This beaded slipper re-soled with a wedge is part of a pair that originally belonged to donor Mdm. Chan Poh Choo’s paternal grandmother, who was a Nonya. They were re-soled in the 1970s as Mdm. Chan found the original flat soles to be uncomfortable.Mdm. Chan is the granddaughter of Chinese businessman and philanthropist Tan Kah Kee. She is half-Peranakan as her father was a Peranakan from Malacca and her mother was Tan Kah Kee’s daughter. She was born in Malacca in 1930. During the Second World War, she escaped to Burma and China with her family. She studied chemistry at the Hong Kong University in the 1950s. After graduation, she taught at Fairfield Methodist’s School and Singapore Chinese Girls’ School before retiring in the early 1980s.
