March 19, 2006

At Thien Hock Keng Temple


It was still early after dinner at Chinatown. I had bought ticket for the China Quyi Concert at the Singapore Conference Hall. The show would only start at 8pm. I remembered Miko’s Troupe had a performance at Thien Hock Keng Temple at Telok Ayer Street which is quite near. I decided to go have a look.


This temple, also known as Temple of Heavenly Happiness, is the oldest and most important Hokkien Temple in Singapore. Hee..hee.. not that I know a lot about temples. I read it in a friend’s blog. If you are interested, click here: http://chinesetemples.blogspot.com/

I reached the temple after seven. A young man was talking to an audience in the temple courtyard. Show started already, I thought. I sat down and looked around. Those sitting at the front were mostly tourists while the locals were behind. The young man looked a bit familiar. He was telling the audience about the history of Nanyin and Liyuanxi. He also mentioned about the Goddess of Mercy Festival.

Then three pretty young ladies and a handsome lad dressed in Tang costumes appeared. Each of them was holding a different musical instrument and they gave a demonstration of Nanyin. I find the scene has a sort of ancient oriental charm and beauty. You can imagine yourself transported back in ancient time to the imperial court of the Tang Dynasty.

I realized that this was a talk-cum-demonstration show mainly for tourists. I asked a man selling vcds at a table. He confirmed what I thought. He said the actual show would start at about eight.

Next, a handsome young man dressed as a scholar (a sheng) demonstrated some movements and expressions of emotions as well as how to use the sleeves.

Finally some tourists were invited to put on a piece of costume and to follow the movements of the sheng.

I left after 7.30. Hope I will be able to see the artistes perform in Tang costumes or in Qipao another time.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I might not really appreciate Hokkien opera but I do like to listen to Nanyin though the music sounds melancholic.
Mimi

Miko said...

Hey~~ Never say HI to me!

Anyway, Sad that you didnt stay for the actual show but never mind~ You can still see the video clip I took that day.

The handsome young sheng you saw was Uncle Lim. I wanted to go out and watch the demo.. maybe can learn something but I was too busy in the changing room.

fr said...

ya... miss Uncle Lim's touching song and Liying's nice solo piece...

I think Uncle Lim has the scholar look.
He doesn't look like uncle leh.

Miko said...

Hahah.. actually he is not that old but approaching 40 I think. the girl in your photo playing Pipa kept calling her Uncle Lim for fun and soon everyone started calling him uncle Lim. We still address him as Lin Lao Shi during lessons.. Respect. Only during casual times then we call him Uncle Lim.

A.C. said...

Approaching 40? I thought he IS 40 this year? Hee...