SM Teo Chee Hean at the Reopening of the Peranakan Museum

Celebrating Peranakan Culture and Our Singapore Identity

Mr Alvin Tan, Minister of State, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth & Ministry of Trade and Industry
Ms Yeoh Chee Yan, Chair, National Heritage Board
Ms Chang Hwee Nee, Chief Executive, National Heritage Board
Mr Mark Lee, Chair, Asian Civilisations Museum and The Peranakan Museum
Mr Kennie Ting, Director, Asian Civilisations Museum and The Peranakan Museum
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good evening. Thank you for being here today. I am pleased to join you today for the reopening of the Peranakan Museum.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the Peranakan Museum, housed here at the former Tao Nan School. I am glad that the museum is finally reopening after a three-year revamp, with refreshed galleries and improved accessibility. The revamped galleries present the Peranakan culture with greater breadth and depth, reflecting the cross-currents of Asia as it blended with the Malay-Indonesian world.

The Peranakan Story

The Peranakan story is also, in many ways, the story of Singapore today. It is a cross-cultural place, a place where cultures, peoples from around the region, all over the world met to create something beautiful and better. For centuries, Chinese and Indian traders visited ports in our region to trade spices, silk, tea, lacquer-ware, porcelain and other goods. Singapore grew into a vibrant port and maritime trading hub, and attracted many of these traders to settle down here, marry the local people and start families. Their descendants came to be known as the Peranakans. The Peranakans created a new hybrid culture that combined practices from their original civilisations with elements of the local culture. The result was a highly diverse and inclusive culture with fusion flavours, lively music, colourful textiles and intricate motifs. In many ways, the Peranakan culture reflects our own multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious society here in Singapore, a unique and harmonious product of cross-cultural interactions that we are all part and proud of.

Our reopened Peranakan Museum will tell this story and capture all the rich and fascinating aspects of Peranakan culture. It holds one of the finest and most comprehensive public collections of Peranakan objects, including furniture, ceramics, batik, decorative textiles, jewellery, and fashion. By showcasing a culture unique in Singapore and our region, the museum will provide a platform for cultural exchange and dialogue. More importantly, it will serve as a window to our own history and distinctive Singaporean identity, and help us as Singaporeans to develop a deeper appreciation of our past, who we are, and where we came from.

A Vibrant Arts and Cultural Sector

The Peranakan Museum is reopening at an exciting time, with our arts and cultural sector coming back to life as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. If you look carefully, there are some special exhibits with a Peranakan motif which are testimony of our times. The past three years have not been easy for everyone, including those of you in the arts and culture sector. I would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone today for your patience, understanding, and cooperation to take us through this difficult period to where we are today. You have demonstrated resilience and adaptability, and managed to pull through together. Since our re-opening, we have seen an increased demand for the performing arts and museum visitations, as many Singaporeans turned to the arts and culture for comfort, solace and renewal in times of uncertainty. Live performances, exhibitions and events returned to bring life back to Singapore. Our national cultural institutions like the Esplanade, National Gallery, Singapore Art Museum, National Museum and the Asian Civilisations Museum are also rolling out exciting new line-up of programmes.

The government will continue to support the heritage and museum sector, and provide both financial and institutional support to ensure that we continue to flourish. We are working with the community and other stakeholders across the private, public and people sectors to implement Our SG Heritage Plan 2.0, which stretches from 2023 to 2027, to build a creative, vibrant and forward-looking heritage and museum eco-system. I thank our practitioners, partners, patrons and also the Singapore public for your continued commitment and support for our heritage and museums.

Conclusion

Today, I would also like to thank and commend the team from Asian Civilisations Museum for your hard work in revamping and refreshing the Peranakan Museum. You have drawn from the resources, knowledge, experience and talent from across NHB, and ensured that this unique culture is preserved and celebrated for generations to come. I would also like to thank all our Peranakan community partners, especially from the Peranakan Indian Association (PIA), The Peranakan Association Singapore (TPAS), the Arab Network Association Singapore, the Jawi Peranakans, and the Eurasian Association Singapore, who played an important part in the museum’s reopening today by contributing artefacts and sharing your knowledge through interviews and stories. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the late Mr Lee Kip Lee and his family, as well as Dr Roger and Mrs Betty Mariette, for being major supporters of the Peranakan Museum and for their generous contributions to the museum’s collection over the years. The wonderful collection that you saved and put together, the Yap Ah Loy dining set, is really magnificent. It tells so much about the history of our region.

I hope that this museum will contribute to the strengthening of our national identity, cultural links and historical knowledge, and spark dialogue and reflection on what it means to be “Peranakan”, and even what it means to be “Singaporean”, and how we can all live in peace together in our world. I wish everyone an enjoyable evening.

Thank you very much and enjoy the beautiful gem.

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