Opera @ Hougang

A friend called to inform me of opera performances at Hougang Ave 5. I went down on the last day to watch. Arriving at the scene I remembered I came here about 2 years ago. At that time my impression was that the place was very small. This time it looked even smaller because some area next to it was fenced off for upgrading work.

 The shows ...

The lead artistes 任丹楓,紫令秋 ...

That afternoon the audience was quite small, about 50 ...

The show ended quite early as it was a shortened version. Another thing - there was no yang qin player in the orchestra.

Altinbas melons

About two weeks ago I saw these Altinbas melons which are from Turkey at a FairPrice store. The price was more than $9 then. About two days later, it was $7.50 and after another day or two they were on special offer at $6.95 each. So I bought one.

It is not very big, good enough for two persons. The seeds are yellowish and the flesh is pale green. It is sweet, but I think it is not good value for your money.

Prima Laksa

If you like laksa, I think you would like this :

Cook according to the instructions given. I used thick bee hoon, big prawns, fish cake slices, cockles and bean sprouts.

錦江詩侶 之 傷別

新馬南遊團

Have you heard of this opera troupe? It sounds more like a tour group.


The troupe performed in Singapore in the 60s. Prices of tickets were from $1 to $6. Notice that at that time telephone numbers had only 5 digits.

This troupe performed at Happy World (later changed to Gay World) in the 60s. The sheng was 邵振環. The dan was 陳美玲.

馬林百列廣東戲曲團十周年紀念

on 1 June 2013 at Marine Parade Community Club Theatre

粵韻心聲十載情

Waiting for the guests ...

Guest of Honour, Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, and his wife arrive ...

Taking photo with members of the Marine Parade Community Club Cantonese Opera Troupe ...

Taking photo with the orchestra ...

A light moment - ESM Goh and Wong Fei ...

Wong Fei, Leader of the MPCCCOT, with Gary Kong ...

Curtain call ...

Another photo with guests and GOH ...

司徒海嫦戲曲人生

on 25 May 2013 at The Drama Centre

전에 처럼

This is Korean, meaning "just like before" or, in Chinese, 就像以前一樣. 
I get these from an online Translator.

There is a Korean Restaurant by this name at Kreta Ayer Road, just across the road opposite Kreta Ayer People's Theatre. After attending the shows at KAPT I would usually wait for a bus at the bus stop which is in front of the Restaurant. Several times at night I observed staff from the restaurant going outside to smoke and after smoking they just threw the butts onto the floor before going inside. They spoke in a foreign language. I think it is Korean.

This was taken last Saturday night. No one was outside but the floor was littered with many butts.

戎馬金戈萬里情 – 文劍飛, 陳銘英

Phlegm

When you are travelling in a bus and suddenly you cough up some phlegm in your mouth, what would you do?  Would you swallow it? 

That was what happened to me. I did not have tissue paper and I didn't want to use my handkerchief. So I held it in my mouth until I alighted at my destination. Then I disposed of the phlegm at a grass patch nearby. 

By the way, phlegm is the thick slimy substance produced in your throat especially when you have a cold. So what do you think a phlegmatic man means?

Well, it is not a man who often has phlegm. Phlegmatic means calm and not easily excited or worried.

Chinese Opera Tea-house

I discover that I wrote a post about Chinese Theatre Circle's Chinese Opera Tea-house (Smith Street) more than 12 years ago. I reproduce the whole post below. If you are a regular visitor to the Tea-house, you may notice changes during these long years.

This was written in November 2000 .......

On Saturday afternoon the charge is $5 per head and tea is served. You can also order other drinks, including beer. The tea comes in a porcelain pot and small porcelain cups. For a complete set which includes tea, tim-sum and a dessert, the cost is $12.80.

The hall is rectangular. Though small, it is aesthetic and cheery. There are 2 TV sets in front and one at the back. (Singing is the karaoke-type and is free.) The walls are decorated with opera costumes and masks and Chinese calligraphies. There is a large wooden model of a type of Chinese sailing-boat at the front where the singer's platform is and there are two smaller ones at the back above the entrance. There is even a model of a roadside opera stage!

