FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

10 February 2015

Dear Editor/ Programme Manager

Singapore’s Peranakan Culture Hits New Delhi!

1 The Asian Civilisations Museum’s Peranakan exhibition called “The Peranakan World: Cross-cultural Art from and the Straits” was successfully launched today at the National Museum of New Delhi.

2 President Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam, on his first state visit to India, graced the opening and shared the importance of holding such exhibitions to enhance bilateral ties between the two countries and promote a better understanding of Singapore’s multi-racial communities and how they form the core of Singapore’s identity.

3 The Peranakan World: Cross-Cultural Art from Singapore and the Malacca Straits will be on display at the National Museum of New Delhi from 10 February to 5 April 2015. With 122 objects from the in Singapore, supplemented by loans from collectors in Singapore, the exhibition tells the fascinating story of how Chinese immigrants intermarried with locals, developed new hybrid forms, and created a unique culture in their new homes in Southeast Asia. Please refer to Annex A for more details on the exhibition story line. To access top six highlights, please visit this link : http://bit.ly/1IofuGO

4 This exhibition in India marks a significant milestone for Singapore as it is the first time the National Heritage Board is presenting an exhibition in India.

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5 In his speech at the opening for the exhibition, President for Singapore, Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam said, “It is appropriate that this exhibition in particular has been arranged for the 50th anniversary of Singapore-India relations. The Singapore story, much like the Peranakan story, is a fusion of cultures, some of which were strongly influenced by India. Not many people realise how close the historical links between Singapore and India are. ”

6 At a doorstop interview at the opening of the exhibition, Mr Lawrence Wong, Minister of Culture, Community and Youth, Singapore shared “We have brought the first exhibition, which is the Peranakan exhibition to India and similarly, we hope to bring many more exhibitions from India to Singapore to showcase the richness of the Indian culture to Singapore”

7 Dr Alan Chong, Director of the Asian Civilisations Museum and Peranakan Museum said, “Peranakan art is an important example of multicultural exchange. Many of the textiles, porcelain, and beadwork seen in the exhibition are unmistakeably Peranakan, yet can trace sources to India, the Malay world, Europe, and China. I hope the exhibition also strengthens the idea that culture is shared. Port cities like Singapore have been formed by centuries of trade, immigration, and colonial rule.”

8 The National Museum of New Delhi will also organise a talk next week by Singaporean writer, Ms Josephine Chia titled ‘My Peranakan Heritage’ where she will share more about her experience growing up as a Peranakan.

For more information, please contact: Ms Shari, Asst.Director (Marcomms) ACM & TPM, HP: 96702037, [email protected]

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News Released by: Asian Civilisations Museum. A National Heritage Board Museum

About the Peranakan Museum

The Peranakan Museum explores the culture of Peranakan communities in Southeast Asia. Installed in the former Tao Nan Chinese School, built in 1912, this intimate museum possesses one of the finest and most comprehensive collections of Peranakan objects. Galleries on three floors illustrate the cultural traditions and the distinctive visual arts of the .

The Peranakan Museum provides a stimulating and educational experience for all, while representing the living culture of the community. The museum is part of the Asian Civilisations Museum, operating under the National Heritage Board.

Visit www.peranakanmuseum.sg or the museum’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/PeranakanMuseumSingapore

Annex A

Storyline of ACM’s Travelling Show The Peranakan World: Cross-cultural Art from Singapore and the Malacca Straits 10 Feb – 5 April 2015 National Museum, New Delhi

An exhibition from the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore

This exhibition tells the rich story of how Chinese immigrant communities forged a unique Southeast Asian culture. Through intermarriage and centuries of living in the region, new fused art forms took shape. The Peranakans combined Chinese traditions with customs from

3 / 7 many different communities in the Straits Settlements and the Dutch East Indies. New forms of dress, language, food, and art arose, in tandem with other communities. The exhibition explores this fusion culture during the late 19th and early 20th centuries through four themes: Chinese sources; influences from the Malay world and the Indian Ocean; the response to Europe; and the role of Peranakans in shaping modern Southeast Asia.

