honorable mention
Robin Yong singapore
title
Chinese Street Opera
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entry description
Chinese Street Opera is an iconic but disappearing art form in metropolitan Singapore. They were once extremely popular a few decades ago, before the arrival of modern cinema and pop concerts. Characterised by their colourful make-up, loud music and box-like mobile stage built on stilts, this is the art of Lao Sai Tao Yuan, Singapore's oldest Chinese Street Opera troupe originating from the 1850s. I was extremely lucky to come backstage to photograph the actors before the show. The costumes are all hand made and the make-up takes about 2 hours to do...the people speak in the same dialect as my Grandmother did...Chinese Street Opera shows can still be caught at locations near Taoist Temples during religious festivals.back to gallery