You can sing solo, with your partner or request your CTC idol to sing with you if the artiste is there. If you can't sing or don't feel like singing you can just sip your tea, watch and listen to the others.

That afternoon the regulars, a group of elderly ladies and a few men, were there. CTC's regular artistes are Hoi Siong, Frances Wong, Loh Siew Ling and Chan Kwai Lin.

There is a girl from Zhejiang. Her name is Dawn. She mans the SISTIC counter and helps to serve customers.

Preservation of Chinese opera

The scanned article below is from Lian He Zao Bao's edition on 1 April 2013. It is about Mr Ferdinand de Bakker, a founder of Preservation of Chinese Opera (PCO). The PCO is an initiative to preserve the culture and heritage of Chinese opera in Singapore and to bring it to the next generation. Mr Ferdinand is from Holland and his wife is a Singaporean.

Preserving Chinese opera is a formidable task. In Singapore, there are three main opera dialect groups (Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese) and a few other smaller groups (Peking opera, Yue opera and Hainanese opera). Preserving these Chinese operas means not only you need to promote them but also to ensure there are young people passionate enough to want to learn to perform. And learning to be a competent performer is a long dedicated process which requires commitment and perseverance.

I believe the various opera groups and organizations have all along been promoting Chinese opera and trying to attract young people to their shows and activities, and their leaders have been passing on their skills and passion to the younger ones who wish to learn.

梁兆明

Someone wondered in FB/Cantonese opera if Leong Siu Meng (梁兆明) would be performing in Singapore. I was wondering if Siu Meng is on FB, so I looked for 梁兆明. There are a few people with this name but they are not the one I was looking for.

Later I found him under the name Siuming Leung ...

There isn't much news at his FB page. Does anyone know if Siu Ming will be performing in Singapore?



周瑜归天 - 梁兆明, 黃燕

mirror view

I was driving along a road. I looked at the rear view mirror. There was a van behind me. There was a message on its front. As I had to concentrate on the road I did not have enough time to make out what the message was. One of the words I could make out was 'God'. So I guess it was something from the Bible.

When you look at a mirror, the words are laterally inverted. It is not the same as just reversing the letters. For example if you reversed the letters in 'cantonese opera', it would look like this ... arepo esenotnac .

However, if you look at its image in a plain mirror, it would be like this:

This is called lateral inversion.

I remember studying about lateral inversion when I was in lower secondary. I found it quite fascinating.

Now, look at this photo. Where is the mole? It is on his left cheek. But if this photo was the image in a mirror, then the mole is actually on his right cheek.

Another one ... I love YAM? Again if this photo was taken off a mirror, then it is I love MAY.

When does a right-handed man become a left-handed man? 
When you look at him in a mirror using his hand to write.

shopping

There are two aspects to shopping. One is go shopping knowing exactly what things you want to buy (for example a Samsung WF-30023G front-load washer) or shopping for things that you need regularly (sugar for example). The other aspect is to go shopping trying to choose what you think best suit your need, a dress for example.

You know, I dislike doing the second aspect of shopping.

I have been thinking of replacing my old compact camera which is not working well. I am thinking of one with a higher zoom. Then I saw an advertisement of an Olympus with a 24x zoom. Later I came across other cameras like Nikon, Fuji, Canon, Samsung and Casio which also have high zooms. Some looks quite bulky. I guess each one has its own good points.

For me, more choices means spending more time trying to pick a camera. So I think the simplest thing to do is to go to a shop, look at a few cameras with a high zoom and see which one appears to me in terms of look and price.

Anyone got any suggestion or recommendation?

粵韻傳情 行善积德

It was a two-night cantonese opera performance to raise fund for the Singapore Buddhist Free Clinic. The performers were from the Guangdong Cantonese Opera First Troupe with over 60 members (including musicians, make-up and dressing artistes and other backstage helpers).
There were also guest artistes Ngai Wai Ying, Lai Chun Sing and Soh Choon Mui.

