Baba House (also referred to as NUS Baba House) is a museum in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, showcasing

Peranakan The Peranakans () are an ethnic group defined by their genealogical descent from the first waves of Southern Chinese settlers to maritime Southeast Asia, known as Nanyang (), namely the British Colonial ruled ports in the Malay Peninsula, th ...

history, architecture and heritage. It is a traditional

pre-war terrace-house which was formerly owned by the family of a 19th-century shipping tycoon Wee Bin who settled in Singapore, after arriving from the southern Chinese province of

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

. The Baba House is also an outpost of the National University of Singapore (NUS) Museum and co-managed by the NUS Centre for the Arts.

History

Built in the 1890s, 157 Neil Road is a residential terrace house located in the Residential Historic District of Blair Plain. The house and the surrounding area was gazetted for conservation by the

Urban Redevelopment Authority The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is the national urban planning authority of Singapore, and a statutory board under the Ministry of National Development of the Government of Singapore. Mission The authority was established on 1 Apri ...

of Singapore, in 1991. In April 2005, a S$4 million donation was made to the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

(NUS) by Ms Agnes Tan, the last surviving daughter of the founder of the

Malaysian Chinese Association The Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA; zh, 马来西亚华人公会; ; ta, மலேசிய சீனர் சங்கம், initially known as the Malayan Chinese Association) is a uni-racial political party in Malaysia that seeks to ...

(MCA), the late Tun

Tan Cheng Lock Tan Cheng Lock KBE JP () (5 April 1883 – 13 December 1960) was a Malaysian Peranakan businessman and a key public figure who devoted his life to fighting for the rights and the social welfare of the Chinese community in Malaya. Tan wa ...

. This donation was given to the university to acquire the Wee family's traditional Peranakan house along Neil Road. The house came into the Wee Family in 1910 when a matriarch of the family bought the house for her grandson, Wee Eng Cheng. The house was last owned and managed by Mr Wee Lin, the sixth-generation descendant of Wee Bin.
Another donation of S$1.5 million was made to the university, for acquisition of two other shophouses along Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock in

Malacca Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site si ...

. These acquired houses will be restored and used for educating younger generations about Peranakan history, culture and architecture, while the two houses in Malacca to be used for study on conservation techniques of historical buildings. In gesture of appreciation for the donation, the university named the Singapore house as the ''Tan Cheng Lock Baba House''. The House was officially opened by President of Singapore Mr

S R Nathan Sellapan Ramanathan (; 3 July 1924 – 22 August 2016),. often known as S. R. Nathan, was a Singaporean politician who served as the sixth president of Singapore between 1999 and 2011. He was also the longest-serving president in Singapore's hi ...

on September 4, 2008, as the ''Baba House'', and opened to the public on September 15, 2008. Staff and students from NUS' School of Design and Architecture and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences' South-east Asia Studies Programme were involved in the restoration, which has elaborate and intricately carved wooden windows, doors and partition screens. About 70 per cent of the furniture in the House belonged to the Wee estate, while the rest of the items were acquired from Peranakan families in Singapore and Malacca. The first two storeys of the House showcase the Peranakan domestic interior, while artists showcase modern interpretations of Peranakan culture through the exhibition gallery on the third storey. At the same time, the House will also be a venue for Peranakan culinary and craft workshops to be organized by the

NUS Museum NUS or Nus may refer to: * National University of Singapore * Nus, a town in the Aosta Valley of Italy * Neglected and Underutilized Species, or Neglected and Underutilized Crops * National Union of Students (Australia) * National Union of Students ...

Display

In contrast to the

Peranakan Museum ms, Muzium Peranakan ta, பெரனாகன் அருங்காட்சியகம் , logo = peranmuseumlogo.jpg , logo_upright = 1 , logo_size = 300px , image = Peranakan Museum.jpg , image_size = 300px , ca ...

, the Baba House enables visitors to experience more intimately how typical Peranakan homes looked and functioned in the 1920s, the Golden Era of Peranakan culture in Singapore. It is a showcase of lavishly carved antique furniture and items used by Chinese Peranakans of that time. The venue may be booked for culturally relevant events as part of the experience-making process. The House can be visited by appointment only and bookings to join the weekly guided tours (limited to 14 people per tour) can be made through the NUS Museum.

References

{{Major tourist attractions in Singapore 2008 establishments in Singapore Ethnic museums in Singapore Folk museums in Singapore Historic house museums in Asia Museums established in 2008

History

Display

See also

References