MELAKA, Nov 18 — How often do we hear our parents or grandparents tell us the stories of yesteryear? Too often such tales, especially those of our own families, are lost to time. It was with this concern in mind that KL-born Melissa Chan decided to investigate her Peranakan heritage.
The result is a book, Stories of One Malaccan Family, published by The Baba & Nyonya Heritage Museum (run by the Chan family, with Melissa as the former curator) and chockful of stories of what life was like in that small town where it all started.
For Melissa, collecting the stories was a way of honouring her family and heritage. She says, “My memories of Melaka were of the beach of Klebang Besar, the hot afternoons and the smell of the sea breeze, my kai ma (godmother) preparing red bean soup for our afternoon tea, the sounds of the mahjong tiles click-clacking as my grandmother and my grand aunties played mahjong in the central hall of the house, my grandmother speaking a form of Malay that I did not understand.”
Stories of One Malaccan Family is also co-written with Melissa’s 84-year-old father, Henry Chan, for whom the storytelling process was a way to share stories of Peranakan culture with his daughter.
The retired architect says, “It was a challenge to recap the memories of my younger days, and also how to tell the younger generation what we went through during our growing-up years like playing marbles and tops, congkak, flying kites, which kids of today don’t play any more or cycling to school.”
Writing the book for Melissa was akin to writing a love story to what was close to her father’s heart. She adds, “My hope is that family stories allow us the time to know our parents or grandparents. It is an inter-generational exercise that allows us to hear the hearts of our loved ones, and gives meaning to both their existence and ours, and hopefully the younger ones too.”
Delving into her heritage also allowed Melissa to get to know her culture better by learning more about the stories of her family and what surrounded them. She says, “I did not grow up with the Baba Nyonya identity markers such as speaking the Baba patois, so producing the book helped to bring the museum which is the house my father and his siblings grew up in, to life.”
According to Melissa, the tales are loosely based on anecdotes her family members shared: “Some stories, especially the ones of my uncle who joined the Japanese army during the war, are close to the original stories. Stories like ‘mamas bling’, about the goldsmiths commissioned by the matriarch of the household, are imagined through snippets of memories told by the children playing in the household, and the goldsmiths coming into the house.”
The book is beautifully illustrated by Preethi Nair, a fourth generation Peranakan Chinese on her mother’s side (with Indian ancestry on her father’s side). Melissa recalls, “When I met Preethi, I was still working in advertising and looking for a designer. Preethi had illustrated this Nyonya looking out a window onto the street below, and it captured my heart and imagination. Her illustrations captured this innocence and had a tinge of nostalgia to them, which I felt was what the book needed to bring to life the memories of my family members.”
While Preethi’s cultural background is truly Malaysian, she often feels detached from her Peranakan roots. She explains, “I can’t cook or speak the Baba patois fluently, but I can draw, and this was my way to express myself as honestly as I could my love for my heritage and culture. It was a daunting project... I was worried that I would not portray the memories correctly.”
Using plenty of other resources to crosscheck the visuals, the perfectionist discovered that it was a meaningful challenge, from “getting the details right and worrying that it might offend people who may say ‘this is not drawn properly or correctly.’”
Judging by the senior Chan’s reception of the completed book, it’s clear that Preethi and Melissa needn’t have worried. For Henry, the aim of the project is quite straightforward: “With the publication of this book I hope future members of our family will have some understanding of our way of life after World War II, before the formation of Malaysia.”
Stories of One Malaccan Family by Melissa Chan and Henry Chan is available in KL (Badan Warisan, Ilham Gallery, Kinokuniya, Silverfish Books & Cziplee), Melaka (Baba Nyonya Heritage Museum & No. 8 Heeren Street), Penang (Gerakbudaya & Areca Books) and online at http://babanyonyamuseum.com/babanyonya-shop/
