Growing Up in Nonya kitchen

enrolling in the schools established by the British
and the Christian missionaries, working in the Civil
Service and thus further entrenching their status in
the establishment. Ultimately, the Peranakans forged
a unique culture of their own. This included a distinct
patois, architecture, sense of fashion, decorative arts,
its own furniture, its own romanised translations of
Chinese classics and most famous of all, its cuisine.

The Babas and Nonyas are also often termed as Straits
Chinese in reference to the British Crown settlements
of Malacca, Singapore and Penang formed by the
East India Company in 1824. Many Babas moved from
Malacca to Singapore after 1819, the year that Singapore
was founded.

My mother’s paternal great grandfather, Cheang
Hong Lim made his fortune in Singapore by running a
government-tendered monopoly processing raw opium

Clockwise from top: Article in The Straits Times, 29 June, 1936, detailing
a birthday party thrown for Cheang Jim Chuan; one of three identical
houses built by Cheang Jim Chuan for his children, next to his
house at 233 Pasir Panjang Road; Tan Im Neo and Cheang Theam
Chu, my mother’s parents; Standing outside the Pasir Panjang
house on Chinese New Year’s day, the four children of Tan Im Neo:
kuku Mike, kuku Bok, Aunty Mabel and my mother Polly (kuku is
a term used for a mother’s elder brothers).

imported from British India, a business started earlier
by his father Cheang Sam Teo. It was no coincidence
that years later, ‘Riviera’ was situated at the foot of
Bukit Chandu which in English, means ‘Opium Hill’.
Cheang Hong Lim was a philanthropist, a Justice of the
Peace and was elevated by the British Governor to one
of the four pioneer leaders of the Hokkien community
for all his charity work. He had set up a fire brigade
and a temple among others. The Straits Times reported
that he even took a voyage to Southern China in the
1880s to assess the political and commercial situation
of his ancestral homeland. Today, there still remain a