Hang Li Po

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Hang Li Po (Chinese: 漢麗寶; pinyin: Hàn Lìbǎo, or Wang Lìbǎo) was reputed to be a Chinese princess sent by Ming dynasty in China to be wed to Malaccan Sultan Mansur Shah (reigned 1456–1477).[1][circular reference]

The account of Sultan Mansur Shah being wed to a wife of Chinese descent who bore a son named Paduka during their marriage is corroborated by a Portuguese colonial text.[2][circular reference]

The legend of Hang Li Po was an important figure in Malaysian national consciousness, as she was a person of Chinese ancestry who lived among Malay Muslims, bearing a royal seal of approval during the early history of the Malay archipelago thus paving the way for the cultural acceptance and social assimilation of Chinese immigrant laborers who were later brought to the Malay peninsula during the British colonial period during the 18th and 19th century.[3]

Due to the Cultural Revolution in China in 1966, records and relics from the Ming Dynasty, including the official annals of Chinese mariner, Zheng He, were destroyed, resulting in large gaps in Chinese historical accounts.[4]Some say that she married to Hang Tuah.

According to historical records, Malacca had sent four royal missions to China in 1412, 1413, 1415 and 1418, while the kingdoms of Siam, Java or Cambodia did not send any royal envoys to China during the same period. It was reported that the Malaccan rulers sought the protection of China in the event of an invasion by Siam. There are no records that China exerted any type of political or military control, although Southeast Asia was part of its sphere of influence and countries like Siam did pay taxes to China as part of the tributary system.[5]

The princess's vast entourage was recorded to be 500 followers and Sultan Mansur Shah provide a hill as their settlement, now known as Bukit Cina,[6] as a gift to his new Chinese bride, Princess Hang Li Po, in the mid-15th century.[7] Now, there are more than 12,000 graves in the cemetery and the oldest dates back to 1622.[8] After the Portuguese conquered Malacca in 1511, the forested Bukit Cina was razed by Portuguese missionaries, who established a monastery atop the hill in 1581.[9] When the Dutch captured Malacca from Portuguese control in 1641, the Dutch colonial administration re-designated Bukit Cina as a Chinese cemetery in 1685.[10]

Regardless of whether the accounts of Hang Li Po's Chinese royal lineage was accurate or not, she was an early prototype of transculturation and interracial marriage in the history of the Malay archipelago. The cultural and genealogical heritage from her era is unmistakable in the Peranakan culture and descendants found in cities such as Penang and Malacca in present-day Malaysia which is characterized by a unique hybridization of ancient Chinese culture with the local cultures of the Nusantara region.[11][12]

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References[]

  1. ^
  2. ^
  3. ^ "The Search for Hang Li Po", by Alexander Wain, New Straits Times, April 6, 2017
  4. ^ [The Battle for China's Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution, by Mobo Gao, Pluto Press (2008) pp. 21–22]
  5. ^ Studies in the Social History of China and South-East Asia: Essays in Memory ... edited by Jerome Ch'en, Nicholas Tarling
  6. ^ Bukit China (Chinese Hill)
  7. ^ Pelayaran Zheng He dan alam Melayu. Yuanzhi Kong, Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 2000 – China – 209 pages
  8. ^ Chinese Heritage Sites
  9. ^ Portuguese colonial period was from 1511 to 1641
  10. ^ Dutch colonial rule was from 1641 to 1825
  11. ^ [Mixed Race in Asia: Past, Present and Future, by Zarine Rocha (ed.) London: Routledge, 2017, p. 147-161.
  12. ^ "Peranakans". Baba & Nyonya Heritage Museum, Malacca. Archived from the original on 12 January 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2020.

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