Short trip to Asian Civilisation Museum

Asian Civilisation Museum, Empress Place. Singapore. 

I felt rather stifled being at home. The noise from the television was unbearable in the late afternoon. Too much things have been on my mind, and I have difficulties unloading. With all these physical and mental noises that I was subjected to, I decided that I should go out for a walk. Somehow, my feet led me to the Asian Civilisation Museum, Empress Place.

There is now an exhibition on the kebaya of the Peranakan. The exhibition is titled: Nyonya Kebaya: A Living Art. The term Peranakan is a Malay word for someone who is "born locally". If I have understood well, the word Peranakan refers to people who are descendants of an early Chinese community that settled in the Malay archipelago at least since the 17th century. The kebaya is a term given to a kind of clothing. Several of kebaya on display looked lovely. I like those with the embroidered designs. A pity that photography is strictly forbidded at the exhibition, or else I would have taken some photographs to share with you. Anyway, there is an article on the exhibition taken from AsiaOne Food & Entertainment Section. Happy reading.

Also at the Asian Civilisation Museum (Empress Place), there is a section specially dedicated to the Performing Arts of the Southeast Asia region. Here, one will find the gamelan. The gamelan is a traditional Indonesian instrumental ensemble comprising mainly of percussion such as gongs, metallophones, xylophones, drums and cymbals. I managed to find a site that offers information about the gamelan.

There are more interesting exhibits at this museum, and I shall perhaps come and view the rest of them on another day.


Closed-up view. 


Gamelan.