Nyonya Wall Tiles

I found this house at Jalan Cantonment or Cantonment Road, Pulau Tikus(浮罗池滑廣東民路). It is located near the Pulau Tikus Market (浮罗池滑万山,槟城人称菜市场为万山） , and walking distance from the traffic light junction with Burma Road.

It is a row of double storey pre-war residential houses, but some of these houses have converted into shops. The main thing that attracted me to this row of houses, was the beautiful colorful nyonya ceramic wall tiles. Nyonya is the group of Chinese who are Malay-Chinese mixed,but it also refer to Strait Settlement Chinese. It is also called Peranakan Cina in Malay.

Color ceramic tiles(or porcelain tiles) is not only popular in the Peranakan Cina shophouses/residential houses , but also popular with Malay for decorating their main stairs, especially in Malacca. In the shophouse, it is mainly placed on the wall below the front window, on the wall facing the street. The tiles are mainly colorful floral or geometrical designs. These nyonya ceramic wall tiles are mainly with blend of pink, yellow, dark blue and green color.

Look at the wall tiles, especially the pink floral wall tiles, isn't it beautiful? It is placed immediately below the front window, beside the door. The green floral ceramic tiles is placed below the pink floral tiles, beside the stairs. In other house, I found wall with purple floral tiles.