Insensitive Remarks

On Saturday night, our troupe's musicians were busy rehearsing for our performance in Johore Bahru next month, together with some musicians from Boon Lay Community Centre's Chinese Orchestra. This is unlike our other previous performances, because other than presenting Hokkien opera and Chinese dance, we also have "Nanyin" songs and music in our repertoire as well.

"Nanyin" is an ancient form of music still popular in Quanzhou regions of Fujian Province. Most songs are usually rather slow-paced, and if singing is required, the singer will be singing in Quanzhou dialect, which may not be easily understandable even by the mainstream Hokkien audience. Among our musicians, only one or two have a bit of experience in playing Nanyin music, so the rehearsal wasn’t progressing quite well, and at times the music sounded weird. All of a sudden, one of our troupe members, who was sitting together with some other members at a corner of the room, commented that the music reminded her of “void deck party” (typical Chinese funeral gatherings). Although she was merely joking, and everyone by the table was laughing away at her comments, I found it very offensive and rude. No doubt the music was not up to standard, but to compare it to funeral music is something I find quite unacceptable.

I was reminded of an incident which took place in China about a year ago whereby a group of “Hanfu” fanatics wore Hanfu and walked in public in Wang Fu Jing. “Hanfu” is the traditional clothing system for the ethnic Chinese which dated back over a thousand years, but died during the rise of the Qing dynasty. “Hanfu” is also considered the predecessor of the Japanese kimono and the Korean traditional costumes. This group of “Hanfu” fanatics were spotted by a reporter, and one of the ladies in the group was being captured by camera and published under the caption “Net friends touring Wang Fu Jing in traditional ’Hanfu’ costumes in an attempt to create ethnic awareness of traditional Chinese costumes”. Many other online news portals started to mirror this picture and news as well, but one particular news portal had the whole story twisted. In their news portal, they had the same picture, but the caption was “Youths touring Wang Fu Jing in traditional ’Shouyi’ costumes in an attempt to revive the ancient Chinese funeral system”. After this twisted news was published, the lady in the photograph was so emotionally stressed that she dared not wear her favourite Hanfu again, as “Shouyi” is actually a kind of clothing meant to be worn by the dead for funeral. It wasn’t until her supportive net friends persuaded her to take legal action against the culprits that she was back to her self.

In short, it seemed like a small issue, but the consequence is big. One may think it is funny, or perhaps one really find a bit of resemblance to that meant for the dead, but it would be nice if they just keep the remarks to themselves. After all, if they were the ones to be made references to, I don’t think they’ll like it either!

Uniquely Singapore: One Wedding, One Funeral and One Religious Dinner Function

As I was returning home from rehearsals at the Konghuay, I realised an interesting sight at the void deck of my flat.

On the grass field just behind my flat, there's a religious dinner function going on held by my neighbourhood's Hungry Ghost Festival committee to mark the dissolving of the committee. Usually such religous dinner functions has got auctions held concurrently at the venue of the dinner, but since there'll be no more such functions from next year onwards, no auctions were held this time. Instead it was replaced by karaoke singing. But while people are singing away at the stage, a funeral ritual is going on at the void deck left of my flat. The deceased will be sent off tomorrow, and hence the priests were invited to chant and pray at the wake. But that's not all! On the right void deck of the flat is another function going on; a Malay wedding! However the wedding is only taking place tomorrow, but the families involved were still busy preparing for the big day, while some Malay music was playing in the background through their PA system.

The neighbourhood I lived in used to be a very quiet place, other than the sound of engines and horns from vehicles on a nearby expressway, but today it become so unusually noisy. A din it may be, but it is perfectly understandable. It is interesting to find 3 entirely different religous and cultural events can actually take place in the same place and almost at the same time. I think this is something rather unique, even in Singapore!

One Night At the Teochew Opera (part II)

Sun Di was supposed to bring me to the Chinese opera accessories shop but unfortunately the boss had closed shop early. Hence we decided to meet up with Ling Jie for dinner first at Lok Fu, north Kowloon. Our dinner was at this Chinese fast food restaurant, and the food was delicious. The concept of a Chinese fast food restaurant was new to me, as I don’t remember seeing this in Singapore (if you do not include food courts and kopi tiam). But whether such an idea can take off in Singapore is yet to be known.

