Forgotten Heritage: Uncovering Singapore’s Traditional Chinese Puppets

Despite its relatively short history, Singapore boasts a diverse variety of traditional puppet forms transmitted from China more than a century ago. Although this theatrical form used to be a significant part of the everyday lives of the Chinese, much of its traditions and rich heritage is forgotten by Singaporeans. The speakers will share their findings of this rich and colourful heritage, which is based on more than a decade of fieldwork, to increase awareness of this often neglected tradition. This talk will introduce the traditional Chinese puppet theatres in Singapore, including the Hainanese rod puppetry, Henghua string puppetry, Hokkien glove puppetry, Hokkien string puppetry and Teochew iron-stick puppetry, as well as the now-defunct Hakka (Waijiang) string puppetry.

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