Book Launch in Malacca

Book Launch of Stories of One Malaccan Family.

On Saturday, 13 October 2018, we attended a book launch at the Baba and Nyonya Heritage Museum in Malacca.  The museum is located at Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Loke (Heeren Street), a part of the historic inner city which has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. An immersive experience in the Peranakan culture- a hybrid of Chinese and Malay. Enjoyed the beautiful museum, the performance and the food. Met Lee Su Kim, the author of the Nyonya Trilogy; and Bert Tan, the founder of the Malaysian Heritage & History Club. And the book, Stories of One Malaccan Family, by Melissa Chan and Preethi Nair is a treasure!

Melissa Chan is the author of the book.
The Chans are Peranakan - a hybrid culture combining Chinese and Malay elements and this is reflected in their beautiful traditional costumes. The top, known as a kebaya is hand-embroidered traditionally (but machine embroidered now), while the sarong is made from batik.

Entitled, Stories of One Malaccan Family, it is about the Chan family and their remarkable ancestral home. Being an outstanding example of the Straits Settlement Shophouse architecture located in a historic part of the city, the clan decided to turn it into a museum.

Preethi Nair is the illustrator

Yean and Henry Chan at the book launch

The Chan family's ancestral home is now the
Baba and Nyonya Heritage Museum

Guests were served an array of
Nyonya delicacies at the launch.
The pastries are pineapple tarts, a Nyonya invention?

The lavishly illustrated book, Stories of One Malaccan Family is by Melissa Chan with her father, Henry Chan, and illustrated by Preethi Nair. It took Melissa and Preethi five years to complete this gorgeous book, which was written in honour of the Chan family, and their remarkable home. The collection of stories about the Chan family covers four generations - before the Second World War, during the war and after. While the First World War had little impact on this part of the world, the Second World War had a huge impact. The country, then Malaya, and almost the whole of Southeast Asia was occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army. The Chinese who have settled in this part of the world were especially adversely affected.

The book, entitled Stories of One Malaccan Family
is a collectible Malaysiana

B is for Bamboo Flute / PHOENIX SONG

Pre-order from www.lantanapublishing.com

The theme behind the story:

Phoenix Song is set in an imaginary town in Malaysia called Sighing Bamboo Hill; named after a mysterious hill which is believed to be haunted because of the sound of rustling bamboo leaves wafting from the hill. Although the setting is fictitious, not very long ago there were many villages and towns in Malaysia, with similar stories of haunted hills, rivers and lakes; wild places which were the domain of spirits, faeries or demons…

Magical elements play an important role in Phoenix Song, but the main theme is the importance of family as seen through the eyes of the main character, an eight-year old boy called Arohan. His mixed ethnicity - part Indian and part Chinese - reflects the cultural diversity of Malaysia; a country with at least a dozen ethnic groups. He also has a grandmother who is a Nyonya – a small community of Straits-born Chinese whose ancestors came to Malaysia in the Treasure Ships of the great Ming Dynasty explorer, Admiral Zheng He. The Nyonyas practice a culture which is a fusion of Malay and Chinese traditions.

Pheonix Song draws upon two separate folktales:

The first one is the Malay folktale of Buluh Perindu (literally yearning or sighing bamboo). The bamboo grove represents nature in the story. In traditional Malay culture, nature was so revered that a child is taught to ask for permission before even plucking a single flower. In the original story, three brothers were given the task of bringing back a bamboo cutting from a hill which was haunted or cursed. The two elder brothers ignored the advice of an old man they met on the way, and were turned to stone. The story was a fragment and also referred to the old belief not to respond or look back when one hears one's name being called in wild and lonely places... The youngest brother, who showed respect for the old man and followed his counsel, managed to obtain a piece of the magical buluh perindu. He fashioned a flute out of the bamboo and succeeded in reversing the curse on his brothers, just by playing the flute.

The story also draws upon the Chinese legend of the scholarly woodsman who was such a supernaturally gifted musician, he could tame wild animals and even summon the phoenix whenever he played the xiao (a Chinese bamboo flute). The phoenix in our story is Cendrawasih or Fenghuang, a symbol of Spring, longevity and the renewal of life.

I came across the story of Buluh Perindu some years ago but felt that there was something missing. Although the bamboo flute produced beautiful music, there were no other stories about its power to break curses; apart from Mozart’s The Magic Flute :)

I later came across the Chinese folktale of the wild musician and the two stories seemed to fit. If any magical creature could break a curse, it would be the phoenix. In addition, there were other East Asian folktales linking the music of the bamboo flute to the phoenix. In one, a phoenix appears to advise a pining Persian king to make a bamboo flute in order to win the heart of a Chinese princess…

When Alice Curry from Lantana Publishing (UK) contacted me about the possibility of writing a story for a children’s picture book, I immediately thought of Buluh Perindu. The story lent itself easily to a contemporary setting, with younger characters and the focus shifting to family and sibling rivalry. To make the story even more immediate, the narrative is told in a series of dialogues, between Arohan and his extended family and sometimes with himself :) The book also serves to remind us of  the deep reverence (and fear) for nature, we once had...

Day Trip to Malacca

We made a day trip to Historic Malacca early in October ('we' meaning Charmaine Augustin, Lee Yulie, Catherine and yours truly). Malacca's fame rest on the fact that it used to be the hub for the spice trade in centuries past. The spice trade was so lucrative and Malacca's position so strategic that the Portuguese, under the helm of Alfonso De Albuquerque, seized control of the port city in 1511. Portuguese conquest brought the Malacca Sultanate to an end. The last Sultan of Malacca, Sultan Mahmud, fled to Johor. He made several attempts to retake Malacca but to no avail.

