The Peranakan Chinese is a Chinese diasporic community with a unique hybrid culture of Chinese, Malay, and European influences concentrated in the Straits Settlements (Malacca, Penang, and Singapore) of Malaya (before the independence of Singapore). It has inherited the Chinese patrilineal system but Nonyas within the Peranakan Chinese (also known as Baba-Nonya) culture fill an interesting space in Chinese patriarchy. This article explores the world of the Nonyas and identifies three cultural constructions of the Nonya: garang/li hai (feisty/crafty and manipulative), poonsu (resourceful), and toh tiap (victimized), specifically drawn out from the television serial, The Little Nonya; but these constructions have also been widely represented and documented in the arts and cultural expressions, particularly through the existing literature and portrayal of Nonyas in popular culture. We explore the cultural meanings of the Nonya through gendered patterns and identities which come out of a specific historical context of the Straits Settlements at the turn of the 20th century—the Peranakan Golden Age, where colonialism, wealth, and education shaped its matrifocal Peranakan culture. We employ Sylvia Walby’s theoretical framework of private and public patriarchy, specifically through the structures of household production and culture to analyze the situation of the Nonyas, arguing that Nonyas were not so much oppressed by men but by women; and yet, they were also privileged and valued in the Peranakan culture. Their privileged position allowed them to negotiate and challenge Chinese patriarchy.
In this article I will read Yangsze Choo's speculative fiction novel The Ghost Bride (2013), which not only refers to the ancient Chinese tradition of "ghost-marriage" or "spirit-weddings" but also traverses the phantasmic world of the Chinese afterlife and an imaginary land conceived as the "Plains of the Dead". I will examine how Choo effectively utilizes Chinese myths and folklore in order to construct the parallel worlds of the living and the dead. I will particularly focus on the fictional character, the mysterious guardian spirit, Er Lang, who evokes the myth of Er Lang Shen, the great Chinese warrior God of Heaven who possesses an esoteric Third-Eye of Enlightenment on his forehead. In the course of my analysis, I will explore the problematics of the concept of reality in relation to the genre of speculative fiction, which stereotypically embodies elements of fantasy. However, I will argue, through my reading of The Ghost Bride, that human perceptions of reality should not be constrained by what can only be seen with mortal eyes, but what can also be discerned through the eyes of the inner mind.
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