Penang, known to older generations as “Tanjung”, meaning “cape” in Malay, earned its name from the betel nut palms that cover the island. This is why it is also called “Betel Nut Island” or “The Green Island of Northern Malaysia”. It is traditionally referred to as “Pinang” among the Hokkien community. Half of the population is Chinese and Westerners once hailed the island as the “Oriental Garden”. Visitors can join a century-old traditional ceremony, explore the historic Tua Pek Kong Temple, visit the Five Great Clans’ ancestral halls and experience the Baba Nyonya Chap Goh Meh celebration. By immersing yourself in the island's living culture and heritage, you can discover how the Chinese community first put down roots here.
The Flame-Watching Ceremony is a distinctive, century-old tradition and an essential experience of the Penang New Year. Having originated as a clandestine divination practice among Fujianese merchants, it has become a pivotal event for Penang's Chinese community and business sector during the Spring Festival, offering insights into the nation's annual economic trajectory.
“This ceremony is Penang's most authentic and unique cultural expression; it is truly our heritage,” says Mr Lim Hooi Kooi, president of Poh Hock Seah.
The organization traces its roots to Kian Teik Tong, established in 1844. Since 1845, annual processions have made their way to the shoreline to perform this ritual. President Lim emphasises the ritual's uninterrupted continuity through Poh Hock Seah, representing a legacy spanning over 180 years.
At precisely noon, the statue of Tua Pek Kong is ceremonially transferred from the Poh Hock Seah Temple in George Town's UNESCO Heritage Zone to the Hai Choo Soo Temple at Tanjung Tokong. The ceremony's outcome is divined through the intensity of flames in the ritual incense urn. During this process, the flames are fanned three times to forecast economic conditions for the year's commencement, midpoint, and conclusion. The ritual formally begins at the hour of the rat (midnight), when the rising tide submerges the primary offshore reef.
Long before the Flame-Watching Ceremony developed locally, the Hai Choo Soo Temple had taken root for centuries. As highlighted by Mr Cham Kai Wen, Director of the History and Culture Department of the temple, its establishment dates back to 1792, marking over 200 years of continuous presence.
Tanjung Tokong also holds historical significance as the earliest documented Chinese landing point in Penang. Legend recounts that in 1745, teacher Zhang Li from Guangdong's Dabu arrived with charcoal maker Ma Fu Choon and blacksmith Chiu Hsiao Ching, becoming Penang’s first Chinese pioneers. Renowned for their good deeds during life, they were posthumously honored as Tua Pek Kong. Their tombs still stand adjacent to the temple.
On the 14th day of the lunar new year, as celebrations drew to a close, this year’s Flame-Watching Ceremony wrapped up with resounding chants, unveiling the prediction “Moderate, Stable, Stable” for the year’s economic phases. Amid uninterrupted bursts of fireworks, the ritual not only perpetuated traditional beliefs but also reaffirmed the shared hopes of Penang’s Chinese community for the future.
Early Chinese immigrants who ventured to Southeast Asia established support networks abroad through blood relations, native-place bonds, and trade connections. Among these ties, shared surnames emerged as the most immediate and potent symbol of belonging. This gradually formed the tradition of surname-based settlements, culminating in Penang’s iconic coastline feature, the Clan Jetties.
Lining Penang’s harbor, these jetties stand not only as symbols of clan settlements but as living chronicles of Chinese immigrant perseverance. Penang’s 19th-century rise as a vital trading port and commercial hub was inextricably linked to five pioneering Hokkien merchant families: the Khoo, Cheah, Yeoh, Tan, and Lim clans.
These families established their ancestral halls in George Town’s historic core, where clan-centric communities endure today. Visiting these halls is akin to stepping into a century-old journey through migration history, witnessing generations of tenacity and legacy.
Ms Kwoh Shoo Chen, Chairman of the Penang Cultural Inheritors Society, explained that most Hokkien immigrants hailed from Haicheng, Fujian, possessing strong entrepreneurial instincts. Upon arriving in Penang, their priorities were settling down and establishing businesses.
Under her guidance, we enter Leong San Tong Khoo Kongsi at Cannon Square. The structure greets visitors as a distinctive Nanyang mansion blending Southern Fujian architecture with Malay stilt-house elements. Its roof ridges showcase cut porcelain mosaic – an intricate technique involving clipped porcelain bowls arranged into motifs on plaster. The quantity and complexity of these ridges signaled a clan’s wealth and status, becoming emblems of ancestral pride.
Clans functioned not merely as kinship groups but as self-sustaining micro-societies. The Cheah Kongsi once founded Yucai School, providing free education to the youth within the clan. Adjacent to the Tan Clan Ancestral Hall, a sanctuary house sheltered newly arrived immigrants. In an era preceding government social service, these networks provided education, housing, and employment, constructing a self-reliant “new homeland”.
These surname-based communities, bonded by bloodlines, were more than mutual-aid incubators: they formed the foundational framework of Penang’s Chinese society. Through them, we trace narratives of root-taking in Nanyang, revealing vital threads in the city’s multicultural tapestry.
For the Baba Nyonya community, Chap Goh Meh represents the most significant day of the entire Lunar New Year period, a distinction that sets it apart from younger Chinese generations who primarily associate the fifteenth night with romantic festivities.
Babas refer to male Peranakan descendants, while Nyonyas are the females. As Ms Lillian Tong, Museum Director of Penang’s Pinang Peranakan Mansion, explains: "When early Chinese seafarers, including those from Admiral Zheng He’s expeditions, landed in Southeast Asia, they established businesses, learned English, and married local women from Malaya and Indonesia. This means our earliest grandmothers likely weren’t ethnically Chinese but originated from the Malay Archipelago."
In traditional Baba Nyonya households, unmarried women remained secluded except on Chap Goh Meh. Parents meticulously adorn their daughters in elaborate attire, permitting them to socialize with bachelors under the moonlight through dances and courtship activities. Families also gathered at the matriarch’s residence for communal feasts accompanied by Dondang Sayang – Malay poetic ballads dating back to the 15th-century Malacca Sultanate, making this musical tradition over five centuries old.
The modern “tangerine-tossing” matchmaking custom finds its roots in Peranakan practices, though with distinct gender-specific rituals: Nyonyas would toss tangerines into rivers or from bridges chanting “Pau kam, tit ho ang!” (Hokkien: “Toss tangerines, get a good husband!”), while Babas threw teapots or small gongs to attract ideal wives.
The festive rhyme “Chap goh meh, choo Pengat; jiak tnee tneei, than twa chnee” (“Cook Pengat on the 15th night, eat something sweet and watch your wealth take flight”) highlights Pengat, a Malay coconut milk dessert adapted by Peranakans into an essential ancestral offering symbolizing the new year’s conclusion. Its four-colored sweet potatoes carry blessings for abundant descendants.
As well as this symbolic dessert, classic Nyonya dishes such as Chap Chye (mixed vegetables), stir-fried jicama and braised pork are served at family reunions. Unlike the sweeter Malaccan variations, northern Penang's Nyonya cuisine distinctly favours spicy, sour and salty flavours.
Today, the traditional Peranakan attire Kebaya has been successfully inscribed on the intangible cultural heritage list through a joint application submitted by five countries: Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei, and Singapore. Ms Lillian Tong expressed her confidence that this recognition will encourage more artisans and community members to wear Baba Nyonya clothing, thereby carrying the Baba Nyonya culture to all corners of the world.
Reposted in full from The Interview website