Wade Giles Romanization

Although this is not something related to marionette theatre, it is a useful tool for reading papers and articles, particularly those that had been written for some time. This is a useful table for those who might be confused especially when reading the works of early Western sinologists because of the very different romanization of Chinese characters. However, I am not sure if this table includes all the possible romanization because I discovered that it did not include:

Pinyin        Wade-Giles

u                     uh

Will add on if there are more discoveries. Feel free to comment so I can add on too.

Table source: http://www.sacu.org/roman.html

木偶戏与文化遗产

曾听过一些老前辈回忆儿时看木偶戏的乐趣，但我从来没有机会同这些小玩意儿接触过，直到有一次在乘坐巴士时，偶然看到附近有人在做布袋戏，从而激发了我对木偶的兴趣。

在早期的新加坡，孩子们对看木偶戏总是兴致勃勃，但母亲们总是把他们拉到一旁，总是不准他们去看戏，让天真无邪的孩子完全摸不着脑袋。其实，木偶戏尤其是提线木偶与宗教是息息相关的，在早期的新加坡或是中国有上演木偶戏的农村地区，孩子和孕妇是不可以观看木偶戏的。但随着时代的变迁，人们的想法有所改变，这些禁忌也渐渐在本地销声匿迹。

近来由于人们对文化遗产的逐渐重视，聚焦灯再度投射到木偶戏，听木偶师说不少学生为了做作业都访问过他们，我本身也亲眼目睹学生目不转睛地望着木偶师摆动着木偶的四肢，另一名学生一动也不动地手提录像机，忙着录影。

木偶戏当中的宗教仪式相当复杂，还需要更多人去研究探讨，尤其是本地的木偶戏和宗教仪式，提着录相机、摄像机的你，准备好了吗？

Preserving our Chinese Marionette Theatre Heritage

In the old days, the Marionette Theatre was there at various events, from temple celebrations to the celebration of a child "going into the garden" as literally translated from the Teochew tradition.

Today, the Marionette Theatre is mainly for the Gods. The kids of yesteryear loved it when the Marionette Theatre "came to town" (or to the kampong - village - as the case might be). Today, there are too many distractions. There's no grandma or grandpa to help explain the stories from the Marionette Theatre, which could be in Hokkien (Minnan) or HengHwa (MinDong). There are the TVs, PCs and the Internet.

But most important, it is still for the Gods. The performance of the Marionette is intricate and has many aspects, some of which are related to the religious rituals.

Today, we hope to create more awareness and in the process, better appreciation of the Marionette Theatre. And through, preserving what is left of the Marionette Theatre scene in Singapore.