Upcoming marionette performances

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-Marionette performance (Hokkien) at Geylang Lor 33 for the whole of the seventh lunar month. 
-Sin Hoe Ping performance (Henghwa) on 25 & 26 Aug @ 280A Changi Road temple.
-There may be some events going on at Kiew Lee Tong 九鲤洞 (Jalan Tambur), to be confirmed. 

Tradition VS Puppet performance

This month (Gregorian month from 10 August to 7 September) is a traditional Chinese Festival known as the Lunar Seventh Month (aka Hungry Ghosts Festivals or in Chinese, better known as 鬼节). On the 14th (Southern Chinese belief) or 15th day of the Seventh Month, this day is known as Zhongyuan Jie 中元节 by the Taoists or Yulanpen Jie 盂兰盆节 (Ullambana) by the Buddhists. As had been reported earlier, the Teochew rod puppet performance had already begun since the first day of the Seventh Month, so be sure to expect more performances (Hokkien and Henghua marionette) for the whole of this month! Stay tuned for more updates... 



Source: http://pic.pimg.tw/miqlin66/1188071878.jpg

Teochew Rod Puppet performance at Chee Chung Huay

Chinatownboy informed me that there would be a Teochew Rod puppet performance at Chee Chung Huay on 10 August (first day of the Seventh Lunar month). As I have never seen one in real life, I decided to have a look.

The performance by Sin Sai Bao Feng troupe (新赛宝丰班):

A closeup of the rod puppets (dan and sheng):  

Notice that the puppeteers manipulating the puppets were not singing. Like some of the glove puppet performances that I had seen, 'voices' of the puppets are created by other performers backstage. This is different from the string puppet performances that we have seen so far.

A glimpse on the backstage (an ensemble of performers and musicians is less seen in street performances):

  

                                                        A video clip of the performance (note the fast rhythmic beatat 00:00:30 and see comment below):