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Chinese Peranakan

峇峇娘惹 Baba Nyonya
A photograph of Peranakan wedding couple – Chung Guat Hooi, the daughter of Kapitan Chung Thye Phin and Khoo Soo Beow, the son of Khoo Heng Pan, both of Penang – from a museum in Penang
Total population
8,000,000+ (estimates)
Regions with significant populations
Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Southern Thailand
Languages
Baba Malay and other varieties of Malay, Penang Hokkien and other varieties of Chinese, Indonesian, Sundanese, Javanese, Betawi, Southern Thai, English, Dutch
Religion
Majority: Mahayana Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Taoism Minority: Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
Chinese diaspora, Benteng people, Bangka Island Peranakan Chinese, Malaysian Chinese, Thai Chinese, Chinese Singaporeans, Chinese Indonesians.

The Chinese Peranakan (/pəˈrɑːnəˌkɑːn, -kən/) or Baba Nyonya are an ethnic group defined by their genealogical descent from the first waves of Southern Chinese settlers to maritime Southeast Asia, known as Nanyang (Chinese: 南洋; pinyin: nán yáng; lit. 'Southern Ocean'), namely the British Colonial ruled ports in the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian Archipelago, as well as Singapore. Peranakan culture, especially in the dominant Peranakan centres of Malacca, Singapore, Penang, Phuket and Tangerang, is characterized by its unique hybridization of ancient Chinese culture with the local cultures of the Nusantara region, the result of a centuries-long history of transculturation and interracial marriage.

Immigrants from the southern provinces of China arrived in significant numbers in the region between the 14th and 17th centuries, taking abode in the Malay Peninsula (where their descendants in Malacca, Singapore and Penang are referred to as Baba–Nyonya); the Indonesian Archipelago (where their descendants are referred to as Kiau–Seng); and Southern Thailand, primarily in Phuket, Trang, Phang Nga, Takua Pa and Ranong. Intermarriage between these Chinese settlers and their Malay, Thai, Javanese or other predecessors in the region contributed to the emergence of a distinctive hybrid culture and ostensible phenotypic differences.

The Peranakans are considered a multiracial community, with the caveat that individual family histories vary widely and likewise self-identification with multiracialism as opposed to Chineseness varies widely. The Malay/Indonesian phrase "orang Cina bukan Cina" ("a not-Chinese Chinese person") encapsulates the complex relationship between Peranakan identity and Chinese identity. The particularities of genealogy and the unique syncretic culture are the main features that distinguish the Peranakan from descendants of later waves of Chinese immigrants to the region.

Etymology

The word Peranakan is a grammatical inflection of the Malay and Indonesian word anak, meaning child or offspring. With the addition of the prefix per- and the suffix -an to the root anak, the modified word peranakan has a variety of meanings. Among other things, it can mean womb, or it can be used as a designator of genealogical descent, connoting ancestry or lineage, including great-grandparents or more-distant ancestors. On its own, when used in common parlance, the word "peranakan" does not denote a specific ethnicity of descent unless followed by a subsequent qualifying noun. For example Peranakan Tionghoa/Cina may simply mean "Chinese descendants"; likewise Jawi Peranakan can mean "Arab descendants", or Peranakan Belanda "Dutch descendants".

However, in a semantic shift, the word peranakan has come to be used as a "metaphorical" adjective that has the meaning of "locally born but non-indigenous". In Indonesian, it can denote "hybrid" or "crossbred". Thus the term "Peranakan Cina" or "Peranakan Tionghoa" can have the literal or archaic meaning of "Chinese womb" or "Chinese descendants" or "Chinese ancestry" or "descended from the Chinese"—but more latterly has come to mean "locally born but non-indigenous Chinese" or even "half-caste Chinese". The semantic shift is presumed to have arisen from the thorough hybridization or assimilation of the earliest Chinese or other non-indigenous settlers in the Malay Archipelago such that their ethnic heritage needed to be specified whenever referring to them, either to avoid confusion or to emphasise difference. The designator peranakan—in its original sense simply connoting "descendant of X ethnicity", or "the wombs of X"—emerged as the name for entire ethnic groups that were "locally born but non-indigenous" or perceived to be "hybrid" and "crossbred", and, in time, the latter meaning has come to predominate. It should also be noted that the broadness of the semantic range of peranakan means that it can have significantly different connotations in different parts of the Nusantara region and across different dialects or variants of the Malay and Indonesian languages.

The word Peranakan, which can have very broad and labile meanings in Malay and Indonesian and, when used in common parlance, is simply an indicator of heritage or descent, may also be used to refer to other ethnic groups in the same region. Owing to the broad meaning of the term 'peranakan', the term is also encountered when referring to other communities in the region with similar histories of immigration and assimilation. For example, the Chitty may accurately refer to themselves as 'Indian Hindu Peranakans', meaning "of Indian Hindu descent" or "locally born but non-indigenous Indian Hindu". Likewise the Kristang may accurately refer to themselves as 'Eurasian Peranakans'. The name of the Jawi Pekan people is derived from 'Peranakan', Jawi being the Javanised Arabic script, and Pekan being a colloquial contraction of Peranakan.

Ancestry

Many Peranakans identify as Holoh (Hokkien) despite being of numerous origins, such as the descendants of adopted local Malaysian aborigines. A sizeable number are of Teochew or Hakka descent, including a small minority of Cantonese.

Baba Nyonya are a subgroup within Chinese communities. Peranakan families occasionally arranged brides from China for their sons or arranged marriages for their daughters with newly arrived Chinese immigrants.

There are parallels between the Peranakan Chinese and the Cambodian Hokkien, who are descendants of Hoklo Chinese. Likewise the Pashu of Myanmar, a Burmese word for the Peranakan or Straits Chinese who have settled in Myanmar.

They maintained their culture partially despite their native language gradually disappearing a few generations after settlement.

Popular accounts of the Peranakan Chinese in Malacca, Singapore, and Penang sometimes state exclusive descent from the royal retinue of a purported Ming Dynasty princess named Hang Li Po or Hong Li-Po—mentioned in the Malay Annals as having made a marriage of alliance with the Sultan of Malacca in the fifteenth century—but the historical evidence for this (likely romanticized) claim is unreliable.

A 2021 genetic study of Peranakans in Singapore found that on average, their ancestry was 5–10% Malay.

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