ABSTRACT

The Baba Nyonyas, known also as the Straits Chinese or Peranakan Chinese, are descendants of Chinese migrants who came from mainland China to trade in Malacca and later marry the local women. Owing to the limited availability of local food that suited their palate these Chinese immigrants had to make do with whatever local ingredients there were and thus their resourcefulness and ingenuity in culinary practice gave rise to a cuisine that is uniquely theirs, known as Nyonya Cuisine. The purpose of this study is to examine the continuity of traditional ethnic food as an intangible cultural heritage in the Baba Nyonya diaspora in the historic city of Melaka, Malaysia through the passage of time. Like many other ethnic communities, globalization and changing lifestyle present challenges in maintaining Baba and Nyonya culture and tradition. Embracing the pragmatist paradigm, this study adopts a mixed method approach using social practice theory in analysing the status quo of Nyonya heritage cuisine. Data from stage one (qualitative) of this study is reported in this chapter. In stage one semi-structured interviews were conducted with the preservers or bearers of cultural heritage within the Baba Nyonya community, chefs/restaurateurs, culinary educators, food writers and bloggers. Through the accounts of these cultural bearers, this study aims to contribute to the literature by empirically examining factors that contribute to the formation and/or disintegration of (the practice of cooking) traditional heritage cuisine using social practice theory. Preliminary findings demonstrate that the practice of Nyonya cuisine is still alive yet sporadic within the Baba Nyonya community. The moving of this cuisine out of the family kitchen environment into a commercial context can already be observed triggering concerns within the community over the commersialisation of this cultural heritage. Demand for food in general and food experience in tourism have been drivers of these developments. On the other hand, food experience in tourism may also offer a platform for the revival of the unique Nyonya cuisine.