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Representation of Culture, Gender and Identity: an Analysis of Stella Kon's Emily of Emerald Hill

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Representation of Culture, Gender and Identity: an Analysis of Stella Kon's Emily of Emerald Hill International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, Vol. 3, No. 3, September 2017 Representation of Culture, Gender and Identity: An Analysis of Stella Kon’s Emily of Emerald Hill Ong Cheng Teik disciplinary approach that borrows conceptual tools from Abstract—The immense popularity of the monodrama Emily various fields. of Emerald Hill by Singaporean playwright Stella Kon hinges on a multiplicity of factors from the successful and nostalgic II. ABOUT EMILY OF EMERALD HILL re-enactment of the glorious days of the Peranakan (Straits-born) Chinese in Singapore to the realistic portrayal of Written by award-winning playwright Stella Kon and a Peranakan Chinese matriarch and protagonist Emily. It is the directed by world renowned Malaysian director Chin San latter that this study seeks to interrogate the play to analyse the Sooi, Emily of Emerald Hill documents the vanishing construction of the various female roles and identities Emily tradition and culture of the Peranakan Chinese as depicted in assumes from that of a daughter to a daughter-in-law, a wife, a mother and a Peranakan Chinese matriarch. Such realistic the life story of the intriguing protagonist Emily, from her portrayal of a multidimensional character together with the humble beginning to her rise as the matriarch of the affluent resonance of the Peranakan tradition relived in the play endear Gan family. her to the audience from Malaysia and Singapore that have a The monodrama was first staged in Seremban on 17 sizeable Peranakan Chinese community. In the analysis, this November 1984 to a full audience and favourable reception multidisciplinary study straddles and draws on insights from the fields of sociology, post-structuralism, Confucianism and with actress Pearlly Chua playing Emily and it has since psychoanalysis in its attempt to better understand the psyche witnessed countless performances staged in various cities and motivation behind Emily’s skilful and triumphant from Nantes to Paris, Edinburg, Honolulu, Sydney, negotiation with patriarchy reminiscent of the bygone days of Bangalore, Mumbai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, the Peranakan Chinese community that privileged sons over Ipoh, Melaka, Johor Bahru, Kuching and Penang [1]. daughters. Numerous female performers have reprised the role of the Index Terms—Confucianism, culture, female identities and matriarch Emily in this hugely successful and popular play roles, gender, patriarchy, Peranakan Chinese. more than 350 times in Singapore and overseas [2], the bulk of which is by Pearlly Chua with over 200 performances [1], Margaret Chan with over one hundred and three times and I. INTRODUCTION Malaysian born actress Leow Puay Tin with more than The objective of this paper is to examine how culture, twenty one performances. It has also later spawns male / drag gender and identity are represented in Stella Kon’s performance by actor Ivan Heng as Emily Gan in 2011 and monodrama Emily of Emerald Hill, with particular reference musical adaptations in 2010, 2012, and 2016 [1]. More to the roles portrayed by the protagonist Emily. In relation to recently, its translation into and performances in other this, the writer attempts an analysis of the multiple female languages such as French, Icelandic, Hindi, Kannada, gendered identities and roles dictated by the Confucian Japanese and Chinese further bear testimony to its resonance patriarchal belief system as observed by Emily’s Peranakan with an international audience. Chinese community. Its local context and culture particular to this region does In contrast to biological sex, the female gender is a social not hinder its universal appeal as observed by Talib: the construct with regard to patterns of sexuality and behaviour play’s “restricted local references are not a barrier to their imposed by cultural and social norms. However, the international reception” [3]. Emily of Emerald Hill’s prevailing problem among many text consumers is the international acclaim attests to its immense popularity that tendency to treat sex and gender as synonymous and hence transcends geographical boundary, race, gender and culture. their inability to see through the naturalised social standards Apart from providing a succinct insight into the of femininity or female gender in a patriarchal society. As Peranakan culture and a period of the history of Singapore such, the significance of this study is to demonstrate how and Malaysia, the drama strikes a universal cord of an female gendered roles and identities are learned and individual struggling against an oppressive environment of naturalised by patriarchy and women’s compliance and social norms and patriarchy. The play tells the story of a negotiation with patriarchy with a view to asserting and thorough Nyonya (Peranakan Chinese lady) and formidable validating their own identities. For a better understanding of lady, Emily, who first arrived at the mansion of the Gan