Chimbridge Singlish Dictionary

definitions

noun

1. a descendant of early Chinese immigrants to Nusantara, who usually intermarried with the local population to produce mixed offspring, resulting in a new syncretized culture distinct from that of later 19th and 20th-century Chinese immigrants, and the development of a creole language known as Baba Malay based mainly on Malay and Hokkien

I come from a Peranakan family, where the dining table caters to huge numbers, and seating during meal-time is hierarchical.

— 2017 May 9, June Cheah-Nicholls. Today, "Staying hungry is the key to success". p.25

There was a Peranakan woman
Who lived in a shoe,
She made so many nyonya kueh,
She didn’t know what to do.
She gave some to her cockatoo
And some to her mouse
But most to the samsui women
Who built her house!

— 2014, Gwen Lee. There Was a Peranakan Woman Who Lived in a Shoe. Epigram Books. ISBN: 9789810778682

synonyms:

Baba Nyonya orang Cina bukan Cina

adjective

1. of or relating to the Peranakan society, culture, ethnicity, language, cuisine, etc.

The restaurant at the National Gallery is gorgeous in gilded dark wood and Peranakan tiles and serves a menu that will no doubt draw both Singaporeans and foreign visitors in search of a taste of the island's culinary canon.

synonyms:

Baba Nyonya