the woman who breathed two worlds by selina siak chin yoke

“ Peranakan Chinese or Straits-born Chinese are the descendants of Chinese immigrants who came to the Malay archipelago including British Malaya (now Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, where they are also referred to as Baba-Nyonya) and Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia where they’re also referred as Kiau-Seng) between the 15th and 17th centuries. I had never heard of the Nyonyas and Babas.Â It took me a while to understand exactly what those terms meant.Â This is from Wikipedia. She longs to be able to pass on the stories that were told to her and the traditions of the families in her area.Â Her children are not interested. This story focuses on the way the world is changing around Chye Hoon.Â She is taken to a backwater town after her marriage.Â She watches Ipoh grow into a mining center.Â She sees her children grow up and learn English as their major language.Â Even her daughters are able to be educated.Â But her family traditions are very important. This is an historical fiction novel set between the 1870s and the 1940s in Malaysia.Â Â In this area of Malaysia at the time it was common for people to be of mixed ethnic heritage.Â But now the British have started to establish a presence.Â Towns and cities are growing.Â Chye Hoon’s father decides to learn English and move the family to a larger city to get ahead.Â Although she is smart, she is not able to go to school.Â She is headstrong and not beautiful so stays unmarried for a long time before becoming a second wife to a Chinese man who left his family behind in China.

Chye Hoon finds herself afraid of losing the heritage she so prizes as her children move more and more into the modernising Western world. At last, she can pass on the stories she has heardâ€”magical tales of men from the seaâ€”and her warriorâ€™s courage, along with her wonderful kueh (cakes).īut the cultural shift towards the West has begun. The Woman Who Breathed Two Worldsby Selina Siak Chin Yokeįacing challenges in an increasingly colonial world, Chye Hoon, a rebellious young girl, must learn to embrace her mixed Malayan-Chinese identity as a Nyonyaâ€”and her destiny as a cook, rather than following her first dream of attending school like her brother.Īmidst the smells of chillies and garlic frying, Chye Hoon begins to appreciate the richness of her traditions, eventually marrying Wong Peng Choon, a Chinese man.

The woman who breathed two worlds by selina siak chin yoke