What is Baba Nyonya?

Baba Byonya (Peranakan, the term used popularly for descendants of early Chinese immigrants to the Nusantara region, including both the British Straits Settlements of Singapore, Malacca and Penang, and the Dutch controlled island of Java among other areas, who have partially adopted Malay customs in an effort to be assimilated into the local communities.

The word of Peranakan, is also used commonly to describe Indonesia Chinese. In both BM & Bahasa Indonesia, Peranakan” means descendant. Baba refer to the male descendants and Nyonya the female. Most Peranakanare of Hokkein ancestry, although a fair denomination of them are of the Teocheww or Cantonese descent. The language of the Peranakan, Baba Malay (Bahasa Melayu Baba), is a dialect of the Malay Language which contains many Hokkein works.

The Nyonya Baba were partially assimilated into the Malay culture, especially in food, dress and language used, while retaining some of the Chinese traditions and culture, like religion, name, folk medicine and festival celebrations, thereby creating a new kind of mixed culture of their country of origin with local, among those, like “Nyonya cuisine “ has developed the spices of Malay cuisine, examples are curry recipe cooking, Inchi Kabin, Chicken Kapitan, fried or cry chicken & sea foods, with local spicy & spicery. Wearring the Baju Kebaya. Most of the Peranakan are not Muslim, but have retained the ancestral worship tradition of the Chinese, especially of their wedding ceremony is largely based upon the Chinese tradition.