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We Perform for the Gods
| Article
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14133 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1988 |
1,305 Words |
| Author
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Peter Schoppert
Peter Schoppert is a free-lance writer residing in Singapore. |
The gods and spirits of the dead who visit Singapore during the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar have special tastes in the arts: Fans of opera and popular music, the "hungry ghosts" are said to love puppetry best.
Human audiences at Chinese puppet shows in today's Singapore are quickly bored by the crude performances of the few remaining amateur puppet troupes. But that does not seem to matter. As one puppeteer put it, "We perform for the gods. We are happy to serve in this way. The human audience is irrelevant."
This was not always true. Chinese puppetry has ancient roots, growing up since the Tang dynasty (A.D. 619-907) parallel with full-scale theater. The glove or hand puppetry tradition that began at least three hundred years ago in the Fujian province of southern China was a vital and popular form. With the index finger supporting a carved wooden head, and thumb and middle finger moving the arms of the puppet's baglike body, puppeteers delighted audiences with special effects and political satire not possible in mainstream drama.
In Southeast Asia, glove puppetry was highly popular among Chinese immigrants and non-Chinese audiences early in this century. Master puppeteers came from Fujian, bringing with them complete sets of up to a hundred puppets, costumes, and props crafted by specialist carvers and costumers. Traveling throughout what was then Malaya from bases in Singapore and Penang (now part of Malaysia), the puppet troupes were a cheap form of entertainment for laborers, miners, and coolies. Puppet troupes found patrons in the clan and guild organizations that provided the focus for Chinese community life in a colonial society.
Puppet troupes in China and surrounding countries of the South Seas developed along two different paths after World War II. While puppetry in China was supported by the communist government as a folk art form, Chinese puppetry in Southeast Asia lost popularity among its audiences, surviving only in association with traditional Chinese religion. While there are currently some thirty active glove puppet troupes in Fujian, few are left in present-day Singapore and Malaysia. Singapore's sole remaining troupe performs an average of only fifteen times per year.
The heaviest demand for puppet shows in Singapore comes during the seventh-month Festival of Hungry Ghosts. Neighborhood associations, merchant groups, and trade unions--the modern versions of the troupes' old patrons--sponsor
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