First Generation Peranakan Unions

A talk by Marc Sebastian Rerceretnam, originally held at the ACM Ngee Ann Auditorium on 27 February 2025.

Marc Sebastian Rerceretnam’s recent book, A History of Immigrant Roman Catholics and Converts in Early Singapore 1832–1945, explores intermarriages between people of different backgrounds within the Roman Catholic Church in Singapore. These included newly arrived Chinese migrants, indigenous peoples from the Malay-Indonesian world, members of Melaka’s Serani community, Chinese Peranakans, and locally born Indian women. Using information found in church archives, as well as oral interviews and histories, Marc’s talk explores how these intermarriages resulted in the development of a distinct Catholic Peranakan community in 19th-century Singapore.

Marc Sebastian Rerceretnam is a Sydney-based historian and research consultant. He has a PhD in Economic History from the University of Sydney. Born in Singapore, he has written widely on the British colonial government of Singapore and the role of religion within colonial societies. Marc was a recipient of a National Library Board Research Fellowship in 2019. His latest book, A History of Immigrant Roman Catholics and Converts in Early Singapore, 1832–1945, was published in 2021.