After dinner, we took a bus ride to Sha Tin where there was another Teochew opera performance going on. I was surprised by how similar Hong Kong buses are to our Singaporean ones. The doors, the driver’s seat, the stairway leading to the upper deck, the passengers’ seats and the holding rails are almost identical to the ones we have in our local buses. They even have public TV on the buses, and passengers pay their bus fares by tapping their Octopus card onto the fare deduction machine just like we do, except that they don’t have to do the same when alighting as the fare is the same regardless of how far you travel.

Tonight’s show was performed by a troupe from Chaozhou City, though the banner of the stage stated “Hong Kong Xin Han Jiang”. The show was much better compared to last night’s show. The actors gave a better performance, and what I like most was the percussions. It was strong, but not noisy. It managed to create good atmosphere at certain scenes, like in the fighting scene whereby the princess of the Ani tribe got attracted to the good looks of the Chinese general, the percussionists used a mixture of strong and weak beats to bring out the love at first time of the princess. (Big drums are usually not used in such scenes in other shows) However one funny thing I noticed was that there were 2 very distinctively different styles of dressing on stage; one was the typical Teochew opera style from China whereby actors used softer shades of red for makeup and wore costumes with Teochew embrodieries, and the either was the Hong Kong style which is similar to that of Cantonese opera whereby actors used stronger red and white contrast for makeup and wore costumes decorated with shiny sequins. It looked rather awkward, as if the show was put up by a combined troupe of Mainland and Hong Kong actors.

The show was very captivating, but I had to leave at 11.30pm as it was getting late (the show would not end before 1am). Sun Di lives near the airport, so he sent me back to my hotel first before catching another bus back home, while Ling Jie went home on her own as it wasn’t in the same area. Both Sun Di and I were so hyperactive at the opera, but once we left the show, we became lethargic. How typical Chinese opera fanatics we were! Tomorrow I will be leaving for home, and my Chinese opera experience in Hong Kong will definitely be something I can never forget, and also something which I will look forward to in future!

Post published on 27 August

One Night At the Teochew Opera (part I)

My Hong Kong internet friend, Sun Di, had arranged to meet me after my training today to visit a shop selling Chinese opera accessories. However, he had a change of plan and instead he brought me to watch a Chinese opera performance in Shek Kip Mei. Shek Kip Mei is a district north of Tsim Sha Tsui and just 5 MTR stations away. My friend told me that in previous years, the Chinese opera crowd was large, but the number dropped over the years as local residents moved away due to redevelopment of the area.

The moment we walked out of the MTR station, I could see bright lights from a distance, as well as a tall and colourful bamboo-and-paper structure, typical setups for Yu Lan Festival celebrations (in Singapore this festival is known as Hungry Ghost Festival). The opera troupe performing today is Yun Xiao Teochew Opera Troupe from Yunxiao district of Zhangzhou, Fujian province. I was pleasantly surprised as I had long wanted to watch their performance although I have only heard of them in the past. Little did I expect that I would be able to see them perform live in Hong Kong.

Sun Di was very familiar with the troupe and I had the chance to visit the backstage with him. Once on stage I had this sense of familiarity almost immediately, as every member of the troupe converse with one another in southern Min dialect (Hokkien), instead of Teochew or Cantonese. The people in the troupe were quite friendly, and some of them even asked me about my background. Their show, however, was far from my expectation. First, quite a number of the actors still have that Zhangzhou accent when they were on stage, which sounded very weird. I don’t know if I was watching Teochew opera or Xiang opera (Hokkien Gezi opera popular in Zhangzhou)! Also, some actors kept forgetting their lines on stage and it was very obvious. There was also a scene whereby 3 actors had to hold hands in a line and weave in and out among themselves. However they did a wrong move and ended up entangled. It just looked ugly, and simply not what a professional troupe should be. According to my friend, the troupe had split up into 2 small groups to perform in 2 areas simultaneously. Perhaps that’s why the mess as these actors could be new to this show. Nevertheless I did not finish watching the show as it was just not good, and hence left with Sun Di for supper, together with another Internet Teochew opera friend Ling Jie who happened to be there as well.

