Baba Nyonya Heritage: Peranakan Weddings from a Malaccan Perspective was written by a sixth generation Baba, who has practiced the traditions of Peranakan weddings over a span of eight decades. During the course of his life, he observed, learned and participated in every aspect of traditional Baba Nyonya weddings – from the matchmaker’s arrival, to exchanges between the families, to the actual wedding, which comprises many small and intimate ceremonies of its own. Having been a firsthand witness and participant at the traditional Peranakan weddings of many family members (including his own), he is uniquely qualified to be the author of such an important cultural document. The intention of this book is to document and preserve the traditions of Peranakan weddings, both in their original form and as they have been adapted over the years, in order to ensure that future generations will continue to live up to the proverb “Biar mati anak, jangan mati adat.” (Our cultural identity is more precious than our flesh and blood).

Just who are ‘the Malays’? This provocative study posesthe question and considers how and why the answers have changedover time, and from one region to another. Anthony Milner developsa sustained argument about ethnicity and identity in an historical,‘Malay’ context. The Malays is a comprehensiveexamination of the origins and development of Malay identity,ethnicity, and consciousness over the past five centuries. Covers the political, economic, and cultural development of theMalays Explores the Malay presence in Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia,Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and South Africa, as well as themodern Malay show-state of Malaysia Offers diplomatic speculation about ways Malay ethnicity willdevelop and be challenged in the future

This book offers a scholarly perspective on heritage as a discourse, concept and lived experience in Malaysia. It argues that heritage is not a received narrative but a construct in the making. Starting with alternative ways of “museumising” heritage, the book then addresses a broad range of issues involving multicultural and folklore heritage, the small town, nostalgia and the environment, and transnationalism and cosmopolitanism. In so doing it delivers an intervention in received ways of talking about and “doing” heritage in academic as well as state and public discourse in Malaysia, which are largely dominated by perspectives that do not sufficiently engage with the cultural complexities and sociopolitical implications of heritage. The book also critically explores the politics and dynamics of heritage production in Malaysia to contest “Malaysian heritage” as a stable narrative, exploring both its cogency and contingency, and builds on a deep engagement with a non-western society in the service of “provincialising” critical heritage studies, with the broader goal of contributing to Malaysian studies.​

This book addresses the impact of intermarriage between Chinese immigrants and the natives, specifically the intermingling of blood and the offspring from such unions, and the influence they wielded on the society and environment they chose to live in. It also covers how some rose to high positions and their contributions to their societies, and how some openly declared their pride in their ancestry, while others have forgotten their heritage and have dissociated themselves.