Peranakan Melbourne - PAA Melb

07/06/2026

A big thanks to our community of supporters who come to our events and watch our shows! We are always thrilled and thankful for all your support 🙂😊

07/06/2026

It was a beautiful crisp and cold evening at yesterday’s Winter Festival at Noble Park. PAA performers kicked off the first week of the festival with three dances and a short skit.

Join us at our next appearance at the Springvale Snow Fest and also next month at our Threads of Heritage kebaya exhibition!

06/06/2026

Nyonya and Baba look book! Come along as we chat with some of our performing artists at today’s Winter Festival. Catch us next on Sunday 21 June at Springvale Snow Fest for more kebaya spotting before our Threads of Heritage kebaya showcase on 18 July at Glen Waverley Community Centre. Get your tickets now: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1591651?fbclid=IwdGRleASQg1ZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEexTQ2eNWCS9YSrBuFsnZS4zk2BiXVpBgy4Z2w9H380-6vWkFsUwuNjH8P5ts_aem_3bNx2ryo-6ZaChAJgbcLTA

06/06/2026

Get ready with me PAA Melbourne edition! Guys we are SO excited for next month’s Kebaya Exhibition on Saturday 18 July at 1pm to 5pm at the Glen Waverley Community Centre!

Come dressed in your favourite kebaya and learn more about our unique and beautiful sarong kebaya with Baba Cedric Tan.

Today PAA will be performing at the Noble Park Winter Festival so get ready with Janice and stay tuned for more Nyonya and Baba look books when we get on site!

Book now for Threads of Heritage: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1591651?fbclid=IwdGRleASQg1ZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEexTQ2eNWCS9YSrBuFsnZS4zk2BiXVpBgy4Z2w9H380-6vWkFsUwuNjH8P5ts_aem_3bNx2ryo-6ZaChAJgbcLTA

03/06/2026

✨ A look back to 2023… ✨

Many of us still remember the wonderful afternoon when Baba Cedric Tan visited Melbourne and brought Peranakan history to life through his narration of a traditional Peranakan wedding. His knowledge, humour, and passion for our culture made it a truly memorable experience.

This July, we’re thrilled to welcome him back to Melbourne for Threads of Heritage - A Kebaya Showcase.

Drawing from his personal collection of vintage kebayas, Baba Cedric will share the history, evolution, and cultural significance of the Nyonya Kebaya, one of the Peranakan community’s most treasured traditions and now recognised by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

If you enjoyed his visit in 2023, you’ll know just how engaging and insightful his presentations are. If you missed it, here’s a glimpse of what you can expect.

🎟 Early Bird tickets are available now, but places are filling quickly.

Join us for an afternoon of culture, heritage, storytelling, a Nyonya catwalk, kebaya demonstrations, displays, and refreshments.

Book your tickets today: https://www.trybooking.com/DMONJ

30/05/2026

Calling on Lovers of Culture, Community and Fashion - the Peranakan Association of Australia (Melbourne) is hosting a ‘Threads of Heritage - A Kebaya Showcase’ on 18th July!

Invite your family, friends and neighbours for a rich cultural afternoon. We would love to see you there in your kebayas!

All are welcome, early bird tickets are now open! https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1591651

27/04/2026

What a wonderful afternoon at our NextGen Peranakan Family Social yesterday! 💜✨

It was so lovely to welcome new faces, reconnect with friends we hadn’t seen in some time, and gather across generations for an afternoon of food, fun, and community.

One of our hopes for the day was to create space for families to make food together, something that was once a natural part of life in intergenerational households. In today’s busy modern world, those moments can be harder to come by, so we wanted to bring a little of that spirit back.

Together, we learnt how to make curry puffs and kueh ee (tong yuen), sharing stories, laughter, and traditions along the way. And after all that hard work, we enjoyed a huge afternoon tea spread and happily devoured 90 curry puffs! 😄🥟

There was also plenty happening around the room, with families enjoying manek together, others gathering over board games, while the mahjong and cherki tables were all set and ready to go. But with so many people happily chatting, reconnecting, and catching up, there was hardly time to play! 😊

A heartfelt thank you to our NextGen volunteers and elders who helped prepare, guide, organise, and make the day such a warm success. Your generosity and willingness to share traditions across generations is what makes our community so special.

Thank you as well to everyone who came, contributed food, and brought such wonderful energy to the afternoon. This is what community is all about, keeping traditions alive while creating new memories together. 💛

10/04/2026

From Joseph Then:

My pal Nic Kellargias who is Greek Australian, has crafted a few Peranakan songs for your listening pleasure. I have created a playlist for these songs. They were written for Peranakan Association of Australia in Melbourne. My intention is to create a dance choreography around some of these songs. So far, I have created one with “Nyonya Sayang” last year. Some of these songs are covers from a same title song wherein the treatment and tempo makes a difference to how the song wafts its way to your ears. Enjoy these tunes - open the link below and don’t forget to look up his other genre songs on YouTube, Spotify and AppleMusic.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1BWoh3q66j/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Listen to Peranakan themes on YouTube Music - a dedicated music app with official songs, music videos, remixes, covers, and more.

28/03/2026

PAA members had an interesting interactive session with Ivy Lee on a newly launched “Cakap Peranakan”Project held on 22nd March.

Ivy Lee is a retired teacher from Singapore. A true blue peranakan nonya, she has volunteered to conduct a short course on it. The spoken language is a characteristic element of any culture, and our Baba patois is so unique that we should ensure that we pass it on to the younger generations.

Ivy feels that the key to success in learning a language (whether written or spoken) is through immersion. It can be argued that there are not many of us who are able to converse in our patois BUT we can make do with whatever we have. The idea is to generate words that will help our nembers build up (revise) their Peranakan vocabulary.

During the session, Ivy and Margaret took us through the use of the Peranakan language. They had a dialogue about their journey attending a PAA event in 25 Central Road.

Thereafter, Ivy did a short monologue where she talks about her daily routine. There were good responses from audience who were all awe.

Angie helped flash the both monologues of the Baba Nyonya lingo and their meaning onto the overhead screen. So that audience would understand the words spoken and their meanings.

And on conclusion of the presentation, with Michael and Jonathan on ukulele, there was a short jingle of “Jit, jit semut. Sapa sakit naik atas.”

Hopefully, when we get home, we can share it with the young members of our family or even to those in the family who are young-at-heart.

The next 3 sessions have been planned for 10th May, 7th June and 9th August 9th.

01/03/2026

PAA has had a busy weekend with some members heading over to Glen Waverley to do a cooking demonstration! Our chefs showed the crowd a classic Peranakan staple dish, chicken pongteh. As the Lunar New Year festivities draw to an end, PAA wishes everyone a happy and prosperous year ahead!