The exhibition is anchored around a display of a Peranakan ancestral altar and an exploration of how Peranakan dress is rooted in the cultures surrounding the Indian Ocean. The sarong kebaya originated in the mixed communities of Goa and Sri Lanka, and then travelled along the Portuguese and Dutch colonial networks to Malacca, Jakarta, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Indian trade cottons were used as clothing and inspired the developed in Southeast Asian batik. Furniture design was similarly shared in the Coromandel Coast, Sri Lanka, and Java. The history of Peranakan culture is not simply the story of a local community in Singapore and the Straits Settlements ( and Malacca), but also the history of a cultural network reaching throughout Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.

The Exhibition

This exhibition contains 122 objects that highlight the eclectic material culture of the Peranakan Chinese. The artefacts will be arranged in four sections:

1. Chinese sources 2. Influences from the Malay world and the Indian Ocean 3. Europe and the colonial system 4. Peranakans and the modern world

The objects are drawn from the collection of the Asian Civilisations Museum and the Peranakan Museum of Singapore, which has the most comprehensive collection of Peranakan material in the world, and will include beadwork, embroidery, textiles, portraits, gold and silver, porcelain, and furniture.

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Annex B

ADDRESS BY MRS ROSA DANIEL, DEPUTY SECRETARY FOR MINISTRY FOR CULTURE, COMMUNITY AND YOUTH AT THE OPENING OF PERANAKAN WORLD: CROSS CULTURE ART FROM SINGAPORE AND THE MALACCA STRAITS ON 10 FEBRUARY AT 4.30PM AT NATIONAL MUSEUM, NEW DELHI

His Excellency Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam, President of Singapore, and Mrs Mary Tan

Mr Lawrence Wong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth

Ms Grace Fu, Minister in Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Foreign

Affairs

Mr Raghav Chandra, Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser, Ministry of Culture

Dr Venu Vasudevan, Director General, National Museum of New Delhi

Distinguished guests

Good Afternoon,

1. I am honoured to be here with you today at this exhibition. It is organised jointly by the Peranakan Museum of the National Heritage Board in Singapore and the National Museum in New Delhi. It is the first exhibition from Singapore to be presented in India. On behalf of the Ministry of Culture and the National Heritage

Board of Singapore, I would like to thank the National Museum of India, the Ministry of Culture of the Government of India and the High Commission of the Republic of

Singapore in India for making this possible.

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2. The Peranakan World: Cross-Cultural Art from Singapore and the Malacca

Straits tells the story of how the hybrid Chinese community created a unique culture in Southeast Asia. The Malay word "Peranakan" means locally born, and refers to the early Chinese immigrants to the Malay Archipelago who intermarried with local people. This mixed community created a unique hybrid culture that gave rise to distinctive dress, dialect, food, and art.

3. This exhibition seeks to present the Peranakan way of life through an array of

Peranakan objects such as textiles, costumes, jewellery, beadwork, porcelain and furniture. Many of these objects fuse different cultures: Chinese, Malay, Indian, and

European. To give one example, the sarong has its source in India: printed cotton textiles from Gujarat and the Coromandel Coast were exported to the Malay world, and inspired batik versions made by Peranakans and other ethnic groups in island

Southeast Asia.

4. 2015 marks an important year for Singapore as we celebrate our 50th birthday. It also marks 50 years of diplomatic relations between Singapore and India.

The National Heritage Board and its museums have long collaborated closely with the museums of India. The first major exhibition of Indian antiquities in Singapore, called Alamkara: 5000 Years in India, was presented in 1994. This was at the Asian

Civilisations Museum and drew a record 165,000 visitors. Since then, other major exhibitions such as that on the Nalanda Trail and long term loans from India have travelled to Singapore. We have also enjoyed good exchanges of scholars and experts on heritage preservation and conservation over the years.

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5 A particularly important event in Singapore’s Jubilee celebrations will be the opening of the later this year. This new centre is dedicated to exploring the diverse Indian community in Singapore. I hope many of you will visit this centre soon.

6. I end on a special note of thanks to Dr Venu Vasudevan, Director General of

National Museum of New Delhi for his hospitality, and for the hard work of his staff and the staff of the Peranakan Museum in putting this exhibition together. I hope this project will be followed by many more close collaborations between our two countries. I wish every success for Peranakan World: Cross Cultural Art of

Singapore and the Malacca Straits. Thank you.

- End -

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