Remembering Mr. Lee Chye Ee (b. 1919)

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Reading the old articles of the late Mr. Lee Chye Ee (b. 1919) reminds me of what it is meant to be "人才被埋没" (a talent gone to waste). He was a remarkable puppeteer, priest and carver from Yongchun, Fujian. During his darkest times, he never gave up and carved more than 100 puppets, including those where the eyes, mouth could move. I hope, in the near future, I will be able to do something to commemorate this remarkable man of talents.

Some information about Mr. Lee:

Learnt the puppetry art at the age of 15

Learnt the art of carving at the age of 17

Set up his own troupe "Ri Yue Xing" (日月星) in Yongchun, Fujian

Came to Singapore (Nanyang) in 1947 and established his troupe "Ri Yue Xing" here

"Ri Yue Xing" performed in the Nanguan (南管) style

In the 1950s, due to lack of popularity of Nanguan music, he founded "Shi Ye Fei" (是也非) and sang in the Gezai style

1960s: the semi-retired Mr. Lee shifted his operations to Malaysia

1970s: Came back but business was worse than before, stayed at home to carve puppets; over 100 marionette heads were carved over the 3 years but sadly, they were never really put to good use

Puppets carved by Mr. Lee Chye Ee (photo from Sin Ming)

Mr. Lee Chye Ee with his marionettes

Mr. Lee Chye Ee as a dan actor

Mr. Lee Chye Ee with his glove puppets

Singapore's very own puppeteers: The Yeos

There have been far too many backlogs until I'm not sure which one to post first. I will start with a brief outline of some of the happenings of my puppet encounters early this year, there were many 'firsts':


1. Interaction between Singapore's very own puppeteers: Mr. Yeo Lai Hoe and Frankie (Yeo) Malachi
2. Encounters with 2 Teochew puppet troupes left in Singapore: Lao Sai Poh Hong (老赛宝丰) & Sin Sai  
    Poh Hong (新赛宝丰)
3. 1st trip to Kiew Lee Tong 九鲤洞
4. 1st encounter with Zhangzhou glove puppet performance @ Esplanade
5. 1st puppet writeup in the media


7 January 2011, a day before the actual performance @ Bukit Merah Library


It was a heartwarming experience for the elderly folks who probably had not watched puppet performances for a long time. A day before the performance, I witnessed the interaction between two Singapore's very own puppeteers: Mr. Yeo from Sin Hoe Ping and Frankie from "Mascots and Puppets". Both were interested in each other's arts and Mr. Yeo even played with Frankie's self-created "Modern Monkey King" complete with retro clothes and eye-catching boots.

    The setup by Mr. Yeo before the arrival of Frankie, characters from "Journey to the West"

                                      Frankie with his monkey marionette playing with the peaches

           (the peaches were said to be stolen by the Monkey King from Queen Mother of the West)

The actual performance was on 8 January. Basically, the performers were trying to tell the story about the Monkey King and his encounter with Queen Mother of the West. The interesting part was the transition from glove puppet to opera actor to modern marionette in which all of them are renditions of the Monkey King.

Here are the mini (glove puppet), traditional (opera) and modern (marionette) versions of Monkey King. Interesting indeed!

Marionette performance at Ann Ren Gong retreat 2 Dec-6 Dec 2010

Apologies for the backlog of updates.

There was a major event held at Ann Ren Gong (安仁宫) from December 1 to 6 and the Tangkis came out from their retreat on Dec 5. I wasn't there to witness the whole retreat but thanks to Raymond from API, he managed to take shots of the post-retreat procession and marionette performance.

According to Raymond, the retreat started on December 1 at around 3-5pm. Doors would be sealed during the retreat.

On Dec 5 around 5am, there were already crowds of people/devotees visiting the temple. The Sin Hoe Ping puppet troupe members were on standby and taking a short nap as they would be performing soon for the deities.

Photo courtesies of Raymond

Note the couplets on both sides of the stage, especially the right one. It indicated that the retreat session was over (持戒功完).

I went over the next day on Dec 6 and here are some more pictures of the marionette performance.

At the gate entrance of Ann Ren Gong, the backstage of Sin Hoe Ping could be seen and the stage was facing the temple. 

