By SGN | 17 Jul 2024

Although Alvin is fully immersed in Peranakan culture today, he didn’t always feel secure or comfortable in his identity. “I grew up in a time where being Peranakan was looked down on. People called me ‘eleven thirty’ in Hokkien,” he shares, the expression implying that he was ‘shy of twelve o’clock’, or not fully Chinese.

As a child, Alvin often felt out of place among his peers. “I spoke English, they spoke Mandarin. I watched Hollywood movies, while they loved Hong Kong dramas. I knew I was different, but I was clueless about Peranakan culture,” he recalls.

During the 1960s and 70s in Singapore, the government launched a policy of bilingual education. Besides English, all Chinese Singaporeans were encouraged to learn and speak Mandarin, one of the country’s four official languages.

This feeling of exclusion was heightened when he went to watch a Peranakan play with his parents, staged by the Gunong Sayang Association.

“They were laughing, crying, giggling, and thoroughly enjoying themselves. I remember feeling so lost as I did not understand the Baba Malay language, and there were no subtitles,” Alvin admits.

“Luckily, I managed to grab a VHS copy of the play, and I watched it repeatedly, completely enthralled by the language. I noted all the nuances of the Peranakan culture – the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, the small-mindedness of Peranakan men when their wives oversaw household affairs.”

This formative memory left teenage Alvin with a burning desire to immerse himself in his culture – which manifested in the form of antique collecting.