Time here seems to have stopped. Viewed from above, the interlocking jumble of red rooftops bathed in the golden rays of the sun looks the same as ever. Splendid at sunset, the grand old city evokes the bygone days of the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British, who each came, ruled the city in turn and left behind buildings in their characteristic architectural styles. Combined with the mosques of the native Malaysians and the quaint temples and alleyways of the immigrant Chinese, they all go to make up the old city's distinctive tapestry.

Part of the World's Cultural Heritage: Aging city of the present, thriving metropolis of days gone by, Malacca isn't impressive in terms of area or population. What it prides itself on is its more than six centuries of remarkable history. To develop tourism, the state government has enacted a historical preservation law protecting historic sites, buildings and neighborhoods more than a hundred years old and has opened a new urban district for industry and commerce. Municipal regulations stipulate that any new building constructed within the confines of the old city must conform to the surrounding architecture and be no more than four storeys high.

Nineteen eighty-nine, for Malacca, was a year worth noting in red. In April of that year, it was listed by UNESCO as one of the world's great historic cities, along with Venice and Kyongju, making it part of the world's common cultural heritage. That status qualified Malacca to receive UNESCO consulting and funding for the preservation, maintenance and development of its historic sites. Its old city gate and St. Paul's Church were the first to receive assistance, and Portugal and the Netherlands intend to support the city in maintaining the buildings left by their forebears.

Given that situation, it's hard not to heave a sigh at the sad fate of the Chinese sites, historic in their own way, considering what they once were and what has become of them now. Dutch St. and Sam Po Mountain, caught in a conflict between urban development and historical preservation, are still in limbo because the details of the historic site protection law aren't clear enough.

The Baba's of Dutch St.: Dutch St., situated by the river, is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city. The street is so narrow that cars have to go single file, the houses on either side are 200 or 300 feet wide and three layers deep. Most are two-storey buildings, the facades ornately decorated with dragons and phoenixes and the doors flanked by antithetical couplets and surmounted by plaques with the families' ancestral places of origin. Its name would seem to imply that the street was the home of the Dutch, but it was actually the chief stronghold of the Peranakans, or Strarts-Born Chinese.

They were the descendants of Malaysian women and Chinese men who immigrated to Malaysia centuries ago. The men were called baba's, and the women nyonya's. One famous baba was the eccentric Confucian scholar Koo Hung-ming of the late Ch'ing Dynasty. Since their fathers were Chinese, they inherited the traditional rites and customs of Chinese culture--they wore traditional Chinese dress at weddings and festivals--but they were thoroughly Malay in terns of their food and drink. Their education was British, and most of them couldn't speak or write Chinese. Thanks to this "triple fusion," to their familiarity with the local language and culture and to their excellent relations with the colonial government, the baba's were generally wealthy, powerful and influential. They were scrupulous about the families they married into, and they lived on Dutch St. generation after generation.

But times change. Today most of their descendants have moved to Singapore or Penang. Their owners gone, many of the buildings are locked and empty. Others are rented out to ordinary, common people, four or five families squeezed under one roof, some of them with a small store in front that they keep watch over day and night--altogether a disconsolate scene.

The Past Reappears: It's only when walking down the street at sunset that you glimpse something of its past glory. The descendants of one important family have converted their old home into the Baba Nyonya Heritage Museum, opened in 1985, which was the first private museum in all of Malaysia. The sumptuous and exquisitely crafted interior decoration, like its former owners, is a mixture of Occident and Orient, a sort of mini United Nations. The architecture is Western neoclassic in style, but the furniture, some of it from China and some locally made, has a distinct Chinese flavor. In the main hall is an ancestor tablet, flanked by aging photographs. British porcelain, French cabinets and Italian dinner sets have been shipped in from far away. On the second floor are a wedding room and a funeral parlor in the Chinese manner, the former with a wax replica of a coyly smiling bride and groom to conjure up happy scenes of the past.

Nevertheless, no concrete measures for preservation and protection of the street have been taken so far. Shen Mo-i, a reporter for the South Seas Commercial Times and a local history buff, thinks the government should give the owners of houses there a special tax break, by lowering their household or property taxes, while the owners should preserve the homes' original appearance to reflect the culture and architecture of days gone by.

A Chinese Cemetery, Past and Present: The Chinese cemetery on Sam Po Mountain (also known as Bukit China), located in the center of the city, has been repeatedly threatened by urban development, more than once arousing the vociferous opposition of the Chinese community, most notably in 1984.

Sam Po Mountain is steeped in the golden glow of the last rays of the sun, as the grass around the rustic, Ming dynasty grave markers waves in the wind. A splendid prospect of the city spreads out below. Some people climb the stairs and some jog along the winding path: the mountain has become an urban recreation area.