A glimpse of Ann Ren Gong after the retreat: devotees and temple members mingle

Shadow puppets and wayang kulit in modern Singapore

Listening to Malaysia Aifm 104.9FM DJ Ji An's program who was talking about the oldest shadow puppet troupe in Taiwan, I was prompted to find out more about the history of shadow puppets and wayang kulit in Singapore but I apologize for not being able to find much information for now.


First, talking about wayang kulit and according to Infopedia:


One of Singapore's last Dalangs (dhalang in Javanese means puppeteer) was Wak Taslim Harjosanajo who passed away in 1985. Does it mean that wayang kulit had disappeared from the Singapore scene for 25 years?! I tried searching for more information on Wak Taslim Harjosanajo on the web but to no avail. A little disappointing indeed but I will try to fill this blank when I come across any related information.


As for whether Chinese shadow puppet ever exist in Singapore, I am afraid I do not have a definite answer for now.

Shadow puppet, Messenger from Hell dating from the 19th Century
Picture taken from Asian Theatre Puppets: creativity, culture and craftsmanship (from the collection of Paul Lin)

Marionette performance at Xuan Jiang Dian

Just to share a video put up by chinatownboy...

Performance venue: Xuan Jiang Dian 玄江殿, Bukit Merah View

Troupe: Possibly by the Feng Huang puppet troupe

The video is focused on the performance of the puppeteers rather than on the puppets. Note the facial expression and singing, performers are somewhat very accustomed and unaffected by the noisy environment they are in. Also take note of the electronic keyboard used during this performance. This is rather common in Hokkien opera and marionette performances, judging from what I have observed in recent years. 

Look around you and discover treasure!

Another overdue post on a talk held at Bukit Merah Library on "Old Chinese Dialect Songs and rhymes" on October 9, 2010. 


The speaker is a renowned DJ from Malaysia. Better known for his Chinese name Ji An 吉安 (Chong Keat Aun, 张吉安), he spent a few years going around the country to collect and record dialect songs and rhymes. He has published a book titled 乡音考古 (literally translated as "archaeological findings of the village music" but it will be more appropriate to translate "village music" as "folk songs/ballads"). Here is his website: http://jiankaogudidai.blogspot.com/


He mentioned a few key points which I have noted and shared the same sentiments.
1. Everyone, not just researchers, can play a part in recording voices/songs around us (especially in the context where generations of overseas Chinese have migrated, settled down, localized but to some extent, preserve their tradition). We never know if this may be of value and become an important heritage in future. 


2. Doing such collection/research is a race against time. We never know when these people will leave us. Personally, I was much saddened by the recent demise of this lady puppeteer and I hope in time to come, I will be able to put my collection into writing and documentation as well. 


Some pictures that I took during the talk, pardon for the poor quality because the speaker preferred to talk in the dark. Even so, many of us were attentively listening to him for almost 3 hours. A natural speaker with a great passion indeed.  

Minnan song with a local flavour

Tongan nursery rhymes well-remembered by an elderly lady

Hainan lullaby songs

There are a few more others like Nanyin, Guangxi mountain songs, Yongchun proverbs etc etc. Ji An was saying that in China you will never get to find so many dialect groups all "cramped" together in one area. The existence of a multi-dialectal Chinese community is something unique about Singapore and Malaysia, perhaps existing in some parts of Southeast Asia and other places with overseas Chinese communities. 

Look around you and you may find treasure! 

Marionette performance and event in honour of Xuan Tian Shang Di

I apologize for the late post on this event held on 11 October (4th day, 9th month of the lunar calendar) in honour of Xuan Tian Shang Di 玄天上帝(Supreme Lord of the Mysterious Heavens). 

Troupe performing: Feng Huang Puppet Troupe

If you observe closely enough, the puppets look brand new and the puppet stage brightly lit. (I wrote about Feng Huang puppet troupe in my previous entries but it seemed like the puppets then weren't as new as these) I happened to have the opportunity to meet up with this man who claimed that he could perform with 36 strings of the marionette. He commented that the brightly lit stage was more eye-catching than those he have seen in Malaysia. Anyway, if I ever get the chance to let him demonstrate his skills, I will post it here. 

Here are some marionette pictures:

Photo courtesy of Chan