I hope this is not the usual standard of this troupe, as from what I know, they are rather well known back in Zhangzhou. I wish I can have more chance to catch their other performances, and hopefully they will not be as disappointing as today’s show

Post published on 27 August

Day 2 in Hong Kong: Training Starts

My training was to commence at 9 in the morning, but I woke up at 6 o'clock anyway. I realised that I was only given the room but not free breakfast vouchers, but I decided to dine in the hotel's restaurant anyway, and try to claim from my company. It is more convenient to dine there, as it's in the same building, and just 1 level above the company which I was supposed to have my training in!

Almost 3 quarter of Asia was present at the training as I get to meet representatives from India, Thailand, Taiwan, Shanghai, South Korea and Malaysia. Most of them are already experts in this field, or at least had got a few years of experience, leaving me being the freshest. I realised that the representative from Thailand was someone whom I saw at the airport yesterday (we arrived at the airport at about the same time), and he just live the next room to mine. It was such a coincidence! However he couldn’t speak much English and hence unable to interact much with the rest of the group. Hence I was the only one who is able to communicate with him, although my command of Thai is still relatively limited. Later I got to know that this is the first time he travel out of Thailand, and had joined his company for about a year. But in comparison he had much more experience as he had seen and repaired much equipment which I have yet even seen.

The training ended at about 6.30pm, almost 1 and half hours behind schedule. I quickly went back to my room get changed and left the hotel to explore Hong Kong. I used to have the impression that Hong Kong is a relatively small city comparable to Singapore, but after flipping the map and travel guides, I realised that Hong Kong is actually much bigger almost 1.5 times the size of Singapore. Hong Kong is also quite well developed. Like their train system, although it has been around for a much longer period of time compared to Singapore, it has better facilities like broadcast of the station’s name when the train pulls into one, as well as maps showing the rail layout as well as LED lights showing the train’s journey and the station it is heading next. However, the trains (except the Airport Express line) are very crowded throughout the night. Even at 10pm, it is hard to even find a place to sit. I wonder where these people are coming from and where they are going.

For the whole of the evening I was hopping around from one area to another as I had limited time. Though I did not buy anything, it was still interesting to mingle with the crowd and walking around the streets enjoying the colourful street lights.

Post published on 27 August

5-day Hong Kong Trip

I left Singapore this morning on a 10am flight to Hong Kong for a 5 day training course. I was looking forward to this occasion, as I like travelling. But unlike my previous overseas trip, my time is rather restricted as I only have the evenings to really travel around. Today happened to be a bad day for travelling, as it was raining since the moment I arrived at the airport and carried on throughout the night, though it did stop for a short while now and then. It really dampened my mood as I had to walk in the rain dragging my luggage along from Park Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui to Guangdong Hotel where I was supposed to stay. The night wasn't eventful as well, since the night markets are almost non-functional due to bad weather. Tough luck!

Post published on 27 August

Chinese Dinner Table Etiquette: Eat Your Food And Mind Your Own Business!

The 7th Lunar month is what Taoist Chinese call it the month of the Hungry Ghost Festival. Yesterday was the 14th night, and there was a celebration dinner function being held on the open space just below my flat in celebration of the. I do not like to attend such functions, because first of all, I find it awkward sharing the table with people who are much older than I am and had nothing in common to talk about. Secondly, I do not like the Chinese food culture in Singapore, where you are expected to eat and eat non-stop until either you’re bloated to death or the dish plate on the table is clean. However, since we had already been invited, I had to go, or else the food will be wasted (something which I don’t quite care!).

As usual, the dinner did not start till after half past eight, but we were already seated by seven thirty. “To get a good seat!” my mum explained. As if we were catching a free outdoor performance that’s free seating! So the dishes came and to the table one after another, and everyone was happily eating and listening to people singing karaoke on the stage at the centre of the function area. The food wasn’t too bad, but I did not eat much as I did not want to have a hard time sleeping, neither do I want to be perceived as a hungry ghost craving for food! However, I was irritated by people of my table asking me to eat. “Come, eat!” they’d say, although I had already shown my disinterest in eating any more. No doubt it was merely good intention, but why can’t they just leave other people alone and let them eat what they want to eat, or stop when they do not wish to eat? Actually I appreciate their intention, but I think the way they put it across sounded rude. They could have phrased it in a better manner, like “Do you want some more food?” or something, instead of just “Come, eat!” I almost wanted to retort back, but that would only put me in bad light and hence I didn’t.

