This is a very well-researched book that is richly illustrated. The term 'Chinese Peranakan' is the English transcription of the Malay label Peranakan Cina or Peranakan Tionghoa. In English writing these localised Chinese communities in the Malay world, most of whom speak their version of Malay among themselves, are also described as Peranakan Chinese, which the author Hwei-Fe'n Cheah uses. The women are called nyonya, hence the use of the term Nyonya beadwork, just like Peranakan Chinese food is often referred to as Nyonya cuisine. Taking note of up-to-date research, Cheah ably describes the complexities and development of the Peranakan societies in chapter 2. She sees Peranakan culture appropriately as 'culture in formation, appropriating, adapting, and transforming external influences as its way of negotiating past, present, and future' (p. 81). This reflects her approach of study that analyses Nyonya beadwork as a lens for studying cultural exchanges, culture formation and changing gender identity as well as Peranakan Chinese identity, especially in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when Nyonya beadwork became an 'independent genre of textile decoration' (p. 55) with Chinese, European and local influences.
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