Yan Yonghe: How does the Baba Nyonya "Flower of Culture" bloom in Malaysia?
China News Service Kuala Lumpur, February 11 Title: Yan Yonghe: How does the "flower of culture" in Baba Nyonya bloom in Malaysia?
China News Service reporter Chen Yue
Many years ago, the Singapore TV drama "Little Nyonya" set off a boom in China, and also aroused the curiosity and concern of the Chinese people about the Baba Nyonya ethnic group. As a product of exchanges and cultural exchanges between Chinese and Malaysians, Baba Nyonya has bloomed a unique "flower of culture" in Malaysia and other places with its diversified and integrated cultural colors. On the occasion of the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger, Yan Yonghe, President of the Malaysian Overseas Chinese (Baba Nyonya) Association, was interviewed by China News Agency "East and West" to introduce the Spring Festival customs of the Baba Nyonya ethnic group and the cultural characteristics of Baba Nyonya embodied in it.
The interview transcript is summarized below:
China News Service: What is Baba Nyonya?
Yan Yonghe: Baba Nyonya is also known as Qiao Sheng, Baba refers to male, and Nyonya refers to female. Baba Nyonya is the descendant of the Intermarried Chinese who went to The South China and the locals of Southeast Asia since the Ming Dynasty Zheng He went to the West. However, across Malaysia and Thailand, baba Nyonya is called differently.
It is said that the earliest Baba Nyonya was the descendant of zheng he who stayed behind to intermarry with local officials and soldiers when he went to the West. Although this statement has yet to be examined, it fully reflects the good memory of Malaysians for Zheng He's voyage to the West to promote economic and trade exchanges between Malaysia and China and people.
Taking my personal family experience as an example, my father from The Xiamen region of southern Fujian, China, came to Malacca and intermarried with the locals, where he has been passed down for more than 100 years.
At present, the Malaysian Expatriate Association has more than 3,000 members from all over Malaysia and all walks of life. The Overseas Chinese Association actively carries out activities on a daily basis, committed to inheriting and promoting baba Nyonya culture, and promoting horse-Chinese exchanges and people-to-people exchanges.
Known for its multicultural integration, Jonker Street in Malacca, Malaysia has a lot of Baba Nyonya and is an important window into the display of Baba Nyonya culture. China News Service reporter Chen Yue photographed
China News Service: How does the Baba Nyonya ethnic group celebrate the Spring Festival?
Yan Yonghe: The Spring Festival of the Baba Nyonya ethnic group fully reflects the cultural diversity and integration of the Baba Nyonya ethnic group, and has the characteristics of Both Chinese culture and Malay culture.
The Spring Festival in my family is the Spring Festival of "horse-China integration".
Similar to Chinese customs, we began to buy New Year goods when the Chinese New Year's Eve came, with special emphasis on buying items to worship our ancestors. In our family, Chinese New Year's Eve night to worship ancestors, at least "four large plates, four large bowls", but also prepare seasonal fruits and gold paper. In addition to Chinese New Year's Eve ancestor worship, the worship of the eighth day of the Chinese New Year is also a very important ceremony in Baba Nyonya, especially from the southern Fujian region of China. When worshipping Tiangong, together with his family, he should put dishes such as golden pig (roast pig), roast meat and fruits such as sugar cane and pineapple on the offering table.
During the Spring Festival in 2020, a giant rat lantern was erected in front of the Shelong Hainan Association (Tianhou Temple) in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, to wish the people a prosperous New Year. China News Service reporter Chen Yue photographed
Chinese New Year's Eve's Chinese New Year's Eve "reunion" meal is also a major highlight of Baba Nyonya's Spring Festival. In particular, there is a unique New Year dish that is popular in Places such as Malaysia and Singapore – Laosheng. Fishing is to represent a variety of auspicious meanings of sashimi, radish shreds, cucumber shreds, nuts, etc. placed in a large plate, when eating the whole table to put chopsticks into the plate to stir, but also shout "hair" or "fishing up", the louder the better, symbolizing the prosperity of the coming year. This dish not only inherits the custom of Chinese New Year blessings, but also incorporates local Malaysian ingredients and cultural characteristics.
After eating Chinese New Year's Eve meal, Baba Nyonya will go to various palace temples to welcome the New Year and pray for blessings. Every New Year's Day, Baba Nyonya has to offer tea to her parents, bow down, and say auspicious words. In addition, when visiting relatives on the first day of the Chinese New Year, adhering to the tradition of orderly Chinese longevity and childhood, Baba Nyonya wants to go down from the eldest elder to the family in order, so it will not hesitate to take a long detour. These rituals are still a must-follow tradition during the Spring Festival in most Baba Nyonya.
During the Spring Festival, Baba Nyonya is keen on dragon and lion dances, especially the high-pile lion dance developed by Chinese Malaysians on the basis of lion dances. The lion dance jumps on a high pile of different heights and is very ornamental. Lantern Festival flower lanterns and viewing lanterns add a festive atmosphere to the Spring Festival in Baba Nyonya.
Malaysian Guanshenggong Dragon and Lion Troupe "High Pile Lion Dance" performance. Photo by Zhao Shengyu, a reporter of China News Service
The Spring Festival in Baba Nyonya also introduces rich elements of Malaysian culture. Baba Nyonya, like the Malay yogi, is very good at singing and dancing. Every year during the Spring Festival, I invite my relatives and friends to a party to prepare colorful Malay pastries, spicy Malay curry dishes, mixed with white cut chicken and other Chinese dishes. After a full meal, we in Baba Nyonya would sing and dance, singing Malay songs, and the atmosphere was very eager.