Hungry Ghost Festival dinner functions used to be very enjoyable events which I loved to attend, but now I find them a drag to attend. Hopefully in future my parents will not ask me to attend any of these!

Project Superstar Finalist Lookalike -- Me? Bleah!

I received an SMS from a friend of mine, telling me that one of the semi-finalists looked like me. He even added that both he and I looked almost 90% alike, not in terms of looks but also the way we behave as well. In short, very "me"! I was surprised, so I quickly switched over to channel U to take a look for myself. I stared and stared, but none of the contestants looked like me at all. The closest match was Jason Tan, but I think we were only about 55% - 60% similar. I was rather amused by my friend's comment that I actually looked like him. "Yeah, if I look like him, then I can be a superstar also!" I replied.

Actually this isn't the first time I was compared to Jason Tan. About a month ago, someone from a local web portal dropped me a message saying that he'll always support me and wish me good luck in the contest. I was bewildered, but brushed it aside thinking that it could be just someone who had bad eyesight. And just last week, a colleague of mine asked me if Jason is in any way related to me, but I did not think much about it as I could not recall any faces which resembled me.

So for the whole of night, I was searching for information about Jason Tan and Project Superstar on the internet, but the more I look at him, I less resemblance I find between us, neither in terms of looks, behaviour or character. It was quite funny to think of how other people can find us similar when I looked even plainer than plain water and he’s obvious much better looking than me. But on the whole, I am relieved that I do not resemble him much, as I hate to live in the shadow of other people. I am still me, uniquely me in the entire universe!

End of Performance Season -- For Me

Today is the last Chinese opera performance I have for the time being till the end of the year. My friends in the troupe and I decided that after this show it's time for us to take a break and upgrade ourselves before our next chance to perform.

Looking back, this year is a rather uneventful year for me as I do not have much performing opportunities. Originally I was given 3 shows which I was supposed to play lead, but 1 was postponed indefinitely due to bad weather and the other 2 substituted by other shows on grounds that the organising committee could not provide enough microphones and that the show was too long. Sometimes I felt demoralised about my situation, as after being an active member for 7 years I still do not have the chance to take on more heavier roles. But there was little I could do for now, other to upgrade myself to prepare myself for next year, hopefully I can have better roles...

Liyuan Opera: "Mr. Dong And Miss Lee"

I was very excited when I got home today and saw a parcel left on my table. Just days ago I've placed an internet order for this Liyuan Opera DVD called "Dong Sheng Yu Li Shi" (translated as "Mr. Dong and Miss Lee" on the cover) and to my suprise it arrived very fast.

Liyuan opera of Fujian province is one of China's oldest form of Chinese opera, alongside with Puxian opera (also from Fujian province) and Kun opera (more popular in the north). Liyuan opera is well-known for having a set of unique body movements and hand gestures, as well as relatively well-preserved scripts dated from as far as Song dynasty. Quanzhou City Liyuan Opera Troupe, the troupe which performed this show in the DVD, is the only professional troupe performing this genre of opera left in China. This show is actually one of their old shows, but had given it a facelift last year and had been given rather good critics for it. Although I have seen Liyuan Opera shows before and liked them alot, this DVD is nothing like the previous shows I've watched. First, the scenograpghy is simply breathtaking. Designed and conceptualised by Xiamen's up and coming Huang Yongying, the stage looked simple and elegant. The lighting was vibrant and nicely done, giving the stage a very poetic and ancient feel. Not forgetting the new costumes and hair accessories made for this show, which gives the show a modern touch. Visual sensations aside, the story is equally captivating. This show is about a young and beautiful Miss Lee who became a widow after her old and fraile husband, Squire Peng, passed away. Before his death, Squire Peng asked his neighbour, middle-aged schoolteacher Mr. Dong, to spy on his wife for any signs of adultery and report to him at his grave once a month. As time went by, Mr. Dong and Miss Lee somehow got attracted to each other, and after much hesitation, they finally decided to be together, and admit their love for each other at Squire Peng's grave. The entire show is filled with wittiness, making it more fun to watch. From Mr. Dong being scolded as being a "ass following dog" to Miss Lee pretending to be engaged in sweet-talks with an imaginery "suitor" when she found out that Mr. Dong was eavesdoping by the wall, and to the climax of the show whereby Mr. Dong finally gathered all his might to scold back at Squire Peng's ghost at his grave, making Squire Peng's ghost retreat back to his grave crying and resign to fate that his wife was going to remarry. Although I had been a fan of Liyuan Opera, I never imagine that it could be so interesting and full of humour!

