay after the Great War, identity did not vacillate between

“Chineseness” and “Britishness,” but to being local, Peranakan. This paper

will conclude that Peranakan identity was not an inherited ethno-cultural

bloodline, but an identity of social networks that has been historicised into one

definable cultural identity.

9
 Print and the spirit of progress and reform

During the first three decades of the twentieth-century, ideas of political

liberalism, modernity, and progress, were sweeping across the world. Rather

than simplifying this discussion as a west-to-east or colonizer to colonized

imposition of modernity, this section shall argue that various localities were

attempting to re-create their own form and meaning to modernity. The Straits

Chinese Reform Movement was one of such in the east. This section will first

provide a review of the Straits Chinese Reform Movement, current literature,

and the global context of this time period. Next, the impact of the Methodist

Mission on education, print, and ideas of superstition and progress will be

assessed to evaluate the intersection between socio-political ideas and

religion.

The Straits Chinese Reform Movement, which began around the turn of the

twentieth-century, was not unique for its time. Existing literature has focused

on the formation of the colonial world and the capitalist economy in Southeast

Asia. This, however, has focused on the “spread” of Chinese or European

enterprise.24 Others have seen this period as the ‘Confucian Revival

Movement,’ through a Sinophone lens, focusing on vacillating between

Chinese, local or British political identities.25 This, however, fails to fully

recognise how the Straits Chinese Reform Movement represented a

24
Kahn, Other Malays: Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism in the Modern Malay World, 38–39;
Also see: Yen Ching-hwang, Ethnic Chinese Business in Asia : History, Culture and Business
Enterprise (online: WSPS, 2013), http://site.ebrary.com/lib/wisconsin/detail.action?
docID=10775232.
25
Yen Ching-hwang, “The Confucian Revival Movement in Singapore and Malaya, 1899-
1911,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 7, no. 1 (1976): 33–57.

10
transnational search for a new, progressive, yet distinct identity that people

could call their own. The constant need to be aware and engaged in global

affairs was a mode to re-establish Peranakan standing locally.

Also, the Straits Chinese Reform Movement is usually credited to the editors

of the Straits Chinese Magazine, Lim Boon Keng and Song Ong Siang. This is

due to their socio-political involvements, more prominently through the Straits

Chinese British Association (SCBA), in which they were part of. The use of

Straits Chinese Magazine as the main source for research on the Straits

Chinese Reform Movement is troubling as it provides merely one perspective.

The publication of The Friend of Babas confirms this notion. In its first issue,

readers were reminded that not everyone had a good grasp of the English

language to be able to read what may be good and useful. For that, The

Friend of Babas was published for Babas and Nyonyas in the language that

all Peranakans used.26 Besides explicitly addressing reforms for the Straits

Chinese, The Friend of Babas also had Christian moralizing tales that

encouraged certain values and behaviours – an indirect call for reform.

Current literature fails to analyse the impact of religion, education and

enlightened ideals on the formation of Peranakan identity, besides an

undergraduate thesis that investigated Chinese Peranakans’ conversion to

26
‘Orang yang tahu bhasa Inggris ta’usa kita kata, dia sudah boleh tahu yang smoa perkara
yang tertulis dalam itu bhasa ada baik dan berguna. Ttapi kita ingat yang ada sudara yang
ta’tahu bacha Ingris. Jadi itu sahya nanti kata sdikit fasal apa yang sada tertulis dalam ini
bhasa… Kita mau smoa Baba-baba – dan Nonya-Nonya pun – bacha apa yang kita tulis
bulan-bulan dalam bhasa Mlayu, dan mngerti. Itu sbab-lah apa yang kita tulis kita tulis dalam
bhasa yang smoka Pranakan kita pakai.’ “Editorial,” The Friend of the Babas 1, no. 1 (1906):
1.

11
Catholicism.27 The editors of Straits Chinese Magazine and The Friend of

Babas were either Christians themselves, or were familiar with the work of

Christian missionaries. The influence of scientific-medical, enlightened, and

rational thinking were the ideals for reform.

The missionary movement was one of the modes in which western ideas and

control permeated into other parts of the world. Within the context of the

British Empire, these missionaries played a role in bringing Christian and

British values to many, ‘to rescue “the heathen” in his or her many guises.’ All

were concerned in providing a new way of life for their converts. 28 This

movement was encouraged and supported by their counterparts from the

United States who believed their new country ‘would bring egalitarianism,

republicanism, and prosperity to heathen peoples.’ 29 Within Singapore’s

Methodist Mission, both Americans and British contributed to it.

The Methodist Mission was one of the most influential missionaries, and had a

publishing arm called the Mission Press. Founded in 1890 by William

Shellabear, the Mission Press published the first Gospel of Matthew in

Romanised-Malay in 1891. Shellabear’s vast knowledge of various Malay

vernaculars, including the Baba Malay, made him an important figure in

translating and publishing for the Mission Press. He brought the cylinder press

from England, which increased the Mission Press’s print volume

27
Maria Khoo-Joseph, “From the Way to the Cross” (BA Honours Thesis, National University
of Singapore, 2010).
28
Catherine Hall, “Of Gender and Empire: Reflections on the Nineteenth Century,” in Gender
and Empire, ed. Philippa Levine (Oxford, 2004), 59.
29
Patricia Grimshaw, “Faith, Missionary Life, and the Family,” in Gender and Empire, ed.
Philippa Levine (Oxford, 2004), 263.

12
tremendously.30 As a proponent for vernacular education, Shellabear and his

wife helped further spread English-medium education. 31

The reminiscence of Shellabear’s influence can be seen in The Friend of

Babas, published by the Methodist Publishing House, which used to be the

Mission Press. As a ‘Magazine for the Social and Moral Progress of the

Straits Chinese,’ the mixed-use of Baba Malay and English is reflective of

Shellabear’s perception that Baba Malay was important, as the ‘language of

the homes of the Straits-born Chinese – the most highly educated and the

most influential section of the Chinese community in the British possessions,

and therefore it is the language in which the women and children of this

important class can most readily and most successfully be educated.’ 32 One of

its editors, Goh Hood Keng, was also the first Straits Chinese to be ordained

into the Methodist pastoral ministry. Having been born to Buddhist parents,

Goh was English-educated at the Anglo Chinese School. His fluency in

English opened him to a network of job opportunities. 33

Christian ideas were central to The Friend of Babas. Despite stating that The

Friend of Babas was for Babas and Nyonyas who were not English-educated,

it was mostly written in English, on Christian moralizing tales and articles on

how to be a good Christian. The articles in English proselytize the Christian

faith, with an emphasis on the agency of the male individual. Readers of The

30
Robert Hunt, “The Life of William Shellabear,” Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal
Asiatic Society 66, no. 2 (1993): 37–48; Shellabear, “Baba Malay. An Introduction to the
Language of the Straits-Born Chinese.”
31
Bobby E.K. Sng, In His Good Time: The Story of the Church in Singapore (Singapore,
1980), 154; Hunt, “The Life of William Shellabear,” 65.
32
Shellabear, “Baba Malay. An Introduction to the Language of the Straits-Born Chinese,” 52.
33
Sng, In His Good Time: The Story of the Church in Singapore, 154–161.

13
Friend of Babas were encouraged to keep reading the Bible, as ‘to get to the

heart of the Bible is the birthright of everyone.’ ‘This is the glorious doctrine of

the Reformation,’ that is accessible to all. 34 This illustrates a sense that the

individual has the agency to change himself, with the help of God and his

Christian community, if the individual wills his ‘influence of thought on [his

own] conduct’.35 Personal reform was central to this commitment to God, as

‘the only way to the life eternal is by the waters of regeneration.’ 36

The individual, despite his personal agency, needed his community as a form

of identity. Differences with his un-Christian community were not merely a test

as it was very much a part of his faith. ‘The Christian Man’ was juxtaposed

against ‘the Other Man,’ to ‘share His mission to mankind.’ 37 But, the ‘self’ was

to avoid temptation from his ‘unfavourable surroundings.’ The ideal man, a

‘white flower of a blameless life’ was to remain ‘unwithered and unstained’

from conversations that may ‘make him feel unwashed and infected.’ 38

Obedience and a fighting spirit through such unfavourable conditions were

illustrated as key to ‘a victorious Christian life.’39

An article in the eighth issue of the The Friend of Babas sought to justify the

abundance of Christian English articles in its magazine. Written in Baba-

34
James Stalker, ‘How to get at the heart of the Bible,’ The Friend of Babas 1, no. 4 (1906):
202-203.
35
Reverand G. Campbell Morgan, ‘Repent Ye!’ The Friend of Babas 1, no. 5 (1906): 224-226.
Also see: Rev. W.J. Dawson, ‘THE TYRANNY OF HABIT’ The Friend of Babas 1, no. 7
(1907): 274-275.
36
Rev. J.H. Jowett, “Ye Must Be Born Again.” The Friend of Babas 1, no. 6 (1906): 246.
37
Rev. J.W. Ewing, ‘The Christian Man-and the Other Man. HOW TO WIN OUR FRIENDS
FOR CHRIST’ The Friend of Babas 1, no. 4 (1906): 212-213.
38
Rev. Thomas Phillips, ‘The Struggle With Temptation,’ The Friend of Babas 1, no. 6 (1906):
251-252.
39
Rev. G. Campbell Morgan, ‘The Victorious Christian Life,’ The Friend of Babas 1, no. 8
(1907): 8-9.

14
Malay, titled, “Religion – what’s its purpose?” the article justified the need for

God.40 Religion was for the soul, which differentiated humans from animals. 41

Not only was religion important for the individual, it was crucial for progress of

the state and community.42 Christianity was justified as the better religion in

bringing about progress for peoples, as its teachings allowed one to gain a

higher standing in the world. The decay of the Chinese Qing state was

attributed to how Chinese peoples did not embrace Christianity in seeking

progress.43 This was asserted with a subsequent article on Christian

behaviours that sought to clarify misconceptions on Christianity. 44

Conversion to Christianity was a significant part of reform as it shaped the

perception of “rationality” and propriety amongst the reformers. Through its

establishment of schools and encouragement for education, this religion was

conflated with ideas of modernity and progress. One of the earliest, most

prominent schools would be Malacca’s Anglo-Chinese College, established in

40
Goh Hood Keng, ‘AGAMA – APA GUNA-NYA?’ The Friend of Babas 1, no. 8 (1907): 2-3.
41
‘Choba-lah saudara fikir yang jikalau kita manusia tidak ada jiwa (soul) kita s-rupa juga lain
binatang-binatang…’
42
‘Ttapi agama bukan sahaja prentahkan satu orang punya kadidopan, tapi agama-lah yang
mrentahkan negri. Bila satu bangsa orang dalam satu negri ada mengikut satu agama yang
smpurna, itu bangsa dan itu negri nanti lambat-lawan mnjadi smpurnba dan bsar, ttapi bila
satu bangsa orang ada mngikut satu agama yang karot, ttapi itu bangsa dan itu negri di mana
dia-orang ada tinggal nanti mnjadi karot dan hina.’
43
‘Brapa ratus tahun negri China sudah jatoh di bawah agama Kong Chu Kong dan kita
ta’boleh tengok satu kbaikan yang itu agama sudah mmbri k-pada China, ttapi kerna itu
agama t’ada chukop di dalam ajaran-nya orang-orang China yang simpan itu agama ta’boleh
berangkat dan mnjadi smpurna dan sbab itu negri China sudah tinggal di dalam glap dan
sudah di-hinakan oleh lain-lain bangsa. Bharu-lah ini hari China sudah dapat tahu salah-nya
dan ada bukakan pintu-nya pada agama Kristian – satu agama yang bukan sahaja amat
mulia di dalam ajaran-nya ttapi yang sudah mulia di dalam ajaran-nya ttapi yang sudah bikin
smoa bangsa yang sudah trima sama dia, bsar dan oegang pangkat tinggi di dalam dunia ini.’
44
‘Ini kawan kata sama sahya, “Apa-lah guna masok Kristian, ‘nkoh; asa kita ikut Tuhan Allah
punya hokum dan kita punya angan-angan-hati (conscience) itu-lah baik. Apa buat masok
Kristian dan t’ada ikut hokum dan ajaran-nya dngan s-chukop-nya, sperti hal banyak orang…”
Sahya fikir banyak orang ada fikir bgini. Orang lain yang tersbot Kristian bawa kla-kuan
ta’smpurna, dia-orang fikir t’ada apa kasiat-nya masok Kristian. Ini ada sdikit silap punya
fikiran.’ In Si Damai, ‘Sdikit Ktrangan Der-hal Klakuan Orang Kristian dan Agama Kristian,’
The Friend of Babas 1, no. 8 (1907): 3-5.

15
1820.45 The school taught in both English and Hokkien Chinese, and even had

a Sunday school where the bible was taught in Malay. 46 Evangelism was

intentionally conducted in vernacular languages, complemented by the

provision of English language education that was becoming increasingly

important for the locals due to the encroachment of British imperial control.

This was a vehicle to encourage Christian values, lifestyles and thought.

Opium, for instance, was illustrated as ‘un-Christian.’ 47 Articles in the Straits

Chinese Magazine illustrated what a “Christian Life” was, or compared

Christianity with other philosophies such as Buddhism. 48

This did not mean that education was blindly imposed upon the locals. Rather,

there were nuanced understandings of the locals in encouraging them to

partake in schools. Advertisements of schools for girls were specially catered

to the taste of the Peranakans in 1906. Deaconness Home Singapore, under

Ms Sophia Blackmore was ‘a boarding school for Eurasian and Native Girls,

under Christian care,’ selling a way of life and social economic standing.

Meanwhile, Telok Ayer Chinese Girls’ School at Neil Road provided the

service of carriages to bring the girls to and fro from school if desired,

recognising how traditional Peranakan families practised zenana, the

confining daughters who have reached the pubescent age. 49 Although Sophia

Blackmore was supported by the Methodist’s Women’s Foreign Missionary

45
R.L. O’Sullivan, “The Anglo-Chinese College and the Early ‘Singapore Institution,’” Journal
of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 61, no. 2 (1988): 45.
46
Song Hoot Kiam, ‘Reminiscences of Dr. Legge in Malacca,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 2,
no. 5 (1898): 9-12.
47
‘Home Politics and Opium,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 7, no. 4 (1902): 149.
48
‘Aspects of Present-Day English Christian Life,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 14:1 (1905): 25-
26; Paul Carus, ‘Buddhism and its Christian Critics,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 2, no. 5
(1898): 29
49
The Friend of Babas 1, no. 1 (1906). The advertisement page is unnumbered, a page right
before p. 1. This advertisement repeats itself in subsequent issues.

16
Society, she and other missionaries of her generation, similar to Shellabear,

focused on getting people first and foremost to schools, before proselytization.

This generation of missionaries were successful in establishing so many

schools due to their long-term commitment to working in this region.

Blackmore herself resided in Singapore for 41 years. 50

Figure 1: Advertisement from The Friend of Babas © The British Library Board,
P.P.3800.cdd

The proliferation of schools, despite the missionaries’ initial initiatives, was not

the only means for education. In the Dutch East Indies, wealthy Chinese and

Peranakan families had the ability to hire tutors from China. Some even

50
Sng, In His Good Time: The Story of the Church in Singapore, 113–114.

17
began to establish Sino-Dutch schools, and Chinese-medium schools of their

own.51 Likewise in the Federated Malay States (FMS) and the Straits

Settlements, “Chinese” schools were likewise being established. Twenty-six

leaders of the Singapore Chinese Chambers of Commerce (SCCC) from 1906

to 1945 were founders or patrons of Chinese-medium schools in Singapore. 52

The establishment of English-medium schools helped to spread English

liberal thought, but this does not mean that there was a blind absorption of

Western ideas.53 The benefactors of the English-schooling system

subsequently sought to establish their own “English” institutions. Prominent

members from the Straits Chinese British Association were instrumental in the

formation of numerous educational institutions, such as the King Edward VII

Medical School (1905), the first medical school in Singapore. Tan Jiak Kim

alone contributed $12,000, while raising funds of $87,000 across the Straits.

In 1912, Tan, with help from Seah Liang Seah, helped raise another $120,000

to extend the school. For the establishment of Raffles College, Lim Boon

Keng donated $10,000, while Lee Choon Guan donated $120,000. 54

Although the establishment of “Chinese” or “English” institutions may seem

reflective of socio-political differences amongst the general Chinese

population in Singapore, the choice of which teaching medium was not a

determinant of who was a “Peranakan” or “Straits-born.” The establishment of

the Nanyang Chinese General Education Association in 1912 by Guomindang

leaders aimed to forge closer times with educational development in China,

51
Claudine Salmon, Literature in Malay by the Chinese of Indonesia (Paris, 1993), 47.
52
Ching Fatt Yong, Chinese Leadership and Power in Colonial Singapore (Singapore: Tmes
Academic Press, 1992), 67.
53
C.A. Bayly, Recovering Liberties: Indian Thought in the Age of Liberalism and Empire
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 26–72.
54
Yong, Chinese Leadership and Power in Colonial Singapore, 59.

18
and sought to popularize the use of Mandarin in conversation and as a

teaching medium. This had the support of Lim Boon Keng – a product and

contributor to “English” schools in Singapore. 55 Instead, the pursuit of

“Chinese” or “English” schooling was reflective of the belief in whichever

system that would provide a better socio-economic advantage for the future.

