SINGAPORE SLING

Antiques fill Alvin Yapp’s home like tottering totem poles. There are beaded wedding shoes, embroidered money pouches and cloths, ornate jewellery boxes, vintage photographs, hundreds of carved nativity figurines and brightly coloured enamel spittoons lining the stairway like runway beacons.

‘When we talk about Peranakan culture, there is always Chinese, Malay and European culture coming together. I am Perakan,’ said Alvin, as I sat opposite him on a long wooden seat surrounded by his eclectic mix of collectables. I was at The Intan, a Peranakan cultural museum in Singapore’s Katong District that doubles as Alvin’s home.

Wearing bright red jeans as flamboyant as his personality, Alvin’s theatrical manner brought his culture, which was new to me, alive. The Peranakan