It is an eye-opener watching this show, and I am glad that I managed to own this DVD. I hope Quanzhou City Liyuan Opera Troupe can release more of their shows on DVD in future, so as to let more people have the chance to appreciate the finest in Chinese opera.

Wealthy Temple!

There's no rehearsal for today although it is a Saturday. Just four days ago, we had a performance at this temple off Jalan Bahar to mark the birthday celebration on the temple God, and today is the final day of the celebration, which ended with a dinner gala that we had to attend.

Usually for temple celebration dinners, there will always be an auctioning session as well, and whoever win any of these items on bid will be blessed with good fortune or wealth, or maybe both. This dinner gala is of no exception, but what took me by surprise was that the closing bid for the first three items (religious offerings) were over $10000. I have attended many of such dinners, but so far I have yet seen such high bids.

Throughout the night, many items on bid were closed with bidding amounts more than a few thousands, even though the market price of these items are usually less than a fraction of the amount. A troupe member remarked that perhaps in future we could turn to the temple for sponsorship; to them $10000 is almost like a small amount of money! That is something we could work out, I guess, but it will have to depend on whether the temple is willing to support Chinese opera, and also if my troupe leader is willing to approach the temple!

Religious Play @ Chinese Temple

Today is a very special occasion as our Chinese opera troupe had a performance at a temple in Jalan Bahar. What's special about today's performance is that it is religious in nature, meaning it was to be acted as part of a religious ceremony for the Gods. This was the time time we were tasked to do such shows, and the show we were told to act was "The Eight Immortals".

Initially it seemed easy to us, other than having to write the script and music from scratch, but after the temple representative vetted our rehearsal, we were told that we had to be very solemn throughout the performance. That was though, many of our members thought, as on the Chinese opera stage, the Eight Immortals were perceived as eight carefree immortals of different backgrounds, always merry and cheerful. Hence the moment we stepped into the temple compund, we kept all our smiles and playfulness. In fact after the show, one of our members commented that we were all very solemn and stern-faced during the performance! Well, we were just following the temple's instructions, and according to their Taoist beliefs.

Actually the temple is not wrong to demand us of that, because we were so-called the "ambassedors" of these Immortals, and it is our duty to portray them correctly. The temple representative gave an example of the God of Wealth, and how he has been badly portrayed by commercialism. The God of Wealth is supposed to be a high-ranking God in which Taoist believers pay respect to, but nowadays during Chinese New Years, we see clownish-looking actors dressing up as God of Wealth, going around in shopping centres and public places shaking hands with members of the public and giving out "blessings". "What will the younger generation think if all our Gods were portrayed like that? 'Oh! So the Taoist Gods are all like that, wouthout any awe!'" Sounds logical to me, but then that also means that in future if we were to take on temple shows again, we have to be extra careful with what we do; we have to look from the temple's perspective and not from our own artistic perspective.

Food Sadism

This is my third consecutive day dining out at this particular Thai restaurant in Golden Mile Complex, and I ordered the same dish as I did for the past two days: minced meat rice with basil leaves.

Yes you got it, I'm very into Thai food. However, I can't take spicy food. That is quite an irony since almost all Thai food stuffs (except for their sweet deeserts) have some chilli components in them, and they're rather spicy. I once ordered a bowl of wanton noodles forgetting to ask for no chilli, and ended up I have to mix the noodles with my whole can of soft drinks so as to reduce the spiciness but yet I still can't take it. That is how low my tolerance for chilli is!

So sometimes I was wondering: Am I being sadistic? Why am I eating Thai food "original" with all their chillies and then sweating and panting like mad after every mouthful of food? That's a puzzle which I still couldn't solve...