such female gendered identities, the writer adopts a cross family as a child bride at the age of fourteen years old in 1929. The many facets of her character gradually unfold from the Manuscript received June 9, 2017; revised September 10, 2017 multiple female roles she assumes that include but are not Ong Cheng Teik is with the School of Education, Languages and Communications, Wawasan Open University, George Town, Penang, restricted to those of a capable domestic manager, a fond Malaysia (e-mail: [email protected]). mother and a society hostess. Struggling to establish her doi: 10.18178/ijlll.2017.3.3.124 143 International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, Vol. 3, No. 3, September 2017 position as the wife of the eldest son of the family in a punctuated with a considerable number of Hokkien (a patriarchal belief system prejudicial to women, the Chinese dialect) words. However, not all Peranakan strong-minded Emily manages to overcome many trials and communities subscribe to the same practices with the Penang tribulations and eventually emerges triumphant as the Babas being “considered as less acculturated, retaining a matriarch of a large and distinguished household but at the stronger Chinese culture especially in their language” [6]. expense of her son’s suicide and her estrangement from her Accordingly, Chua [7] considers the Baba identity to be husband. defined along a cline instead of separate categories. In short, Emily of Emerald Hill is not just the story of a During the British rule in the Straits Settlements, the woman, it is “the story of every woman of her generation Peranakans grew in favour with the British subjects, hence who could only find power and fulfilment in the role of wife building a rapport with the European colonists. Educated in and mother” [1]. Such universal elements endear it to English and consisted mostly of white-collar workers, the multicultural audiences who identify themselves with the Peranakans adopted British working practices and lifestyles, multiple female roles Emily plays from a daughter to wife, so much so that many converted to Christianity and “… chose daughter-in-law, girlfriend and mother [2]. to submit their loyalty to the British” [6]. B. The Peranakan People and Culture The practice of privileging sons over daughters was III. A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE PERANAKAN CHINESE prevalent in the Peranakan culture as evident in Lim’s A. Origins of the Peranakan People account that ‘in the early communities in Malacca, the boys Variously known as Babas, Nyonyas, Bibiks, Straits were sent to schools to be educated. The girls, on the other Chinese and Straits-born Chinese, the Peranakan Chinese hand, remained at their mother’s side. Even when the and their hybridised complex cultural identity are unique in Peranakans migrated to Singapore, this practice had not Southeast Asia, with their origin dates back to the interracial changed" [4]. marriages between immigrant Chinese men and non-Muslim Such patriarchal values and belief system were further women such as the Bataks, Balinese and Chitty from Malacca, entrenched in the Peranakan culture through the various Penang, Trengganu, Burma and Indonesia in the sixteenth socially constructed female gendered roles for women: century [4]. “Once a girl turned twelve, her life of freedom ended. She In concurrence with Lim [4], Chia posits that “the would …. be instructed on the finer points of her future role present-day Babas have long been believed to be the as a respectable wife in a Peranakan family. She would pick descendants of the unions of early Chinese immigrants to up essential lessons in proper behaviour, cooking, sewing, Malaya and indigenous Malay women” [5]. Since it is embroidering, beadwork etc.” [4]. In short, a woman’s place inconceivable that a Malay woman will marry a man outside was confined within the house and we will see in subsequent her race and religion without first converting him to Islam, sections that these socially constructed female roles are according to historian Sir Richard Winstedt (cited in [5]), the faithfully played out in Emily of Emerald Hill by the local wives of Chinese must have been pagan slaves from the protagonist Emily. Archipelago such as the Bataks from neighbouring Sumatra. On matters related to lifestyle, the Peranakans adopted the Today, the Peranakan community exists predominantly in British way of life with ease, from working in British-owned Singapore, Malacca and Penang with the kinship ties companies to collecting ostentatious works of arts, extending to Indonesia and Phuket, Thailand where they are decorating their homes in the European style, throwing known as Indonesian Peranakan Chinese and Phuket Baba dinner parties where British guests were invited and horse Chinese respectively [6]. As with other communities, it has riding. It was not uncommon for wealthy Peranakan families embraced modernity, hence resulting in the simplification of to employ several domestic helpers to handle numerous elaborate traditions and the dwindling currency of Baba household chores. Malay. According to Lim [4], strictly speaking, Peranakan is a Malay word that means ‘local-born’.
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