March 16, 2018
Diary of an NUS Museum Intern is a series of blog posts written by our interns about their experiences during the course of their internships. Working alongside their mentors, our interns have waded through tons of historical research, assisted in curatorial work, pitched in during exhibition installations and organised outreach events! If you would like to become our next intern, visit NUS Museum’s student development page for more information.
Shen Yunni is a third-year Political Science student at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. As our Baba House Outreach Intern, Yunni assisted in the research, planning, and marketing of the Baba House Docent Training Programme and other Outreach programmes, as well as assisting with the Baba House tour logistics and house operations.
Straits Chinese, also known as the Peranakan Chinese, has always been a familiar yet faraway community for me. Why would someone like me, neither from a Peranakan descent nor with an Art History minor, be doing interning at the NUS Baba House? Thankfully I have found my answers after a brief 5-week stint at the NUS Museum. Apart from the rich culture which the Straits Chinese possesses, evident from a brief walk in the ornate Baba House where many artefacts or furniture seem to speak stories, I had an opportunity to look past the Baba House and research upon the Neil Road neighborhood as well.