Introduction

This section on the Baba-Nyonya aims to create an awareness of the cultural blend in the Penang region and the heritage of a community whose strong presence is very much alive particularly in the Straits Settlement States of Penang and Malacca in Malaysia and in the Republic of Singapore. Although broadly categorized as Peranakan, it is important to note that the Penang Peranakan community primarily comprises the Jawi Peranakan, the Baba-Nyonya and others.

The Jawi Peranakan are descendants of the Tamil Muslim traders, the Chulias who married Malay women and founded a line of locally born Tamils called Jawi Peranakan meaning Straits-born Muslims (Sharp, 2008, p.15). The localized Straits-born Peranakan Chinese–Baba for males and Nyonya for females had their roots in 16^th-century Malacca. For the purpose of this project the data collected from the Baba-Nyonya group we consulted were Hokkien. Thus, all our data for this project come from the Baba-Nyonya of Hokkein descent. Aspects of their cultural heritage investigated here include songs, stories, and games. We were fortunate to have Mr Johnny Chee work with us and his book on A Tapestry of Baba Poetry (2008) allowed us to reproduce with his permission some of poems he felt truly reflected the Hokkien Baba-Nyonya culture. The various video clips we managed to capture of the Baba and Nyonya group are narrations of their recollections of childhood in Hokkien Baba-Nyonya Peranakan settings in Penang and their songs, stories, and games. All the data collected and collated will be made available on the blog (http://penangfolklore2010.blogspot.com/) created for this project.

It is hoped that through this effort we have managed to rekindle what the Baba-Nyonya community partners feel is a fast disappearing culture and hopefully their laments will not go unnoticed. Through the blog we hope to reach those interested in keeping this rich and colourful heritage alive particularly in Penang.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Vice Chancellor of the Wawasan Open University (WOU) Professor Dr Wong Tat Meng for nominating me to lead the team for this project from the Wawasan Open University. This project is lead by the USM with participation from UiTM, and the WOU. I wish to thank my team members for their input and Ms Pat Toh for her assistance with recording and editing of the video clips for the project.

Professor Mogana Dhamotharan (Team Leader), Ms Jasmine Emmanuel (Team Member), Dr Nagarajan Subramaniam (Team Member), Ms Ranjini Kalidass (Team Assistant)A