2012 Johore Temple Festival: The Procession

Having attended the previous 2 editions, we knew that the procession would come to City Square at around 10 pm.  So we arrived in JB at 9:30 pm, had coffee and waited.  The Malaysia Prime Minister was the Guest of Honour this year, and we could vaguely hear him from afar.  There were special performances at the main stage, the 24-season drums, the lion dances etc, but we could not really see it clearly. Imagine you are looking at this photo.

2012 Johore Temple Festival: Deities leaving the temple

The 2012 Johor Bahru Temple Festival had a special significance: it was given the status of intangible heritage of Malaysia.  It was my third consecutive visit to the procession of the deities, held on the 21st day of the first Lunar Month (12 Feb 2012).

The day before the procuession of the deities, the deities would leave the temples and would go on a procession to a gathering place called Xing Gong 行宫 (next to a crematorium).   I just attended the gathering at Xing Gong.  You would need to take a cab from the city centre as it was a few kilomentres away.  Imagine the devotees who walked the distance.

The place was crowded and followers were offering prayers to the Teochew, Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka and Hainan deities.


  While I was there, the Hokkien community were starting their praying session:




Other deities were also congregated at the Xing Gong:


There were of course Chinese wanyang performances at the venue, but no one really paid attention.


I managed to find a taxi back after a while.  The ceremony was interesting, but finding transportation back would be a challenge.


Next time round, I would go early to catch the deities leaving the temple.

The 2011 Johor Bahru Temple Festival could be found at Johore Temple Festival 2011

Huayi Festival 2012

Attended my first event, the chinese version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 谁怕吴尔芙？ written by Edward Albee and performed by 4 local actors and directed by Nelson Chia.  The main attraction for me would be the actors, especially Johnny Ng and Leanne Ong, the latter whose performance I haven't seen in a while.  Realistic set, good directing, and the ensemble has good chemistry.  The chinese translation was good, which enabled the actors to deliver the lines smoothly.    A good start for our local theatre scene.  ...but can we have a better production poster?

I had high expectations for Stan Lai's Crosstalk Travellers 那一夜在旅途中说相声 (Taiwan).  Sadly, while the performance is strong on laughs, it is lacking in depth.  Unlike in the past productions that use the skits to dig at politics and social situation in Taiwan, this production is more variety show like.  The cast however is still strong.

Sentosa Flower Show 2012

Strictly speaking, I was late for the Sentosa Flower Show...

..when the event was already over....

But we still managed to catch a few remaining decorations. 

As expected, the design was heavy on Dragon theme, even the sand sculpture.

Still an enjoyable outing to the flower show.



For Sentosa Flower Show 2011: http://clumsycompass.blogspot.sg/2011/02/lunar-new-year-2011-sentosa-flower-show.html

Chinese New Year Decoration at Chinatown

Year of the Dragon is coming, and Chinatown is getting ready for it.

The design was pretty good this year.  It also looked pretty in the evening.

Arts events that I liked in 2011

Entering the year of the dragon, it is time to list the 2011 arts and culture events that I have enjoyed. They may not be perfect, but somehow touched me one way or another:

1. The Rocky Horror Show: It is fun and has a good cast. Does not seem dated.

2. Art Stage exhibition. Interesting works from the (new) galleries.

3. Fantasie by Melvin Tan. Of course, most Singaporeans have been waiting to attend his concert for years.  He finally appeared on stage after several postponements due to some reasons..

4. Guru of Chai by Indian Ink Theatre Company.  Good script. Good acting.  Engaging performance.  And so sad....








5.  Don McLean.  His rendition of Vincent was truly memorable.  American Pie was a bit too draggy....

6. Murder in San Jose.  A good script with a capable ensemble that holds our attention.   Would love to see more Hong Kong theatre productions in Singapore.

Singapore Symphony Orchestra Gala Concert, 18 Jan 2012

First classical concert of the year.  This evening, the SSO was conducted by Neeme Jarvi and violinist Vadim Repin played Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No 2.  Neeme Jarvi also led the SSO in Tubin's Estonian Dance Suite and Tchaikovsky Symphony No 5.

Elephant Parade Singapore 2011

The Elephant Parade is a programme to promote awareness of Asian elephant conservation. The event in Singapore is coming to an end this month, and the elephants would be auctioned off over the next few days.

Spending time on legwork and taking pictures.....

Here are the photos of the 162 elephants exhibited in various parts of Singapore (Zoo, Vivo City, Orchard Road area, Singapore Art Museum, Asian Civilisation Museum area, Marina Bay area, National University of Singapore etc)

Good view of Tanjong Pagar Container Port, Singapore

Singapore has one of the busiest ports in the world.  Most of us, however do not have the opportunity to visit a container port, a key lifeline of our ecnonomy since the colonial days.  There are a few ways to catch a glimpse of our container port.  The first involved a meal, that is to dine at the Prima Tower Revolving Restaurant (nearest MRT Station: Harbourfront).  Here we could have a good aerial view of our harbour port, managed by the Port of Singapore Authority.

Countdown to 2012 at Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery

The Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery (Bright Hill Temple) organised a quiet affair of ushering the Year 2012.  We arrived at the Temple around 11:30pm and there was a sizeable crowd














People lit up the candles in the shape of lotus and the candles were laid on the steps.