Its commanding height made Sam Po Mountain a much coveted spot militarily through the ages. The Ming Dynasty admiral Cheng Ho (also known as the Eunuch San Pao) is said to have camped there with his forces on their expedition to the west and to have built Sam Po Well and Po Sam temple, which are found lower down the slope. Cheng Ho accompanied the princess Hang Li Poh to her wedding with the sultan of Malacca, and the mountain was a wedding gift to house her and her entourage of 500. It was converted into a Chinese cemetery during the 17th century by the head of the local Chinese community, Li Wei-ching, and is now the oldest Chinese cemetery outside China, covering 600 acres and comprising some 12,000 graves.

In 1984 the goverment of the state of Malacca declared that it intended to have the cemetery torn up and the land used for commercial and residential development--another example of "history and culture are important, of course, but urban development is even more so." Two months later, it announced its intention to pursue the collection of 18 years in back land taxes on the property, more than one million Malaysian dollars in total.

Save Sam Po Mountain! That met with fierce opposition from the Chinese community. They maintained that the mountain had great historical significance, testifying to the ups and downs of the Malaccan royal dynasty, the early history of Chinese immigrants and the close dealings between them and native Malaysians. Chinese-Malaysians around the country submitted a joint statement declaring that the move would violate the freedom of religion, run counter to the government's policy of protecting historic sites and sacrifice much-needed urban parkland. At the same time, since those in favor of tearing it up felt the cemetery was an eyesore with its weeds and overgrowth, a beautification campaign was launched that caught on among the Chinese community like wildfire. Volunteer groups weeded the grounds, opened up trails and even put on for a time, folk performances, turning the historical stage of the past into today's "paradise for joggers."

"Be that as it may, even though the mountain had been set aside by the government for use as a cemetery, if the government ever chose to appropriate the land for public use, the Chinese community would have been hard pressed to oppose it legally," says Lau Boon Kuan, head of the Malaccan Alumni Association of Taiwan Universities and Colleges, describing the concerns many people had at the time.

Fortunately, two years later, the government certified that Sam Po Mountain really is a graveyard and cancelled its plan to levy a land tax and take over the land for construction, so the incident came to a close. The Malaysian Chinese Resource and Research Center put out a book of documents and critiques related to the affair called Reverberations of History.

Has the dust really settled? Actually, a subliminal tension still exists. But now that the passions are over, the beautification campaign and the performances have come to a halt. Jen Chen-ya, the center's director, says that most Chinese become concerned about their history and culture only when the occasional threat comes along, and that once the agitation has passed, their concern peters out, only to flame up again the next time around. That is a problem worth pondering.

A Nice Place to Visit But . . . Dusk turns to evening. The old city is quiet, without flashing neon signs all over the place. Asked about his home, a student from Malacca in Taiwan is surprised to find how little he knows about it. He mulls over his response and then says, "It's so quiet you get the creeps after you've lived there a while . . . but it's a nice place for a vacation."

[Picture Caption]

This display of a nyonya bride and a baba groom from suitably matched families evokes a proud scene from the past. (photo taken in the Baba Nyonya Heritage Museum)

The juxtaposition of East and West is characteristic of the architecture on Dutch St.

The splendor of Dutch St. is a thing of the past.

Back in 1984, the Malaccan government wanted to expropriate Sam Po Mountain for the purpose of urban development, setting off intense opposition from the Chinese community.

Situated in the center of the city, Sam Po Mountain occupies a commanding position, which has made it a coveted spot militarily through the ages.

Located in a world-class historic city, the Chinese historical monuments have encountered difficulties in protection and preservation. At left are some documents from the Sam Po Mountain affair.

The water from Sam Po well has a high density and strong surface tension. Drinking it is said to take you back in time.

Po Sam temple, located halfway up Sam Po Mountain, has a statue to Cheng Ho inside.

The juxtaposition of East and West is characteristic of the architecture on Dutch St.

The splendor of Dutch St. is a thing of the past.

Back in 1984, the Malaccan government wanted to expropriate Sam Po Mountain for the purpose of urban development, setting off intense opposition from the Chinese community.

Situated in the center of the city, Sam Po Mountain occupies a commanding position, which has made it a coveted spot militarily through the ages.

Located in a world-class historic city, the Chinese historical monuments have encountered difficulties in protection and preservation. At left are some documents from the Sam Po Mountain affair.

The water from Sam Po well has a high density and strong surface tension. Drinking it is said to take you back in time.

Po Sam temple, located halfway up Sam Po Mountain, has a statue to Cheng Ho inside.