By Melanie Lee

SINGAPORE, April 25 (Reuters Life!) - In a faded sepia picture, a young Chinese woman wearing an elaborately embroidered blouse, sarong and finely beaded slippers, stares out from history.

The snapshot, taken at the turn of the last century, of a Nyonya or Peranakan woman, is one of the 1,200 artefacts on display in a new museum in Singapore dedicated to preserving the little-known Southeast Asian culture.

The descendants of Chinese migrants, Peranakans, whose name means "local born" in Malay, came to the Malay peninsula from the fourteenth century onwards.

Marrying local women, they settled down and formed a hybrid culture that mixed Chinese, Malay and European influences, and differentiated themselves from later waves of migrants from China with their unique language, arts, foods and dress.

While there are no reliable population estimates, as many as 10,000 ethnic Peranakans may live in Singapore, whose new
Peranakan Museum, opening on Saturday, houses the world's biggest collection of the culture's artefacts."Some of these things, the quality is so exquisite," Kenson Kwok, director of the museum, told Reuters.

"You can't see a comprehensive display of Peranakan material of this quality anywhere else."

Only two other museums in the world house Peranakan material, both of which are smaller and more niche in focus, Kwok said.

The partly-government funded S$12 million ($9 million) museum aims to draw 120,000 visitors in its first year, with Singapore trying to grow tourism to help offset declining manufacturing.

Among the jewels of the collection is an ornately carved nineteenth century blackwood chair, inlaid with marble and
painted with flowers, and an elegant 3-foot beaded tablecloth featuring colourful exotic birds.

Ceramics, textiles and pieces of furniture -- donated or on loan from Peranakans in Singapore and Malaysia -- are spread through 10 galleries.

Interactive displays show an elaborate 12-day wedding and a Peranakan funeral, complete with women wailing in the background.

NYONYAS AND BABAS

The new museum joins something of a small Peranakan renaissance in the city state.

While Peranakans are no longer as distinct a community in Singapore as in the past, the country saw its first
comprehensive dictionary of the Peranakan dialect "Baba Malay" published in 2006. A baba is a Peranakan man.

Peranakan food has also made it to the mainstream, said Linda Chee, editor of Singapore's Peranakan magazine.

Popiah (fresh spring rolls), the curries sold at Chinese food stalls, chap chye (mixed vegetables in bean sauce) and pineapple tarts all have Peranakan roots, she said.



Half a dozen Peranakan restaurants sell traditional dishes such as fishcakes, chicken with black nuts, glutinous rice dumplings and chili-based sambals.



Others see echoes of Peranakan women's fine silver belts in the -- plasticated -- silver belts worn by the city-state's teenage girls, and in the flower-patterned uniform worn by the national airline's 'Singapore Girl' stewardesses.



Bright yellow, green and pink Peranakan-style porcelain tea cups and plates also make popular souvenirs with tourists.

But hanging onto heritage can be a challenge in modern, multicultural Singapore, Chee said.



"Not many in my generation and even fewer of those in their 20s and 30s can speak the Peranakan patois which gives us that sense of familiarity within the community," she said.



"Hopefully, the growing pride in being Peranakan can help to reverse the situation."

Just because modern Peranakans do not often wear traditional outfits or observe traditional rituals does not mean the culture is dead, said museum director Kwok.

"Important aspects of the culture are still alive in Peranakan families," he said.

"I won't say it's dying, but some of the archaic and elaborate ceremonies are not practical and people don't have the time to do those anymore."

(Additional reporting by Kevin Lim; Editing by Neil Chatterjee
and Gillian Murdoch)



April 25 (Reuters Life!) - Crammed with beaded slippers, bright porcelains and marble-inlaid furniture, Singapore's Peranakan Museum opens on Saturday to showcase the colourful but little-known hybrid Asian culture. Here are five facts about the Peranakans and their culture.