Education was central to ideas of reform as ‘…With an English education,

knowledge of western ideals is within the reach of the Straits Chinese, and it

rests with them to see that their future is planned before-hand for the benefit

of their progeny.’56

Education was seen as an advantage to be gained against the China-born

Chinese who was much ‘superior in business capacity to their average Straits-

born brothers in as much as they are industrious, patient in spite of many

failures, and never give way to apathy and indifference.’ 57 Ignorance and a

lack of zeal would result in the Straits Chinese ‘[falling] out of the ranks… and

would before long lose all the advantages which they as natives would

enjoy…’58 Maintenance of these ‘advantages’ was the driver to differentiate

the Straits Chinese from other peoples. As argued by Karen Teoh, English-

medium education ‘contributed to polarization and tension among the

55
Ching Fatt Yong, “An Historical Turning Point: The 1911 Revolution and Its Impact on
Singapore’s Chinese Society,” in Sun Yat-Sen: Nanyang and the 1911 Revolution, ed. Lai To
Lee and Hock Guan Lee (Singapore, 2011), 157–158.
56
Tan Hong Beng, ‘The Future of the Straits Chinese,’ The Eastern Illustrated Review (1919):
43.
57
Tan Hong Beng, ‘The Future of the Straits Chinese,’ The Eastern Illustrated Review (1919):
41-42.
58
‘Self-Culture,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 2, no. 5 (1988): 34. ‘Chlaka’ means disaster and
usually denotes a sense of shame.

19
Chinese’ just as Chinese-medium schools have been ‘faulted for encouraging

cultural separatism and Chinese chauvinism.’59

Straits Chinese were differentiated from the China-born by their knowledge of

the English language, and being English-educated before the 1920s. The

unchanging nature of Chinese education was blamed as the inability for

Chinese and China to reform during the tumultuous years of revolutions and

wars at the start of the twentieth-century. In fact, English education was to be

made compulsory as the language of ‘observation, reasoning, thinking and to

do original work with the result that the children become independent

mentally.’60 Despite this sense of superiority over the China-born, this does not

mean that Chinese-medium schools were disregarded. Rather, they increased

in importance as China, or “Chineseness” came to symbolize the same vitality

they feared in the China-born. Too overt an emphasis on English education

led the ‘Chinese having no knowledge of China and not being able to read or

write Chinese, but only able to speak and write English.’ 61

How education became intrinsically linked to socio-economic pathways and

successes could also be seen amongst the Malays, who sought to pursue

English-medium education so as to subsequently obtain white-collar

occupations in towns.62 The migration of Indians and Chinese into the Straits

Settlements and the FMS created a sense of anxiety regarding the future
59
Karen May-Shen Teoh, “A Girl Without Talent Is Therefore Virtuous: Educating Chinese
Women in British Malaya and Singapore, 1850s-1960s” (PhD Dissertation, Harvard
University, 2008), 84.
60
Low Kway Song, ‘English to Help China,’ The Eastern Illustrated Review (1919): 51-54.
61
T.S. Pow, ‘Straits Chinese of Singapore: Question of Education,’ The Eastern Illustrated
Review (1919): 55.
62
William R. Roff, The Origins of Malay Nationalism (Singapore: Oxford University Press,
1994), 136.

20
standing of the Malays. Munshi Abdullah, credited as the father of modern

Malay literature, first expressed the fear of backwardness and lethargy

amongst the Malays in mid-nineteenth century. Education was central to

Munshi Abdullah’s vision of improving the Malay youth as a means to

assisting the Malay race.63 This was subsequently reiterated in the first

“Malay” newspaper, Jawi Peranakan (1876-1895), stressing the importance of

education in combating this problem.64 The opening of schools for the Malays

during this period was attributed to the “modernization” of the Malays. 65 By the

early twentieth-century, Malay newspapers were carrying articles discussing

issues regarding the importance of education and fears of the Malays falling

behind within the changing Malay world. 66

Such socio-political ideas of progress manifested into a movement away from

what was perceived as traditional. However, moving away from traditionalism

did not mean moving away from religiosity. Religion, especially amongst the

Chinese Peranakan and the Methodist Mission, remained important as the

driver for the spread of “enlightened” thought. This resulted in debates on

rituals and attack on superstition. Superstition was couched as ‘the twin sister

of ignorance,’67 and reflected a pursuit of modernizing, rational and scientific

thought.

63
Anthony Milner, The Invention of Politics in Colonial Malaya (Cambridge, 1994), 31–58.
64
Virginia Matheson Hooker, Writing a New Society (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press,
2000), 68–69.
65
Milner, The Invention of Politics in Colonial Malaya, 73.
66
Virginia Matheson Hooker, “Transmission Through Practical Example: Women and Islam in
1920s Malay Fiction,” Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 67, no. 2
(1994): 95.
67
Song Ong Siang, ‘The Position of Chinese Women,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 1, no. 1
(1897): 18.

21
Superstitious practices were painted to be a “Chinese” heritage of the

Peranakans. In an article on ‘Chinese Idols and Real Evil Spirits,’ The Straits

Chinese Magazine highlighted how ‘bad spirits’ did not exist. A ‘lad’ was

believed to have had ‘spirits came flying out by the mouth.’ However, when

given a ‘table-spoonful of mustard and water… The lad steadily became more

conscious. He was simply drunk. This is a glaring case of imposture on the

part of idols and their mediums.’68 The article berated the women who sought

help from mediums to help the lad, and chastised their unfounded

superstitious beliefs. Belief in superstitions was also reflective of an

‘uneducated Chinese.’69 For the Chinese coolie class, ‘sickness and

epidemics were often attributed to the malevolence of gui or evil spirits which

had to be appeased by sacrificial offerings.’ Such “folk” conception of

diseases, however, coexisted with an increasingly established medical

system. However, traditional Chinese medicine was becoming established

through medicine halls or pharmacies, as western medicine gained

precedence in Singapore.70

The “Malay” side of the Peranakan did not go unscathed. The confinement of

unmarried Nyonya girls was criticised, as even women in China and Europe

had greater liberty of movement. The zenana system, which confined

pubescent girls and only allowed unmarried Nyonyas to meet men who were

part of the immediate family, was believed to ‘inherited from the Malay

ancestors of many homes’ and was condemned as a ‘monstrous system’ with

68
‘Chinese Idols and Real Evil Spirits,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 1, no. 3 (1897): 112.
69
Arnold Wright, Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya (London: Lloyd’s Greater
Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908), 216.
70
Brenda S.A. Yeoh, Contesting Space: Power Relations and the Urban Built Environment in
Colonial Singapore (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 112–114.

22
‘terrible effect.’71 Due to the long-standing belief that Peranakans had Chinese

fathers and Malay or local-indigenous mothers, the ‘monstrous’ ritual that was

condemned was inherited from the Nyonya. This colouring of what seemed to

be an out-dated and irrational ritual as “Malay” was reflective of an

increasingly problematic codification and racialization of traits. While the

Straits Chinese Reform Movement was seeking to delineate and codify

“Straits Chinese,” the definition to “Malay” was likewise becoming

standardised despite the diverse linguistic, ethnic and cultural backgrounds

that contribute to “Malay-ness.”72

However, the Malay-speaking world was engaged in a discussion on progress

and reform at the same time. Al-Imam (1906-1908), in its July 1906 article,

‘points to the backwardness of the Malays, their domination by alien races,

their laziness, their complacency, their bickering among themselves, and their

inability to cooperate for the common good. Nor are the Malays along in this

situation – it is one shared by the whole Islamic world.’ 73 The Utusan Melayu

(1907-1921) intended to “expand the knowledge of the Malays concerning

affairs and developments constantly taking place in the world” from which to

better this community. First edited by Mohammed Eunos Abdullah, the

Utusan Melayu intended to pose a threat to the old Malay order. 74 Alongside

other publications such as Neracha (1911-1915), Lembaga Melayu (1914-31)

and Za’ba’s The Poverty of Malays (1923), such writings appealed to the

Malays to do more to better themselves and their communities.

71
By a Baba, ‘Our Nyonyas,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 7, no. 4 (1903): 129; Song, ‘The
Position of Chinese Women,’ 18-19.
72
Kahn, Other Malays: Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism in the Modern Malay World, 47.
73
Roff, The Origins of Malay Nationalism, 56–57.
74
Milner, The Invention of Politics in Colonial Malaya, 90–93.

23
Regarding the education of women, the Malay-speaking world seemed more

progressive than the Straits Chinese. Amongst writers of the “Malay” world,

Muslim women were presented as educated. Adherence to Islamic traditions

was portrayed as a form of enlightenment due to their deep understanding of

its teachings. Supposed backward practices in Islamic traditions were

attributed to ignorance. Syed Syekh’s book, Faridah Hanom (1925-1926),

ends by condemning tradition and calling for changes to the understanding of

Islam to change the standing of women. 75 This sought ‘to persuade readers of

the superiority of reformist Islam, and to show in operation the set of values

necessary for living in a progressive world.’76 Education of women will be

further elaborated on the discussion on Nyonyas as the site for reform.

Development of print and journalism was thus crucial to this period of

widespread discussion on reform as it created an imagined political

community,77 facilitating the creation of a public sphere in which people

expressed, exchanged and absorbed new ideas.78 This was important in

creating the notion of a “public man” who engaged in such ideas and

propagated living the life of such ideas. However, development of print seems

to have fractured the wider Peranakan community, rather than developing it.

This may be attributed to differences in reading, and between high and low

Malay, of the Jawi script and the Romanised script.79

75
Hooker, Writing a New Society, 32.
76
Ibid., 39.
77
Xiaobing Tang, Global Space and the Nationalist Discourse of Modernity: The Historical
Thinking of Liang Qichao (Stanford, 1996), 54.
78
Jürgen Habermas, The Structual Transformation of the Public Sphere (Oxford, 1992).
79
Shellabear, “Baba Malay. An Introduction to the Language of the Straits-Born Chinese,” 49–
50.

24
The development of Malay journalism has been attributed to local-born Indian

Muslims in Singapore known as Jawi Peranakans. Similar to the Chinese

Peranakans, most of them were part of the educated middle-class employed

by the British colonial service. This, with their considerable wealth, ranked

them next to the Arabs when it came to leadership and authority within the

Malayo-Muslim community.80 The first Malay publication, the Jawi Peranakan,

sought to “give uniformity to the various dialects of Malay.” 81 Likewise, the

Chinese Peranakans are often credited as pioneers among the Chinese to

publish in the Romanised-Malay language. 82 The first Romanised-Malay

newspaper, Bintang Timor (first published in 1894) was an effort of Song Ong

Siang. In an article, “Why are the Malays Withering Away?” the Bintang Timor

wrote, “for the good of the Malays,” alleged reasons for Malay economic and

educational backwardness, lack of industry and ambition, and being unable to

practise mutual self-help. To this, the Jawi Peranakan as William Roff

showed, ‘found little to say in reply except to hurl abuse at the Straits

Chinese. The whole affair degenerated on both sides to a rather unedifying

exchange of sneers and taunts before finally fizzling out.’ 83

Despite both newspapers stemming from non-native speakers of Malay, there

was a lack of unity despite both being of Peranakan heritage, or Malay-

speakers. In a discussion of who could be “Malay,” a contributor wrote to Al-

Imam (1906-1908) that anyone who "love this country as our homeland, have
80
Roff, The Origins of Malay Nationalism, 48–49.
81
Ibid., 181.
82
S.K. Yoong and A.N. Zainab, “The Straits Chinese Contribution to Malaysian Literary
Heritage: Focus on Chinese Stories Translated into Baba Malay,” Journal of Educational
Media & Library Sciences 42, no. 2 (December 2004): 180.
83
Roff, The Origins of Malay Nationalism, 54.

25
drunk its milk, used its products to increase our flesh and blood [and] received

from it the good things of life.”84 The inclusive connotation to “Peranakan” for

all who identified as local remained limited along religious, ethnic and cultural

differences. For the Straits Chinese, being “Chinese” remained important

despite being influenced by ‘the new doctrines of European civilisation’ as

British subjects.85 The differences in the Malay script delineated the different

groups of Peranakans from each other. Similar to how spatial configurations

was ‘an arena of conflict between [different] social groups which [had] differing

vested interests in the city,’ different scripts delineated the public sphere of

ideas, words and print.86

84
Kahn, Other Malays: Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism in the Modern Malay World, 20.
85
Lim Boon Keng, ‘Our Enemies,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 1, no. 2 (1987): 52-53.
86
Yeoh, Contesting Space: Power Relations and the Urban Built Environment in Colonial
Singapore, 9.

26
 Baba as gentleman

‘As you are well aware, you are British citizens enjoying by right
of birth all the privileges and advantages that this birthright
gives you. On the other hand you are a minority amongst the
China-born Chinese with whom you are connected by descent,
traditions and customs. You are trained and educated in a
British colony and brought under the influence of a British
Government that does its best; however much it may fall short
of the ideal, to teach you to love the principles of liberty and
freedom, and appreciate the benefits of having equal justice
and rights.’87

The quote above was from a speech given by an Englishman in his attempt to

define who the Straits Chinese were. Not only was this speech given to an

audience of Straits Chinese, it was published in the first issue of the Straits

Chinese Magazine. The delicate in-between position of the Straits Chinese

could be seen in the speech’s attempt to delineate Straits Chinese identity

through citizenship, ethnicity, culture, education and ‘principles.’ These

markers were only pertinent to the males and were hedged upon British

gentlemanly ideals. However, Peranakan networks remained important to the

formation of the local identity.88 This section will first question the unilinear

path of the spread of western civil thought, followed by the impact of such

thought through the creation of societies and voluntary groups. The

subsequent section, with the Opium Reform Movement as case study, will

illustrate that the Baba as gentleman was not a purely British ideal based on

“western” ideas of progress and civilization.

87
G.T. Hare, “Straits-Born Chinese,” Straits Chinese Magazine 1, no. 1 (1897): 3–8.
88
Frost, “Emporium in Imperio: Nanyang Networks and the Straits Chinese in Singapore,
1819-1914.”

27
British imperialism has inculcated a civilizing process amongst the Babas

through a discussion of what was “civilised” behaviour. Through dress,

manners and gestures, outward expressions were reflective of the inner

man.89 The pursuit of British ways in being “civilised” was to distinguish from

newer Chinese immigrants.90 Display of such qualities was representative of

habits that were acquired through long-term socialization, reflective of the

Baba as the older Chinese.91 A blind copying of dress was not enough, as one

had to display how “civilized” he was through discerning consumption. 92 For

example, China-born Loke Yew first arrived in Singapore in 1858. Slowly, he

grew his wealth and began to imitate European lifestyle soon after his first

visit from Europe. However, such imitation was inadequate as he had to

provide an ‘impression of wealth properly employed.’ 93 Despite being China-

born, he was incorporated into the Peranakan network through his

development of Baba taste. His wife, a Nyonya, was credited as the first

Straits Chinese lady to ride an automobile in 1903. 94 In 1904, he published

“Etiquette to be Observed by All Chinese First Class Passengers” when the

railroad through the Malay States opened to justify his standing. 95

89
Norbert Elias, The Civilizing Process, Vol. 1: The History of Manners (New York: Pantheon
Books, 1982), 53–59.
90
Teoh, “A Girl Without Talent Is Therefore Virtuous: Educating Chinese Women in British
Malaya and Singapore, 1850s-1960s,” 80–81.
91
E.M. Collingham, Imperial Bodies: The Physical Experience of the Raj, C. 1800-1947
(Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001), 2.
92
Jean Comaroff, “The Empire’s Old Clothes: Fashioning the Colonial Subject,” in Cross-
Cultural Consumption: Global Markets, Local Realities, ed. David Howes (London, 1996), 20.
93
Khor, “Imperial Cosmopolitan Malaya: A Study of Realist Fiction in the ‘Straits Chinese
Magazine,’” 35.
94
Michael R. Godley, The Mandarin-Capitalists from Nanyang: Overseas Chinese Enterprise
in the Modernisation of China 1893-1911 (Cambridge, 2009), 12–14.
95
Ibid., 49–50.

28
Development of this gentlemanly ideal was argued to be a continual denial of

Britishness to the locals.96 The adoption of European dress in the imperial

context was an attempt to adopt new social identities. 97 However, to perceive

the Babas as emulating European dress is too simplistic as the central focus

was to double his authority in his local community and to enhance his

standing.98 For instance, Seah Liang Seah sent one of his sons to China to be

resinicized after he returned from England without a pigtail and as a

Christian.99 One would assume that Seah would be receptive to the changes

in his son due to his close working relationship with the British as the Chinese

member of Singapore’s Legislative Council. While knowledge of English ideas

and language, for Seah, remaining “Chinese” in dress and religion remained

important as a representative of the Chinese community. Britishness was not

copied blindly so as to maintain local influence.100

Thus, the spread of western liberalism and its impact outside Europe should

not be simplified into a blind reception by Asian thinkers. As argued by

Christopher Bayly, the universality of liberal thought appealed to educated

colonists, but a difference in its interpretation grew sharper. 101 Asian thinkers

saw the need to generalise the idea of human progress beyond its Eurocentric

bias, arguing that all major civilisations were, and had been, historically, part

96
Lynn Hollen Lees, “Being British in Malaya, 1890-1940,” The Journal of British Studies 48,
no. 1 (2009): 96–97.
97
Comaroff, “The Empire’s Old Clothes: Fashioning the Colonial Subject,” 27.
98
David Howes, “Introduction: Commodities and Cultural Borders,” in Cross-Cultural
Consumption: Global Markets, Local Realities, ed. David Howes (London, 1996), 9.
99
Kasian Tejapira, “Pigtail: A PreHistory of Chineseness in Siam,” in Alternate Identities: The
Chinese of Contemporary Thailand, ed. Tong Chee Kiong and Chan Kwok Bun (Singapore:
Times Academic Press, 2001), 45.
100
Daniel P.S. Goh, “Unofficial Contentions: The Postcoloniality of Straits Chinese Political
Discourse in the Straits Settlements Legislative Council,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
41, no. 3 (2010): 483–507.
101
Bayly, Recovering Liberties: Indian Thought in the Age of Liberalism and Empire, 186–187.

