Chinese Temple Performance

It’s the 14th day of the 6th lunar month, and like the previous three years, we were scheduled to perform in front of a Chinese temple in Jalan Bahar in conjunction with the birthday celebration of the temple’s main God. Unlike last year where we had to act as the eight immortals, this year we were only doing minor acts to link up the different performances that were to be presented at the temple’s altar together with our Konghuay's own dance troupe. This is their debut appearance in this temple's annual celebration.

The weather wasn’t too good as it was drizzling slightly when we arrived by chartered bus. Well it was kind of good for us from another angle, as it meant that we do not have to follow the rest in the procession around the neighbourhood. I’ve done that before, and it wasn’t a good experience, especially under the hot sun and we were all in thick costumes and makeup. Anyway, another advantage of not following the crowd is that we could make use of that period of time to have our final rehearsal on the actual performance ground. Rehearsing back in our headquarters is never the same as rehearsing in front of the altar because the dimension and direction sense of both venues are completely different!

Not long after we finished our rehearsals, the procession crowd returned. This was followed by a religious ritual of welcoming the Gods back into the temple. The various Gods of the temple (represented by their various statues), who had paraded around the neighbourhood in holy lifts during the procession, were to be carried back in the same manner into the temple. During the process of doing so, the lifts would rock a lot. According to Taoist beliefs, this is actually the works of the Gods, and not deliberate acts done by the lift bearers. I was quite used to seeing this as I was practically involved (in a way or another) in the performances for the past 3 years. This year, however, the situation is slightly different: the lifts were rocking rather violently, and from what I could see, some of the lift bearers were actually being possessed. This was the first time Amai took part in such shows and she was shocked by what she had seen. Even Juan (XJ), who had been performing in front of the altar for all previous years, was scared stiff when the lift bearers for one of the holy lifts actually fell to the ground near her. Fortunately everything went on smoothly and nobody was hurt.

After the rituals came to an end, the actual performance kicked off. I was in charged of giving cues to the sound engineers on the music playback and microphone control. It was quite a mess for me, as I have to co-ordinate eight microphones and 5 CDs, and there were only 2 CD racks. Luckily there was no hiccup during the show, except some of our members had slipped a bit during the performance as the floor was full of water and flower petals that were thrown during the praying session after the ritual to welcome back the God. One thing I wasn't happy about, was that halfway through the performance, the emcee of the temple actually made an announcement of a Getai being held at the open field a stone's throw away from the temple. And it wasn't just once, but twice, and they did the same thing last year too, to ask the vehicle owner of a certain car to shift. How rude and disrepectful to their Gods can they be!

We left the temple at around eight o’clock and headed back to our headquarters. Tonight’s performance might have been a very minor one, but it was hectic nevertheless as we had to stand for a long time in a stuffy and crowded environment. However hectic, we were still full of nonsense after we got back to our “home”, as you can see from these clips below!

Juan (XJ) still fluttering around when everyone had started removing their makeup.

Amai complaining about using real hair as compared to wigs in performances.

Amai and Juan making fun of Art (WMY) about her spiky hair; parody of Zhuang Jinmei's "Love Triangle" melody.

Juan still fluttering around with her wig half-falling off.