In Conversation With: Peter Lee

Textile and Fashion Federation (TaFF)

In this virtual conversation, we will hear the adventures and delight of batik-and-kebaya hunting in the far-flung corners of the Indonesia.

Cynthia Wee-Hoefer talks to our guest Peter Lee, author, scholar, curator and most recently host of a four-part television documentary series “Mark of the Empire” of the ancient civilisations of Southeast Asia broadcasted by Channel News Asia. Peter has curated major exhibitions on the Peranakan culture and material objects at the Peranakan Museum, Asian Civilisation Museum and other museums in Japan. Perhaps his best-known work is the Sarong Kebaya, an exhibition on the embroidered blouse paired with the batik sarong that opened 10 years ago. This was followed in 2015 by an excellent book Sarong Kebaya – Peranakan Fashion in an Interconnected World 1500-1950.Most notable about the Sarong Kebaya exhibition is the sizeable donation of the costumes by Peter’s late parents Lee Kip Lee and Elizabeth Lee to the Peranakan Museum. The truth is that Peter is the one who single-handedly (albeit with the encouragement, advise and help by a long list of friends, academics, collectors, and museum curators) searched the length of the Southeast Asian coastal towns and villages for the hidden treasures that we are fortunate to have as our national heritage.In this conversation with Peter, we will hear the adventures and delight of batik-and-kebaya hunting in the far-flung corners of the Indonesian archipelago and into the venerable libraries of institutions in the Netherlands. About Peter LeePeter Lee is an independent researcher, and the Honorary Curator of the NUS Baba House – a historical house museum managed by the National University of Singapore. He co-authored The Straits Chinese House with Jennifer Chen, published by the National Museum of Singapore in 1998 and 2006. In 2008, he produced Junk to Jewels — The Things that Peranakans Value, an exhibition and catalogue for the Peranakan Museum. He co-curated Sarong Kebaya, which opened in April 2011 at the same museum and a book he wrote on the subject was published in 2014. In 2018 this book was shortlisted for the Singapore History Prize. The 2013 exhibition Inherited and Salvaged: Family Portraits from the NUS Museum Straits Chinese Collection comprised largely of portrait paintings he had assembled. He also contributed an essay to the exhibition catalogue that was published in 2015. In 2016, he co-curated Singapore, Sarong Kebaya and Style at the Fukuoka Art Museum and the Shoto Museum in Tokyo. He was the guest curator of Port Cities: Multicultural Emporiums of Asia, 1500-1900 at ACM, which opened in November 2016, and co-authored its exhibition catalogue. In 2017, he was the historical consultant for a Peranakan-themed short film launched at the Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 4. Peter was also the guest curator of Amek Gambar: Peranakans and Photography, an exhibition held at the Peranakan Museum from 2018 to 2019. In 2020, The Mark of Empire, a four-part documentary in which he features as the series’ host, was broadcast regionally by Channel News Asia, Singapore, and uploaded on Youtube. https://www.artoftheancestors.com/blog/peter-lee-interviewAbout Cynthia Wee-HoeferCynthia Wee-Hoefer is a former journalist of the periodicals and main English-language newspaper in Singapore. She has contributed articles on her Peranakan heritage for the Friends of the Museum magazine and the Peranakan Association of Singapore newsletter. Being a Peranakan Nyonya herself and a long-time friend of Peter Lee, she hopes to elicit anecdotes, recollections, knowledge earned and lots more of their shared interest.

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In Conversation With: Peter Lee

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In Conversation With: Peter Lee

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