29
of the wider moral project of human betterment. 102 These were attempts to

create new meanings to modernity that was more relevant to their locales. In

Rabindranath Tagore’s words in 1918: “The territorial boundaries of the world

have disappeared in the modern age. We the people of the world have

geographically come closer.” However, Tagore added, “Our unity must stand

on love, not hate.”103

Identifying world-consciousness in the localities would be key in

understanding these thinkers. As shown by Timothy Norman Harper,

scrutinizing ‘the banal worldliness of everyday life’ especially to see the

‘worldliness of [these] people who often did not travel very far,’ would provide

a fairer lens in understanding this educated elite. 104 In India, China and Japan,

there were immense interactions amongst these thinkers in defining a new

meaning to modernity, civilization and progress. Rabindranath Tagore

travelled extensively, lecturing in Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, Japan,

Hong Kong and Canton, China. Tagore even personally knew Japanese

thinker Okakura Kakuzo, who’s The Ideals of the East was influenced by

Tagore’s ideas.105 Thinkers like them synthesised the East and West by

recognizing the qualities of both, while stressing on Eastern spirituality and

Western practicality. Although Tagore’s ideas may have changed before and

after the First World War, his thinking remained an attempt to seek a new

form of progress that was not a blind imitation of Western modernity. 106 This
102
Ibid., 188–213.
103
Mark Ravinder Frost, “‘Beyond the Limits of Nation and Geography’: Rabindranath Tagore
and the Cosmopolitan Moment, 1916-1920,” Cultural Dynamics 24, no. 2–3 (2012): 155.
104
T.N. Harper, “Singapore, 1915, and the Birth of the Asian Underground,” Modern Asian
Studies 47, no. 6 (November 2013): 1801.
105
Stephen N. Hay, Asian Ideas of East and West: Tagore and His Critics in Japan, China,
and India (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970), 38–39.
106
Ibid., 52–57, 124.

30
widespread awareness was not lost on Chinese thinkers, such as Liang

Qichao who had a strong understanding of French liberal thought. Liang

combined Aristotle, Machiavelli, Jean Bodin and Hobbes, with readings of

Mencius and Mo Zi.107

The sphere of thought amongst this generation of Asian thinkers can be seen

in Kabar Slalu, a ‘Romanized-Malay Straits-born Chinese Daily Newspaper.’

Kabar Slalu reported on Tagore and Sun Yat-sen’s whereabouts in 1924. 108

Lim Boon Keng met Tagore during his tour in China for the Chinese Lecture

Association in 1924, and again in Singapore in 1927; this led to Tagore writing

the preface of Lim’s Li Sao, the English translation of a classical Chinese

elegy.109 Before the Great War, this sphere of interactions and ideas amongst

Asian thinkers was a search for original Asian values and common history.

The belief in universality of reason, however, soon became disappointing

amongst Asian thinkers with the rise of Japanese militarism amidst Chinese

revolutionary fervour.110 This will be elaborated in the last section of this paper.

Although a learned man came to be increasingly defined by such widespread

awareness of global affairs and ideas, the body of man remained important in

reflecting such ideals. Moral reform and social reform could only be visualised

107
Tang, Global Space and the Nationalist Discourse of Modernity: The Historical Thinking of
Liang Qichao, 154.
108
‘Dr. Tagore Sampai,’ Kabar Slalu, 1 April 1924, 8; ‘Dr. Rabindranath Tagore,’ Kabar Slalu,
3 April 1924, 7; news on Tagore’s arrival in Hong Kong, Kabar Slalu, 17 April 1924, 4; ‘Dr Sun
dan Marshall Chang,’ Kabar Slalu, 3 April 1924, 7; ‘Kabaran dari Canton,’ Kabar Slalu, 12
May 1924, 5.
109
Frost, “‘Beyond the Limits of Nation and Geography’: Rabindranath Tagore and the
Cosmopolitan Moment, 1916-1920,” 146.
110
Prasenjit Duara, “Asia Redux: Conceptualizing a Region for Our Times,” The Journal of
Asian Studies 69, no. 4 (November 2010): 972–973.

31
through bodily reform.111 How clean and how one performed manners was

indicative of the mind and this was justified by “medical” practices. 112 For

Christian missions, this was an important indicator if a “Christian” moral

conscience and “Christian” character was successfully inculcated into the

convert, whose interior morality had to be reflected by their outer bodies. 113 For

the male body, “muscular Christianity” became increasingly pervasive.

Gendered expectations of male physical strength, courage, family life, and

duty to mankind were enforced, and these perceptions continued beyond

World War I.114

Cleanliness and hygiene thus became increasingly important due to how it

could be easily portrayed onto one’s outward appearance. Perception of

cleanliness was a distinguishing trait between the Straits-born Chinese and

the China-born Chinese. Readers of the Straits Chinese Magazine were told

that they set a good ‘example…[doing] great good in teaching the Chinese

from China the benefits of keeping their homes clean and tidy’ as ‘Straits-born

Chinese houses [were] models of cleanliness and good order compared with

the dwellings of the China-born Chinese.’ 115 This, however, was not unique to

the Straits Chinese and could likewise be seen in Sharifah Aziz’s Household

Treasury or Advice for Cooking the New Way (1929). This collection of

recipes was presented as one that would be useful to “our people” or “our

111
Richard Eves, “Colonialism, Corporeality and Character: Methodist Missions and the
Refashioning of Bodies in the Pacific,” History and Anthropology 10, no. 1 (1996): 89.
112
Alison Bashford, “Medicine, Gender and Empire,” in Gender and Empire, ed. Philippa
Levine (Oxford, 2004), 117.
113
Eves, “Colonialism, Corporeality and Character: Methodist Missions and the Refashioning
of Bodies in the Pacific,” 86.
114
Jeffrey Richards, “‘Passing the Love of Women’: Manly Love and Victorian Society,” in
Manliness and Morality: Middle-Class Masculinity in Britain and America 1800-1940, ed. J.A.
Mangan and James Walvin (Manchester, 1987), 103, 115.
115
Hare, ‘The Straits-born Chinese,’ 5.

32
community.” This demarcated the Malay community, and was an attempt to

influence how this community cooked. This book was explicit as a reminder

about hygiene, that cleanliness was the basis of cooking and one’s health. 116

Lidah Teruna (The Stripling Tongue), published by Persekutuan Perbahatan

Orang Orang Islam (Muslim Debating Society) of Muar, Johore similarly had

“educational” articles on the “right conduct” when it came to health, hygiene

and Islam.117

This notion of cleanliness permeated beyond the individual body and onto

larger spaces and its peoples. How clean a community was reflected its

governmentality and how individuals responded to political administration. 118

The “dark side” of London’s Limehouse, where Chinese opium dens could be

found, was perceived as a place of debauchery for sexually “loose” and

degenerate “dope” girls, while “Oriental” men who gathered there were feared

to corrupt white women.119 Imposition of what was perceived as ‘health

conditions’ were tools of the empire to subjugate indigenous cultures. By

promoting an imperial ideal, society was sanitized from its indigenous past. 120

Another way to display a healthy body was to engage in exercise.

Engagement in sports activities became an important qualification for a job in

the Colonial Service. This was also valued by private companies. 121 Within the

116
Hooker, Writing a New Society, 61–63.
117
Roff, The Origins of Malay Nationalism, 163.
118
Alison Bashford, Imperial Hygiene: A Critical History of Colonialism, Nationalism and
Public Health (New York, 2004), 188.
119
Barbara Bush, “Gender and Empire: The Twentieth Century,” in Gender and Empire, ed.
Philippa Levine (Oxford, 2004), 86.
120
Yeoh, Contesting Space: Power Relations and the Urban Built Environment in Colonial
Singapore, 81.
121
Bush, “Gender and Empire: The Twentieth Century,” 85.

33
British Empire, the obsession with a healthy body stems from fears of the

decadent overload of “modern civilization” and its colonies. To counter such

decadence, people living in the colonies were encouraged to lead more

active, engaged and busy activities and denouncing indolent and unhealthy

lifestyles towards the 1920s.122 All these differentiations of the body were part

of the development of colonial masculinity. This allowed the British to

dominate top administrative positions, by barring the natives as less

“gentlemanly” and was an implicit form of racial differentiation. 123

For the Straits Chinese Magazine, this idea of physical exercise extended to

the exercise of the mind. This was used to stress the importance of education,

and a true reflection of manhood. ‘With the completion of bodily growth, there

should be a corresponding development of the understanding. We even value

moral and intellectual power higher than physical strength’; however,

‘manhood could never be reached without education.’ 124 Manliness was thus

not perpetuated purely through the display of physical growth, but through

one’s knowledge in reflecting one’s maturity. The ideal was that ‘every faculty

of the body and mind may be exercised.’125 The proliferation of societies that

engaged in philosophical debates during this period was a mode to display

how one “exercised” his mind. Societies such as the Chinese Christian

Association (established 1889), the Straits Philosophical Society (established

1893), and the Chinese Philomatic Society (established 1896) regularly held
122
Ann Laura Stoler, “Making Empire Respectable: The Politics of Race and Sexual Morality
in Twentieth-Century Colonial Cultures,” in Dangerous Liaisons: Gender, Nation, and
Postcolonial Perspectives, ed. Anne McClintock, Aamir Mufti, and Ella Shobat (London,
1997), 359.
123
Mrinalini Sinha, Colonial Masculinity (Place: Manchester University Press, 1995), 112–114.
124
Seah Leang Seah, ‘The Duties of Parents and Teachers,’ Straits Chinese Magazine, 1, no.
4 (1897): 147-149.
125
Ibid.

34
debates or lectures on topics deemed to be important to them. Others, such

as the Straits Chinese Literary Association (established 1911) and other

readings clubs, sought to improve their member’s awareness of general

affairs and knowledge. Editors of the Straits Chinese Magazine were involved

in the establishment of these associations.

Much as the Straits Chinese Reform Movement encouraged participation in

such societies to make better use of one’s time, it was also reflective of a

leisurely class that was already part of a distinct social network. Participation

in such societies not only allowed one to self-fashion into someone more

intellectual and aware, but also reflected how one spent their leisure time.

A local voluntary military force, however, was a more striking display of

colonial masculinity as compared to other voluntary associations. Allowing a

local voluntary force was a dilemma for the British. Allowing Asiatics to protect

the colonies contested how the British upheld masculinity to be an exclusive

Anglo-Saxon definition; yet, a voluntary force gave locals a special stake in

preserving the colonial social order.126 The Chinese Company of the

Singapore Volunteer Infantry (SVI), established in 1901, was believed to be a

result of wanting to contribute to the Boxer Rebellion. 127 However, as early as

1898, the idea for a volunteer corps amongst the Straits Chinese could be

found in Straits Chinese Magazine.128 This was even debated by the Anglo-

Chinese School Literary Society at the same time.129 Reluctance in

126
Sinha, Colonial Masculinity, 78–79.
127
Yong, Chinese Leadership and Power in Colonial Singapore, 57. In a roundtable titled
‘Engaging China in a Globalizing Age,’ Jeffrey Wasserstrom highlighted how the Boxer
Rebellion should be investigated as a global event.
128
‘News and notes,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 2, no. 6 (1898): 75.
129
‘Meetings of Societies,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 2, no. 6 (1898): 79.

35
establishing a Chinese SVI reflects the discomfort in recognizing the equality

of races. Martial traditions encouraged solidarity within its forces through

regimental training and treatment. This would recognize the Straits Chinese

being as “manly” through his role in defending the Empire. 130

British perceptions of the volunteer corps, however, were not taken as

seriously. Although the British formed the first and earlier volunteer corps in

Singapore with the Singapore Volunteer Rifle Corps in 1857, 131 even the

impending war in Europe did not seem to have aroused a sense of urgency to

train for war preparedness. Edwin Brown remembers the volunteer corps and

training:

‘We were, I am afraid, a most unruly crowd, and discipline in

camp was very lax. Most of the rank and file knew more about
their job than the officers did, I am afraid. One of the minor
incidents I took part in was a night attack on the camp itself.
The S.V.R. were the attacking party, and I do not know to this
day who the defenders were – they may have forgotten to
appoint any! Be that as it may, we never saw them, and in the
end the gang I was with found itself back in camp, and at the
rear of the officers’ mess tent… Colonel Murray had a “guest
night,” so we decided to finish our work in style and capture the
dinner party! I can remember now the surprise and anger of
Murray, and the delight of the guests, when the room was
invaded by a party of men covered in mud from head to foot,
with rifles in their hands, who forced the diners to leave their
table and to stand in a row while their names were taken, and
they were told that they were under arrest!’ 132

This was a contrast to the Straits Chinese who took great pride in contributing

to the volunteer corps. Prior to the outbreak of the Great War, the Chinese

Company took practices seriously and even boasts of having won the Warren
130
Sinha, Colonial Masculinity, 76–79.
131
C. Phillips, ‘The beginnings of the Singapore Volunteer Movement and the Singapore Rifle
Association,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 9, no. 2 (1905): 66-69.
132
Edwin A. Brown, Indiscreet Memories (London: Kelly and Walsh, 1934).

36
Challenge Shield. Such contributions were even perceived to be rightful

expectations of a Straits Chinese British subject.133

During the turn of the twentieth-century, there was a national anxiety over the

loss of Britishness. The British were afraid of losing “civilized” life like the

Dutch in the Dutch East Indies.134 Urban life was perceived to be detrimental to

society,135 and the colonies were imagined to be slowly encroaching upon the

British metropole. Other events around the world contributed to this – such as

the impact of Japan’s victory in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, which led

to a fear of an “Eastern awakening” in Edwardian Britain. 136 For the Straits

Chinese, especially those who were English-educated, this meant increased

ambiguity and discomfort regarding where they stood. The subsequent

discussion on the Great War will show how these Chinese British subjects

negotiated “Britishness” as part of their identity as “Britishness” became

increasingly ambiguous and distanced from them.

The proliferation of support for Britain during the Great War amongst the

Straits Chinese was used to justify how the Straits Chinese were Anglophiles.

However, this is too simplistic a view of the Straits Chinese, and this section

would like to argue that it was an attempt to perpetuate a more Peranakan

133
Tan Jiak Kim, Lim Boon Keng, Song Ong Siang (ed.), Duty to the British Empire (Being an
Elementary Guide for Straits Chinese) (The Straits Albion Press, Ltd., Printers: Singapore,
1915).
134
Kathleen Wilson, “The Nation without: Practices of Sex and State in the Early Modern
British Empire,” in Race, Nation and Empire: Making Histories, 1750 to the Present, ed.
Catherine Hall and Keith McCelland (New York, 2010), 180.
135
James Walvin, “Symbols of Moral Superiority: Slavery, Sport and the Changing World
Order, 1800-1940,” in Manliness and Morality: Middle-Class Masculinity in Britain and
America 1800-1940, ed. J.A. Mangan and James Walvin (Manchester, 1987), 255.
136
Chika Tonooka, “Reverse Emulation and the Cult of Japanese Efficiency in Edwardian
Britain,” The Historical Journal FirstView Articles (May 2016): 1–25.

37
identity. Being “British” made the Straits Chinese a more superior local, and a

more superior Chinese. This assertion of loyalty towards the British Empire

helped to delineate the Straits Chinese as a distinct group with such political

inclinations. World War I provided members of the SCBA an opportunity to

capture leadership of a wider audience and to revitalise the Straits Chinese

Reform Movement. Thus, British citizenry identity, rather than British “white”

identity, was the ideal. World War I resulted in a proliferation of pro-British

prints and illustrations in support for the war.137 The Straits Chinese British

Associated printed pamphlets such as, Duty to the British Empire (Being an

Elementary Guide for Straits Chinese) During the Great War (1915), and The

Unity of the British Empire. Why Straits Chinese Should Interest Themselves

in the War (1915).

137
See Figure 2 as an example of a full-page poster in The Eastern Illustrated Review,
(1918): 74.

38
Figure 2: The Eastern Illustrated Review © The British Library Board, P.P.3800.cdd

The Great War was an opportunity for the Straits Chinese to emphasise their

Britishness, and demand for greater equality throughout the Empire. There

was an increased demand for equality through a ‘new dispensation of

fraternity and quality…among the nations’ espousing for ‘new ideals’ in the

39
‘re-construction of a better world.’138 The volunteer corps was a reminder to all

that Straits Chinese were British subjects. As described by Song Ong Siang,

the volunteer corps came to represent the Straits Chinese’s ‘oath of

allegiance to His Majesty King George… [proving] beyond doubt that the

imperial Government recognises the claims of Straits Chinese to be British

subjects.’ Song reminds the Straits Chinese to ‘make good such claim’ if one

was to maintain one’s ‘political status of British citizenship.’ 139

Thus, the SVI Chinese Company came to represent the Straits Chinese

“community doing its share of military service as true British subjects.”’ 140

Assertion of loyalty and imperial unity was accompanied by assertion for

equality.141 If loyalty to the British Crown was inadequate for the Straits

Chinese to contribute, the Straits Chinese should do so for the defence of

their own ‘women and children [who] must get protection from [the SVI] in the

hour of danger, that they will not wait for the Government to legislate for

compulsory military training… so that when the call of duty comes they will be

manly actors and not poor and helpless spectators.’ 142 If one had no physical

ability to render his service, one could support through financial means. The

Straits Chinese were encouraged to buy the War Loans Bonds ‘liberally.’

