-Rui Qi- Choo
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ruiqi26.bsky.social
-Rui Qi- Choo
@ruiqi26.bsky.social
84 followers 56 following 9 posts
'Ray Chee', like ray of sunshine + first half of 'cheese'
👩‍🎓 PhD, AFHEA; developmental psycholinguist; lecturer @ Psychology SUSS; social media comms @infantstudies.bsky.social
👩 too erratic & too elusive; she/her; views mine
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(3/3) 2 - I had wanted to squeeze in a paragraph or two talking about my Peranakan heritage and share this glorious Relatives' Name Song video (music and lyrics by Alvin Oon): youtu.be/c-foLQ-R7Ws. Also, whoever came up with 'anak chuchi perot' deserves a prize.
Text: In the latter half of 2020, I decided to enrol for Baba Malay class to learn more about my Peranakan Chinese heritage. One of the lessons was how to name everyone in the family tree – as expected, no given names! There are some interesting terms, though, and I wonder about their backstories. For instance, I wonder how and when laki started to mean a woman’s husband (I hope she indeed felt lucky), and how the youngest child, anak bongsu (literally, child youngest), may also be called anak chuchi perot (literally, child wash stomach), i.e., the child that washes out one’s stomach, presumably free of babies, forevermore. There is also a song with music and lyrics written by Alvin Oon called ‘Sedara Baba Nyonya (The Relatives’ Names Song)’ that helpfully teaches the terms of address of immediate and extended family members. It starts and ends off with this verse that echoes the early socialisation point from earlier, reminding us to be mindful not to call people by the wrong names.
December 20, 2024 at 3:51 PM