Walk a mile in Peranakan Shoes.

Walk a Mile in Peranakan Shoes
By Alvin Teo & Yan Peng

In this generation of technology, we lose our knowledge of what our ancestors would cherish the most, culture, skills passed down from one generation to another, secret recipes or home remedies. Whatever we seek can easy be found with a press of a button, a dial on the phone. But is this convenience necessary beneficial towards us?
The Peranakans definitely do not take the issue of culture lightly. Ask any elder in a Peranakan family, they would tell you how important culture is and all about the past. The stories they tell can never be relived, therefore, it is even more priceless.

The hierarchal, traditional family would most often, if not, definitely run by the matriarch. The matriarch, traditionally, the mother/grandmother would take care of everything. Although it was still a chauvinistic era, women ruled the matriarch ruled the household; especially the kitchen and men were only breadwinners. The competitive environment which the daughters, both blood and by marriage often have to compete with each other for the approval of their elders. To do so, one must not only possess the skills of arts and cookery, but also the wits and determination. Skills passed down are not only the knowledge of music and dance, but also beading, embroidery, painting, batik amongst other meticulous and time consuming crafts. Many days are spent teaching the daughters skills and cookery, hours in the kitchen, day and night, under the watchful supervision of the “boss”. One slight misstep may send these girls to a living hell. But doing well brings a new world of fashion, beauty and acknowledgement.

Sisters are put against each other in the fight for a spouse and friends, turned enemies because of an arranged marriage. I am sure that many of us would not be able to survive in the harsh environment.

Singapore, being a multi –racial country, used to be inhibited with many peranakan households but now, we do not see many. It is not that they have vanished, but instead, the tradition is gone. The Chinese proverb: When you consume your water, you must know its origins. Where you come from, your past, your ancestors, culture, tradition, you must not forget and instead, be thankful.

The famous saying,”walk a mile in their shoes” applies more literally than we can imagine. In this era of Italian leather and painful stilettos, can we still appreciate tradition?