Malacca historical development of civilization resulting from interactions with other civilizations was brought by foreigners who came to Malacca since the time of the Malacca Sultanate. This is because at that time, Malacca was an entrepot trading centre visited by traders and merchants, representing different civilizations and various groups from all over the world including traders from China, India, Arabs, Persia and also traders from Europe. Busy port of Malacca at that time was described by Sulalatus Salatin: “… then all the commerce and trade winds windward all are coming to Malacca …”. Malacca’s fame as a famous trade center at that time led to a close relationship between Malacca with other countries, including China. In the initial stages of its development and growth, Malacca had been seeking the protection from China in particular from the Emperor Yung-Lo of the Ming Dynasty. Malacca trade relations with China can be seen clearly through the responses of Ming government when they changed their trade policy to eliminate the closed-door policy of the previous run. Chinese-Melaka close relationship became stronger when the ruler of Malacca visited China several times and so a visit from China to Malacca. Clearly, the initial contact between Malacca and China had occurred since the establishment of the Malacca-China diplomatic relations and also with the arrival of traders from China to Malacca. The arrival of the Chinese, beginning with the trade relations between China and Malacca, had a major impact since it caused the occurrence of intermarriage between Chinese merchants with the local community. As the Chinese immigrants who came to Malacca consisted only of men, this had caused them marrying local women. As a result of intermarriage between the Chinese merchants who migrated to Malacca since the 15 century with the local women had resulted in the emergence of a new community known th as the Chinese guard, Peranakan Chinese and as the Baba and Nyonya community which exist in Malacca until today. This article aims to discuss in-depth about the impact of trade relations during the Malacca Sultanate to the formation of the Peranakan Chinese community in Malacca. It uses content analysis approach by looking into various literatures concerning this group of people. Based on the historical facts, results show that indeed trade plays an important role especially in the initial stages of the formation and emergence of the Chinese Peranakan community in Malacca.
Source: World Journal of Islamic History and Civilization
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