This Asian art and design book focuses on the unique material culture of Southeast Asia's Peranakan people.The “Peranakan” or native-born Chinese of Southeast Asia are descendants of early Chinese migrants and traders who settled and married local women, forming distinct communities in the bustling commercial hubs around the Straights of Malacca—present-day Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.The broad range of beautiful objects which the Peranakan Chinese created and enjoyed in their daily lives is astounding. Each chapter in Peranakan Chinese Home focuses on a different area and presents objects used or found in those spaces. Each piece is described in the context of their utility as household objects, as part of periodic celebrations to mark the Chinese New Year and other holidays, or in important life passage rituals relating to ancestor worship, birth, marriage, mourning and burial. The meaning of the rich symbolic and ornamental motifs found on the objects is discussed in detail and key differences are highlighted between Peranakan objects and similar ones found in China.A fascinating mix of Chinese, European and Southeast Asian influences, the distinctly Peranakan identity of a people and their culture is beautifully portrayed through objects and archival photographs in this lovely and exotic book.
