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History has it that 500 young men from China's Fujian Province accompanied princess Hang Li Po in the late 1400's to what is now Malacca on her journey to wed Sultan Mansur Shah. A popular folk lore in Singapore gives legend that these young men became the forebears of the Peranakan Cina.

Peranakan refers to the descendents of the early Chinese who settled in the Malay Archipelago and integrated with the Malays. In Singapore, these descendents are known interchangeably as Peranakan Cina, Baba Chinese, Straits Chinese and Baba Nonya.

Through the past five centuries or so, the Peranakan culture has developed into a mix of Chinese and Maly cultures, with some influence from other cultures such as Dutch, Portguese and Thai, resulting in a rich and distinctive mix.

Most Peranakans are of Hokkien ancestry, whose dialect is one of the eight major dialets in the Chinese language and whose people inhabited the Fujian Province from where the legendary group of 500 young men originated. Present day Peranakans observe traditional Chinese celebrations and traditions, such as new year and august moon. At the same time, their food, language and fashion have a strong Malay influence. The Nyonyas, a mix of women from the Malay Peninsula, Java, Sumatra, Burma and Thailand who married Chinese traders in the Straits Settlements of Malacca, Penang and Singapore from the sixteenth century, were true multiculturists. Their knack for combining the best of cultural influences from Chinese, Malay and European contributed to a rich Peranakan heritage well known for its distinctive cuisine, architecture, furniture, porcelain, costumes, embroidery, beadwork, silverware and jewelry.