The Light
Japanese taiko troupe Drum Tao is back with a new show. Audiences here will be familiar with this performing arts group which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2023.
The drummers are famously disciplined. Their schedule reportedly includes waking up at 5am every day to run 20km, doing 200 push-ups and 200 sit-ups daily, as well as rehearsing music to be able to play the Wadaiko drums, which weigh in at 400kg each.
The Light will showcase the group’s signature blend of drumming, martial arts and dance. This promises to deliver heart-thumping entertainment.
Where: Esplanade Theatre, 1 Esplanade Drive
When: Friday, 8pm; Saturday, 3 and 8pm; Sunday, 3pm
MRT: Esplanade
Admission: $68 to $138 from Sistic (go to www.sistic.com.sg or call 6348-5555)
Info: str.sg/ikjv
Connections Across Oceans: Early Chinese Mutual Aid Organisations
There are some intriguing objects in this small but information-packed exhibition at the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall. It focuses on the mutual aid organisations which sprang up to help Chinese immigrants in Singapore and North America in the 19th century.
With the Qing government unwilling or unable to aid Chinese citizens overseas, these organisations helped new immigrants settle into foreign countries and provided services ranging from healthcare to funeral services.
Look out for a set of illustrations on hand signals the members of the secretive hongmen societies used to identify one another.
Another intriguing tidbit reveals ties between the Chee Kung Tong Society in North America and the Western Freemasons, an equally secretive society.
A set of seemingly innocuous farming and work tools in a display hints at the violent confrontations that occasionally broke out between different hongmen societies in Singapore.
The array of paper artefacts is most engaging, ranging from cablegram communications from Kuomintang leader Sun Yat Sen pleading for more funds to a 1957 map of the Kwong Wai Siew Peck San Theng cemetery, which eventually made way for Bishan New Town.
Created in partnership with the C.V. Starr East Asian Library, University of California, Berkeley, the exhibition is a nice showcase of the resilience of early Chinese immigrants with their bootstrapping approach to survival in strange new lands.
Where: Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall, 12 Tai Gin Road
MRT: Toa Payoh/Novena
When: Till Dec 10, Tuesdays to Sundays, 10am to 5pm. Closed on Mondays
Admission: Free
Info: str.sg/ik9U
Collegia: A Nexus Of Songs (I)
Listen to writings by Singapore authors Joshua Ip and Wang Gungwu sung to original compositions at this concert by choral ensemble Vox Llinette.
Other unusual lyric choices include a 14th-century Majapahit text and a poem by late Malaysian poet Wong Phui Nam as well as poems by Katherine Mansfield and Dora Wilcox.
The works were created by five Singapore and four Australian composers as part of the second run of the Choral Collective Residency Programme organised by choral music advocacy centre Vox Camerata and the University of Queensland.
Where: School of the Arts Concert Hall, 1 Zubir Said Drive
MRT: Dhoby Ghaut
When: Sunday, 5pm
Admission: $28
Info: nexusofsongs.peatix.com