A tricycle bedecked in pink may be the best way to see the town!

The Portuguese built a near-impregnable fort called A Famosa to protect their conquest. However, the city was taken over by the Dutch a century later and by the British in the next century. By the time the British took control of Malacca, it was no longer a major port city - that role had been taken by Penang and later still, Singapore. Malacca was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, together with Georgetown in Penang, on 7 July 2008 due to it being 'the most complete surviving historic city centered on the Straits of Malacca.'

A Famosa is the most famous remnant of Portuguese rule in Malacca.
(Picture taken from the Internet.)

As for the journey to Malacca - it was a bright and sunny day and everyone was in a cheerful mood, despite losing our way at least three times... Catherine (a retired nurse) kept us entertained with ghost stories from her nursing days. The one which stayed in my mind was that of a woman who was desperate for a child but tragically passed away when she was giving birth... apparently her ghost would appear and ask to hold her child in her arms...

Yulie, Charmaine and Catherine

When we finally reached Malacca, we immediately made a beeline for a restaurant called Nancy's Kitchen. Charmaine had already decided that this was the place that we would have lunch in based on the fact that Denise Keller (a host of MTV Asia) had stated in that famous documentary  entitled Passage to Malaysia that Nancy's Kitchen served the most authentic Nyonya food in Malacca. Nyonya food is a fusion of Malay and Chinese cuisine; developed in Malacca as the city had a Chinese community dating back all the way to the 15th Century.

Bukit Cina (Chinese Hill), an ancient graveyard in Malacca
bears testimony to the fact that the Baba- Nyonya community
has been living here for many centuries.
Image taken from the Internet

Admiral Zeng He (Admiral Cheng Ho in these parts), the famous emissary of  Emperor Yong Le of the Ming Dynasty brought a boatload of people on his Treasure Ships from China to Malacca on his many voyages... Legend has it that the intrepid Admiral also brought a Chinese princess called Hang Li Po to be the wife of Sultan Mansor Shah of Malacca. Legend has it, Princess Hang Li Po was accompanied by a retinue of 500 ladies-in-waiting, maids and attendants.

Yulie's friends joined us for lunch...

Oh back to the food - Charmaine ordered soup, Nyonya Chicken Curry, Egg Foo Yong, Otak-Otak, kang kong belacan and lobak - a kind of sausage made from minced chicken/pork and vegetables such as carrot and radish. Was it everything we were hoping for? Honestly, I was underwhelmed... it was delicious enough, especially the chicken curry and the lobak, but hardly worthy of the title of 'most authentic Nyonya cuisine' as claimed by Keller. Charmaine decided that was the last time we were going to listen to MTV hosts for food and restaurant advice... even if their mother was a native of Malacca.

The Geographer Cafe is a popular spot for tourists.
It is better known for drinks rather than food.

For dessert, we adjourned to another restaurant called Jonker 88 - based on the advice of a blogger. Jonker Street is the most famous street in Malacca, where all the historic shophouses are located. We all had cendol - a classic Malaysian dessert made of finely shaved ice, coconut milk, Gula Malacca (brown palm sugar) and cendol - green noodles flavoured with pandan leaves. The ones served here also had red beans added and you could also get a topping of durian ice cream...

Bowls of cendol from 88 Jonker Street

Disappointed again mainly due to the fact that the cendol was frozen solid. Cendol is supposed to be soft, with the consistency of pasta or mochi... Charmaine decided that we should always follow our own instincts and not rely on the recommendations of a blogger. Charmaine and Yulie are fastidious foodies and they own a company called Passion Doux (Sweet Passion) which specialises in high end gourmet food. One of the reasons for visiting Malacca was to source for gourmet quality local food.

This young woman made better cendol than 88 Jonker!

I was quite taken by the sights and sounds of the city, inspite of the fact that many of the shops, including the Baba-Nyonya Heritage House - was closed.

Street musician playing a traditional lute

Entrance to the Hokkien Clan House?

Detail of  a mother tiger and  her cub on a plaster cast on the side wall.
The opposite wall had a dragon which had been defaced.

One of the most impressive shops we visited was Jonker Gallery, the interior was extraordinary with carved and gilded wood decorations everywhere. Unfortunately they did not allow photography inside. I managed to snap one anyway...

Impressive interior of Jonker Gallery, which sold mainly T-shirts...

Our last stop was at Puri Padi, one of Yulie's favourite shop in Malacca. The entrance was enchanting - very Balinese in style with decorative stone gateway and water feature wall with goldfish swimming in a crystal clear pool beneath...

Yulie's favourite shop is Balinese style Puri Padi.

Beautiful water feature adds to the allure of  Puri Padi.

We left Malacca before sunset, perhaps with mixed feelings. The fact that many of the shops and even the Baba-Nyonya heritage museum was closed on a Thursday was disappointing. The other drawback were the dearth of local handicrafts in the shops. The realisation dawned that perhaps tourist destinations from Malacca to Miami were probably full of Made-in-China trinkets. This was a sobering thought. Still there is plenty in Malacca to keep you occupied - just make sure you visit during the weekends when the town actually comes to life!

Catherine and Charmaine take a brief respite from the heat...