Design Lab: Keyword Exercise

Peranakan Culture is characterized by its unique combination of ancient Chinese culture with the local cultures of Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia archipelago, which results in a centuries-long history of transculturation and interracial marriage. The Peranakan communities and their hybrid of culture are unique to this region. While we are still able to see the Peranakan heritage around us, such as the shophouses along Joo Chiat and Emerald Hill, many don't realize that that is a part of Peranakan Heritage, thus making Peranakan culture more of a museum topic today.

There are many questions that I wish to answer with my research.

Who are the Peranakans?

Where can the Peranakans be found?

What is the Peranakan identity?

How have the Peranakan culture evolves throughout history?

How is the Peranakan culture like today?

What is the future of the Peranakan culture?

In order to have a clearer structure and understanding of my whole research question, we did an exercise in class where we created a word map based on two flashcards that we picked, that are related to our research topic.

 The two flashcards that I chose, that I think are relatable to my research topic are "Intangible Heritage" and "Future of Crafts".

Intangible heritage is more fragile than tangible heritage because it is an important part of maintaining the core of a culture's heritage, such as the knowledge about traditional practices, languages, and skills to produce traditional crafts. In order for a culture to stay alive, this knowledge has to be passed from generation to generation. If today's generation no longer cares to keep it alive, the culture will die with the older generation. 

This then relates to "Future of Crafts" as part of the main problem of my research topic is the uncertainty of the future of Peranakan culture. When talking about the future, technology and globalization play a big part, and the people play an essential role in keeping a culture alive as I have mentioned above. 

And from this exercise, I came up with a research question. My research question (as of right now) is "How to preserve the Peranakan culture in modern world?"

Because Peranakan culture seems to be struggling to find its identity in this modern world, thus endangering its future.

Header image: Joshua Tsu via Unsplash.com