1. Various definitions of the term Baba appear further on in this article.

2. This has been widely accepted as a fact. See Crawfurd, J., History of the Indian Archipelago, Edinburgh, 1830, Vol. 1, p. 135Google Scholar; Earl, G. W., The Eastern Seas or Voyages and Adventures in the Indian Archipeligo, London, 1937, p. 363Google Scholar; Siang, Song Ong, One Hundred Years' History of the Chinese in Singapore, Singapore, 1967, pp. 3–4Google Scholar; Thomson, J., The Straits of Malacca, Indo-China and China, London, 1875, p. 48Google Scholar; Purcell, Victor, The Chinese in Malaya, London, 1967, p. 86.Google Scholar

3. Writing about the Babas during the period 1897–1909 H. Singh Gill referred to their “split personality”, “duality”, and “ambivalence”. This dual attitude was reflected in the Straits Chinese reformers of the time who exhorted their people to preserve their Chinese cultural heritage. There was a feeling of dissatisfaction because of reluctance on the part of the British government to accord the Straits-born Chinese full legal rights, as British Subjects.

See Gill, Harbhajan Singh, “The Singapore Babas 1897–1909”. Unpublished BA. Honours Academic Exercise, University of Malaya, Singapore, 1959, pp. 5–6Google Scholar, and Siang, Song Ong, “Are the Straits Chinese British Subjects?” The Straits Chinese Magazine (hereafter cited as SCM), vol. III, No 10 (06 1899), pp. 61–67.Google Scholar

4. Vaughan, J. D., The Manners and Customs of the Chinese of the Straits Settlements, Singapore, 1879, p. 4.Google Scholar

5. Rev. Douglas, Carstairs, Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy. with the Principal Variations of the Chang-chew and Chinchew Dialects, London, 1899, p. 8.Google Scholar

6. Wilkinson, R. J., A Malay-English Dictionary, London, 1959, Part 1. p. 59.Google Scholar

7. Siang, Song Ong (1967), p. 4.Google Scholar

8. Shinsaku, Kobayashi, Shina Minzoku no Kaigai Hatten Kakyō no Kenkyū, Tokyo, 1931, p. 93.Google Scholar

9. Siang, Song Ong (1967), p. 3.Google Scholar

10. The point has been made that in the Straits Settlements as in other parts of Malaya the rate of intermarriage slowed down after the imposition of British rule. It has also been suggested that this was due to the greater incentives to identify with the British than with the rural Malays.

Edmonds, J., “Religion, Intermarriage and Assimilation: The Chinese in Malaya”. Race, Vol. X, No. 1 (07 1968), p. 61.Google Scholar

See also Hock, Lee Yong, “A History of the Straits Chinese British Association (1900–1959).” Unpublished B.A. Honours Academic Exercise, University of Malaya, Singapore, 1960, pp. 8–10.Google Scholar

11. op. cit., p. 16.

12. Terms used by Mr. T. W. Ong, past president of the Straits Chinese British Association and current president of the Singapore Peranakan Association. According to him a “true Baba” had to be of Hokkien origin. Interview with the writer on 5 September 1968.

13. Vaughan's inference as reflected in his quotation is inaccurate as a Tiechiu educated in China would probably not qualify as a Baba. See discussion further on in this article.

op. cit., p. 16.

14. Siang, Song Ong (1967), p. 4.Google Scholar

15. Mr. T. W. Ong is of the opinion that the Straits Chinese were at the height of their prestige around 1900 when the Straits Chinese British Association was founded.

16. It has been represented to the writer by an elderly Singaporean that the Hainanese, being a minority speech group of lesser influence and prestige than the others, were the most eager to seek such association, some insisting on speaking Malay and behaving like the Babas.

17. Chinese-language writers transliterate this as . The present writer believes, however, that a-nya came from nyonya which in turn was derived from the Chinese term nio-nio (Hokkien pronunciation) meaning “mistress”, “mother”, or “lady”. Through time and circumstance this could have corrupted into nyonya. Hence is preferable to , the latter is merely a transliteration and a poor one too.

Baba parents liked to name their daughters Nio or Neo. e.g. Kim Neo, Bee Neo etc.

18. This is similar to the prewar practice among the Japanese of naming their sons Tarō, Jirō, Saburō, Shirō, etc.

19. The Straits Settlements Government did make a distinction between a Straits-born Chinese whose father was a Chinese subject and a second generation Straits Chinese; the former was not automatically entitled to hold a British passport. According to the informant quoted in fn. 16 when he returned to China in his youth the British Consul at Amoy refused to treat him as a British Subject although he was born in Singapore and carried a British passport. While in China he was regarded as a British Protected Person. He then found out that people of Chinese descent would only qualify unconditionally as British Subjects if they were third generation Straits-born. For a discussion on legal rights of the Straits Chinese see Siang, Song Ong, “Are the Straits Chinese British Subjects?”Google Scholar, loc. cit.

