The Little Red Dot (part 6)

If Singapore was a house, it would be a shophouse.

One of the most popular forms of local architecture are the shophouses.

The early Chinese immigrants would set up their businesses on the first floor of these houses, while reserving the upper levels for their accommodations.

The shophouses in Singapore have two or three storeys, a narrow frontage, an internal courtyard, and open stairwells and skylights to bring light and air into the otherwise dark and narrow interiors.

They display Chinese, Malay, Peranakan and European architectural influences, with more or less facade ornamentation - from Chinese characters to decorative tiles, mosaics and carvings depicting animals and flowers - depending on when they were built. However, they all have the common feature of being cute!

You can see shophouses everywhere in Singapore, but the most head-turning examples are in the areas of Everton Park, Joo Chiat, Emerald Hill and Clarke Quay. Each shophouse is a unique masterpiece full of stories to tell!

You can book a private tour to discover the Baba House. Once the home of a wealthy shipping merchant, Singapore’s most famous Peranakan dwelling has been restored back to its original electric blue colour, with beautiful phoenixes and peonies mosaics symbolising harmony and prosperity. The Chinese characters on the facade speak about the values and identity of its owners, and were used to find the house back then when there were no street names! You will hear fascinating stories about the Peranakans (an Indonesian/Malay word that means “locally born”) - the descendants of Chinese, Indian or European traders and shippers who married local Malay women. English-educated and also speaking the local languages and dialects, they acquired political power and made their fortune serving as translators and intermediaries between the British and the local population. Peranakan males are known as babas while the females are known as nonyas, which explains the name of the house. It has been built in compliance with feng shui, which is all about balance and harmony - the five elements of earth, metal, wood, fire and water are present everywhere in the house.

The ground floor of the house features an open courtyard that leads into the reception hall through swing doors (“pintu pagar”) with a golden flowering chrysanthemum pattern keeping the prying eyes away from the interior of the house. A traditional Chinese Tian Gong Deng lantern, crafted out of wood and glass and historically used for Taoist worship rituals, hangs above the pintu pagar. Beyond the doors, you will enter the majestic reception hall with Chinese, Malay and Western influences, with two mirrors and two doors (you enter from the right door of the dragon and exit from the left door of the tiger) on the opposite side of the hall preventing the evil spirits from entering the house. The huge altar in the centre was used to worship the deities. The multiple black chairs are decorated with an in-laid mother-of-pearl pattern which reminds of the shapes of mountains, rivers and seas. In the past, if you were not part of the household but only a visitor, you would have been allowed to see only the reception hall. Nowadays, the private tour lets you admire all three storeys of the house.

Beyond the reception hall is an open area with the ancestral hall containing the second altar, which would have been the primary living space. You can imagine a lunch back then when each guest had in front of him or her, based on his or her origins, a fork and a knife for the Europeans, chopsticks for the Chinese or no cutlery at all but a basin of water for the Indians and the Malays who eat with their hands and need to wash them afterwards. On the back of the house is the kitchen with various tools used for cooking the elaborate Peranakan dishes, as well as a third altar dedicated to the Kitchen God Zao Shen. The Kitchen God is believed to report to the celestial Gods on family conduct and to have it within his power to bestow poverty or riches on the family members - a good reason for the nonyas to place Peranakan sweets on the altar in order to ensure that the God has his mouth full and will not be able to speak to the other Gods.

On the second floor of the house are a master bedroom with a beautiful bridal bed where the spouses met for the first time in their wedding robes, and a rear bedroom, constituting the private quarters of the house. You can lift up a small wooden slab and uncover a peep hole in the flooring that looks down into the main foyer - the CCTVs existed even back then! The house has a variety of Western-style furniture and decorative objects, such as a gramophone and a desk, and European-style wardrobes revealing Chinese-style designs with gorgeous oyster shells and gilded wood carvings. Every piece of furniture, every object tells a story of some of the first and most fascinating inhabitants of the Little Red Dot!

If Singapore was a culture, it would be Peranakan.

It goes without saying that the Peranakan culture which dates back to the 15th century is beyond unique!

The Peranakans have blended the traditions, languages, cuisines, clothes and arts of their ancestors, and created their specific gorgeous rituals, embroideries and, of course, the nonya cuisine.

They have even created their own language - the Baba Malay, a mix of Malay and Hokkien!

The Peranakans also empowered their women and girls at a time where they did not have any rights in other parts of the world. A Peranakan house was a matriarchal one where nonyas called the shots. When girls were being denied an education in 1899, a group of Peranakan men set up a school specially for Peranakan girls, the Singapore Chinese Girls’ School, which after World War II began accepting girls from all ethnic groups.

The Peranakan Museum will open its gates to some amazing treasures of nonya arts and crafts from beadwork...

…to wedding traditions (traditional Peranakan weddings are a 12-day affair!), religion and food, with a grand banquet table showcasing the world’s best collection of nonya porcelain!

The most famous Peranakan in Singapore is without any doubt Lee Kuan Yew, who was of Hakka and Chinese Peranakan descent. However, he had never publicly declared his Peranakan roots as his chief concern for the nation was to foster a collective sense of identity that would surmount ethnic divisions.

