Peranakan still life

Mainly doing The Art Of Flower Photography homework today, which this week is still lifes, so my best effort so far is my Blip for today and for Flower Friday (with thanks as ever to Anni/BikerBear for hosting this lovely floral challenge). I used to be a docent in the Peranakan museum in Singapore. They're a very special population group, descending from Chinese immigrants who married local women, creating a very interesting mix of cultures and traditions. As a group they have a preference for very colourful and rich designs, mainly floral and in pastels, both on/in their porcelain and their textiles. Peonies stand for feminine beauty, wealth, romance, happy marriage and the pair of mandarin ducks also stand for a happy marriage (mandarin duck couples supposedly stay together all their life). The book is a study of the Peranakan feminine fashion, the development of the sarong and kebaya, it was written to compliment one of the special exhibitions at TPM and I did translations from Dutch and some research for the author. The textile is one of my sarongs.

Thanks so much for all your Abstract Thursday entries and for your kind comments, stars and even a fave for yesterday's organic abstract Blip :-)