20. Kim Neo, Rosie Tan, “The Straits Chinese in Singapore, A Study of the Straits Chinese Way of Life.” Unpublished Research Paper, University of Malaya, Singapore, 1958, pp. 1–2.Google Scholar Consulted by courtesy of the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, University of Singapore.

21. Siang, Song Ong (1967), p. 4.Google Scholar

22. G. W. Earl, loc. cit.

23. op. cit., p. 6.

24. ibid., p. 5.

25. ibid., p. 4.

26. During the period of reform and revolution in China some Straits Chinese believed that they might be better off serving the government of China because of their knowledge of English. They also complained that they suffered from “discriminating qualifications”. This provoked criticism from the Europeans who warned them against “cultivating a false patriotism”, i e. towards China. See Straits Times, 31 August, 2 09 1907 and 31 August 1908.Google Scholar

27. In 1907 the Governor of the Straits Settlements, Sir John Anderson, sent a memorandum to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, suggesting that a special decoration should be created for Chinese British Subjects “to encourage the sentiment of pride in British nationality amongst our native born or naturalized Chinese.” The memorandum stressed that some wealthy and public spirited Chinese who went to China had returned with Chinese titles and decorations, and that with the awakening of national feeling among the Chinese this was likely to increase. He therefore suggested that special decorations should be given to Chinese British Subjects who had rendered distinguished service to the public. His object was to “cultivate and strengthen the feeling which we wish to maintain and encourage, that they are not here as strangers in the land owing loyalty elsewhere but that they are here as permanent citizens and fellow subjects of His Majesty, and that special manifestations of loyalty and public spirit on their part will be as readily and fully recognized as those rendered by His Majesty's European subjects.”

Straits Settlements Confidential Despatches to Secretary of State, 21 February 1907, in GD/C 13.

Japanese writers in the 1930s also observed the local identity of the Straits Chinese and commented on their assimilation into the local environment as well as their relative indifference to developments in China. See Kobayashi Shinsaku, op.cit., passim.

28. SCM, Vol. III, No. 10 (06 1899), pp. 66–67Google Scholar, Vol. IX, No. 1 (March 1907), p. 37. Also see Siang, Song Ong (1967), pp. 410–411 and passim.Google Scholar

29. Siang, Song Ong (1967), pp. 320–321.Google Scholar

30. SCM, Vol. V, No. 18 (06 1901), p. 121.Google Scholar

31. ibid., pp. 122, 170.

32. Siang, Song Ong (1967), p. 507.Google Scholar

33. Low, N. I. and Cheng, H. M., This Singapore (Our City of Breadful NigHt), Singapore, n.d. pp. 18–20.Google Scholar

34. Vol. IV, No. 14 (June 1900), p. 86.

35. Lim Boon Keng referred to their “characteristic ethnic and anthropological aspects” but did not elaborate on them. Siang, Song Ong (1967), p. 4.Google Scholar

36. Freedman, Maurice, Chinese Family and Marriage in Singapore, London, 1957, p 124.Google Scholar

37. Siang, Song Ong (1967), p. 3Google Scholar

Maurice Freedman attributed the “dominance of Baba culture in the nineteenth century” to “the absorption of successful immigrants into Baba society.” See his “Immigrants and associations: Chinese in nineteenth-century Singapore”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. III (1960–1961), p. 27.Google Scholar

38. ibid Also see Neo, Tan Kim, op. cit., p. 6Google Scholar, and Shinsaku, Kobayashi, op. cit., p. 95.Google Scholar

39. See Hock, Lim Joo, “Chinese Female Immigration into the Straits Settlements 1860–1901.” Unpublished B. A. Honours Academic Exercise, University of Malaya Singapore 1952, Appendix III.Google Scholar

40. Neo, Tan Kim, op. cit., p. 50.Google Scholar

41. 1 February 1849.

Also quoted in Hock, Lim Joo, op. cit., p 9.Google Scholar

42. Fah, Lew See, “Straits Chinese Youths”, SCM, V, No. 20 (12 1901), p. 139.Google Scholar

43. A person earning a monthly salary of $100 in those days could live more comfortably than one earning $1,000 today.

44. SCM, Vol VI, No. 23 (09 1902), p. 89.Google Scholar

Freedman commented that at the end of the nineteenth century the status of the Straits Chinese was declining because they had withdrawn from economic enterprise and concentrated on “safe” clerical jobs. Freedman, M. (1960), p. 28.Google Scholar

45. ibid, p. 90. Ying Chun a sub-prefecture of Fukien province should be transliterated as Rung-ch'un or in Hokkien Eng Chun.