Each individual’s contribution was emphasised to be important for the ‘Mother

Country’ Britain.143 In 1915, members of the SCBA launched a campaign to

raise funds for the National War Loan. The SCBA even pushed the colonial
138
Tan Hon Beng, ‘The Future of the Straits Chinese,’ The Eastern Illustrated Review (1919):
41.
139
Song Ong Siang, ‘The Straits Chinese and a Local Patriotic League’ (Singapore: The
Straits Albion Press, Ltd., Printers, 1915).
140
L.U.C.K., ‘Keep the Flay Flying,’ The Eastern Illustrated Review (1918): 75.
141
Lees, “Being British in Malaya, 1890-1940,” 89.
142
Song, ‘The Straits Chinese and a Local Patriotic League’.
143
L.U.C.K., ‘Keep the Flay Flying’.

40
government for a War Tax Bill that enforced contributions based on one’s

income. Amongst the SCBA leadership, Tan Jiak Kim alone contributed

$37,000 to the Prince of Wales Relief Fund and bought battle planes for the

fight against Germany. Lee Choon Guan likewise bought one with Lim Peng

Siang, while Lim Boon Keng canvassed amongst the Malaccan Chinese to

purchase two warplanes.144

Exaggerated British patriotism was a way to compensate for an increased

uncertainty over how they ranked against the “Chinaman.” ‘The Chinaman as

a Soldier’ was lauded as the ‘Yellow Terror’ with ‘great natural courage.’ As

one who could ‘fight long and stubbornly against heavy odds,’ 145 the

“Chinaman” was no masculine gentleman, but a disposable, hardworking

soldier. The gentlemanly Straits-born, through his participation in the

volunteer corps and his worldly awareness was made an equal or stronger

than the “Chinaman.” The Straits Chinese was asserted to have better

qualities of the mind. While ‘Thoroughly Chinese…[the Straits Chinese] has

shown how it has been possible to open his mind to all that is best in

European culture.’146 The Straits Chinese were thus the solution for the

Chinese ‘conflict with European civilisation’ and being in a state of transition

from the ‘old ways of our [Chinese] forefathers’ allowed them to be successful

intermediaries.147 The display of British patriotism in contrast to the

“Chinaman” was to assert the Babas as gentlemen more loyal to their locale.

144
Yong, Chinese Leadership and Power in Colonial Singapore, 57–58.
145
W. Machell, ‘The Chinaman as a Soldier,’ Straits Chinese Magazine, 1:4 (December,
1897), pp. 129-135.
146
Tan Keong Saik, ‘The Proposed Straits Gold Currency: A Chinese Opinion,’ Straits
Chinese Magazine 1, no. 4 (1897): 147-149.
147
Tan Teck Soon, ‘Chinese Problems,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 2, no. 7 (1898): 111-116.
Lim, ‘Our Enemies,’ 52.

41
It was the western European definition of martiality, rather than Chinese or

Malay definitions, that was adopted by the Straits Chinese in asserting their

masculinity.148

Anxiety amongst the Straits Chinese regarding their status within the British

Empire was understandable considering the times when British subjects were

not recognised by British authorities. This resulted in their imprisonment

during their return or travel to China.149 Any “returning” Chinese would be

prosecuted for having broken the decrees made in in 1712 and 1742 that

forbade overseas trade and emigration.150 This remained ambiguous during

the Great War as a Chinese British subject could not ‘claim protection of his

acquired nationality on returning to the country of his origin.’ The British

passport was useful for the Straits Chinese in areas where ‘Treaties [were]

made between England and Foreign Countries, as if he were a natural born’

except for China.151 For the Baba, dressing like a British became increasingly

important in identifying himself as a British subject. In 1898, Straits Chinese

Khung Yiong was imprisoned in China. He was not recognised by the British

consul for not donning Western dress. 152

148
This argument was made in the context of the Dutch East Indies. See: Tom Hoogervorst,
“Manliness in Sino-Malay Publications in the Netherlands Indies,” Forthcoming with South
East Asia Research, SAGE Journals Online, 2016, 1–25.
149
Straits Chinese Magazine reported on a Khun Yiong who were imprisoned in Amoy after
he was refused recognition despite being a British subject of Chinese descent. Such news
was similarly reflected in The Straits Chinese Herald. ‘British Subjects of Chinese Descent,’
Straits Chinese Magazine 2, no. 4 (1897): 156.
150
Guofu Liu, The Right to Leave and Return and Chinese Migration Law (Leiden, 2007),
129–133.
151
Tan, Lim, Song (ed.), Duty to the British Empire.
152
Lees, “Being British in Malaya, 1890-1940,” 95.

42
To negotiate between identities, a British subject was defined to be someone

who was born within the British Empire. Being of a different race did not

matter as the Straits Chinese were only Chinese ‘by race and by religion and

customs.’153 This was compared with the French Canadians, and the Dutch

Boers. Loyalty to the British crown was emphasised with the threat that

treason would be ‘the most heinous crime’; it was also ‘Chinese morality and

traditions’ to be disloyal.154 British law was an unreliable source of protection

for the non-white Straits Chinese British subject. But, the belief in British

liberalism remained, that the problem laid in the application of British laws,

rather than the inherent institutional structures of British colonialism that was

racist.155

Cosmopolitanism of the British Empire was highlighted as a safe space. The

British Empire, ‘as an incarnation of righteousness and freedom,’ was a

‘democracy’ that different peoples shared; the empire was where ‘humanity

and justice’ was upheld, and the ‘smaller,’ ‘weaker,’ and ‘less favoured

nationalities’ were lifted ‘by the spirit of love, by the principle of liberty, and by

the light of knowledge.’156 Diversity of races was not a problem as the ‘French

Republic and the Chunghua Republic also embrace[d] men of very diverse

races and religions.’157 “Civic Britannicus” was to embrace ‘all British subjects

resident in this Colony who are not of European parentage.’ The Chinese

Peranakans constantly battled with the question of loyalty. By establishing

153
Tan, Lim, Song (ed.), Duty to the British Empire..
154
Ibid.
155
Khor, “Imperial Cosmopolitan Malaya: A Study of Realist Fiction in the ‘Straits Chinese
Magazine,’” 41.
156
Lim Boon Keng, The Unity of the British Empire. Why Straits Chinese Should Interest
Themselves in the War (Singapore Free Press: Singapore, 1915).
157
Tan, Lim, Song (ed.), Duty to the British Empire.

43
that it was silly in ‘making distinctions as far as loyalty is concerned,’ the

Chinese Peranakans continued to believe that all races should be ‘regarded

as loyal subjects’ and ‘treated as such.’158 The SCBA leaders were thus

establishing how best to navigate being “Chinese” and a “British” at the same

time.

However, this cosmopolitanism was only limited to those who subscribed to

the ideas that the Straits Chinese proposed. Emphasis remained on the

Straits Chinese community, rather than the larger local. The Straits Chinese

had the primary duty to ensure that action was taken even if they were the

only ones to do so; the Great War was to be a test of the ‘loyalty of the Straits

Chinese’ who were encouraged to put up a strong showing so that they would

not be left “tried and found wanting.” 159 Nevertheless, there remained hopes

that the ‘long curse’ of ‘colour’ and ‘race prejudices will disappear’; this was

deemed crucial to ‘unity in the Empire.’160

While the Great War was brewing, Chinese revolutionary fervour grew

amongst the educated middle-classes, and some of the Babas mentioned in

this section were involved in Chinese revolutionary politics. Song Ong Siang

and Lim Boon Keng provided assistance to Kang You-wei during his six

months of refuge in Singapore.161 Studies on Straits Chinese involvement in

Chinese politics have coloured them to be undeniably Chinese. The Opium

Wars (1839-42, 1856-60), Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), Japanese

158
“What Is Loyalty?,” Straits Chinese Magazine 1, no. 2 (1897): 72.
159
Song, ‘The Straits Chinese and a Local Patriotic League’.
160
‘Peace at Last,’ The Eastern Illustrated Review (June, 1919), p. 3.
161
Guan Kin Lee, “Introduction,” in The Chinese Crisis from Within, by Boon Keng Lim
(Singapore, 2006), xiii–xiv.

44
Twenty-one Demands upon China (1915), and the May Fourth Movement (c.

1915 – 1930) form the general nationalist narrative of Chinese “national

humiliation.”

Much as World War I needs to be recentred away from European history, the

abovementioned events need to be recentred away from a Sinocentric

history.162 This, and how different post-1915 became, will be further elaborated

in the final section on the “resinification” of the Chinese Peranakans. Ideas

from the SCBA leaders in the run-up to, and during World War I, were

reflective of attempts to carve a new identity as both “Chinese” and “British.”

Arguably, this was a more inclusive identity in encapsulating peoples into their

fold as it was dependent on political inclinations. The colour of one’s skin or

one’s customs did not hinder participation and subscription to this identity, and

better placed the Chinese Peranakans as the better “local” subject. As argued

by Lynn Hollen Lees, the Baba was the more progressive and sophisticated

British subject who was well-adept in the ‘English language, Western dress,

and the traditions of political liberalism.’ 163 Despite this seeming subscription to

“Britishness,” “Chineseness” remained important in framing the Baba

gentleman, as will be elaborated through the discussion on the Opium Reform

Movement.

162
Harper, “Singapore, 1915, and the Birth of the Asian Underground,” 1786.
163
Lees, “Being British in Malaya, 1890-1940,” 100.

45
 Opium Reform Movement

Opium has always been lucrative for the British Empire, especially since the

First Opium War.164 As argued by Carl Trocki, opium revenue helped transform

Asian economies in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. It was

opium revenues that laid the foundation of the global capitalist structure as

dictated by western imperialism.165 With that, the history of opium in Southeast

Asia has largely been an economic and political investigation focusing on

Chinese enterprise.166 This section seeks to give a different lens to existing

research by utilizing conversations on opium reform to understand perceived

cultural and ideological distinctions. Beginning with the British and Chinese

context of opium, this article will then explore how the Babas of the SCBA and

the Straits Chinese Magazine navigated these different perceptions, and its

impact on the Babas’ standing.

In early nineteenth-century Britain and China, perception of the use of opium

was much less feared. This changed during the course of the century in

Britain with the 1868 Pharmacy Act and increased high profile opiate

deaths.167 The Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade began in 1874
164
John F. Richards, “Opium and the British Indian Empire: The Royal Commission of 1895,”
Modern Asian Studies 36, no. 2 (2002): 377.
165
Carl A. Trocki, Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy: A Study of the Opium
Trade 1750-1950 (London, 1999), 9–10.
166
See also, Carl A. Trocki, “Opium and the Beginnings of Chinese Capitalism in Southeast
Asia,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 33, no. 2 (2002): 297–314; Carl A. Trocki,
“Boundaries and Transgressions: Chinese Enterprise in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century
Southeast Asia,” in Ungrounded Empires: The Cultural Politics of Modern Chinese
Transnationalism, ed. Aihwa Ong and Donald M. Nonini (London, 1997), 61–88; James R.
Rush, Opium to Java: Revenue Farming and Chinese Enterprise in Colonial Indonesia, 1860-
1910 (London, 1990).
167
Victoria Berridge, “Victorian Opium Eating: Responses to Opiate Use in Nineteenth-
Century England,” Victorian Studies 21, no. 4 (1978): 441–443.

46
was largely driven by a sense of morality, which drove the anti-opium

movement.168 British missionaries also campaigned against the use of opium

during this period, and believed the empire should be governed by a stronger

sense of moral example. The eradication of opium was believed to be able to

remove the assortment of moral ills across Britain’s empire. 169 However, the

motives of missionaries against opium were not completely altruistic and

remained racialized. The missionaries in China perceived the ‘narcotics

abuse’ in China to be the “judgment of God on a dishonest race” – reflective

of race and gender assumptions that missionaries working in China had. 170

Meanwhile, negative perceptions of opium grew much earlier in China, during

the first decades of the nineteenth-century. The Daoguang Emperor

denounced opium was “wasting money and harming people” and was

demonized as the source for corruption and military weakness. More

importantly, opium was demonized for its association with the west. 171 Control

on opium consumption began as early as 1729, as part of the general drive

against moral corruption within Qing China.172 At the same time, opium

smoking in China was ‘a culture all on its own’ by early twentieth-century.

Being synonymous with hosting, opium smoking came with a plethora of its

own material culture – trays to serve opium, intricate pipes and other gadgets

to facilitate the experience.173 The provision of opium to smoke was as similar

168
Ibid., 458–459.
169
J.B. Brown, “Politics of the Poppy: The Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade,
1874-1916,” Journal of Contemporary History 8, no. 3 (1973): 98.
170
Joyce A. Madancy, The Troublesome Legacy of Commissioner Lin: The Opium Trade and
Opium Suppression in Fujian Province, 1820s to 1920s (London, 2003), 280–281.
171
Frank Dikötter, Lars Laaman, and Zhou Xun, “Narcotic Culture: A Social History of Drug
Consumption in China,” The British Journal of Criminology 42, no. 2 (2002): 321.
172
Ibid., 331.
173
Yangwen Zheng, The Social Life of Opium in China (Cambridge, 2005), 173–175.

47
a social marker as the serving of exotic dishes at banquets. It was a luxury

item that provided an aesthetic experience for its wealthy customers. 174

The smoking of opium, rather than the ingestion of opium in liquid form, was

common amongst the Chinese. This racialized the smoking of opium to be a

“Chinese” phenomenon in the United States and Europe due to the difference

in method of consumption of opium. The plethora of negative orientalist

images, featuring Chinese men in dark and squalid opium dens filled with

smoke, contributed to the opium den being synonymous with the Chinese.

Postcards featuring both the rich and the poor smoking were common

memorabilia from China.175 It is interesting that till today, a photo of an

emaciated looking old man remains to be identified as an opium smoker,

despite the lack of opium or even a pipe.176 The notion that opium dens were

disgusting public places have been challenged in recent literature. R.K.

Newman’s article seeks a reconsideration of the ‘classic depiction of the

Chinese opium smoker’ by clarifying the Chinese experience with opium.

Chinese opium dens were clarified to be ‘fashionable,’ ‘clean and homely,’

unlike the Western perception that it would be crowded and full of “loud

talking.”177

174
Dikötter, Laaman, and Xun, “Narcotic Culture: A Social History of Drug Consumption in
China,” 320.
175
Zheng, The Social Life of Opium in China, 181.
176
See Figure 3. Description from the website said, ‘A 1950s photograph showing a thin and
aged Chinese man who is rushing to cover up his goods for sale. The man is probably an
opium smoker. Opium smoking was widely practised in Singapore in the early 19th century.’
177
R.K. Newman, “Opium Smoking in Late Imperial China: A Reconsideration,” Modern Asian
Studies 29, no. 4 (October 1995): 765–94.

48
Figure 3: ‘Aged Chinese worker:half-length portrait’178

Despite such divisive views about opium, the Straits Chinese Magazine chose

to avoid the question of British responsibility for the opium problem.

‘Responsibility of the introduction of opium on the shoulders of the English’

was couched as ‘popular imagination’ and the issue of blame was ‘not [their]

subject.’179 Likewise, no mention is made of the Chinese imperial state’s

responsibility. Lim vacillates on the issue of responsibility within the same

article, that it was ‘a very serious problem in State ethics’ should ‘a large

revenue from opium [was derived, yet], it strove its utmost to increase this

178
Source: http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/pictures/Details/d25f6e4b-7841-4e0d-8768-
409b620d556e. Last accessed: 23 May 2016. From the Lee Kip Lin Collection, National
Library Board, Singapore, 2009.

Lim Boon Keng, ‘The Attitude of the State towards the Opium Habit,’ Straits Chinese
179

Magazine 2’, no. 6 (1898): 48.

49
revenue, regardless of the effects of the drug habit among the population.’ 180

Thus, the wealthy opium-farmers who gained from these revenues were to be

blamed, rather than the state.

This is rather queer as the SCBA firmly sits within Singapore’s national

narrative as the birth of early demands for self-governance. Founders of the

SCBA, Tan Jiak Kim, Seah Liang Seah, Lim Boon Keng and Song Ong Siang,

came to represent the new generation of Babas that preferred reasoning to

blind respect to authority, change over inactivity. 181 It is often claimed that the

SCBA united the Straits Chinese British subjects.182 Its aims and objectives,

while seeking to promote interest in British affairs, also sought to promote the

general welfare of the Chinese British subjects within the constitution. 183 While

the name of its association is “Straits Chinese,” its objective was to represent

all “Chinese.”

Despite being a representation of the “Chinese,” Lim did not seem to

recognise opium as popular culture for the Chinese. By suggesting that ‘The

Government is morally bound to establish depots or asylums for the treatment

of those who crave to be delivered’ reflects how only one type of Chinese

opium-smoker was on his mind.184 This was the poor Chinese labourer that

Europeans have coloured to be:

‘In close proximity to the domestic class, as adding to the

comforts or discomforts of Europeans, come the much-abused

180
Lim, ‘The Attitude of the State towards the Opium Habit,’ 51.
181
Yong, Chinese Leadership and Power in Colonial Singapore, 52.
182
Yong Hock Lee, “A History of the Straits Chinese British Association” (BA Honours Thesis,
University of Malaya, 1960), 17.
183
Ibid., 11.
184
Lim, ‘The Attitude of the State towards the Opium Habit,’ 47-48.

