Global IssuesCULTURE-SINGAPORE: Ghost Festival Far From Dying
Like a seasoned star, Ting Ting pranced around on the stage in an energetic dance routine as she delivered a pitch-perfect rendition of a high-tempo Chinese ballad. Enthralled, the 500- strong crowd surged forward, eager to catch a closer look at the svelte 25-year-old artiste, dressed in a bright pink top — and a skirt that ends too many inches above her knees.
At one point, a man seated near the stage cheekily asks for the singer to reveal more skin. Without missing a beat, Ting Ting, who only started performing five months ago, glibly teased: 'Sure, I could show you. But you can only see and cannot touch, so what’s the point of looking?'
This scene is replicated in venues across Singapore, as entertainers like Ting Ting perform in front of thousands each night at mini-concerts, or ‘getai’ (Mandarin for song stage), held from Aug. 10 to Sep. 7 to celebrate the Chinese Hungry Ghost festival.
According to traditional Chinese culture, the fifteenth night of the seventh month in the lunar calendar, which falls on Aug. 24 this year, is when ghosts and spirits, including deceased relatives, are allowed to revisit our realm from the netherworld.
'I’ve performed in many countries, and I find that Singapore has one of the most dynamic ‘getai’ scenes in the world,' says Zhen Ni, a singer-presenter who has worked at such events for seven years.
'The ‘getai’ can be found in Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, anywhere there are Chinese people. But these are normally held on just the actual day of the festival, unlike in Singapore, where performances are seen throughout the seventh lunar month,' she adds.
The popularity of the ‘getai’ in Singapore during the Hungry Ghost festival, sources say, has been boosted by the ‘881’ movie, a musical comedy by local film director Royston Tan in 2007 about two sisters who strive to be immortalised in ‘getai’ glory.
In 2009, an online poll inviting viewers to vote for their favourite artistes in videos of ‘getai’ performances hosted on STOMP, the Singapore Press Holdings’ social networking website, received close to one million entries in just four months.
But the ‘getai’ has no lack of critics, who berate its sleazy performances, garish costumes and lewd jokes in Hokkien, a southern Chinese dialect commonly spoken by the predominantly Chinese population that makes up some 75 percent of Singapore’s 5 million people.
In neighbouring Malaysia, an association that heads 228 committees that organise the Hungry Ghost festival in the island-state of Penang, some 290 kilometres west of capital Kuala Lumpur, said on Aug. 17 that they have banned suggestive dance routines by scantily clad girls at ‘getai’ performances.
'It’s vulgar,' says Calleigh Tan, a 26-year-old public relations executive. 'The worst part is that the girls have to wear skimpy outfits, and have no choice but to endure and at times even respond to the inappropriate remarks and lustful stares of leering men in the audience.'
But, as they say in this industry, the show must go on.
While tastes and opinions about performances might differ, Zhen Ni says the ‘getai’ is 'not just about trying to attract a crowd.'
'Organisers are usually business associations, temples, and industrial organisations, who attach great importance to the seventh month as a mark of respect to the deceased, including ancestors,' Zhen Ni explains. 'They believe that it is because of the help of these ‘good brothers’ (spirits, as referred to by Chinese here) that everything is smooth and successful.'
Mike See, an industry insider, says the cost of organising one evening’s ‘getai’ can cost anything from between 3,000 Singapore dollars (2,200 U.S. dollars) for the smallest scale events to more than 7,400 U.S dollars for bigger productions.
And organisers often do not gain anything in return. Most ‘getai’ events are held in neighbourhood estates and open to the public without admission charges. Some private ‘getai’ functions, however, take the form of more formal sit-down dinners, with visitors having to reserve and pay for seats.
See notes a changing trend in Hungry Ghost festival celebrations, given the dwindling popularity of Chinese opera and puppet-show performances in contrast with the rise of the more up-to-date entertainment featured at ‘getai’ events.
But the fact that Chinese opera is now considered 'outdated', See explains, does not necessarily reflect a loss of cultural identity among Chinese in Singapore.
'What is the main reason behind the ‘getai’? Why are we celebrating the Hungry Ghost festival?' See asks. The form of the entertainment might have moved along with the times, 'but the essence of Chinese culture itself hasn’t changed,' he says.
If fact, the wide appeal of the ‘getai’ might even help to bring some culture back into the lives of young Singaporeans so enamoured with modernity and western influences that many have forgotten — even shunned — their cultural roots. For some students here, it is even considered 'cool' to be completely inept in Mandarin and other Chinese dialects.
'Before, when you looked down from the stage, you used to see all ‘Ah Gong, Ah Ma’ (Hokkien for grandparents), but now we see much younger people in the crowd,' says Zhen Ni. 'Some of these younger fans have even started pages on Facebook for us, posting photographs and videos of our ‘getai’ performances.'
© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service