46. Lin, W. C., “Straits Chinese Hedonism”, SCM, Vol. IV No. 15 (09 1900), pp. 108–111.Google Scholar Also see Vol. II, No. 5 (March 1898), p. 34.

47. ibid., Vol. VI, No. 24 (December 1902), p. 167.

48. ibid., pp, 167–68.

49. Hare, G. T., “The Straits-born Chinese”, SCM, Vol. I, No. 11 (03 1897) p 5.Google Scholar

50. Wright, Arnold & Cartwright, H. A., Twentienth Century Impressions of British Malaya, London, 1908, p. 235.Google Scholar

51. Hare, G. T., op. cit., p. 7.Google Scholar

52. See Burbidge, W. M., “The Present State of Morality amongst the Straits Chinese”, SCM, Vol. III, No 1 (03 1899), pp. 5–6.Google Scholar

53. Siang, Song Ong (1967), p. 380.Google Scholar

54. ibid, passim.

55. Sit, Chia Cheng, “The Language of the Babas”, SCM, Vol. IIHI, No. 9 (03 1899), p. 11.Google Scholar

56. ibid

57. Kyokai, Nanyō (ed.), Nanyō no Kakyō, Tokyo, 1942, p. 28.Google Scholar

58. Siang, Song Ong, “The Position of Chinese Women”, SCM, Vol. I, No. 1, (03 1897), p 17.Google Scholar

59. SCM, Vol. III, No. 10 (06 1899), p. 70Google Scholar and VoL V, No. 20 (December 1901), p 166–67.

60. At this time a Chinese Ladies' Association had been formed and its first President, Mrs. Lee Choon Guan was “able to converse in English fluently and intelligently on all matters of interest” Siang, Song Ong (1967), p. 541.Google Scholar

61. Shellabear, W. G., “Baba Malay. An Introduction to the Language of the Straits-born Chinese”, Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, No. 65 (12 1913), p. 51.Google Scholar

62. ibid., p. 53.

63. ibid., p 58.

64. ibid, p. 59.

65. ibid.

66. In this case the demonstrative pronoun ini is placed before instead of after the noun orang, and kna is used instead of di.

67. Chia Cheng Sit, loc. cit.

68. ibid.

69. ibid.

70. Over 350 of them. See Poh-seng, Png, “A preliminary survey of Chinese Loan-words in the Malay Language” Hsin-she Hsiieh-pao, Vol. I (12 1967), pp. 1–24.Google Scholar

71. ibid, pp. 2–4.

72. ibid., pp. 9 ff.

Also see Poh-seng, Png, “The Chinese in Singapore and Malaya”, The Asia Magazine, 7 05 1967.Google Scholar

73. op. cit., p 293.

74. Poh-seng, Png (12 1967), p. 5Google Scholar

75. Chan Kim Boon, an immigrant Chinese who had mastered Baba Malay translated the San-kuo into Romanized Baba Malay and published it in 30 volumes from 1892 to 1896. He also translated a number of other Chinese novels including the Shui-hu-chuan , under the pseudonym Batu Gantong.

76. See Poh-seng, Png (12 1967), pp. 2 ff.Google Scholar

77. A similar conclusion has been reached concerning the Chinese peranakans in a Sundanese town in West Java.

See Giok-lan, Tan, The Chinese of Sukabumi: A study in social and cultural accommodation, Ithaca, 1963, pp. 63–67.Google Scholar

78. Neo, Tan Kim, op. cit., pp. 75–77.Google Scholar

79. ibid., p. 102; Tan Giok-lan, op. cit., p. 76.

80. ibid., Neo, Tan Kim, op. cit., p. 123Google Scholar; and Siang, Song Ong, “The position of Chinese women”, SCM. Vol. I, No. 1 (03 1897), p. 17.Google Scholar

81. ibid.Fah, Lee See, “Straits Chinese Maidens”, SCM, Vol. VI, No. 21 (03 1902), pp. 43–46Google Scholar; “Our Nyonyas”, SCM, Vol. VII, No. 4 (12 1904), p. 129.Google Scholar

82. Neo, Tan Kim., op. cit, pp. 114–121.Google Scholar Straits Chinese cuisine is similar to that of the peranakans of Java. Cf. Giok-lan, Tan, op. cit., pp. 41–45.Google Scholar It is noteworthy that Hainanese cooks subsequently inherited from the Nyonyas the art of Straits Chinese cooking. Until recently the Hainanese cake-vendor popularly known as the “Otah” man was a familiar sight in Singapore. His daily visit was welcomed by most Straits Chinese women and children.

