Festive celebrations in Chinatown offer more community outreach programmes
TODAY file photo
SINGAPORE – A more comprehensive line-up of community outreach programmes has been set to promote a deeper appreciation of Chinese cultural heritage across different religions and cultures at this year’s Chinese New Year celebrations in Chinatown.
For the first time, an inaugural Harmony Night will bring 11 Chinese clan associations, religious groups and voluntary welfare organisations together to co-organise the event for 500 less-advantaged residents of Jalan Besar GRC and Potong Pasir.
The religious groups include Po Chiak Keng Temple, Yi Ren Gong Hui, Giok Hong Tian Temple and Masjid Jamae (Chulia).
Each participating group will showcase performances in celebration of different cultures, religions and dialect groups in Singapore.
“I am heartened by this partnership as this will further strengthen us as a close-knit community in Chinatown,” said Dr Lily Neo, adviser to Jalan Besar GRC’s grassroots organisations.
She added: “We have over the years successfully attracted more than two million visitors in Chinatown for our Chinatown Chinese New Year festivals, and I hope we can achieve the same success this year.”
This year, a record-breaking number of 2,668 hand-crafted lanterns are set to colour the streets of Chinatown from Jan 16 till March 8 to usher in the Year of the Monkey. A total length of 880 metres of Eu Tong Sen Street, North Bridge Road and South Bridge Road will be lit.
The S$500,000-street light-up is part of the annual self-funded Chinese New Year celebrations organised by Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng Citizens’ Consultative Committee (KA-KS CCC), where over S$2 million has been pumped into the three-week celebrations.
The official light-up and opening ceremony, marked with fireworks, firecrackers and performances, will be held this Saturday evening, with President Tony Tan Keng Yam gracing the event.
In addition to the light-up, a host of other activities — such as an international lion dance competition, festive street bazaar, free walking trials, nightly stage shows and a mass reunion dinner for 1,000 elderly and less privileged families — will be organised in the run-up to the Chinese New Year countdown party on Feb 7.
The hand-crafted lanterns, made from stretched cloth on wire frames, come sculptured in motifs associated with the Zodiac year of the monkey.
The streets will play host to 406 colourful monkeys, 466 peach lanterns and 1,000 zodiac coins, seven 6-metre tall peach trees and a 12-metre tall peach tree as the centrepiece.
This year’s parade of lights has been designed by a team of six final-year students from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).
Drawing inspirations from the large garden spaces of the existing People’s Park and the Chinese classic tale, Journey to the West, the team seeks to create something unique by fusing cultural traditions with technology.
“The main challenge was in coming out with something that is innovative and fresh, something that has not been done in the past four years,” said Mr Matthew Chan Chun Chen, a final-year STUD masters student in Architecture and Sustainable Design (ASD).
The result of their brainstorming was materialised in the mechanised monkey lanterns, as well as the erection of an interactive pink “Mother Tree” on Chinatown’s Garden Bridge. The high-tech tree will display an 18-second light show for every 18 posts with the hashtag #CNY2016SG.
Referring to the collaboration between SUTD students and KA-KS CCC, Dr Chong Keng Hua, an assistant professor from the university’s ASD department, said students can help contribute to society through the implementation of such new design-integrated technologies, making the festive light-up more interesting every year.
“The social nature of such a project also means that the students need to have deeper understanding of the social-cultural context, and learn to appreciate the diverse views of the public,” he added.