China News Service: What kind of cultural characteristics does the Spring Festival in Baba Nyonya embody, and what factors make Baba Nyonya culture bloom in Malaysia?
Yan Yonghe: It can be seen from the Spring Festival culture of Baba Nyonya that Baba Nyonya pays great attention to the inheritance of traditional Chinese culture. For example, Baba Nyonya attaches great importance to the worship of ancestors and emphasizes the orderly growth and childhood during the New Year's greeting, which reflect the tradition of paying attention to filial piety in Chinese culture. The reunion dinner that attaches importance to a family reunion during the Spring Festival is also the embodiment of Chinese culture's emphasis on family and family affection.
In fact, not only the Spring Festival, but also the inheritance of Chinese culture, especially daily etiquette, is also paid attention to in the daily life of Baba Nyonya. For example, in our home, from the placement of ancestral tablets to the layout of the family, there are quite typical Southern Fujian characteristics.
In Penang, Malaysia, the "Betel Nut Expatriate Mansion", the family layout has quite typical Southern Fujian characteristics. Photo by Huang Hongbin, a reporter of China News Service
Even though some Baba Nyonya have been living in Malaysia for a long time, Chinese is no longer very smooth, and they have not reduced their emphasis on the inheritance of ritual culture, so as to maintain and highlight their cultural identity.
The founder of the Malaysian Chinese Association, Tan Chun Loc, is Baba, who once said, "If the Chinese do not love the culture of the Chinese, they will become people without ancestry." ”
Baba Nyonya, on the other hand, inherits many of its local cultures and integrates them into its own Chinese culture. This is reflected in diet, customs, and clothing. For example, Nyonya kebaya (Nyonya kebaya), also known as Nyonya shirt, is a traditional Nyonya garment made with traditional Chinese hand embroidery and hollowing methods. In recent years, many local Nyonya, including Chinese, have combined Nyonya shirts and cheongsam to develop the Chinese-style Kobaya. Khao Ba Ya can be said to be a representative of Baba Nyonya's cultural eclecticism.
Nyonya shows off their distinctive costumes. China News Service reporter Chen Yue photographed
Why does Baba Nyonya culture take root, blossom and bear fruit in Malaysia? First, Chinese culture is full of vitality and attaches importance to inheritance, and many of its characteristics are accepted by people around the world. For example, the Spring Festival culture of the Chinese nation has been affirmed by political leaders of all ethnic groups in Malaysia many times, believing that the concept of attaching importance to the family and attaching importance to relatives embodied in it is worth learning from all ethnic groups.
Second, thanks to the tradition of inclusive integration of Chinese culture and the harmony of Chinese culture, Chinese culture did not close and conservative after coming to Malaysia, but actively adapted to the local "banana wind and rain forest" and integrated into the cultural characteristics of local ethnic groups. Therefore, Baba Nyonya culture not only adheres to the Chinese cultural tradition, but also adapts to the local Malaysian society, which is the result of mutual learning among civilizations, and its lasting vitality blossoms here.
China News Service: What role do you think the Baba Nyonya ethnic group and baba Nyonya culture can play in China-Malaysia exchanges?
Yan Yonghe: In recent years, in order for Malaysia and China to jointly declare the world intangible cultural heritage for the folklore of "sending the king ship", I have visited Xiamen, Zhangzhou and other places many times. There, I could communicate with local officials, experts and scholars not only in Mandarin but also in Hokkien, which brought us closer together and enhanced our sense of intimacy.
In 2020, the project "Sending the King Ship – Rituals and Related Practices Concerning the Sustainable Connection between Man and the Sea" jointly submitted by China and Malaysia was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The king ship, also known as the "burning king ship", "the sacrifice king ship", "the tribute king", etc., commonly known as "doing good deeds", is a kind of folk disaster relief and prayer ceremony, which has a history of more than 600 years. The picture shows the grand ceremony of sending the king ship to The Bell Mountain in Haicang, Xiamen. China News Service reporter Zhang Bin photographed
Monument to the success of the king ship application on the shores of Malacca. China News Service reporter Chen Yue photographed
Therefore, as a Baba Nyonya with close ties with the Chinese and Malays, it can fully exert its unique advantages in the exchanges between Malaysia and China, especially the exchanges between the Malaysian and Chinese people and the joint construction of the "Belt and Road", and play the role of a bridge and link.
Furthermore, the spirit of civilization exchanges, integration, complementarity and mutual learning embodied in the Ba baba Nyonya culture also has a reference role in the exchanges and exchanges between countries and civilizations in the world today. It uses vivid examples to prove that there should be no confrontation between civilizations, but exchanges and communications, and mutual understanding, exchange and integration between civilizations will produce more splendid "flowers of civilization" like Baba Nyonya culture. (End)
Respondent Profiles:
Yan Yonghe, currently the President of the Malaysian Overseas Chinese (Baba Nyonya) Association, has long been committed to safeguarding the rights and interests of the Baba Nyonya ethnic group, promoting the development of Baba Nyonya culture, and promoting people-to-people exchanges between Malaysia and China. Yan Yonghe has also successfully organized the King Ship Cultural Festival in Malaysia for many times, and founded the King Ship Museum to promote this folk culture that originated in China and has been passed down in Malaysia for hundreds of years. As one of the initiators, he also actively promoted the joint application of Malaysia and China for the King Ship Culture, making an important contribution to the final inscription of the King Ship Culture in UNESCO as a Unesco World Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2020.