83. See Plate I.

84. Neo, Tan Kim, op cit., p. 123.Google Scholar

85. ibid., p. 113.

86. SCM, Vol. I No. 3 (09 1897), p, 108Google Scholar, Vol. II, No. 6 (June 1898), pp. 70–72. Ma (h)jong and susek clearly originated from China, whereas chapjiki could have been a local invention. See Png Poh-seng (December 1967), pp. 9, 17, 21.

87. SCM, Vol. II, No. 6 (06 1898), pp. 70–72.Google Scholar

88. Siang, Song Ong, “Our aims as a society”, SCM, Vol, IV, No. 13 (03 1900), p. 35Google Scholar, and Fah, Lee See, SCM, Vol. VI, No. 22 (06 1902), p. 84.Google Scholar

89. Thomson, J., The Straits of Malacca Indo-China and China, London, 1875, p. 57.Google Scholar

90. SCM, Vol. VI No. 24 (12 1902), p. 167.Google Scholar

91. Neo, Tan Kim, op. cit., p. 101.Google Scholar

92. ibid, pp. 101–102.

93. See Plate II.

94. Neo, Tan Kim, op. cit., p. 102.Google Scholar

95. ibid., p. 103.

96. ibid.

97. ibid., p. 102.

98. ibid.

99. ibid., p. 107. See Plate III.

From Vaughan came the following description of Nyonya attire: “The Straits Chinese women wear the Malay Gabayah and Sarong, the former fastened with brooches of various shapes often set with precious stones. The hair is tied in a knot at the back of the head held together by hairpins of silver and gold, richly ornamented… The women from China usually wear thick wooden clogs; but the Babas indulged in pretty slippers and the ordinary shaped European leather shoes.” op. cit., p. 12.

100. Jing, Mei, ‘Adat Isti'adat dan Kebudayaan Melayu. Singapore, 1963, p. 33.Google Scholar See Plates IV and V.

101. ibid., pp. 35–36.

102. ibid, p. 32.

103. See Keng, Lim Boon, “Our Enemies”, SCM. Vol. I, No. 2 (06 1897), p. 56.Google Scholar Concerning footbinding among Hokkien and Tiechiu women the writer is making a personal observation.

104. Neo, Tan Kim, op. cit., p. 15.Google Scholar Among peranakans in Sukabumi maternai cousins could intermarry, but not paternal cousins. See Giok-lan, Tan, op. cit., p. 73.Google Scholar

105. Freedman, M., (1957), p. 107.Google Scholar

106. ibid., p. 105. This probably originated from the ‘adat perpateh practised by Malays at Naning in Malacca. See Jing, Mei, op. cit., p. 95.Google Scholar

107. Freedman, M., (1957), p. 122.Google Scholar In Japan such a bridegroom is referred to as an “adopted son” (yōshi).

108. ibid.

109. Chinese Marriage Committee Proceedings, Singapore, 1926, p. 68Google Scholar and Freedman, M., op. cit., p. 123.Google Scholar

110. Neo, Tan Kimop. cit, pp. 16–17Google Scholar; Jing, Mei, op. cit., p 97.Google Scholar

111. ibid., and Freedman, M., op. cit., p. 133.Google Scholar For comparison with Giok-lan, Tan, op. cit., pp. 79–82.Google Scholar

112. Neo, Tan Kim, op. cit., p. 18.Google Scholar

113. See Djamour, Judith, Malay Kingship and Marriage in Singapore, London, 1965, pp. 74–75Google Scholar and Jing, Mei, op. cit., pp. 97–99.Google Scholar

114. Neo, Tan Kim, op. cit., p. 25.Google Scholar

115. Round balls made of ground rice cooked in sugared water. This is also eaten during the Chinese winter solstice festival which usually occurs three days before Christmas.

116. Neo, Tan Kim, op. cit., pp. 15–49.Google Scholar

117. ibid., p. 150.

118. ibid.

119. Cf. Freedman, M. (1957), pp. 212ff.Google Scholar

120. Neo, Tan Kim, op. cit, pp. 151–156, 160–172.Google Scholar

121. ibid.

122. From information gathered by the writer.

123. Neo, Tan Kim, op. cit., pp. 56–57Google Scholar, and compare Giok-lan, Tan, op. cit., pp. 52–53.Google Scholar

124. Neo, Tan Kim, op. cit., pp. 59–60.Google Scholar

125. ibid, pp. 60–62.

126. ibid., pp. 67–72, and Giok-lan, Tan, op. cit., p. 57.Google Scholar

127. ibid., p. 59, and Neo, Tan Kim, op. cit., p. 71.Google Scholar

128. Giok-lan, Tan, op cit., p. 68.Google Scholar

129. Those ethnically non-Chinese are not taken into account here.