I watched only the show on the first night. I have not seen Soh Choon Mui for a long time. She performed an excerpt with Lum Kar Boh. I had no chance to take photos, so I just show you some pages from the souvenir magazine.

The programmes

The leader of the orchestra

The performers

Two of the excerpts

The compere (right) is a programme presenter at a China television station. The other artiste is Jeong Mun Tuin.

宋洪波, 高麗 (新加坡 万山福德祠土地诞演出)

宋洪波

高麗

multi-racial 六國大封相

Street opera at Whampoa

六國大封相

The third character from the left is an Indian. The characters here do not have to say anything; they also do not have much to do.

The Indian and the Malay man in blue also performed the acrobatic parts. They had to do somersaults and lead the 'horses'.

The lead Sheng and Dan 譚穎論, 紫伶秋

words can heal

When I was in Pre-U, once I asked my Maths teacher how I fared in the Applied Maths paper in the exams. He said ' Don't worry. You have done well '. These were reassuring words; they put me at ease. 

Years ago I got some rashes on my body and I went to see the doctor. After some examination and questions, he said, 'Not to worry. Nothing serious.'. Again, just a few words but they were comforting. I could almost feel the healing has started.

However, words can also hurt us whether the person saying them is intentional or not. We cannot control what people say. We also cannot control our emotions but I believe we can learn to manage our emotions so as to let the good ones flourish and the bad ones dissipate.

开心小故事之粤剧花旦

commendable act

One morning a few days ago I took a lift in my block to go down. As I entered the lift I saw a piece of tissue paper at one corner on the floor. Then the door closed and the lift started to go down.

It stopped at a lower floor. The door opened and an elderly man who runs a stall at the wet market downstairs pushed in a trolley stacked with some goods. I greeted him happy new year and he returned the greeting.

He saw the tissue paper and did something I didn't expect him to. He picked up the tissue and placed it on top of one of the boxes on his trolley as if it was the natural thing to do.

I wanted to say something to show appreciation of his thoughtful act. Before I could think of what to say during that few seconds, the lift reached ground level and we went out.

大地回春

The artistes in the pictures in the video are Singapore Cantonese opera performers. 
There are 34 of them.

Miscellaneous 2

Which of these two statements sound stronger to you?
' I think he is innocent.' or 'I believe he is innocent.'
For myself believe is stronger than think because 'believe' is based on faith rather than on reasons; just like you believe in God.   


I think your feelings towards Chinese New Year are not the same when you were 10 years old, 30 years, 50 years or later when you are 70, assuming you are 50 something now. This is because we look at things in different ways as we mature.


We should not be too easily upset or annoyed by inconvenience and discomfort. When I was a child there were floods in my area during heavy rains. I remember we also had water rationing during droughts though it was rare. My parents and neighbours took these as part and parcel of life, sometimes cursing the bad or dry weather. As a child I didn't mind the floods and not bathing for a day was no big deal. 

In our daily life we may face inconvenience and discomfort, like having to walk a long distance to a bus-stop or the air con in our office is out of order. Learning to accept that such things do occur will make our life more pleasant. We should not let them make us unhappy or affect our job. 

Miscellaneous

Several years ago I bought an LG DVD player. It was the first time I bought an LG product. There were glitches a few weeks after using it, not serious ones but recurring ones which were annoying. Because of this experience, I have no intention of buying other LG products. Perhaps this is discrimination. Maybe I will reconsider if friends or visitors to this blog tell me they have used LG products and highly recommend them. Anyone of you?

I feel that many things that we like or dislike, for example an opera video on Youtube, are also favouritism and discrimination. Sometimes there are no good reasons for it.


I believe the mother of the two kids who were killed in the traffic accident also blames herself for allowing the older kid to go and fetch the younger kid on a bicycle. Imagine two young kids on a bicycle on a busy road. I think they were too young to be aware of the danger and young kids can be playful. They could easily lose their balance and fall.