aged Lamps - Nyonya - The Phoenix and the Peony

aged Lamps - Nyonya - The Phoenix and the Peony

Peranakan, Baba-Nyonya and Straits Chinese are all names used for the descendants of early Chinese traders, mostly from the Fukien province of China, who can trace their migration to the 14th century.

Southern Malaya, Malacca, Penang and Singapore Peranakan, all translate from Malay as descendant, Babas referring to male descendants and Nyonya to female descendants.

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Historically, the Malay Peninsula was divided into small kingdoms, or Sultanates and it is to the kingdom of Malacca that we must look to find the origin of the Nyonya Chinese communities.

Retracing our steps to the 15th century, we find ourselves in the Imperial court of the Ming dynasty's Yongle Emperor who appointed Zheng He to lead a vast navel fleet of 317 ships with a crew of 28.000! Zheng was a monumental explorer, mariner, diplomat and admiral of the Chinese fleet and is still revered in contemporary China.

Between 1405 and 1433, admiral Zheng had led seven naval expeditions, visiting ports as far apart as Arabia, India, East Africa and ports straight through out South East Asia with the Imperial instructions to organize a Chinese nearnessy over the region and organize trade links.

From legal Chinese records, we know that in the year 1411, Parameswara, the King of Malacca and a retinue of 540 officials travelled to the Chinese Imperial court to pay homage to the Yongle Emperor.

Malacca became a protectorate of the Emperor which saw the rapid amelioration of the Malaccan kingdom, its geographical position ensuring its amelioration into a major trade crossroad between China and India, the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Malacca became an prominent trade port and soon evolved into a very rich state.

With the great volume of trade and traffic between China and the Malacca Straits, shifts in people became unavoidable and many from the south of China became permanent citizens of Southern Malaya, however, the descendants of these 15th century Chinese immigrants, the Nyonya, have a much more romantic story of their origin.

According to original accounts, in 1459, the Emperor of China sent a Chinese princess, Hang Li Po, to marry the Sultan, Mansur Shah of Malacca, in recognition of their political relationship.

Tradition has it, that the princess was accompanied by an entourage of 500 servants, maids and officials and it is from this courtly retinue that the Nyonya communities descended.

These conservative Chinese communities, now remote from China, were to evolve into a unique society over the ensuing centuries. Known in Malay as Peranakan, meaning, descendants, they held fast to their ethnic and religious traditions, which was ancestor worship, but adopted the language and much of the culture of the Malays.

Historically, these Malay Straits kingdoms, so prominent to trade, were effectively occupied and colonised over a duration of 400 years, first by the Portuguese, then the Dutch and finally, the British, who established the contemporary state of Singapore in 1819.

Throughout the duration of British colonisation, the Nyonya communities did well, being favored by the British management for their administrative skills and their loyalty to the British crown. The British management advocated free trade, with all former trade restrictions and heavy tariffs being lifted, resulting in the economies of the Malay Peninsula and Singapore surging! This convert in course provided unlimited trading opportunities for the Nyonya communities to prosper.

This new wealth provided communities to add to their unique customs and traditions with some very exact tastes and styles. Already established with a unique cuisine, costume, architecture, language, song and dance, but, notable amongst these is the notable Nyonya porcelain, the earliest, being produced in the first years of the 19th century.

Nyonya ware, Peranakan Chinese earthenware and Straits Chinese earthenware are all terms used to tell the distinctive, brightly coloured porcelains commissioned for the exclusive use of the Straits Chinese communities.

Nyonya earthenware is entirely different, with no reference to any other class of Chinese earthenware produced. It is excellent by a relatively small range of robust colours and a preference for a notable decoration, the phoenix and the peony.

The Nyonya earthenware lamp shown, illustrates this notable garnish with its distinctive use of captivating pink and green enamels, decorated with the original phoenix and peony flowers.

The Nyonya had held fast to their ethnic Chinese customs and maintained many Chinese traditions, such as celebrating the Lunar New Year and the lantern Festival, plus, adopting many of the customs of the land in which they had settled.

By the early 19th century the Nyonya Chinese merchants began the practice of commissioning large earthenware services to be made at the great ceramic centre of Jingdezhen in South Eastern China.

These practice orders were made for the exclusive use of the Straits Chinese communities, with their original captivating colours, designs and original shapes.

These services were specifically reserved for prominent festive occasions, such as weddings, birthdays and anniversaries with the majority of the pieces decorated with the phœnix and the peony on the small range of vivid colours, pea green, rose pink and the less often found yellow and coral red.

In Chinese art, both formal and informal, the phœnix symbolises the Empress and by extension, female. It also symbolises virtue, duty, alignment, compassion, and loyalty.

The peony, known as "The Queen of Flowers", symbolises summer, love and affection. It also indicates a hope for greater advancement and is also a synonym for nobility and gracefulness.

On the chance of a wedding, it was the bride who was presented with a full aid of Nyonya ware and it is thought about that this decorative style was developed, being that the very symbolic motifs are exclusively female. The phœnix was also sometimes depicted with a flaming pearl, symbolizing an auspicious bridal union.

Vase shapes were also produced to be placed on the family altar, not for flower arrangements as practiced in the West. The Nyonya religious practice was Taoist and vases were thought about as altar furniture, flowers only being placed in these vases for religious purposes.

Since independence from Britain, the Straits Chinese, Nyonya ethnic group have largely assimilated into the mainstream Chinese society and as a result, the contemporary changes have led to the virtual disappearance of the distinctive Nyonya culture. The porcelains made especially for this communal group have only in up-to-date years been recognised for their true value as links to this fast fading unique culture. Peranakan Chinese culture is today carried on by any cultural associations who pronounce performing arts groups.

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aged Lamps - Nyonya - The Phoenix and the Peony

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