The heritage zone with its life-sized replica of Peranakan shop houses was a crowd drawer but there's more at terminal 4 of changi international airport; the Peranakan Gallery on the second floor of the departure transit area!
First thing that greeted us was the scaled down version of a typical Baba shophouse and i bet doll house lovers would be intrigued by its unique Southeast Asian architecture and traditional layout.
Entrance of the shophouse; in my younger days, i always found it strange that the depth of the shophouse is always so much longer than the width of the shopfront. If memory serves me right, the interesting concept about when the British colonizers taxed the owner based on the width of the shopfront and many landowners circumvented the ruling by having a deeper structure instead.
Some information of the rooms was listed although for a better experience, you must visit Singapore's Peranakan Museum that's located between City Hall and Dhoby Ghaut MRT station!
Replica of a Peranakan living room; more spacious than expected. The gallery took a space of about 150 square meters and there's only so much it can show! However, i thought they could squeeze in more exhibits to whet the curiosity of the Peranakan culture among the tourists.
Bridal bed; i tend to see the same kind of furniture even in Peranakan museums outside of Singapore and don't find it particularly fascinating! In the Peranakan Museum, you can actually find out more about the customs and culture of Peranakan weddings, including the use of intricate jewelry and headdress.
Small collection of the nyonyaware on display.
Design your own Majolica ceramic tiles; nowadays, people don't install such tiles in their homes given the initial and potential replacement cost. Even for me, i don't even go for tiles in the living room and prefer the cheap and easy maintenance vinyl flooring.
Lastly, a display of the traditional Peranakan sarong kebayas and its inspiration for the Singapore Airline's iconic attire for the air stewardesses!
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