A Night At The Street Opera

It was one of the Chinese deity's birthday celebration and a two-months long Hokkien opera festival is being organised by this temple in Paya Lebar. I had promised my net friends in a particular Hokkien opera forum that I would take some pictures of the performances. Therefore after dinner, I packed my camera into my bag and cycled off to the temple.

There was a considerable crowd at the stage, so I thought this troupe performing tonight might have standard. But after watching for an hour, I was getting bored. The plot is moving at snail pace and I could not find any good angle or theme for me to take pictures. I got so bored that I decided to cycle across the road to another temple, hoping they have opera performance too. Thankfully there was, but it was Teochew opera. It was a pleasant change; the show wasn't draggy, and I was able to take quite a number of good pictures, though some were blurred as I did not adjust the focus settings correctly.

I am a Hokkien, and I like grew up watching Hokkien opera. But now, I am actually enjoying Teochew opera more than Hokkien opera! As a matter of fact, for the past 2 years, I haven't been able to sit through a night of Hokkien opera (less those by foreign Hokkien opera troupes), an opera genre which is spoken and sung by my all-so-familiar Hokkien dialect, but I am able to watch an entire Teochew opera from head to toe, even though Teochew dialect can be a bit hard to understand for me at times. Sometimes I felt as if I am a traitor for "betraying" Hokkien opera, especially since I myself is a Hokkien opera actor by hobby, but what can I do? What can I do when I have been left disappointed again and again by the opera which accompanied me through childhood days till now? Sometimes I'd like to imagine how nice it would be if Hokkien opera can have be more systematic like Teochew opera, but that would be impossible. So, I can only dream... dream on, dream on...

Kah Mee Optical Co

It was nice of my father to drive me to work as I forogt my wallet once again and had to get a taxi to work. On the journey, our motercycle went passed Tiong Bahru and I noticed this Kah Mee optical shop. I've been to Tiong Bahru for many times, but I never really notice this shop before and today it was the first time I knew where the actual location and how it looks like. Kah Mee optical shop is a popular optical shop in Singapore. However it was neither a big megastore nor a branded name by itself. In fact it is just a small neighbourhood shop in a old housing estate. But what makes Kah Mee popular was their TV commercial. "Is your vision blur and unclear? Tiong Bahru's Kah Mee Optical Co. is your only solution!" This slogan, together with the nolstalgic and oriental-sounding jingle, has never changed all these years, since the first time I saw their commercial when I was young. They have become such a familiar thing that once the music came up everybody knew what commercial it was. Even now, the music of their jingle is still ringing in my head...

Singapore Idiot

I was walking across the overhead bridge to take a bus to work and as I almost reached the other side of the bridge, I realised that I had forgot to take my wallet and hence had to turn back to head for home. On my way down the bridge, I saw this middle-aged man with a walking stick taking small steps down the flight of steps. Poor thing, I thought. I saw him walking towards my direction when I walked up the steps, and now that I've made an u-turn, he was still there. I wish I could help, but I couldn't since it was his weak legs which prevented him from walking faster. This made me remind of an incident which happened during the Chinese New Year period at Chinatown.

My parents and I were shopping at Chinatown and after sometimes, we decided to cross over to People's Park market. Hence we went up the sky garden and proceed to the stairs at People's Park Complex. For people who have been there, the stairs down the People's Park Complex isn't very wide, at most it can only accomodate two person walking side by side. At that moment there was this old lady with weak legs walking slowly down that flight of stairs. Behind was was a young couple walking hand in hand, side by side. There was a huge jam behind and they were oblivious to it. I think they must be siamese twins stuck together at their palms and maybe waists, or that tearing their hands apart will cause them excessive bleeding from all parts of their body and would make them die within seconds. Even if they can't bear to break up their clutches, I don't think it takes great intelligence to just bypass the old lady by not walking line-abreast for a few seconds? I was so fed up that I wish I could just scream at the couple, but since I was with my parents, I decided to restrain myself. Surprisingly, no one behind me made any noise either!

To that couple who might be reading this (I hope they did!), congratulations! You've been awarded the title of Singapore Idiot! I hope you two go and make a big name tag out of it and wear it wherever whenever, so that everybody will know how stupid you two are! Shame on you!