50
 ricksha-pullers, who, as a general rule, are either from Foochow
or Hokien… The richsha coolies at times seeks a temporary
elysium by a sojourn in one of the opium dens. A glimpse
through the open doorway reveals within a motley crew of
emaciated beings looking remarkably like corpses as they lie
stretched on mat beds slowly sucking the small but tempting
pipe. In lonely tin mines, on rubber estates, and in places with
large contracts for road-making, the Chinese are often found
more peaceable as opium-smokers in moderation.’ 185

Straits Chinese Magazine assumes that it was mainly Chinese male coolies

who smoked opium. Although no Chinese Peranakan can be found depicted

with an opium pipe in pictures or portraits, this assumption of the male coolie

as the only smoker should be questioned. Coolies were the wage-spenders

that oiled the wealth of many Chinese Peranakan-owned businesses, 186 but

there was a lack of sympathy for the tough lives they led where opium was

probably their stimulant and sedative. They were perceived as ‘victims to this

drug habit’ as opium could not enable ‘the Chinese to work more happily.’ 187

Representation of the Chinese labouring class was based on supposedly

enlightened ideals, rather than a genuine understanding and reform of their

working environments. As argued by Neil Khor, gambling dens, brothels and

smoking dens, representative of the coolie underclass, ‘gave rise to a sense

of ambivalence’ to the Baba elite ‘as the community attempted to reconcile

itself with Singapore’s underbelly.’188

185
Reginald Sanderson, “The Population of Malaya,” in Twentieth Century Impressions of
British Malaya, ed. Arnold Wright (London: Lloyd’s Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd.,
1908), 214–215.
186
Trocki, Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy: A Study of the Opium Trade
1750-1950, 156.
187
‘Do Opium and Alcohol benefit those who consume them in small doses?’ Straits Chinese
Magazine 4, no. 14 (1900): 78.
188
Khor, “Imperial Cosmopolitan Malaya: A Study of Realist Fiction in the ‘Straits Chinese
Magazine,’” 35.

51
Straits Chinese Magazine spoke on behalf of the general Chinese population

in the Straits Settlements. They believed that the ‘Chinese abroad have long

ago learnt to venerate and to love the British constitution, and if a plebiscite

were taken they would all declare in favour of England, should there ever

arise the question of a European occupation of China.’ This was because the

Chinese found a ‘paradise’ in the Straits Settlements as it was only there that

the found ‘justice and liberty.’ However, the emphasis remained that China of

the old had such ideals as well, as it was in ‘their Classical books [that they

were taught]…characteristics of an enlightened and benevolent

government.’189 There was a tension in upholding British logic and perception,

while some sense of pride in Chinese culture remained. This pride, however,

was selective when it came to embracing Chinese opium-smoking culture.

Besides cultural perceptions of the Chinese opium-smoker, opium was also

racialized due to the dominance of the Chinese in opium farming in Southeast

Asia. As opium farms freed up capitals, the Chinese could invest to expand

their opium farms or to diversify their businesses.190 It should be recognised

that the Chinese were not the only consumers for the opium considering the

immense demand for opium.191 These Chinese kongsis, clan associations,

began to threaten British colonial interests as Chinese business

conglomerated through kongsi networks. It was only with the British takeover

of opium farms that bankruptcy came about for some of these familial or clan-

based conglomerates.192

189
‘The Chinese Abroad,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 1, no. 4 (1897): 155.
190
Trocki, “Opium and the Beginnings of Chinese Capitalism in Southeast Asia,” 299–300.
191
Rush, Opium to Java: Revenue Farming and Chinese Enterprise in Colonial Indonesia,
1860-1910, 52.
192
Trocki, “Opium and the Beginnings of Chinese Capitalism in Southeast Asia,” 313–314.

52
Straits Chinese Magazine tried to appeal to these rich Chinese merchants,

that they had ‘a clear duty to perform towards these labouring classes who

form the bulk of our population...The Chinese ought to form a society to

advocate sound views regarding the dangers of opium and especially to

rectify those social and physical causes which necessitate resort to such a

narcotic.’193 The duty of the colonial state was shared with these Chinese

merchant-leaders. More specifically, the magazine was appealing to the

English-speaking Straits Chinese to lead the “labouring classes.”

European, or British, support was deemed to be able to further their cause,

rather than reaching out to the Chinese everyman. This was part of a wider

perception that Europeans were ideal in the ‘expression of progressive ideas.’

Help was enlisted amongst ‘sympathetic European friends’ in the Straits

Chinese Magazine’s hope for ‘social and literary culture and progress.’ 194

Much as the Chinese Peranakans relied on their ‘European friends’ for the

pursuit of societal progression and improvement, the Chinese Peranakans

recognised that their ideal improvements could not be achieved without the

support of the rich and powerful Chinese kongsis who hired most of the

Chinese ‘labouring classes.’ There was no unity amongst the “Chinese” or

“Straits Chinese” as the anti-opium movement was led by the same “ethnic

group” that financed these opium farms. 195 Claudine Salmon’s analysis of

Boen Sing Hoo’s syair reflects ridicule and criticism of opium farm auctions

193
Lim, ‘The Attitude of the State towards the Opium Habit,’ 48.
194
‘Press Opinions,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 1, no. 2 (1897): 35.
195
Arnold Wright, ed., “Opium,” in Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya (London:
Lloyd’s Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908), 154.

53
amongst the Peranakan elite. Through a caricature of the Peranakan elite as

animals at the opium farm auctions, Boen Sing Hoo criticised the Chinese

Peranakans of the Dutch East Indies and successful newcomers who entered

the business from China or Singapore.196

The opium reformers were mainly English-educated Chinese Peranakan men

who were doctors. Along with Dr Suat Chuan Yin, Lim Boon Keng set up the

Singapore Anti-Opium Society in June 1906, a month after the establishment

of the Tang Road Refuge that was sponsored by the Chinese Consul-General

of Singapore, Suen Tze-ting. This was soon copied by Dr Wu Lien-teh,

brother-in-law of Lim, who established the Penang Anti-Opium Association. 197

Science triumphed against the knowledge of ‘a few medical men’ as a ‘very

valuable prophylactic against the malarious and other diseases peculiar to

certain tropical climates.’198

By the end of nineteenth-century, western scientific thinking believed in a

hybrid “disease of the will” concept that combined morality with scientific

notions of illness. Addiction was believed to be a “form of moral insanity” and

“moral bankruptcy”.199 In the Straits Chinese Magazine, this relationship

between the mind and the physical body that permeated medical studies

could be seen in an article titled ‘Physical Religion’:

196
Claudine Salmon, “A Critical View of Opium Farmers as Reflected in a Syair by Boen Sing
Hoo (Semarang, 1889),” Indonesia, The Role of the Indonesian Chinese in Shaping Modern
Indonesian Life, 1991, 25–51.
197
U. Wen Cheng, “Opium in the Straits Settlements, 1867-1910,” Journal of Southeast Asian
History 2, no. 1 (1961): 56–57.
198
Lim, ‘The Attitude of the State towards the Opium Habit,’ 49.
199
Berridge, “Victorian Opium Eating: Responses to Opiate Use in Nineteenth-Century
England,” 457–458.

54
 ‘Our bodily and mental interests are inseparably bound up
together and no part of us can rise or fall without the rest taking
a share. Thus physical evil always infers moral evil, and the
reverse. Our body cannot be diseased without our mind
becoming so likewise… The conduct of our physical life is just
as difficult as that of our moral. To live a virtuous physical life
deserves, therefore, as great admiration and praise as the
other.’200

Likewise, Lim Boon Keng believed that addiction had something to do with the

discipline of the body. ‘Physical and mental troubles’ were evident when the

opium-smoker was ‘forcibly deprived of smoke.’201 This ‘habitual self-

indulgence [is] at once subversive of individual health and detrimental to

public morality.’202 One’s health, thus, reflected not only his mind but also the

morals of those around him.

There was an attempt to make such scientific logic applicable to all races,

especially the Chinese. The ‘prevalent opinion that opium might affect

different races of people in different ways’ was challenged as ‘the same drug

act in the same way on different people. So does whisky.’ 203 This helped to

challenge the idea that China (and its Chinese) would always remain the “sick

man” of Asia, and that with reform, the social malaise and problems plaguing

China could be reversed.204 Medical-scientific ideas were thus transferred and

utilized in the same vein on non-white peoples, by non-white peoples. Such

application of scientific reasoning reflected how English-educated liberals

transformed Western-centric ideas for their own progress.

200
‘Physical religion,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 1, no. 1 (1897): 9
201
Lim, ‘The Attitude of the State towards the Opium Habit,’ 52.
202
‘Do Opium and Alcohol benefit those who consume them in small doses?’ Straits Chinese
Magazine 4, no. 14 (1900): 78.
203
Reverand B.F. West, ‘The Opium Question,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 7, no. 3 (1903): 88.
204
Toda Kenji, “Anti-Opium Movement,Chinese Nationalism and the Straits Chinese in the
Early Twentieth Century,” Malaysian Journal of Chinese Studies 1 (2012): 97.

55
The Straits Chinese Magazine shared the same perception as the British

missionaries that it was the Christian movement in England that facilitated the

change in China’s opium habit. Although England had to see ‘her error in this

unchristian traffic,’ England was also credited for all the ‘noble work’ that was

‘[augured] well for the success of the campaign’ due to the involvement of ‘the

most influential classes of men in England.’ 205 This is ironic considering how

the anti-opium movement in China perceived Chinese degradation as a result

of the opium habit, and demonized opium as a symbol of Western

imperialism. Elimination of opium became a cause for patriotic Chinese

nationalists,206 but the British understood this as the effectiveness of their

missionaries.207

Through this investigation on the Opium Reform Movement amongst the

Straits Chinese, the gentlemanly Baba challenged and altered British thought.

British liberal ideas of progress, morality and reform were embraced, but not

applied in a similar vein. “Medical” or “scientific” ideas were opened up to non-

white peoples. Yet, while challenging “British” thought, the Babas were

utilizing British symbols in their leadership of the general “Chinese”

population. The gentleman Baba, while relying on British ideas and symbols,

also relied on Chinese networks and support over the pursuit of opium reform.

It was the attempt to navigate between the two worlds that fashioned the

Baba.

205
‘Home Politics and Opium,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 7, no. 4 (1903): 149.
206
Cheng, “Opium in the Straits Settlements, 1867-1910,” 58–59.
207
Brown, “Politics of the Poppy: The Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade, 1874-
1916,” 108.

56
57
 Nyonya as the site for reform

Literature on the Straits Chinese Reform Movement has focused on the socio-

political activities and identities of the Babas, besides Christine Doran’s article

that recognised how the Reform Movement ‘sought to distinguish Chinese

women from European women.’208 Doran argued that this was an attempt to

minimize the incorporation of Malay practices into Chinese practices.

However, the continual use of the Baba-Malay language contests this notion

of reducing “Malayness.” The Straits Chinese Magazine, written in English,

represents only the English-educated Peranakans during this time period.

Also, the roles of Nyonyas are often relegated to the domestic space.

Research on Peranakan material culture has been illustrated as a Nyonya’s

domain, such as Peranakan porcelain being “Nyonyaware,” rather than

recognizing the networks porcelain represented. 209This reduces the

importance of the Nyonyas, being mere cultural symbols of Peranakan

identity, rather than actors and enablers for this identity based on socio-

economic networks. Femininity, representative of the domestic, has been key

to internal reformation.210 With expressions of Britishness dominated by urban

208
Doran, “The Chinese Cultural Reform Movement in Singapore: Singapore Chinese
Identities and Reconstructions of Gender,” 98.
209
On the use of the term “Nyonyaware,” Lim Suan Poh’s book is titled as such: Suan Poh
Lim, Nonya Ware and Kitchen Ch’ing : Ceremonial and Domestic Pottery of the 19th-20th
Centuries Commonly Found in Malaysia (Selangor, 1981); On the connections that Chinese
Peranakan porcelain and material culture can come to symbolise, I have explored this
previously in Shin Mun Ng, “How Can the Cosmopolitan World of the Peranakan Chinese in
Singapore Be Best Defined?” (Free Standing Long Essay, King’s College London, 2015).
210
Khor, “Imperial Cosmopolitan Malaya: A Study of Realist Fiction in the ‘Straits Chinese
Magazine,’” 40.

58
males,211 the incorporation of the female perspective would provide avenues in

understanding how Britishness was contested.

First, this section would like to establish that Nyonyas were not mere cultural

symbols. Nyonyas were crucial to the Straits Chinese Reform Movement,

having been closely scrutinised. Second, expectations and perceived duties of

the Nyonyas will be investigated. This will be followed by the modes to reform

the Nyonya, especially through education. This section will conclude by

investigating the presentation of prominent Nyonyas, to reflect the new ideal

woman that Nyonya as schoolgirls, wives and mothers were to aspire

towards.

Besides the prominence of Nyonya material culture within the heritage sector,

literature asserts Nyonyas as cultural symbols for “Peranakan-ness.” Most

memoirs have been written by Nyonyas.212 William Gwee’s A Nyonya Mosaic,

first published in 1985, focused on his mother’s memories rather than his own,

and was even written in her voice, rather than his memories of her. 213 This

contributed to contemporary identification of the Nyonya’s voice and role as

strictly domestic and maternal.

211
Lees, “Being British in Malaya, 1890-1940,” 91.
212
Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, Among the White Moonfaces: Memoirs of a Nyonya Feminist
(Singapore, 1996); Queeny Chang, Memories of a Nyonya (Singapore, 1981); Su Kim Lee, A
Nyonya in Texas: Insights of a Straits Chinese Woman in the Lone State State (Shah Alam,
2007); San Neo (Rosalind) Lim, My Life, My Memories, My Story: Recollections of a 75-Year
Old Great-Grandmother (Singapore: Epic Management Services, 1997); Betty Lim, A Rose
on My Pillow: Recollections of a Nyonya (Singapore: Armour Publishing, 1994); Peter Wee,
From Farm and Kampong (Singapore, 1989); Dick Lee, The Adventures of the Mad
Chinaman (Singapore: Times Editions, 2004); Kip Lee Lee, Amber Sands: A Boyhood
Memoir (Singapore: Federal Publications, 1999).
213
William Gwee, A Nyonya Mosaic: My Mother’s Childhood (Singapore, 2013).

59
This demotion of the Nyonya’s role in establishing political and economic

Peranakan networks is unfair. Considering how most marriages were

arranged, whom the Nyonyas were married to were calculated moves in

expanding families’ networks of influence and power. The Nyonyas were

needed to establish these unions. Queeny Chang’s memoir provides a

glimpse to the connections she provided for her family, and those that her

father had. Born into one of the wealthiest families in Java, the Chang (or

Tjong, as her father was more famously known as Tjong Ai Fie) power base

expanded beyond the Dutch Empire onto the British Straits of Malacca. Their

relationship with Chang Pi-shih of Penang, and other strategic marriages,

allowed the Tjong power base to latch on to the socio-economic networks of

Penang.214 Queeny herself established some connections of her own. She met

Lee Kong Chian onboard a luxurious liner, the Suwa Maru, on his way from

Shanghai to Singapore. Subsequently, she even visited him at his workplace

at the Tan Kah Kee Rubber Shoe Factory. 215 Little would she have thought

that her “poor friend” would be come a rubber magnate. Lee Kong Chian

subsequently married one of Tan Kah Kee’s daughters, established Lee

Rubber & Co Ltd in the 1920s, and the Overseas-Chinese Banking

Corporation in 1932.216

The bulk of Queeny Chang’s memoir was based on her experiences as a

“Nyonya” daughter, daughter-in-law and wife. The preoccupation with such

duties during her lifetime across the twentieth-century does not come as a

214
Godley, The Mandarin-Capitalists from Nanyang: Overseas Chinese Enterprise in the
Modernisation of China 1893-1911, 22–23.
215
Chang, Memories of a Nyonya, 121–122, 127–129.
216
Yong, Chinese Leadership and Power in Colonial Singapore, 66.

60
surprise considering the ways in which the Straits Chinese Reform Movement

sought to change the Nyonya. The perception of idleness amongst the

Nyonyas was the central argument and assumption made for Reform,

reflecting the expectation of roles that Nyonyas were to have, but failing to do

well.

The Straits Chinese Reform Movement emphasised the importance of

Nyonyas as mothers. Nyonyas’ role in giving birth was crucial in creating a

distinctive Peranakan social group.217 Although ‘intermarriages’ with the China-

born were not ‘held in favour’ to the Straits Chinese, it was much needed to

‘[infuse] a new spirit of enterprise and adventure into the lethargic blood of the

Straits-born Chinese.’218 This was a eugenicist belief that characteristics and

values could be inherited, especially positive ones from the “China-born.”

Nyonyas were needed to marry accordingly to bring in this “new blood.”

Likewise, it was eugenicist views that led to the belief that Nyonyas had to be

reformed. British colonialism coloured the indigenous Malays as lazy in

striving for western or European definitions of civilization and progress. 219

Nyonyas, who were more “Malay” for having ‘abandoned the Chinese dress

for the Malay costume,’220 were perceived as the source for such ‘lethargy.’

Even when the Nyonya mother attained seniority as mother-in-law, she was

criticised as someone who was unintelligent, bad, and fierce. Difficult

relationships between mothers and daughters-in-law were problematic

217
Doran, “The Chinese Cultural Reform Movement in Singapore: Singapore Chinese
Identities and Reconstructions of Gender,” 101.
218
Song, ‘The Position of Chinese Women,’ 21.
219
Teoh, “A Girl Without Talent Is Therefore Virtuous: Educating Chinese Women in British
Malaya and Singapore, 1850s-1960s,” 82.
220
Lim Boon Keng, ‘Our Enemies,’ 56.

