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!