Peranakan Culture

One of the early styles of building was the shop house.  The first floor held a store front with storage behind and living quarters above.  These buildings, attached in a row, were narrow, but deep because the real estate tax was based on street frontage.  The front was rather plain and utilitarian.

The Paranakans are people who can trace their ancestry to the Chinese who settled in Singapore centuries ago and married local women.  Our guide's attitude toward them could be briefly summarized..  "They are rich snobs who always have to show off how rich they are."  She never said it in exactly those words, but got the feeling across to us.  One specific section of town has the concentration of these families.  Mercedes and BMW's, and even a Lotus are parked by the houses.

In the Paranakan part of town these buildings no longer had shops.  Instead, the ground floor had a living room followed by a dining room and kitchen.  The bedrooms are upstairs.





The front is embellished with colorful tile, ornate columns and decoration.  Since they were built before air conditioning, and since this is a very hot climate, open scroll work near the ceiling allowed air to enter.  If you left your door or windows open to allow more air, anyone walking by could look right in.  The solution?  Swinging doors with openings that allowed air without giving those who passed by a good look into your house.






One of the building requirements was to have a covered walkway 5 feet wide in front of the house so people would have shade on hot sunny days and protection from the rain.  We saw the same arrangement in Cuba.  A modest 3 bedroom house costs well over $2,000,000.  It is the custom for the Paranakans to entertain lavishly, dress expensively and wear lots of expensive jewelry.

In order to maintain this lifestyle, men work long hours in very well paying jobs.  They turn everything else over to the women, so you do not see bright colors, but rather more pastels.






All religions are allowed in Singapore.  We saw Christian churches, Chinese temples (combining Buddhism, Taoism and followers of Confusious)and Hindu temples.

Christian

Laughing Buddha

Hindu

Hindu gods

Hindu goddesses

People come to these places of worship to pray, worship and ask advice.  In the Hindu temple we saw one of the means of asking advice.  If the question could be answered with a yes or no, the red crescent moons were thrown down.  Depending on the way they landed, the answer was either follow your own heart, come back later or stop bothering me.  

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If the question is more complicated, the petitioner shakes the box of sticks until one comes out.  the number corresponds to a slip of paper.  The temple priest then reads a passage from Hindu writing, and the person must apply that to his situation.

We also tried some local food, including a multi-layer sweet that is an allegory of life.  Each layer stands for a part of your life.  The top is childhood, later layers are phases of adulthood and the bottom layer is old age.  You must eat each layer in order, just as you must be a child before becoming an adult.