61
because this was mentioned in English newspapers. 221 This was a shameful

event for the Baba-Nyonya community, presumably due to the awareness of

the English-speaking community.

The perception of Nyonyas by those beyond the Peranakan community was

thus more valued. Nyonyas were constantly compared to women from other

cultures and races, with the Nyonya in a less favourable light. The Nyonyas

were deemed to be less intelligent than women of other races due to her lack

of education and the lack enthusiasm for learning to read. Thus, the Nyonya

failed to educate her child well, and attain respect from others. 222 One specific

comparisons would be with ‘Chinese women.’ In Song’s speech to the

Chinese Christian Association, ‘the social status of the women in China [was]

on a much higher plane than that of their sisters in Singapore.’ Although the

focus of the speech was on the Nyonya, the title of the speech was on

‘Chinese women.’ The assumption of what ‘Chinese women’ meant should be

questioned. Although the speech largely referred to ‘Chinese women’ as

women in China, the Nyonyas were highlighted as ‘sisters’ to them. Related,

yet distinct, the Nyonyas were warned to no longer ‘possessing higher

intellects, better education and the advantages of Western thought and

culture…’ that they boasted to have. 223

221
Chew Cheng Yong, ‘Mertua dan Mnantu,’ The Friend of Babas 1, no. 9 (1907): 4.
222
‘…ada banyak kurang skali dalam kpandaian kita bandingkan dngan lain-lain bangsa
punya prempuan… Ada dua perkara yang buat ini; satu, ya dia-orang punya mak badak ajar
dia-orang baik, dan kdua, dia-orang sndiri punya kbodohan. Ada punya anak prempuan
ta'man bacha surat bila mak bapa-nya suroh…Hei! Nonya-Nonya jikalau kamu blajar sampai
pandai, kamu boleh dapat ksuka’an dalam diri sndiri, dan hormat deri lain-lain orang’ in ‘Apa
Kita Punya Nonya Msti Dapat,’ The Friend of Babas 1, no. 1 (1906): p. 3.
223
Song, ‘The Position of Chinese Women,’ 16-17.

62
Comparison of Nyonya with European women was not blindly done. In fact,

there was an awareness regarding the limitations of the situation in Europe.

On ‘Chinese women,’ Lin Meng Cheng wrote in 1898 that the ‘complete

emancipation of women in Europe is a foregone conclusion. The danger is

that at the outset the movement will tend to go to an extreme to be followed

by a reaction during which women will probably lose more than they have

gained.’224 Although most gender-related scholarship on the British Empire

would subscribe to the assumption that only white European peoples knew

how to treat women well,225 the Chinese Peranakans did not subscribe to such

reasoning due to their awareness of the advancement of Chinese women for

comparison.

Reforming Nyonyas were important as British subjects. Rather than focusing

on the issue of dress, the Straits Chinese were to focus their energies on the

‘training of girls and the revision of [their] moral and social code of etiquette

and customs’; this was to make the Straits Chinese ‘in every respect efficient

and fit citizens of the British Empire.’226 During World War I, women’s

contribution to the British Empire was emphasised upon, during this state of

‘national crisis.’ Straits Chinese women could contribute despite having mostly

devoted themselves ‘to domestic affairs.’ World War I thus became a rallying

call for women to ‘participate in public and political affairs.’ However, despite

references to how women in China and Joan of Arc used to fight alongside

224
Lin Meng Cheng, ‘Chinese Women,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 2, no. 8 (1898): 154-158.
225
Philippa Levine, ‘Introduction: Why Gender and Empire?’ in Philippa Levine (ed.), Gender
and Empire (Oxford, 2004), 7.
226
One of them, ‘The Reform Movement Among the Straits Chinese,’ Straits Chinese
Magazine 2, no. 8 (1898): 172.

63
men, Straits Chinese women were not called upon to fight, but to participate in

less active roles such as being a part of the secret service. 227

Besides socio-political motivations, both Straits Chinese Magazine and The

Friend of Babas had religious grounds in reforming the Nyonya. Chinese

women’s ‘voluntary self-abasement’ was the standard for Nyonyas as wife,

and this was a ‘noble act’ that was ‘not unknown in the Christian church.’ 228

Meanwhile, The Friend of Babas introduced the ideal Christian wife through

stories and news. Queen Alexandra, wife of King Edward, was held as an

example. How well she performed as queen was attributed to her piety to God

and her commitment to her husband. She was defined by how she dealt with

the death of her child. Her patience, courage, and her faith in god, helped her

survive such ordeal.229 The wife, especially as queen, helped boost the

impression of her male-husband. The values and kindness that Queen

Alexandra exhibited were based on how helpful she was to the King. 230 This

was reiterated in a subsequent article. 231 To be ‘good, true and useful,’ and to

‘help other people,’ were part of the Christian ideal that women were to

likewise exemplify.232

227
Tan, Lim, Song (ed.), Duty to the British Empire.
228
Lin, ‘Chinese Women,’ 155.
229
‘Kita Punya Queen Yang Baik,’ The Friend of Babas, 1, no. 9 (1907): 2-3.
230
‘Queen Alexandra Pnolong King Edward,’ The Friend of Babas 1, no. 11 (1907): 4-5.
231
‘Kita Punya Queen Yang Baik, Fasal 2,’ The Friend of Babas 1, no. 10 (1907): 5-6.
232
‘Ttapi, biar smoa orang yang mau mnjadi dan mmbuat baik dan berguna, ingat slalu yang
dia-orang ada lbeh berkuasa deri-pada Nampak-nya. Sbab, sperti sudah tersbot, “kbnaran
(righteousness) Tuhan Allah-lah punya,” (Daniel 9:7) ia’itu Tuhan-lah yang kasi orang ingat
mnjadi baik, bnar, dan berguna, dan Dia tntu-lah nanti tolong dan kuatkan smoa orang yang
mau ikut Dia. Dan kalau Tuhan Allah ada tolong, ta’pduli brapa sikit orang-nya, itu sblah ada
kuat.’ In ‘Editorial,’ The Friend of Babas 1, no. 6 (1906): 1.

64
Such expectations on women’s duties can be attributed to increased

professionalization of housewife duties in Europe. 233 Guidebooks for European

women proliferated in the Dutch and British empires of Southeast Asia. One

of them, Ons huis in Indië (Our house in the Indies, 1908) by Madame J.M.J.

Catenius-van der Meijden, emphasised that a “modern” house was a

“hygienic” one. Houses had to be cleared of trees and bushes – the source for

humidity, insects and darkness – while flowers had to be potted. 234

Accomplishment of such duties became a moral duty amongst middle-class

European women.235 Imperial expectations on space, cleanliness and order

were slowly encroaching into the private space of homes.

Gambling was largely written as a uniquely Nyonya problem. In a narrative in

The Friend of Babas, a family was fined $500. But, who exactly was fined,

and whether it was the male or female of the house, was uncertain. Although

it was established that it was unsure, the editor continued to speculate

regarding the marital status of the woman of the family, and that any man

would be too embarrassed to acknowledge the woman who was supposedly

fined as his wife. The author even added that that man should be ashamed,

and that he contributed to such an outcome if he gambled too. This narrative

allowed The Friend of Babas to criticise the typical reasons that Nyonyas

gave for gambling: rather than idling their time sitting around, gambling

233
Elsbeth Locher-Scholten, “Summer Dress and Canned Food: European Women and
Western Lifestyles in the Indies, 1900-1942,” in Outward Appearances: Dressing State and
Society in Indonesia, ed. Henk Schulte Nordholt (Leiden, 1997), 156–157.
234
Rudolf Mrázek, “Indonesian Dandy: The Politics of Clothes in the Late Colonial Period,
1893-1942,” in Outward Appearances: Dressing State and Society in Indonesia, ed. Henk
Schulte Nordholt (Leiden, 1997), 125.
235
Ann Laura Stoler, Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power (London: University of California
Press, 2002), 70–71.

65
allowed Nyonyas to socialise with their friends.236 More interestingly, different

forms of gambling were measured based on how ‘kasar,’ or unrefined, they

were.237

This narrative reflects several issues regarding the impetus to reform the

Nyonya out of her gambling habit. First, female gambling was assumed to be

the reason for the deterioration of the household. This means that the actions

of women were reflective of their husbands and their family name. In The

Straits Chinese Magazine, it is even posited that the Chinese Baba was no

longer ‘supreme lord of his own house.’ The daily reports of ‘Chinese women

concerned in chap-ji-ki and what-wey lotteries’ were a ‘domestic

embarrassment’ and there was a sense of lack ability to control such women

as people began to seek help from the government; ‘imperfect digestion’ of

western ideas was suggested as the cause.238 The idea of men as the ‘lord’ of

his house can be attributed to nineteenth-century developments of “muscular

Christianity.” The principal themes of physical strength, courage and health,

the importance of family life and married love, the elements of duty and

service to mankind, and the scientific study of the natural world, all combine to

form a similarly unattainable impression of godliness and manliness. 239 This

convention of chivalry persisted until the 1920s.240

236
‘Editorial,’ The Friend of Babas 1, no. 2 (1906): 1.
237
Ibid., 2.
238
‘Gambling Among Chinese Women,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 1, no. 3 (1897): 108.
239
Jeffrey Richards, ‘“Passing the love of women”: manly love and Victorian society,’ in J.A.
Mangan and James Walvin (eds), Manliness and morality: Middle-class masculinity in Britain
and America 1800-1940 (Manchester, 1987), 103.
240
Ibid, 115.

66
Seeking to control such women and their gambling even extended to

government legislation disallowing women to gamble in Johore. Through

‘representations made to H.H. the Sultan of Johore and the Johore

Government by the Straits Chinese British Association… the Johore

Government … introduced a law (which comes into operation on the 1 st day of

January 1904) prohibiting Nyonyas or Straits born Chinese women (including

under the term “nyonya” all women who pose or pass as such) form gambling

publicly or in private in Johore.’241 The phrasing of this notice reflects the

inability to identify a Nyonya based on her appearance, but the rule was

imposed on whoever that appeared like one anyway. The blanket rule was

reflective of the anxieties in trying to control the actions of women. This

anxiety in control can be seen in how ‘Chinese husbands and fathers [were]

sadly mistaken if they think that legislation, however severe, can eradicate the

passion for gambling in their womenfolk…’ and were warned to continually

keep an eye on their own Nyonyas.242

Second, women were assumed to be either idling their time away at home, or

idling their time away at gambling. The solution seemed to be for women to

find something productive to do.243 This notion of problematic idleness may lie

in Liang Qichao’s increasingly popular ideas of women. The lack of self-

reliance and economic dependence of women was the cause of China’s

degeneration as women were becoming parasites of Chinese society. 244 Thus,

the Nyonya mother was to be educated so that social evils or deficiencies in

241
‘Nyonyas gambling in Johore,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 7, no. 3 (1903): 164.
242
Ibid.
243
‘Editorial,’ The Friend of Babas 1, no. 2 (1906): 2.
244
Dorothy Ko, Cinderella’s Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding (Ann Arbor, 2005),
20–21.

67
traditional Chinese practice would not be passed down. 245 Education was

perceived as being able to play a key role in allowing the Nyonya to wean off

her gambling behaviours, or tendency for gambling. Schooling was perceived

as a way of ‘[arming] their daughters with a useful and powerful weapon to

combat the demon of gambling that [held] sway over women folk in so many

households.’246

However, education for Nyonyas was limited to ‘elementary subjects such as

Reading, Writing (whether in Chinese or English or both) and Arithmetic up to

the work of Standard IV, Sewing and embroidery work under competent

Nyonya mistresses, Domestic and household management lessons in

hygiene, in nursing and the laws of health, Music and singing, Painting’; ‘some

form of moral education’ was included through the teaching of the Bible or

Confucian ethics. Physical training was not to be neglected, although it was

‘not necessary for them to indulge in violent forms of exercise.’ 247 Girls’

schools were contradictory in how it sought to prepare Nyonyas for a

modernizing world, while instilling traditional maternal values and roles. This

was argued as the perpetuation of ‘anxiety’ over ‘the potential loss of so-

called traditional values and ethnic authenticity in a rapidly globalizing

environment.’248

Conversations on the eradication of gambling amongst Nyonyas, and the

education of Nyonyas centred on the role that the Babas were to play, and the
245
Doran, “The Chinese Cultural Reform Movement in Singapore: Singapore Chinese
Identities and Reconstructions of Gender,” 105.
246
‘Singapore Chinese Girls School,’ Straits Chinese Magazine 7, no. 4 (1903): 161.
247
Song ‘The Position of Chinese Women,’ 22.
248
Teoh, “A Girl Without Talent Is Therefore Virtuous: Educating Chinese Women in British
Malaya and Singapore, 1850s-1960s,” 4.

68
stake they had. The responsibility was thrust upon Babas to not only ensure

that women did not err, but to self-reflect upon their own actions before

punishing others.249 Although reform was to be enacted through women’s

bodies, ‘permanent value’ and ‘satisfactory results’ could only be maintained if

the movement ‘[originated] from the Babas themselves and finds strong and

continued support form that quarter.’250

Reforming the Nyonya was reflective of a more “advanced” society that had

more respectful womenfolk.251 Song called upon History to show the

importance that women play in reflecting a ‘high state of civilization’:

‘The judgment of History has been that no community, no

people, no country has every reached a high state of civilization
whose women have been kept and forced to remain in a low
and degraded condition of life and morals. Turn where you will,
the countries that have attained a high degree of civilization are
the countries where the women are held in honour and deep
respect. Are we not desirous that the Straits-born Chinese
community shall be looked upon as an educated and
enlightened people? Then let us look after our women, and help
them all we can to be themselves more enlightened, more
perfect, more noble in their thoughts and aspirations, and more
fit to be the worthy mothers of the future citizens of this
Settlement…’252

The Baba gentleman thus needed Nyonyas ‘held in honour and deep respect’

as wives.

The central impetus for education for women was not westernization, but

progress. This could similarly be seen in China when education was

249
‘Preksa diri sndiri lbeh dhulu kamu taroh hokum atas dia-orang’ in ‘Editorial,’ The The
Friend of Babas 1, no. 2 (1906): 2.
250
Song, ‘The Position of Chinese Women,’ 24.
251
Philippa Levine, “Introduction: Why Gender and Empire?,” in Gender and Empire, ed.
Philippa Levine (Oxford, 2004), 6.
252
Song, ‘The Position of Chinese Women,’ 20.

69
perceived as the tool for the youth to avenge the period of national

humiliation.253 By the 1920s, this generation of “new women” [新女性 xin nü

xing] in China strove towards economic independence, rather than the ideal of

being a good wife and wise mother [贤妻良母 xian qi liang mu].254 Education

leading to societal improvements was the integral idea. But, the “new girl” and

“new woman” was starting to challenge gendered behaviours, activities and

moral values. By the 1920s, the “modern girl” or “modern woman” came to be

recognised across the world with its own local flavour. As shown by Su-lin

Lewis, the modern girl was a ‘regional shape-shifter, tapping into local

challenges and aspirations of belonging to a very global modernity, marked by

the trans-national processes that were rapidly transforming the world.’ 255

Research on women in Southeast Asia, however, has been limited. 256

The image of the “modern girl” gained popularity and increased consensus.

The modern girl was usually depicted as a film star or outdoor enthusiast.

Usually illustrated in ‘romantic or intimate poses,’ she was seen putting on

make-up or admiring herself in the mirror. 257 While being a symbol of

promiscuity allowed her to ‘explore [her] character of sexuality,’ there

253
Zhitian Luo, “National Humiliation and National Assertion: The Chinese Response to the
Twenty-One Demands,” Modern Asian Studies 27, no. 2 (May 1993): 310–311.
254
Hsiao-pei Yen, “Body Politics, Modernity and National Salvation: The Modern Girl and the
New Life Movement,” Asian Studies Review 29, no. 2 (2005): 169.
255
Su Lin Lewis, “Cosmopolitanism and the Modern Girl: A Cross-Cultural Discourse in 1930s
Penang,” Modern Asian Studies 43, no. 6 (2009): 1386–1392.
256
This is besides works by: Lewis, “Cosmopolitanism and the Modern Girl: A Cross-Cultural
Discourse in 1930s Penang”; Rachel Leow, “Age as a Category of Gender Analysis: Servant
Girls, Modern Girls, and Gender in Southeast Asia,” The Journal of Asian Studies 71, no. 4
(November 2012): 975–90; Rachel Leow, “‘Do You Own Non-Chinese Mui Tsai?’ Re-
Examining Race and Female Servitude in Malaya and Hong Kong, 1919-1939,” Modern
Asian Studies 46, no. 6 (November 2012): 1736–63.
257
Alys Eve Weinbaum et al., “The Modern Girl Around the World: Cosmetics Advertising and
the Politics of Race and Style,” in The Modern Girl Around the World, ed. Alys Eve Weinbaum
et al. (online: Duke University Press, 2008), 34, http://read.dukeupress.edu/content/the-
modern-girl-around-the-world.

