Welcome to the Baba & Nyonya House Museum! The three terrace houses that make-up this museum were acquired by the Chan family in 1861.
From as early as the 16th Century, merchants from China, India & Arabia came to the Straits Settlements (Singapore, Malacca, Penang) in search of trade. Some intermarried with local women and their children were known as “Peranakan” or “Straits-Born.” There are the Peranakan India and Peranakan Jawi.
Ours is the story of a Peranakan Chinese family.
Since 1861, four generations of the Chan family have lived in this home. It was opened by the family to the public in 1985. The portraits on the wall are of the residents who once lived here. Peranakan men are called baba, an honorific title meaning gentleman and the women nyonya meaning lady.
Baba Chan Cheng Siew was a planter. In his early years, he planted gambier, a crop used for medicinal purposes. He later switched his plantation to rubber, and this brought him a lot of wealth. Around the states, he was fondly called Big Boss with Glasses, Towkay Cermin Mata. Most of the furniture in the house today belongs to when Cheng Siew lived here until he passed away at the age of 54, in 1919.
Chee Gee Geok Neo, was Cheng Siew’s wife. She was fondly known in the family as Fat Mother, Mak Gemuk.
Cheng Siew also had three concubines. The eldest concubine Choo Way Neo, or Nenek Cho, lived in the house until her death in 1970. The two younger concubines Maggie Tan Ah Moy and Tan San Yeok, lived nearby on Jalan Kuli Street.
Cheng Siew only had one legitimate son – Chan Seng Kee. He was matchmarried to Ho Joo Suan in 1917, and when Cheng Siew passed on, he became the trustee to his father’s estate. Seng Kee and Joo Suan had eight children.
English 
Baba Malay 
Chinese 
French 
Japanese 
Italian