The Little Nyonya: reframing confucian filiality and family rituals for a global Singapore

ABSTRACT

The Little Nyonya is a Singapore produced Chinese-language historical television drama centring on the struggles of its heroine Yueniang in negotiating turbulent relationships among three Chinese Peranakan merchant families in Singapore and Melaka. Her life choices are made within the framework of Confucian moral binaries of filial piety and a traditional paternalism that distinguishes righteous protagonists from villainous antagonists. By focusing on Yueniang’s breaking of gender barriers through her inclusion of matrilineal ancestors and descendants as well as non-Chinese spouses in the Confucian family, her assumption of ritual family leadership, and her adoption of the roles of the Confucian merchant and cultural connoisseur, this article seeks to highlight screen portrayals of reformative notions of Confucianism in Asian television. The Little Nyonya’s dynamic reconfiguration of Confucianism mirrors the contemporary Singapore state’s ideological constructions on modernized ‘Asian values’ rather than a simple return to ancient Chinese discourses.

KEYWORD:

• The Little Nyonya
• Reformative Confucianism
• Singapore
• Peranakan culture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. ‘Peranakan’ is an Indonesian/Malay word meaning ‘the offspring of intermarriage between a native (Malay/Indonesian) female and a foreign male,’ who may be Chinese, Dutch, Arab, Indian, Portuguese or any other immigrant to the Malay Archipelago. Peranakans can be found all over the Malay world and even beyond. Chinese Peranakans however are by far the most numerous (Suryadinata 2010, 2).

2. Common translations of junzi include ‘gentleman’ and ‘superior man’ which conveys the patriarchal nature of Confucian society. However, I adopt Roger T. Ames and Henry Rosemont’s translation of junzi as ‘exemplary person’ because it is gender neutral and better conveys a contemporary Confucian perspective that reconciles Confucianism with gender equality (Confucius, Ames, and Rosemont 1999).

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Notes on contributors

Robert Y. Eng

Robert Y. Eng is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Redlands. He is the author of Economic Imperialism in China: Silk Production and Exports, 1861-1932 (Berkeley, 1986), and articles on topics ranging from Chinese socioeconomic history to the historical demography of China and Japan to nation-building and identity politics in East Asia. His current research interests include Sino-Japanese relations, Asian media and popular culture, and overseas Chinese societies and statelets in Southeast Asia.