World Travel Guide

City Guide  - Singapore  - Culture
Culture

Shopping is arguably Singapore's greatest cultural contribution, yet this does not take into account the fact that this tiny republic draws on four official ethnic groups to produce a rich fusion of local cultural life. A population made up of Buddhists, Taoists, Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Sikhs ensures that hardly a month goes by without some religious or cultural festival thronging the streets and temples. With Buddhist, Muslim and Hindu festivals marked by public holidays throughout the year, Christmas is just one more holiday - for which shops stay open. The Chinese calendar dominates and the Chinese New Year is the biggest festival of the year.

Mainstream performing arts are also well represented, culminating in the Singapore Arts Festival, held every year in June, which attracts dance, theatre and music groups from all over the world. Year-round, performances from overseas tend to be heavily oversubscribed and tickets should be booked well in advance. Singapore's premier listings guide the arts magazine covers key events on the Singapore arts scene, while IS magazine (available free in bars and restaurants) carries a pull-out listings supplement. Tickets can be booked through Sistic (tel: (65) 348 5555) or Ticketcharge (tel: (65) 296 2929 ).

Art:
Singapore is a good place to view and purchase Asian art in general as well as works by Singaporean artists. Singapore's cultural diversity means that works by local artists cover a broad palette of themes and styles. The Nokia Singapore Art exhibition, organised by the National Arts Council (tel: (65) 270 0722) takes place from 4 December 1999 to 30 January 2000 and features the latest works of Singapore's most accomplished artists. Noteable galleries include the Singapore Art Museum, Bras Basah Road (tel: (65) 332 3222); Artfolio, Raffles Hotel (tel: (65) 334 4677); Art2 at The Substation, Armenian Street (tel: (65) 338 8713) and Cicada Gallery of Fine Arts, Ann Siang Road (tel: (65) 225 6787).

Music:
The Singapore Music Festival showcases a broad spectrum of acts from the Asian music scene in Singapore's concert halls, parks and discos. Chinese pop stars such as Andy Lau and Faye Wong have a huge following among Singapore's youth while the older generation still leans towards traditional Chinese opera. For the more classically inclined, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (tel: (65) 338 4401) gives regular performances at the Victoria Concert Hall and the NUS Symphony Orchestra (tel: (65) 874 2493) can be found at the NUS Forum and Theatrette.

Theatre:
Local groups are extremely energetic in producing contemporary theatre with an Asian flavour. The deep ethnic tensions in Singapore commonly underlie much of the drama, and the struggle for freedom of expression is often very palpable. Some of the most prolific troupes include Action Theatre (tel: (65) 837 0842); Singapore Lyric Theatre (tel: (65) 336 1929); Singapore Repertory Theatre (tel: (65) 221 5585); The Necessary Stage (tel: (65) 738 6355) and TheatreWorks (tel: (65) 338 4077).

Dance:
Dance Dimension Project (tel: (65) 226 6772), one of the youngest professional performing arts groups, has built a reputation for also being one of the most dynamic and daring. Alternatively, the Singapore Dance Theatre (tel: (65) 338 0611) performs classical dance and ballet.

Film:
On any Saturday night, the most central of Singapore's many cinema complexes will be full, and tickets scarce. Cinema ranks with shopping and eating as one of Singapore's favourite pastimes, in spite of heavy censorship. Cinemas cater purely to popular taste, and while there are no art cinemas, the Alliance Française (tel: (65) 737 8422) occasionally screens mainstream and alternative French films. The Singapore International Film Festival takes place in April and features documentaries and films from around the globe. Singapore's main cinema complexes include Cineleisure Orchard (tel: (65) 235 1155); Lido 8 Cineplex (tel: (65) 732 4124); United Artists Singapore Bugis Junction (tel: (65) 337 9522) and Beach Road (tel: (65) 391 2550).

Cultural events:
Singapore's broad ethnic mix means that barely a month goes by without a religious festival or celebration.

The month-long Festival of the Hungry Ghosts (August-September) is one of the biggest Chinese festivals. According to Taoist belief, the gates of hell are thrown open throughout the seventh month of the lunar year when spirits are allowed to wander the earth. To appease these homeless spirits, sumptuous banquets and Chinese operas are held, candles and joss-sticks are lit in a row in front of Chinese homes and hell currency notes are burnt as offerings.

In celebration of the anniversary of Singaporean independence, a new anthem is composed every year and played incessantly in the month running up to the National Day Celebration on 9 August. A National Day Parade is held before thousands of spectators.

During the Lantern Festival in September, the Chinese Garden becomes a fairyland of light and colour as children and adults alike pour into the park with their paper lanterns.

Also known as the Festival of Lights, Deepavali is a Hindu celebration held in October/November to mark the victory of light over darkness and of good over evil. Little India, especially the Hindu temples of Sri Veerama Kaliamman, Sri Vadapathira Kaliamman and Sri Srinivasa Perumal, is decorated with fairy lights, garlands and colourful arches.

In December to January the streets of Geylang Serai come alive with 1000 points of light as Muslim Singaporeans celebrate Hari Raya, which marks the end of Ramadan.

The Lunar New Year is the highlight of the Chinese calendar and the streets of Chinatown are lit up in January/February with traditional decorations and fairy lights. After dark, Chinatown becomes a heaving spectacle of the Orient, with hawkers and fortune tellers lining the alleyways as vibrantly coloured dragon and lion dancers parade among the crowds and Chinese opera takes to the streets. The stars of Chinese opera - dressed in traditional silk costumes and dramatically made up with white faces and black-rimmed eyes - command much popular respect for their delicate performances.

The public holiday for Vesak Day, in April or May, honours the birth, enlightenment and death of Sakyamuni Buddha. Hundreds of caged birds are set free to symbolise the release of captive souls.

The Dragon Boat Festival
, held in May or June, commemorates the ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan who drowned himself to protest against corruption. Teams from around the world compete in painted longboats carved to look like dragons and birds.

Literary Notes

'When in Singapore, feed at Raffles.' It was a good piece of marketing for the hotel by Rudyard Kipling, who came to Singapore after leaving India in 1889. In fact, Kipling spoke of 'a place called Raffles Hotel, where the food is as excellent as the rooms are bad'.

Raffles has, for more than one hundred years, been fertile writing ground for a number of authors, including Hermann Hesse, Joseph Conrad, Noel Coward, Somerset Maugham and James Michener - and it is in their honour that the Writer's Bar was named. More than any other writer, Somerset Maugham sought inspiration on several visits to the island beginning in 1921. His short stories of Singaporean colonial life include The Casuarina Tree, The Outstation and Yellow Streak. Society was outraged by his portrayal, in The Letter (1927), of the real-life murder of her lover by a rubber planter's wife.

More recently, the success story that is Singapore could be said to be the vision of one man, the island state's first premier Lee Kuan Yew - the grandson of a Hakka coolie from China. His memoirs, The Singapore Story (1998) recounts the events leading up to Singapore's independence, from British colonial rule through Japanese occupation, Communist insurrection, riots, independence - and the struggles that followed.

Prominent contemporary Singaporean novelists include Hwee Hwee Tan, whose Foreign Bodies: A Novel (1999) tells the story of an authoritarian state in which three rootless friends become implicated in the shady dealings of an international soccer gambling syndicate. A very different Singapore is portrayed in Catherine Lim's The Bondmaid (1997), set in the 1950s. The novel paints a picture of a Singapore far removed from the developed, modern, cosmopolitan society of today and far more entwined with its Chinese roots, traditions and beliefs.





Copyright © 2001 Columbus Publishing
    
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