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Chinese Street Opera Performance and the Shaping of Cultural Aesthetics in Contemporary Singapore

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2019

Lee Tong Soon
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On 19-21 February 1998, the Chinese Opera Society (Singapore), an amateur opera society that promotes Chinese opera in Singapore, organised an event called “Street Wayang Revisited” as part of the annual Chinese Cultural Festival, which featured a three-night performance of the popular Chaozhou opera, Liu Ming Zhu, by the Sing Yong Hoe Heng Teochew Wayang, a professional Chaozhou opera group in Singapore. The ticketed performance, presented in what was called “street wayang-style” (Straits Times, 4 February 1998), took place in the Bras Basah Park within the shopping and business district of Singapore. Accompanying the performance was a month-long exhibition (13 February - 15 March 1998) at the Singapore History Museum, displaying old costumes, props, scripts and other Chinese opera paraphernalia, many of which belonged to Sing Yong Hoe Heng. Organised at a cost of approximately S$15 000 (US$ 8800), the event was widely publicised and well attended, and was partially sponsored by the Singapore Press Holdings and National Arts Council, amongst other national institutions. Aimed specifically at younger-generation Singaporeans, the English-speaking communities, expatriates and tourists, “Street Wayang Revisited” used slide projections of the Chinese script and corresponding English translations during the performance. The stage was double the size of the usual makeshift stages used daily by professional opera groups, the performance area was sheltered and well-ventilated with mobile fan units, and hawkers were specially engaged to serve food at this three-day event. Approximately 500 people watched the final performance on 21 February (Straits Times, 21 February 1998). On 23 February 1998, Sing Yong Hoe Heng resumed its normal practice and staged performances for a ritual celebration in an open space next to Newton Circus, another area that is popular with tourists, expatriates and younger Singaporeans. This time, however, a photograph published in the Chinese newspaper shows only a scatter of twelve people or so in the audience. The same newspaper article aptly questions this phenomenon with a metaphorical title: “Shuguang Zhaxian Haishi Xiyang Yuhui? [Emerging Sunshine or Lingering Sunset?]” (Lianhe Zaobao, 7 March 1998a).

Type
Articles
Information
Yearbook for Traditional Music , Volume 34 , 2002 , pp. 139 - 162
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 By The International Council for Traditional Music

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