Wan Qing Yuan (晚晴园), formerly known as Sun Yat-Sen villa, is now known as the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall. It was closed for redevelopment last year and reopened this month which happened to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution of China.
Statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen outside the Memorial Hall
Photo courtesy of Derrick See
There will be a cultural festival (9-30 October) which is already ongoing. What is of interest to me is the upcoming talks on Chinese puppets and opera.
27 October "Puppetry in Chinese Opera", 2-4pm
29 October "Puppetry in Chinese Opera", 10am-12pm
The English and Chinese titles on the programme sheet are a little confusing but according to a friend, both talks will be on Chinese puppetry and the content is the same on both days (so don't worry about missing out anything if you cannot attend the Thursday talk).
Was very delighted to see puppet display at the Esplanade walkway last month. These puppets are actually depictions of real-life people who are usually neglected by the mainstream society, like the utensil collector, street performer, cardboard collector and gardener, etc.
Mr Ali, the gardener
Uncle Fong, the cardboard collector
Auntie selling noodles
Mr. Tan, can collector
Uncle Tan, construction worker
Cleaner
Indeed these are the various occupations held by some of the middle-aged and elderly people in modern day Singapore. They belong to one of the lowest strata of society and can barely afford 3 meals a day. I like the details of the puppets and the way the creators bring out an interesting aspect of these people's lives through the use of puppets. The expressions on the puppets are usually gloomy or sad which can be interpreted as a kind of social stigma these people have to overcome in life.
The puppets have strings attached to them which mean they can be categorized as "marionettes". However, the creators and manipulators of these puppets also cleverly perform these puppets in real-life situations, e.g. on a walking street, near the garden etc.
This puppet project titled "Circus of Life" is created by the Papermoon Puppet (Indonesia) and the School of Design and Media, ITE (Singapore). More details of the Papermoon Puppet can be found here: http://www.papermoonpuppet.com/.
Chinese revolutionist Sun Yat Sen is known for his founding of modern China. But do you know that he has a brief contact with Cantonese opera before? Does this picture serve as a hint? More information to be revealed later...
"Marco Polo" by Taiyuan Puppet Theatre Company Friday 26 August, Saturday 27 August, 7.15pm & 11.30pm Glass Atrium, Level 2, National Museum of Singapore
Adapted from taovictor's writeup:
Hi folks,
If you missed the Tai Yuan Puppet Theatre Company’s performance of Marco Polo, you missed one of the best potehi (glove puppet) shows! Imagine how many are there in the world, maybe only this one, where there is a puppet show where Italian Aria and Nanyin are sung! (^^) What a hoot! And I wonder how many in the world would be able to understand both languages? Maybe some Taiwanese … well, some Nanyang Chinese who are Aria singers. (^^)
And trying to do a duet?? Must be challenging to put the music and lyrics .. but what fun! I cannot understand Italian and so would need Stefano to tell us. Maybe give us the subtitle. The Hokkien was hilarious. Imagine what the maid said about this strange guy who looks like a pig! (^^) Much of the dialogues are not displayed … it would be a mammoth task to do that subtitling at the speed which the dialog goes. I looked around and wondered, how many in the audience could understand Chinese. Not many local children I think, but many foreign ones!! And look at the crowd! Yes, this is Saturday night. But one could count by the two hands on potehi in Singapore! At, but perhaps, it is because the local potehi is meant for the Gods and so the stories are very serious, often sobby, and difficult to follow. Marco Polo? Fun, comic and certainly poking fun at the cross-cultural understanding, or misunderstanding. Is it true that Marco Polo stole the diary from his brother Matteo? (^^)
The scenes were many and the story moved very fast .. climax after climax, the audience had no time to rest. Never mind that they did not understand all the dialog, the actions were enough to keep them glued to that tiny audience.
I noticed that there was a video recording of the show. Hope this is made available to the public, especially, the schools. Add in the subtitling, and it would be a great piece. Certainly an interesting way to get the students to learn about Marco Polo! (^^)
Videos as well:
Seeing 'stars': a plot to save Marco Polo from death
Marco Polo confessing his love
Hokkien Nanyin (Nanguan, Southern music) VS Italian aria
A Peranakan cina (Chinese Peranakan) of Chinese, Malay and Thai descent working hard to preserve his multicultural tradition and also to preserve the art of shadow puppetry (wayang kulit in Malay) in Malaysia (the Chinese also has shadow puppetry but I have not seen it in Singapore or Malaysia yet).
Being an avid fan of her father's wayang kulit shows, the tok dalang's daughter also wrote a thesis on the topic when she was studying in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM, 国民大学). I am trying to gain access to her thesis and will share later.
Here's also a Chinese report on the daughter's wish to help her father promote wayang kulit even though the art can only be passed down to sons and not daughters.
However, to my surprise, I have recently gathered some information which may hint at the existence of Guangdong traditional puppet in early Singapore. The advertisement below is one of them, even though it might not fall into the category of 'traditional' as I suspect that it is only a one-time kind of performance where the Merry Opera Company employed puppeteers who can perform in Cantonese. The puppet type is unknown.
Source: The Singapore Free Press, 22 October 1924, Page 2
Thanks to a friend who kindly shared with me a Chinese article on the various puppet/opera types in Malaya (and later Malaysia and Singapore), the author also mentioned that in 1911, there was a Guangdong puppeteer by the name of Zheng Wan Kai (郑万楷) who performed in Malaya. His son later performed in Singapore during the years 1916-1922. As the article did not state the exact source, I have reservations on its credibility but it is nevertheless an important view to be made. I will also reserve the use of "Cantonese puppet" as Guangdong may refer to various dialects like Chaozhou (Teochew) and Hakka (客家话), both of which are existing dialect groups in Singapore.
Just learnt from a friend who lives in Klang that she recently encountered a century-old temple by the name of Cheng Neong Teng (清凉亭) in Port Klang, Malaysia. The sad thing is it is going to be demolished soon! Looking at the pictures and the supposed date of establishment, both of us felt that perhaps UNESCO should do something about it.
Here are some of the pictures which are not of high quality, but nevertheless clear enough to see the fine details of the architecture:
One of the more prominent effigies inside the temple: the 18 arhats
Dedication to Marionette theatre in Singapore and the region
Marionette theatre is both a combination of performance and ritual. It has been dwindling in numbers at present and even though there may be new troupes emerging, not many follow the traditional way of doing things, especially on the part of conducting rituals. Our task is to retain the uniqueness and characteristics of marionette theatre (and puppet theatre), especially in the local context.