70
remained a gender order to be preserved.258 The image of the modern girl

remained confined to not only the stereotypes of gender, but race too. The

Chinese modern girl had a painted face, bobber or permed hair, fashionable

qipao and high-heel shoes.259 Emphasis on the beauty of the modern girl, and

how she was the object of the desirous gaze, made the modern girl beauty

one that was ‘open to the admiring eyes of all.’ 260 This sense of frivolity is

extended to how modern girls were coloured to be in pursuit of romantic love,

disregarding their roles as dutiful daughter, wife and mother. 261 Such

promiscuity could be seen in the Japanese modern girl, despite Japanese

women becoming more politically active, and began to contest traditional roles

of Japanese women by the 1920s.262

Such illustrations of the modern girl can easily be seen in publications

targeting the Chinese Peranakans, such as Kabar Slalu (1924) and Kabar

Uchapan Baru (1926). Using a mixture of English and Romanised-Malay,

some Chinese characters can be seen in both papers. The western modern

girl figure was utilised in advertisements for items such as the Capstan

cigarettes and Kodak films. The Capstan modern girl, with her luscious pout

258
Miriam Silverberg, “After the Grand Tour: The Modern Girls, the New Woman, and the
Colonial Maiden,” in The Modern Girl Around the World, ed. Alys Eve Weinbaum et al.
(online: Duke University Press, 2008), 357, http://read.dukeupress.edu/content/the-modern-
girl-around-the-world.
259
Madeline Yue Dong, “Who Is Afraid of the Chinese Modern Girl?,” in The Modern Girl
Around the World, ed. Alys Eve Weinbaum et al. (online: Duke University Press, 2008), 196,
http://read.dukeupress.edu/content/the-modern-girl-around-the-world.
260
Tani E. Barlow, “Buying In: Advertising and the Sexy Modern Girl Icon in Shanghai in the
1920s and 1930s,” in The Modern Girl Around the World, ed. Alys Eve Weinbaum et al.
(online: Duke University Press, 2008), 305, http://read.dukeupress.edu/content/the-modern-
girl-around-the-world.
261
Alys Eve Weinbaum et al., “The Modern Girl as Heuristic Device: Collaboration,
Connective Comparison, Multidirectional Citation,” in The Modern Girl Around the World, ed.
Alys Eve Weinbaum et al. (online: Duke University Press, 2008), 1,
http://read.dukeupress.edu/content/the-modern-girl-around-the-world.
262
Yen, “Body Politics, Modernity and National Salvation: The Modern Girl and the New Life
Movement,” 166.

71
and exposed shoulder, strikes a sultry pose. The subtitle, ‘Blest with a charm

that is certain to please,’ alludes to both the image of the sexy white girl, and

Capstan cigarettes.263 The Kodak modern girl, meanwhile, strikes a relaxed,

leisurely pose. In a sunhat, she seems to enjoy the sun and does not cower

under the tropical heat, gazing at native men working in the sun, or at the boat

docked by the beach. Her legs are always crossed even when standing,

evoking a sense of demureness to her posture.264

263
Please refer to figure 2.
264
Please refer to figure 3 and 4.

72
Figure 4: Kabar Uchapan Baru, 1926 © The British Library Board, P.P.3800.cdd

73
Figure 5: Kabar Slalu, 30th April 1924 © The British Library Board, P.P.3800.cdd

74
Figure 6: Kabar Slalu, 16th April 1924 © The British Library Board, P.P.3800.cdd

75
This is a contrast to the utility of images of Chinese-looking or Nyonya-looking

female figures in advertisements of the same newspapers. The advertisement

of Bread “Ho Ho” chooses to utilize the image of a Chinese-looking female.

The title, “Mum! Mum! Give me bread “Ho Ho,” evokes a child calling out to

mother, with the subtitle emphasizing that both the young and old love to eat

Bread “Ho Ho.” The illustration of a child clinging on to her mother’s arm as

her mother smiles, extending her hand other hand to her other child with

some bread, sought to establish the perception of maternal responsibility with

the Bread “Ho Ho.”265

Figure 7: Kabar Uchapan Baru, 6 May 1926 © The British Library Board, P.P.3800.cdd

265
Please refer to Figure 5.

76
Figure 8: Kabar Uchapan Baru, 16 July 1926 © The British Library Board, P.P.3800.cdd

77
In a similar vein, an advertisement for batik cloth, the cloth that wraps around

the waist, forming the skirt of the Nyonya dress, sarong kebaya, intentionally

utilizes a Nyonya figure. Instead of showing a print of the batik, the Nyonya,

with her distinct hair in a tight bun with not a single strand of hair on her face,

and her kebaya top, was illustrated in what appears to be a wealthy home.

Sitting on leather chairs, and what is likely to be a marble top table, the

middle-class and wealthy Nyonyas were the illustration of choice. 266

The choice in using a white, or Chinese Peranakan looking female figure was

intentional. Nyonya, as a “shining example of cultural hybridity” although

progressive, was differentiated by her hybrid cultural traditions. 267 Even in the

1920s, the ideal Nyonya remained one that kept to her traditional duties as

mother and wife, as seen from the Bread “Ho Ho” advertisement, or modern

yet traditional at the same time, as seen in the juxtaposition of leather chairs

and sarong kebaya in the D.T. Lim and Company advertisement. The image

of the white modern girl, whether in her sexy pose, or relaxed and free pose,

was hoping to channel into the aspirations of women. The juxtaposition of the

notions of these two white modern girl figures could not be more different than

the portrayal of the Chinese or the Nyonya figure. By appealing to what

Nyonyas then could not attain, and what was perceived as the more “modern”

or latest look, the advertisements were seducing the imaginations of men and

women of how Nyonyas could be.

Please refer to Figure 6.

266

Lewis, “Cosmopolitanism and the Modern Girl: A Cross-Cultural Discourse in 1930s

267

Penang,” 1411–1412.

78
The use of different images of women was an acknowledgement of persisting

pushback from the Peranakan community towards the Western modern girl

image. This can be seen in how prominent Chinese Peranakan women were

described as. One of the most prominent Straits Chinese women during the

first thirty years of the twentieth-century would be Mrs Lee Choon Guan.

Although she was English-educated, rather than being the sexy or carefree

modern woman, she was always portrayed somewhere in between. Despite

having travelled all over the world, it was emphasized that she travelled with

her husband. Her education and knowledge of current affairs, and her

campaign for numerous social issues were impressive. Mrs Lee advocated for

the licensing of Chinese marriages. She also contributed greatly to the British

Red Cross during the Great War. On both counts, she was known as

‘uphold[ing] the dignity of her Chinese sisters.’ 268 Through both her actions,

and her significance as symbol of her Peranakan sisters, she helped

Peranakan women to be ‘more on a level with European wives.’269

Despite her achievements, Mrs Lee Choon Guan remained secondary to the

men in her life. As one of the rare Nyonyas who were English-educated, this

was attributed to her having had Tan Kiong Saik as her father, ‘one of those

enlightened Chinese.’270 Her maiden name, Tan Teck Neo,271 remained

obscure, as the wife of her husband, Mrs Lee Choon Guan. Having married

him in 1900, she continued to be known as Mrs Lee Choon Guan until her

death. Persistent comparisons of her knowledge and actions with those of

268
‘Mrs Lee Choon Guan, MBE: What she has done for her Countrywoman,’ The Eastern
Illustrated Review (1919): 49
269
TKT, ‘Mrs Lee Choon Guan, MBE,’ The Eastern Illustrated Review (1918): 37-39
270
Ibid., 37.
271
Gretchen Liu, Singapore: A Pictorial History 1819-2000 (Singapore, 1999), 225.

79
European women reflected how her achievements were measured against

European ideals. However, she was dressed neither like a Western nor

Chinese “modern girl.” She cannot be traced with a painted face and bobbed

or permed hair. No trace of sexuality can be traced in images of her, or in

writings about her.272 As seen from the advertisements and the figure of Mrs

Lee Choon Guan, the Nyonyas were intermediaries between Western and

Chinese ideals of the modern woman, but her “Peranakan” traditional roles

and duties to her children and husband remained.

More research has to be done in comparing prolific, wealthy, and educated

Nyonyas such as Mrs Lee Choon Guan, with the average Nyonya. Sources to

investigate the Straits Chinese Reform Movement did not profile the average

Nyonya, besides chastising her bad behaviour. The new ideal Nyonya that the

Straits Chinese aspired towards was one that was influenced by western

perceptions of civility, and Chinese traditionalism and modernism. The

“Malayness” of the Nyonyas served as the context, as values that were to be

reformed out of the Nyonya. Centrality of the Baba in economic and political

investigation of Peranakan identity and the relegation of Nyonyas into a

cultural-heritage conversation must change considering the anxiety and

preoccupation over women during this time period.

272
Please see Figures 9 to 13.

80
Figure 9: Mrs Lee having tea with some friends. Do note how her hair was in a bun with
not a single strand of hair on her face. Her dress contrasts with her shoes. She also
appears to be wearing stockings, covering her legs despite the length of her skirt. 273

Figure 10: A close up of what was likely to be the same tea session in Figure 7. Her
diamond jewellery was on display here, as was her MBE cross. 274

273
Liu, Singapore: A Pictorial History 1819-2000, 224.
274
Ibid.

81
Figure 11: Mrs Lee Choon Guan was also well known for the parties she threw at
Mandalay Villa, her residence. Here, the mix of ethnicities and dress of the women was
telling of the different “worlds” she traversed in, even within the small space of her
dining room.275

Figure 12: Mrs Lee Choon Guan received the MBE in her usual dress in 1918. Rather
than being in Western dress, which she could have well afforded, the intention of her
dress asserted her position as not Western despite being recognised by the British
colonial government for her service.276

275
Ibid., 225.
276
The Eastern Illustrated Review, p. 49 © The British Library Board, P.P.3800.cdd

82
Figure 13: Portrait photograph of Mrs Lee Choon Guan in her later years. Her sense of
dress remained the same as seen in this portrait c. 1930s from the Lee Brothers
Studio.277

277
“PORTRAIT OF AN ELDERLY CHINESE LADY IN A CHEONGSAM DECORATED WITH
TWO MEDALLIONS,” National Archives Singapore, accessed May 11, 2016,
http://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/photographs/record-details/a897d616-1162-11e3-83d5-
0050568939ad.

83
 Revisiting the resinification debate

1915 is marked as an important year in a proliferation of Chinese fervour

amongst the overseas Chinese. This year marks several transnational political

activities such as the fundraising through the National Salvation Fund, the

beginnings of the New Culture Movement, Buy Chinese Goods movement,

and the boycotting of Japanese goods as a result of the Twenty-one

Demands on China. This intensified demands made upon the huaqiao,

through exaltations to contribute to the motherland and opening beginnings to

mass politics amongst the Chinese Nanyang (南洋, meaning Southern Seas).

The term Overseas Chinese, or huaqiao, pre-dated these events as Chinese

peoples began migrating into Southeast Asia before the nineteenth-century. It

was only during this period of Chinese revolutionary momentum that huaqiao

came to connote Chinese nationalism.

Academic literature has subsumed Chinese Peranakans as part of the

huaqiao experience due to their involvement in Chinese revolutionary politics

and their re-engagement with Confucianism. However, this is problematic as

this disregards Chinese nationalism as a universalist ideal that subsequently

became transnational.278 “Resinification” assumes a core definition of

“Chinese.” This fails to recognize regional differences within China and

assumes a homogenous “Chinese” diaspora experience, 279 and undermines

the experiences felt along the migratory “corridor” between the ‘sending’ and
278
Prasenjit Duara, “Transnationalism and the Predicament of Sovereignty: China, 1900-
1945,” The American Historical Review 102, no. 4 (October 1997): 1030–51.
279
Rey Chow, “On Chineseness as a Theoretical Problem,” in Sinophone Studies: A Critical
Reader, ed. Shu-mei Shih, Chien-hsin Tsai, and Brian Bernards (New York, 2013), 43–56.

84
‘receiving’ societies as spaces that interacted.280 This likewise ignores the

continued use of Baba-Malay amongst the Chinese Peranakans, and fails to

recognize how the meaning of being “Chinese” was rapidly changing within

China and their locality,281 and amongst different pockets of the Chinese

diaspora.

Early twentieth-century revolutionary China should not be seen merely as the

history of the birth of modern China, but a history with a transnational impact.

This context formed part of the changing locality, pushing for an increased

Peranakan identity that was neither “Chinese” nor “British.” The Chinese

revolutionary zeal ignited new meanings in being “Chinese” that some

Chinese Peranakans clung to as new cultural symbols. But, the proliferation of

“Chineseness” during this period also created an increased sense of

ambiguity regarding what being Chinese Peranakan meant.

Within Singapore, the Chinese community was argued to be a ‘coherent,

integrated group on the eve of the New Culture Movement,’ a movement that

sought to renew Chinese cultures as a result of the decay of Qing China, and

the failures of the Chinese republic. This was attributed to the efforts of

revolutionaries such as Kang Youwei and Sun Yat-sen who established

support in Singapore. Kang and his followers established schools, business

groups, reading clubs and newspapers, while Sun formed a Singapore branch

of his party, the Tungmenghui in 1906. Newspapers such as Guomin Ribao,

280
P.A. Kuhn, “Why China Historians Should Study the Chinese Diaspora, and Vice-Versa,”
Journal of Chinese Overseas 2, no. 2 (2006): 168.
281
Prasenjit Duara, “Nationalists Among Transnationals: Overseas Chinese and the Idea of
China, 1900-1911,” in Ungrounded Empires: The Cultural Politics of Modern Chinese
Transnationalism, ed. Aihwa Ong and Donald M. Nonini (London, 1997), 40.

85
established in 1914, were mouthpieces for the different political groups in

China, bringing the revolution into Singapore. 282 This can also be observed in

the Dutch East Indies. The Chinese Peranakan communities increasingly

participated in “Chinese” socio-politics with the establishment of Tungmenghui

in Batavia (1907), Chambers of Commerce in Java (1907-1908), and the

expression of ‘Chinese nationalism’ in the Sino-Malay press. This clustered

the Chinese Peranakans and the “Totok” Chinese into one – simply

“Chinese.”283

The Chinese Peranakans were aware of differentiating political allegiance

from cultural identity. This was defined within a legal framework, that a

Chinese born on British soil was ‘a British subject in the eye of the law.’ This

allowed the Chinese British subject to ‘[enjoy] the privileges and rights of a

British subject.’ The Chinese British subject was expected to ‘discharge the

duties and responsibilities of a British subject’ if he did not wish to renounce

his political status of British citizenship. The pervasiveness of “Chineseness”

remained within Chinese citizenship laws, which ‘claim[ed] that the children

born in foreign countries of Chinese subjects [were] themselves Chinese

subjects.’ To leave ‘no room for doubt’ in claiming British nationality, one was

advised ‘to make a declaration that he disclaims allegiance to the Chinese

Government.’284 Thus, “British” was clearly distinguished from an ethno-

cultural identity in being “Chinese.” 285 Being “Chinese” remained important to

282
David Kenley, New Culture in a New World: The May Fourth Movement and the Chinese
Diaspora in Singapore, 1919-1932 (London: Routledge, 2003), 33–40.
283
Totok Chinese refers to China-born Chinese, or Chinese who have retained their Chinese
characteristics and did not integrate like the Chinese Peranakans did in the Dutch East Indies.
Salmon, Literature in Malay by the Chinese of Indonesia, 34.
284
Song, ‘The Straits Chinese and a Local Patriotic League’.
285
Ai Lin Chua, “Nation, Race, and Language: Discussing Transnational Identities in Colonial
Singapore, circa 1930,” Modern Asian Studies, 2013, 8.

86
being a British subject for the Chinese Peranakans in maintaining the

leadership of local Chinese communities. Some British subjects, such as Foo

Choo Choon, held Qing titles and positions within the Chinese court. 286 This

helped to assert his standing in both British and Chinese realms. The Qing

titles were an advantage in gaining British favours by providing them with

networks and connections amongst the Chinese elite, while allowing Foo to

establish an elite standing amongst newer Chinese migrants.

The long history of China was a source of pride and heritage for the Chinese

Peranakans. In fact, this heritage was translated into eugenicist traits that the

Straits-born Chinese inherited. Awareness of this cultural heritage was the

source for such pragmatic traits. In a booklet promoting support for the British

during the Great War, Song wrote,

‘The Straits-born Chinese continue to belong to the Chinese

race – that is a stern fact which none of us can get away from
or should wish to deny. The Straits Chinese should be proud
of the fact that they are members of a race which is the oldest
in the world, which possesses such a long and remarkable
history and which, by such characteristics and qualities as
adventurousness, industry, perseverance, energy,
pushfulness and integrity, has always succeeded in asserting
its presence wherever its representatives have gone and
established themselves. If our Straits-born Chinese have
failed to exhibit these characteristics or any one or more of
them, it is due among other reasons to their wilful ignorance of
the history of the Chinese race and their indifference to the
need of studying the literature of the Chinese people, or even
of contemplating or emulating the lives and efforts of their own
ancestors.’287

286
Godley, The Mandarin-Capitalists from Nanyang: Overseas Chinese Enterprise in the
Modernisation of China 1893-1911, 58.
287
Song, ‘The Straits Chinese and a Local Patriotic League’.

87
Adherence to “Chinese” characteristics and values were promoted as the

usefulness of the Straits Chinese to the British Empire. Thus, Straits Chinese

should not be ‘ashamed of their Chinese descent’ due to the ‘ethical and

social principles which clearly distinguish[ed]’ their “Chinese” duties. 288 In

selling positive aspects of “Chineseness,” the Straits Chinese were

establishing their local standing as the better subject.

Support for China’s integrity thus became crucial as a reflection of the cultural

of the Straits Chinese. Evoking China’s enduring civilization that contributed to

social economics, military warfare, science and intellectual achievements,

China’s classics of Confucianism and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms

were referenced. Going back to the old China prior to the years of humiliation

was an attempt to brush aside Japanese superiority in the aftermath of the

Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and the imposition of the Twenty-one

Demands. Japan was demoted as having relied on western imperial powers,

having ‘[adapted] themselves to foreign organisations’ and were quick ‘to

acquire foreign culture.’289 After 1915, pan-Asianism began to disintegrate with

competing visions to rescue Asia from the West. 290 The boycott of Japanese

goods and attempts to help solve China’s problems during this time are often

perceived as displays of Chinese nationalism.

