In celebration of the annual Mid-Autumn Festival, Kreta Ayer – Kim Seng Citizens’ Consultative Committee invites all Singaporeans and tourists to reminisce the Chinese Heritage of Chinatown. Themed “Our Chinatown. Our Mid-Autumn” (“我们的牛车水 , 我们的中秋节”), this year’s festival will recapture the scenes and life experiences of Singapore’s Chinatown in the 50’s and 60’s. It aims to encourage more people especially the youth to learn more about the Chinese traditions and heritage, and the lives of their forefathers where they first come to Singapore.
Vivifying centrepieces of early Chinese immigrants, street lanterns in the form of traditional accordion paper lanterns, nightly stage shows with exciting dragon dance performances on weekends, and the ever-popular lantern painting competition and mass lantern walk aim to allow Singaporeans and visitors from overseas to soak in the festive spirit like how they were celebrated in Chinatown.
A new night event for this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival is the “Singapore Culture and Heritage Trail – Cantonese Chapter: Reliving the yesteryears once more”. The two-night of event promises to bring back traditional Cantonese cuisine and street food commonly found in the 1950s and 1960s. It will feature more than 10 popular Cantonese delicacies with traditional dishes which are hard to come by, such as “Gold Coin Chicken” (金钱鸡) and “Prawn Toast” (虾多士).
A variety of street activities like fortune telling, face threading, Chinese calligraphy, Cantonese costume photo booth and opera will surely delight visitors. Out of the programmes lined-up, many of which are supported by WeCare PALs; PA’s network of corporate and community partners such as International Left-Hand Calligraphy Association, Kong Chow Wui Koon, Kowloon Club and The Wedding Chamber. Besides immersing in the Cantonese culture, visitors can also be part of history by joining in for a record breaking feat of the most number of oriental masks to be worn at the same time.
The design of Mid-Autumn Festival Street Light-up 2018 is the 3rd collaboration between the Organising Committee and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). The 9 talented 3D Design Programme students of NAFA led by their teacher, Ms Veronica Yew conceptualised the design after research and visits to the Chinatown. This is a priceless opportunity for the students to take part in a real-life project with hands-on experience learning the crafts of lantern-making from the experienced craftsmen from Zi Gong, China.
“Our Chinatown. Our Mid-Autumn”
Chinatown Mid-Autumn Festival 2018
8 Sep – 8 Oct 2018
http://chinatownfestivals.sg/
