Pinang Peranakan Mansion

Peranakan Chinese and Baba-Nyonya are terms used for the descendants of late 15th and 16th-century Chinese immigrants to the Indonesian archipelago of Nusantara during the Colonial era, especially in the Straits settlements (Penang, Malacca and Singapore), hence they are also known as Straits born Chinese.  Adopting selected ways of the local Malays and later, the colonial British, the Peranakans had created a unique lifestyle and customs.

The Pinang Peranakan Mansion is a typical home of a rich Baba of a century ago.  It was the former home of Chung Keng Kwee, a wealthy 19th century merchant and secret society leader i.e. triad and also a licensed opium trader i.e. drug dealer! Though not a Baba himself (he married a Malay wife), his Chinese courtyard house was much like a typical large Baba home of eclectic style, incorporating Chinese carved-wood panels and English floor tiles and Scottish ironworks. Having survived many decades of neglect and decay, the mansion was finally sold by Chung's descendents to a rich mainland Chinese businessman who restored it to its former glory of a stately home and turned it into a museum.

There is no need to wait for the guided tour, for a small tip, one of the many "guides" there will gladly take you around.  It was a fascinating tour for all of us.

I really like the sky-light in the middle of the house - such a wonderful feature.  Reminded us of the Turkish houses

Tasha was really fascinated by the turn of the century camera....

....and radio. There was also a turntable in another room

The "meeting" room upstairs where business was conducted

Drea was extremely fascinated by the story of the marital bed where the parents sent the newly weds to bed and then put a rooster and a hen into a basket and pushed it under the bed.  The next morning, the parents would then retrieve the basket; if the rooster came out first, then the couple would have a baby boy and so on. I had to provide answers to Drea's questions which covered all possible and impossible outcomes!

There is a temple next to the house belonging to the same new owner although I am not sure if it used to belong to the same Chung family.  It now serves as an ancestral hall (not sure whose ancestors since the house was sold).