The Pinang Peranakan Mansion is the best museum in Georgetown for understanding the Peranakan or Straits Chinese — the descendants of early Chinese settlers who married local Malay women and developed a hybrid culture combining Chinese ancestry, Malay food and language, and (from the 19th century) British colonial taste. The mansion was the home and office of Kapitan Cina Chung Keng Kwee, a 19th-century tin baron and secret society leader; it was restored and opened to the public in 2005.
The interior is packed with over a thousand pieces of period furniture and ornaments — Blackwood furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl, elaborate carved wood screens, Peranakan ceramics in their distinctive pink and turquoise glazes, antique jewellery, beaded slippers, and a wedding chamber set up for a traditional 12-day Peranakan ceremony. The mansion's air-wells, courtyards and decorative ceiling beams give a clear picture of how the wealthy Straits Chinese lived. The small ancestral hall in a separate building next door is included. Allow 90 minutes.