The "Death" of TV Talents In Singapore

Recently in conjunction with the NKF charity shows, there was this commercial running on TV. In this commercial, a customer in a restaurant was having his meal when he was interrupted by the conversation of 2 groups of people whom had won some prizes after SMSing to some numbers. I wonderhow the producers of this commercial got these "talents" from, because except for the customer, none of the other supporting cast can act! For instance, there's this guy who exclaimed that he had won $2888 worth of cash with his girlfriend's eyes wide with excitement. To me it seemed that they had never won anything in their life before because they were simply too fake. "Wow! I've won myself $2888 cash!" "Oh yeah! You must be either lying under your nose or your prize is only $2.80!", I thought. It was so unreal! And the next pair were even more fake. "Wow! I won myself a limited set of Farrari laptop!". "Yah you don't seemed too interested. Give it to me then!". For goodness sake, can someone find better talents than these? If we are going to keep recycling these bunch of bad actors, soon the TV talent pool in Singapore will just die a natural death.

Dignity and Old Age

My impression of an average eldery person is someone who is gracious and has an air of dignity around him or her. However such elderly people are hard to find.

Just this morning, I saw an old lady just snatching a seat away from a secondary school girl. This school girl was just placing her bag on the seat by the bus stop, and this old lady just came up next to the girl, sweep the surface of the seat with her hands and then just sat down, ignoring that school girl completely. I don't know what was on the mind of this old lady. Does she think she has the right of way to everything just because she is old? Such instances of ungracious eldery people are countless. Not forgetting "kiasu" eldery people who shove and push people aside while boarding the bus so as to get a good seat.

No wonder some people do not want to give up seats to these eldery people, because to me, they simply do not deserve this kind of good treatment!

Disgusting Bus Trip

It was raining cats and dogs during the evening peak hours, and as usual, roads were packed with vehicles and buses were packed with passengers. I boarded a bus at Bugis Junction and found myself a comfortable place to stand.

After a few bus stops, passengers from the rear started to alight and I had to move in to allow more passengers to board. And there in front of me was this big size guy sitting there listening to his earphone. He was in his twenties, maybe a few years younger than me. He did not caught my attention initially, but later I noticed that he kept scratching his head. But that is not all; after scratching his head, he'll examine his fingernails, smell them, and then put his fingers in his mouth! And the process went on and on throughout the journey. I felt totally disgusted, and if I had a frying pan with me then, I would sure knock him out cold! What was he thinking? He thought his head is a beehive and his scalp is oozing out honey? Or a chimpanzee looking for some tasty headlice? I can't imagine how can one do such a gross act while ignoring how other people may think and feel!

Thank god my ordeal only lasted for about 20 minutes before I reached my home and got off the bus.

Studio Recording at MediaCorps

Yesterday night I and my team mates from Chinese opera were at MediaCorps doing recording for one of the segments for the new season of "Top Fun" variety show. We were told to assemble at 6.30pm, but we reached there at around 5.30pm so that we could be better prepared. However we were later informed that the actual recording was at 8pm, leaving us with nothing but agony. Last year, I was in the audience during one of "Zong Yi Da Ge Da"'s studio recording sessions in Taipei, and there were so many NGs and retakes that it was no longer fun to be audience. We were at the TV station at 4pm, but could only enter the studio at 6pm, and by the time the recording for this 1-hour variety show was over, it was way past 10pm. This time round, it was much better as the recording took only 2 hours to complete. In this segment where contestants showed off their skills at impersonating pop stars, they had to also do an impromptu act of Chinese opera performance. Lifeng was the "model performer" and she was to sing and act a short selection of song backed up a 4 man orchestra, in which I was the main percussionist, and the contestants were supposed to sing together with the music after a few short rehearsals. Throughout our stay at the studio, nobody came to interact with us, but I guess it was normal for we are considered a bunch of "niche" people whom other people can't associate with easily. However, as we were about to leave, one of the celebrity guests, Celest Chong, came up to Lifeng and talked to her. Although I couldn't hear what they talked about due to my distance from them, but I heard something about being interested in Chinese opera and wanted to learn. That was something memorable, thoughshe's not the first celebrity actress I've came across that's so friendly and humble, but she actually initiated the conversation. I did not think too much of Celest in the past, but I think she changed my opinion about her now...