there is an abundance of antique Chinese and Western furniture, a proliferation of symbolic Chinese ornamentation, a mélange of curios, art works, and bric-a-brac from China as well as Europe, and an occasional architectural detail that appears odd in a Chinese home. It is a fair to ask: what can old residences like these tell us of the lives, aspirations, and tastes of the Chinese, and others, who have occupied them?
These buildings and these streets in Malacca indeed are more than they seem at first glance. On closer examination, one is able to see a multifaceted and layered history of successive occupancy by different groups, with the Chinese being but one prominent part, over five centuries from the 1500s to the present. Historical geographers call the succeeding stages of human inhabitation of a location over intervals of historic time “sequent occupance.” The coming and going of a group, which entails using and abandoning areas and buildings, is a dynamic process of creating and modifying to meet different cultural norms. Indeed, any of the residences that appear to be Chinese are, in fact, transformed artifacts representing both added and deleted elements when compared to what was inherited from others. To help understand similarities and differences, Malacca needs to be looked at in terms of different temporal and spatial scales.
At one scale, there is a sequence represented by the successive arrival in Malacca of different nationalities, some more powerful than others, but each leaving significant imprints on the landscape. Once a small and remote fishing village inhabited by indigenous Malays, Malacca began to develop as a port in the fourteenth century under the leadership of Parameswara, a Srivijayan prince from Sumatra. The Portuguese arrived in 1511, surrendering control to the Dutch in 1641 for a century and a half of development, before passing the region to the British in 1795, with a Dutch interlude again from 1818 to 1824, at the end of which the Dutch returned Malacca to the British in exchange for territory in Sumatra. Each of these occupancies was overlain by the arrival, presence, and activity of Muslim Arabs, Hindus from the Gujarat and Tamil regions of today’s India, and, of course, Chinese from Fujian and Guangdong provinces. All of these interacted with indigenous Malays. Moreover, the rise of Penang in 1786 and Singapore from 1819 onwards was accompanied by Malacca’s slipping in importance as a trading center with its relegation to a relative backwater. One result of this new status was that the layout of the town and its solid buildings, which passed from one group to another, were for the most part not destroyed but survived to be occupied and were then transformed by different residents.
As will be seen with later examples, the entryway of many Chinese homes differs little from temples in terms of form and ornamentation, such as Malacca’s Cheng Hoon Teng Temple, whose origins go back to the 1640s and is Malaysia’s oldest Chinese temple.
The expansive three-bay structure of the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple is made possible because of an elaborate wooden structural framework. This is a view towards the main and side altars.
Built early in the twentieth century on the northern outskirts of Malacca, in Tranquerah, this narrow terrace residence houses a multigenerational family. The façade is richly decorated with stucco patterns and calligraphic ornamentation. Just inside the entryway is a round table with a formal grouping of furniture with mother-of-pearl inlay. Beyond this area is a sky-well framed with fluted columns, which are painted to match the façade.
After having been used as a storehouse for antiques for thirty years, this two-storey terrace house along Heeren Street in Malacca was purchased in 2003 by a couple who have restored it and opened it as a bed-and-breakfast inn.
Between the early nineteenth and the twentieth century, Singapore shop-houses were transformed in height and width as well as style.
When the Portuguese arrived, they constructed a pentagonal fort on the south side of the Malacca River, while some joined Gujaratis and Tamils on the north bank where they lived in simple dwellings built from easily available materials such as timbers, mud, and thatched nipa palm called attap. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, successful merchants began to build more substantial houses in an area that was favored by cool breezes from the sea and came to be called Kampung Belanda or “Dutch Village.”
After disastrous fires that accompanied the Dutch siege in 1641, in addition to constructing residences and other buildings in Malacca’s administrative and commercial center, the Dutch laid out along the north side of the river a somewhat rectangular street plan with two major roads running parallel to the coast, which were intersected by minor ones. In this area, increasingly wealthy Dutch and other settlers constructed brick and stone homes with their backs aligned along the sea and their fronts along a road called Heerenstraat or “Gentlemen’s Street,” which was later renamed Heeren Street by the British. In time, multistoried residences, which were narrow in the front and elongated as they receded towards the water, were built, then no doubt modified from time to time to meet changing needs. Similar, but generally less grand homes were built along Jonkerstraat, an inland road parallel to Heerenstrat. While some of the elements of these evolving houses drew upon experiences the Dutch had in colonies elsewhere in the tropics, the residences also reflected the designs known to Chinese masons and carpenters who did much of the actual construction using common building practices in use in China. The intersecting of Dutch and Chinese patterns in the organization of space, building structure, fenestration and roofing of many residences along these narrow old roads is indisputable yet still, to some degree, remains a puzzle.
The successive arrival of Portuguese, Dutch, and British colonialists and the roles played by Indian and Chinese mercantile immigrants brought about Malacca’s transformation into one of the region’s most important entrepôt by virtue of its strategic location on the Strait of Malacca. The multicultural heritage of Malacca has bequeathed not only a remarkable vitality to an arguably significant historic city but also a mixed assemblage of heritage buildings. The destruction of old buildings, unbridled land reclamation, construction of high-rise buildings, and inattention to traffic management, all in pursuit of short-term commercial gains, have contributed to diminishing Malacca’s frayed multicultural past. While the preservation of Malacca’s exceptional material heritage remains imperiled, significant elements of the city’s Chinese heritage remain.
The recently restored Cheng Hoon Teng Temple, whose origins go back to the 1640s, and Bukit Cina (Chinese Hill), an expansive cemetery that dates to the mid-fifteenth century, both exemplify the rich links between China and the Malay Peninsula. Marriage and concubinage involving males from China and local women gradually brought about a distinct community known as Peranakan Chinese, whose porcelain, cuisine, clothing, architecture, language, and literature are prominent aspects of their culture. Peranakan Chinese residences in Malacca as well as in Singapore and Penang, the original three Straits Settlements, include not only eclectic terrace homes, which are also called town-houses, but also ornate villas and mansions.
Four Malacca residences are featured in Part Two, which together provide insights into the historical, geographical, architectural, and social aspects of life in Malacca from the eighteenth into the early parts of the twentieth century. The restored shophouse at No. 8 Heeren