But, for the English-educated Straits Chinese, the 1919 Japanese boycott in

dealing with the Twenty-one Demands was an ‘insane way of dealing with a

288
Lim, The Unity of the British Empire, 2.
289
Tan, ‘Chinese Problems,’ 1.
290
Prasenjit Duara, “The Discourse of Civilization and Pan-Asianism,” Journal of World
History 12, no. 1 (Spring 2001): 110–111.

88
problem’ that ‘degenerated into lawlessness’ and ‘brought disgrace on the

heads of a particular class of the Chinese Community.’ This ‘lawlessness’ of

the Chinese community was ‘fanatism among the Chinese labour classes.’ 291

This mainly consisted of rickshaw men, who, as seen in the section on opium,

were perceived as degenerates.292 The Straits Chinese were called upon in

providing a more educated leadership, to replace the Japanese in bringing

modernization into China.293 This show of restraint was simultaneous insertion

of Straits Chinese relevance into the general “Chinese” community, and a

reflection of their differences from those of the ‘labouring classes.’

Despite the promises of British liberal thought, “Eastern” identity remained

important for British subjects due to the realities of racism. 294 British identity

remained uncomfortable for some Straits Chinese due to racist exclusionary

measures. Gu Hongming (Koh Hong Beng, 1857-1928) makes an interesting

example of a Baba who became a “Chinaman.” Gu was born into a Chinese

Peranakan family in Penang. Despite having lived in Scotland for over a

decade in his younger years, Gu discarded Western garb, grew a queue and

sailed to China. He subsequently became a Mandarin and advocated for

“Chinese” traditional traits such as the queue, concubinage, foot binding and

opium smoking.295 Gu continued advocating for these traditional practices after

291
Low Kway Song, ‘The Japanese Boycott: An Insane Way of Dealing with a Problem. A
National Loan Proposal,’ The Eastern Illustrated Review (1919): 47-59.
292
Harper, “Singapore, 1915, and the Birth of the Asian Underground,” 1795.
293
Godley, The Mandarin-Capitalists from Nanyang: Overseas Chinese Enterprise in the
Modernisation of China 1893-1911, 58.
294
Bayly, Recovering Liberties: Indian Thought in the Age of Liberalism and Empire, 206–209.
295
Godley, The Mandarin-Capitalists from Nanyang: Overseas Chinese Enterprise in the
Modernisation of China 1893-1911, 40–41.

89
1911 – making him an antiquarian even amongst those he perceived to be his

own people, the Chinese in China.296

Gu was thus being nostalgic and longed for belonging to a cultural identity

that could be completely his. Heralding the past was a way to reclaim a

culture and identity. In the Malay world, threats upon Islamic practices and

ideas from the West were mediated by returning to the traditions of the Qur’an

and the Sunna. The answer thus laid in Islam, but not the version of Islam that

was practised in the nineteenth-century. 297 Likewise, Confucianism was

utilised as a heritage symbol for “Chineseness.” This nostalgia can likewise be

seen in translations of Chinese classics in an attempt to reclaim lost cultures.

Gu Hongming translated Confucius’s The Doctrine of the Mean into English in

1889, while Lim Boon Keng translated Li Sao in 1929.298 Both Gu and Lim,

categorised as ethnically Chinese but locally-born, represented a constant

reaching out to what they perceived as originally “Chinese”. By translating

“Chinese” classics into English, they provided the access to “Chineseness” for

other English-educated Chinese.

However, this sense of nostalgia was conditional and not a blind admiration of

all things “Chinese”. For Lim, Confucian philosophy allowed him to critique

Western thought, such as the “white peril” of western imperialism. 299 Through a

combination of Confucianism and Darwinism, Lim questioned Christian beliefs

296
Ko, Cinderella’s Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding.
297
Hooker, “Transmission Through Practical Example: Women and Islam in 1920s Malay
Fiction,” 94.
298
Neil Khor, “Peranakan Chinese Literature in Penang and the Region: With an Emphasis on
Anglophone Penang Peranakan Writing,” Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal
Asiatic Society 82, no. 2 (2009): 138.
299
Lee, “Introduction,” xx.

90
and how missionaries helped to contribute to the imperial project. 300 Lim even

justified the maintenance of the British Empire as being crucial from a

“Confucian point of view.” Democracy was needed to “educate the masses,

thereby removing racism, and promote ideals of equality,” helping to fulfil

Confucian ideals of The Great Harmony (大同 da tong), where the world is at

peace.301 The resinification of Chinese Peranakan identity thus has to be read

with caution.

This was also a period of increased solidification of symbols and expressions

of cultural ethnicities.302 At the local level, this became problematic. In late

1929, a group of Indians set up a private school in Singapore, calling it the

Sun Yat Sen Memorial Institution. This was met with backlash as the Chinese

laid claim over Sun’s name, as the Chinese had “every right and monopoly

over things that [were their] own, and it [was their] duty to see that nothing

[was] taken from [them] without [their] consent.” 303 However, it was likely that

the Indians did not perceive Sun Yat-sen as exclusively “Chinese” as Sun was

a transnational figure that engaged in Pan-Asian dialogue with the likes of

Rabindranath Tagore. Identities were increasingly becoming more defined

during this period. The Chinese Peranakans were left in between two ethno-

cultural identities that were gaining traction in their locality: increased

“Britishness” amongst the whites whom they worked with at the start of the

1900s, and negotiating their “Chineseness” against the growing Chinese

population.
300
Ibid., xxi.
301
Frost, “‘Beyond the Limits of Nation and Geography’: Rabindranath Tagore and the
Cosmopolitan Moment, 1916-1920,” 146–147.
302
Lees, “Being British in Malaya, 1890-1940,” 92.
303
Chua, “Nation, Race, and Language: Discussing Transnational Identities in Colonial
Singapore, circa 1930,” 12.

91
The growing Chinese population, and increased revolutionary fervour, is

marked by the proliferation of Mandarin newspapers in the 1920s and 1930s.

Newspapers such as Le Bao (from 1919), Guomin Ribao (from 1914), and

Nanyang Shangbao (from 1923), centred their attention on developments in

China. Some were even official newspapers of Chinese political parties, such

as Minguo Ribao for the Guomindang (Sun Yat-sen’s China Nationalist Party).

These China-centric newspapers were also more successful than the short-

lived Baba Malay newspapers of the 1920s. While most ended with the

Japanese Occupation during World War II, Xingzhou Ribao (from 1929) lasted

until 1982 when it was merged with Nanyang Shangbao. In comparison, the

Baba Malay newspapers, Kabar Slalu and Kabar Uchapan Baru, lasted for

about two years each.304

The growing dominance of the Chinese population in Singapore began to

eclipse the Peranakan definitions to Chinese identity from 1915. However, the

language of publications for the Chinese Peranakans did not vacillate towards

Mandarin despite the strengthening of “Chinese” identity. The use of Baba

Malay continued into the 1920s and 1930s. Most of these titles were

translated and published by Wan Boon Seng in Singapore, who was always

assisted by a Chinese reader. Despite being “Chinese” he could not read the

“Chinese” language.305 Chan Kim Boon, also known as Batu Gantong, was

one of the most well known translator of Chinese myths and legends into

304
Around 1924-1926 for Kabar Slalu, and around 1926-1928 for Kabar Uchapan Baru, based
on the British Library’s collection.
305
Yoong and Zainab, “The Straits Chinese Contribution to Malaysian Literary Heritage:
Focus on Chinese Stories Translated into Baba Malay,” 181–188.

92
Baba Malay. Similarly, he had several Penang-born “assistants.” 306 Continual

use of Malay was an expression of the cultural allegiance to the Malay world

of the Chinese Peranakans.307

This, however, did not mean that Chinese Peranakans were becoming more

Malay. Rather, they created a new distinct Chinese Peranakan identity for

themselves that solidified from the 1920s. The uniqueness of this identity is

usually attributed to the Straits Chinese Reform Movement that first proposed

and solidified a Straits Chinese identity. However, the use of Baba Malay in

expressing this “Peranakan-ness” rather than English reflects an identity that

continued to be hedged to the Malay world. As exemplified by Gu Hongming,

even a vacillation to Chineseness did not mean inclusion by the Sinophone

world. Baba-Malay thus became a vehicle for a strengthened Chinese

Peranakan identity.308

In a series of articles titled ‘Malacca in the past,’ Kabar Slalu discussed who

was a Chinese Peranakan. History was used to ‘clarify’ that the ‘Tiong Hua,’ is

not “Baba Malay.”309 This series of articles were published so that as many

people as possible would know about Malacca.310 The first article used the

Sejarah Melayu as its source of historical authority.311 It claimed that Sang Nila

306
Khor, “Peranakan Chinese Literature in Penang and the Region: With an Emphasis on
Anglophone Penang Peranakan Writing,” 136.
307
Hooker, Writing a New Society, 4.
308
Tom Hoogervorst, “What Kind of Language Was ‘Chinese Malay’ in Late-Colonial Java?,”
Forthcoming, 2016.
309
The phrase ‘Tiong Hua’ usually refers to ‘Chinese.’
310
‘S’paya banyak orang lain boleh dapat, tahu fasal Negri Malaka! …Di dalam ini surat
khabar mau di slidekkan (nyata-kan) yang orang Tiong Hua bukan-nya “Baba Malay.”’ This
phrase repeats throughout this series of articles.
311
Sejarah Melayu, the Malay Annals, is a history of the Malacca Sultanate prior to
Portuguese arrival. For an introduction, see http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/asian-and-
african/2013/09/sejarah-melayu-a-malay-masterpiece.html (last accessed, 13 May 2016).

93
Utama married a Nyonya, a daughter of the Queen of Bentan, before arriving

in Singapore.312 Sang Nila Utama then established the Singapore state until

his death in 1208. His descendants continued to rule until the Majapahit

kingdom invaded, founding Malacca prior to Portuguese arrival. 313 The article

then identified the earliest Babas in Malacca, as a result of the popularity of

Malacca for Chinese peoples to reside in.314 Shellabear’s knowledge was

referred to, on the differences between ‘high’ and ‘low’ Malay. However,

Kabar Slalu challenged Shellabear’s findings that Chinese Peranakan

marriages were similar to the Malays. The newspaper highlighted the

differences, and reminded its readers on the diversity of ritual practices due to

regional differences amongst the Chinese. 315

Kabar Slalu differentiated the Chinese Peranakan from the “Chinese” on the

basis of Malacca heritage and Malay history. Using Sejarah Melayu as a

starting point legitimized Chinese Peranakans as the older local. The Chinese

Peranakans were not “tiongkok tiong hua,” China Chinese, through its

references to the oldest “Baba” families in Malacca. However, the Chinese

Peranakans were not Malay, as seen from the differentiation between what

were “Malay” and “pranakan” practices. Heritage to Malacca and the Malay

world became central to the Chinese Peranakan identity.

312
‘Si Sang Nila Utama-ini, pulak beristeri sama satu nyonya, anak-perempuan deri itu
Permaisuri di Bentan. Dan Di blakang hari-nya, Sang Nila Utama l’pas deri pulau-itu
(Sumatra), dan mari dudok pulak di tanah-ayer Singapura.’ In Siow Choon Leng, ‘NEGRI
MALAKA DHULU-DHULU,’ Kabar Slalu, 14 February 1924, 8.
313
‘NEGRI MALAKA DHULU-DHULU,’ Kabar Slalu, 15 February 1924, 8.
314
‘NEGRI MALAKA DHULU-DHULU,’ Kabar Slalu, 18 February 1924, 8. This continues in
subsequent issues until 1 April 1924.
315
‘NEGRI MALAKA DHULU-DHULU,’ Kabar Slalu, 16 February 1924, 8.

94
The use of the term ‘tionghua’ in these texts, rather than referring to them

being China-born, reflected the new realities of local Chinese populations.

Being Straits-born no longer distinguished the older families from the rest of

the population as the proliferation of Chinese migration led to many being

Straits-born. One no longer had to marry into a Straits Chinese or Chinese

Peranakan family in gaining access to socio-economic networks. By the

1920s, the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States were even

described as belonging to the tionghua due to their immense wealth. 316 They

also dominated the Mandarin newspapers of this time. 317

By evaluating the local impact of the symbols of “Chineseness” that has been

largely based on the revolutionary fervor surrounding 1915, the solidification

of Chinese Peranakan identity as seen through print was a result of

transnational socio-politics that was felt locally. Both sides of the resinification

debate do not account for the maintenance of local standing. For the Chinese

Peranakans, an identity pinned down by geographical boundaries would

mean being “British.” The hostilities of colonialism however, did not make

British identity one that was readily inclusive. Being “Chinese,” was inherent

due to their ethnicity. But, the meaning in being “Chinese” changed drastically

during this period, into one that was unrecognizable to the Chinese

Peranakan who may have never set foot in China. Evoking “Peranakan-ness”

316
‘Straits Settlements dan F.M.S. di kata-kan, orang-orang Tionghua punya. Jika di hitong-
kan siapa yang bayar basil atau chukai l’beh, patut juga. Tionghua punya ada-nya. Di
mesalkan yang sa-orang Tionghua yang kaya-itu tak boleh terprentah anak buah-nya d’ngan
harta b’nda-nya, sudah m’manggil lain orang, makin gaji-nya m’merentah-kan…Dia ada jaga
kita d’ngan anak buah, bersama orang-orang gaji-kita, smua-nya, serba-serbi, d’ngan harta
kita slamay. Apa mau lagi?’ in ‘DI KATA-KAN TIONGHUA PUNYA,’ Kabar Slalu, 24 April
1924, 4.
317
Kenley, New Culture in a New World: The May Fourth Movement and the Chinese
Diaspora in Singapore, 1919-1932, 99.

95
as an identity based on local heritage and history allowed the Chinese

Peranakans to re-establish their local standing, and maintain their cultural

differences from the general Chinese population.

96
 Conclusion

The histories of various localities have been strictly bound by their

geographical delineation. By recognizing local places as ‘arenas in which

diasporas spoke to each other,’318 the processes of delineation of identity went

hand-in-hand with transregional cosmopolitan conversations. This

investigation of Peranakan identity, with an emphasis on understanding the

different realms that the Peranakan traversed, was to give greater recognition

that the local has always been a node within a set of networks across the

world.319

To achieve this, I first highlighted the significance of conversations on

modernity and progress, in line with the development of print. The interactions

between the Christian missions and Chinese Peranakans were well known

and documented, but had yet to be investigated. This highlighted a greater

relationship between enlightenment thought and reform. More has to be done

in this realm in bridging the understanding of how and why “traditional”

religious-cultural practices of the Chinese Peranakans have been abandoned.

This influenced how the Baba self-fashioned himself. The investigation of

opium revealed the tensions between differentiation and identification as the

Baba sought to establish himself as a gentlemanly leader of the Chinese

masses.
318
T.N. Harper, “Globalism and the Pursuit of Authenticity: The Making of a Diasporic Public
Sphere in Singapore,” Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 12, no. 2 (October 1997):
263.
319
McKeown highlighted the importance of historical context in understanding diasporas. See,
Adam McKeown, “Conceptualizing Chinese Diasporas, 1842 to 1949,” The Journal of Asian
Studies 58, no. 2 (1999): 306–37.

97
Next, investigations on the Straits Chinese Reform Movement failed to

establish the crucial importance of the Nyonyas to reform. In highlighting how

the Straits Chinese Reform Movement was so critical of the Nyonya’s

performance as wife and mother, I suggest that greater recognition has to be

given to the Nyonya for her role in identity-reformation and identity-formation.

The dichotomy between the Baba as the vanguard for progress against the

idyllic traditional image of the Nyonya should come under greater scrutiny.

Last, by revisiting the resinification debate, I seek to appeal for a broader

methodology, with greater emphasis on local context and transnational

fissures, when it comes to the investigation of Peranakan identity. The

malleability to the meanings of an identity has to be recognised. This is

especially important to Peranakan identity, with the pre-World War II period

being revered as the “renaissance” of Peranakan identity. Reference to this

period as the “original” Peranakan is problematic yet common, especially

amongst authorities of Peranakan heritage. They identify themselves based

on how many generations they were removed from this generation of

Peranakan people. “Peranakan-ness” is thus conflated with notions of

ethnicity and blood, as to be “fifth-generation” connotes some form of

biological inheritance.320 Greater considerations also have to be made in

avoiding the assumption of Peranakan peoples to be of Chinese descent.

320
Wee is identified as a fifth-generation and ‘anak jati Baba Nyonya,’ while Lee identified
herself through her parents, being ‘fifth generation Baba from Malacca and her mother a
Nyonya from Penang,’ in Peter Wee, A Peranakan Legacy (Singapore, 2009); Lee, A Nyonya
in Texas: Insights of a Straits Chinese Woman in the Lone State State.

98
Peranakan identity was at a crossroads of various worlds that its peoples

engaged in. The conflations of race, ethnicity, gender, citizenry, socio-

economic class, taste, and liberal thought hopefully provides us with greater

food for thought in delineations between “us” and “them.” In today’s

dichotomous world that has more global citizens, bordered within

strengthened national boundaries, the investigation of Peranakan identity is

increasingly crucial. Peranakan identity forces the recognition of local

transnational experiences to explain their seemingly non-conforming traits.

99
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The author would also like to thank participants of Project Southeast Asia
Symposium (University of Oxford), and World History Conference (King’s
College London) for their comments on this paper.

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