If Singapore was a celebration, it would be Deepavali, Hari Raya Puasa, the Chinese New Year, the Mid-Autumn Festival and Christmas.

Always in the same spirit of diversity and multiculturalism, Singapore has a public holiday for each ethnic group.

Deepavali, also known as the Festival of Lights, celebrates Lord Krishna’s victory over the demons of darkness.

The lights in Little India during this time of the year are a fairy tale!

Hari Raya Puasa is celebrated after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan - it is the time to have some delicious Malay snacks and treats in Kampong Glam!

The Chinese or Lunar New Year does not need any introduction - it celebrates family and traditions.

Red packets (or “hong bao”) containing cash (the red being an auspicious colour) are given for the Chinese New Year to the kids and the young and unmarried members of the family, by the managers to their team members, and by any person to his or her favourite “aunties” and “uncles” working in offices or hawker centres or guards of the condos as a sign of appreciation and gratitude. The amount of cash may be symbolic, but needs to be a lucky number (an even number or eight dollars, but never four!). Also, if you do not have red packets, do not replace them with white ones - white is the colour of mourning...

The streets of Chinatown are decorated in red with beautiful Chinese lanterns, and the orange and tangerine trees representing good luck and wealth are everywhere.

The smells of Chinese treats such as bak kwa (barbecued pork), jiaozi (dumplings) and glutinous rice balls (made of sticky rice flour and symbolising reunion, harmony and happiness) will fill the air and your senses.

In the days leading to the Lunar New Year, windows are scrubbed, floors swept and furniture dusted, and people usually have a new haircut and buy new clothes to “wash away” the bad luck of the past year.

You will see the Chinese character 福 “fu” meaning good fortune or happiness pasted, sometimes upside down, on the doors of the houses and the shops - the word “upside down” sounds the same as “arrive” in Chinese and therefore Chinese people believe that this is the equivalent of saying “the luck arrives”.

You will also see Chinese knots and window paper-cuts decorations everywhere.

The traditions of visiting relatives, the lion and dragon dances and of course the fireworks add up to the beauty of this celebration.

Gong Xi Fa Cai (in Mandarin) or Kung Hei Fat Choi (in Cantonese) is the most common greeting during the Chinese New Year, meaning “wishing you a prosperous new year”.

Another beautiful celebration is the Mid-Autumn Festival, a.k.a. the Lantern Festival or the Mooncake Festival.

Chinatown is beautifully lit with dazzling lanterns and it is time to start the hunt for the best mooncakes!

Christmas, the European equivalent of the Lunar New Year, is celebrated by all ethnic groups - who does not like Secret Santa and presents?

Chinese weddings are part of the celebrations as well, and are huge with lots of people and lots of food (the cake that the bride and the groom cut for the pictures is usually a fake one, but trust me - you will not leave the banquet hungry)! Chinese weddings are split into two parts - a tea ceremony and a banquet. Only the close family is invited to the traditional tea ceremony when the bride and the groom pay their respects and show their gratitude towards their parents, new in-laws and elders by serving them tea, and receive their blessings in the form of red packets in return. Contrary to Western weddings, the second part of Chinese ones is actually only dinner - after the meal people just leave, there is no after-party or dancing!

My favourite part is when the bride and the groom go around the room and toast each table, everyone shouting as loud as they can “gan bei!” and bottoming up their glass each time. Brides usually have two or three dresses and change during the dinner, including a Western white dress and traditional “qipao” or “cheongsam” that are absolutely stunning and, even for the long ones, look so sexy! As a guest, remember not to wear red because this could be seen as upstaging the bride or competing for attention, or black or white which is worn at funerals, and do not forget to bring a gift - a red packet with a lucky number of cash, of course (do not offer cut flowers which are sually present at funerals). You got it - red packets are ubiquitous at any Chinese celebration!

If Singapore was a religious place, it would be a temple, a mosque and a church.

You can literally come across a Hindu temple...

…next to a mosque...

…and a Taoist temple...

…and then cross the street and find a Catholic church and a Chinese Buddhist temple on the other side!

You can also, depending on your religious beliefs, find an Armenian orthodox church, a Protestant church, a Thai Buddhist temple and even a Sikh temple!

Singapore’s religious places mirror the diversity of its ethnic and religious groups.

One of Singapore’s biggest gems is Thian Hock Keng Temple (“Palace of Heavenly Happiness”) - the oldest and most important temple of the Hokkien people in the country, built in 1821 for the worship of Mazu, the Goddess of the Sea.

Early immigrants to Singapore offered incense to the Goddess to give thanks for their safe passage across the sea from China.

Guarding the doors are the traditional sentinels of a Taoist temple - the stone lions and the Door Gods.

The temple is richly decorated with coloured tiles, red, black and gold lacquered wood, as well as figures of dragons and phoenixes, with embellished and gilded beams and ceilings.

If Singapore was a ritual, a dance, a movie, a book, a song, a concert, a painting or a museum, it would be... (to be continued in the seventh and last part of this article)