Chinese traditional arts are boring? Think again

Posted by shuping under Exhibitions, Museums/Heritage Galleries
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That’s what a Saturday afternoon at the Asian Civilizations Museum (ACM) saw me through - a change in mindset about the Chinese traditional arts. During the visit to ACM’s China Fest!, I had the opportunity to experience different aspects of Chinese culture - dance, martial arts, paper cutting, Chinese opera, acrobats and calligraphy demonstration. Let’s take a look at them.

paper-cutting art

Folk scissors-cut originated from the Song Dynasty. It drew materials from abundant harvest, good fortune and folk plays to express the wishes. If you think that cutting the paper into this design is easy, think again. As I looked at how the demonstrator was cutting the design out, I knew that I would not be able to succeed at the first try. With the fine details on the design, I might just end up with a design cut out of shape by accident.

Let’s see the demonstrator at work.

slowly cutting according to the design

The Chinese calligraphy demonstration came up shortly after the paper-cutting demonstration. Do not think that this is easy as well. It’s definitely not just about writing with ink and brush. It takes the controlling of the concentration of ink, the thickness of the paper and the flexibility of the brush to produce a variety of styles and forms, transforming the square Chinese characters into expressive images. Patience is definitely a key to master such arts.

Proceeding to the second level, three dances were performed at the Shaw Foyer. The folk dances performed were long-lost traditional art and only reconstructed in the 1950s from movements in the Chinese opera or designs from the Chinese ceramic wares. Do not expect such Chinese dances to be accompanied only by traditional Chinese melodies. I was surprised when I heard the music accompaniment for the second dance, which was performed by students from Nanyang Girls’ High and Hwa Chong Institution. It was one of the songs by Jay Chou - Qing Hua Ci. The combination between traditional dance and popular music was definitely appealing to me. Enticed by the song (maybe also that of Jay Chou’s singing), I stayed throughout the performance, which was something different from what I would have done in the past.

Acrobat performance was another highlight to me. Totally impressed by the performance, I think the applause given by the audiences to the performers was well deserved.  You’ll also be amazed at their flexibility and good balance.

she's trying to get into the metal container

and she really succeeded in going through the metal container

i was shocked to see this. such a heavy lamp-like object on the nose area

Following the acrobat performance, students from Singapore Polytechnic put up a martial arts performance as well.

Then, I saw this for the first time.

This is the ancient Chinese 15-pin bowling. If you have tried bowling before, you should know that there are 10 pins in the game. So what was this 15-pin bowling game about?

The 15 pin bowling game was played during the Tang Dynasty more than 1,400 years ago. Unlike modern bowling, traditional ethics and morality played a big part in determining the winner of the game. There were 10 red pins and five black pins with a Chinese character written on it. The red pins would consist of words of good ethics such as kindness and honesty, while the black pins would have words of bad ethics such as haughtiness and abuse. The outcome of the game was determined by those who managed to knock down a red pin as it meant that the player possessed noble characters. Knocking down the black pins would mean that the players had flawed characters and they would lose the game.

Since China Fest was held in conjunction with the International Museum Day 2009, visitors were encouraged to come with their families. Children, who may not like to sit still and appreciate such traditional art, also had their exposure to the Chinese culture. At the River room, the children were involved in craft activities. They were given clay to make their own figurines and shapes.

look at the buns made of clay! don't they make you hungry?

one of the kids' art work with clay

good family bonding time!

Besides playing with clay, you can also make your own dragon lanterns or have some fun colouring on the zodiac bookmarks.

coloured bookmarks

I ended my visit to the China Fest with another Chinese traditional art - Chinese Huangmei Opera. The opera was about the romance between the Chinese goddess, San Sheng Mu and a young scholar, Liu Yanchang. They fell in love at first sight but were opposed by San Sheng Mu’s brother - Erlang Shen, a god. With the help of the magic lotus lantern, San Sheng Mu managed to defeat her brother.

The female lead - San Sheng Mu

The male lead: Liu Yanchang

The brother of San Sheng Mu - Erlang Shen

the fight between Erlang Shen and San Sheng Mu begins

San Sheng Mu used the magic lotus lantern to defeat Erlang Shen

I personally felt that this visit to the ACM’s China Fest was an enriching one, and it has broadened my knowledge on the different aspects of the Chinese culture within an afternoon. Though a Chinese myself, I have always felt that such traditional art were boring and I would rather spend my time on other activities such as watching those Hollywood movies instead of the Chinese opera. Moreover, with globalization, we were spoilt with choices of entertainment, and such traditions may not even be on our personal list of ‘Top 20 must-dos’. Though I may still choose other activities over such traditional performances in the future, I must admit that China Fest has managed to change my perspectives about the traditions. Traditions can definitely be interesting, if you are willing to give them a chance. Will you?

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