Roadshow and Opera to say Thank You to the Deity at Kota Permai

If you have been in Malaysia over the last couple of weeks, you would probably be entertained by our local singers at the Ge-Tai(Mandarin) or in Hokkien " Ko-Tai or Roadshow had you ventured out at night to the local Chinese temples.  You would also had the opportunity to watch a traditional Chinese Opera show too.  Over here in Bukit Mertajam, the local Chinese community here speaks the local TeoChew dialect as compared to the majority of the local Chinese community in Penang Island who speaks Hokkien dialect.  Therefore, the opera shows over here are mostly the TeoChew Opera.

However, due to the Opera show and its traditional culture and apprenticeship which are not "seen" to be paying attractive income and the nomadic lifestyle(due to frequent travels around the country to perform at various temples) of the troupe members, comprising the actors, actresses, supporting casts, make-up artist, wardrobe and tailors, the musical team which sometimes doubled up as the stage crews in setting up the "theater and backdrops" which play the traditional musical instruments such as drums,gongs, trumpets and flutes and cymbals, these professional arts and noble jobs are hardly attracting the new and young generations.

They have to put in long hours of training to acquire the acting skills and singing and dancing. They have to teach themselves to paint their faces with colored powders and other cosmetics to depict the faces of heroes and heroines and villains too. They eat at and sleep on the temporary stage set up by the local committee of the temples.  It is hard to find a local opera troupe to perform because today's Chinese younger generation are leading a very different lifestyle in the advent of digital age, and have higher expectation of a quality lifestyle in the comfort of the beautiful five stars hotels and the lime lights of the more sophisticated modern art of acting and the glitters on the silver screen and to bash in the glamors of the Hollywood for being cast in the Megabucks Blockbuster Movies. They probably want to be glamorous like Jet Li, Chow Yun-Fat, Sammo Hung  or Michelle Yeoh, Gong Li and etc. Guess what? Even today, the Opera troupes are imported from China to perform here in Malaysia.  At one time, the troupes from Thailand were quite regular here.  They probably find it hard to get new bloods into the industry.

Another dying culture is the Chinese puppet shows which are also performed to thank the deities.  Today, we have the animation using the computer digital technologies. I have seen in the past that some temples when they could not secure the puppet shows or the opera, they had hired the services of the cinema crews who show the old movies on a large white screen like a drive-through movie which is more economical and easy to set-up.  For the Opera show, there are usually two performances per day. One episode in the afternoon and one episode at night.  As for the Ge-Tai or Roadshow, it is only performed at night and usually from 8.00pm to 12.00 midnight with a mixtures of male and female singers who usually dressed sexily or in scantily outfits.  Male singers are also rare nowadays as the audience preferred to watch females performers.

Recently, the Opera show held at Kota Permai was to thank the deity "Datuk Kong" or the so called Malay Spirit Deity worshiped by the Chinese community especially those that practiced Taoism for the blessings which they belief were bestowed throughout the whole of last year. Some of the businessmen and residents would sponsor and donate huge sum of moneys to organize the event make burnt offerings.   The local shopping  center, Billion Supermarket sponsored one night performance of the Roadshow. At Kota Permai, the "Datuk Kong" is said to be "dwelling or residing" at the big rock along the main road of Jalan Kota Permai and it is the main deity housed at the temple built onto it.  See my earlier post on the temple here.  At this temple, pork offerings and non-kosher foods are not allowed to be offered to the "Datuk" deity as it is a Malay Spirit and it is considered a taboo.  Ill luck and bad fate will befall the persons who make such an offering blunder. Even the singer will respect the deity by singing at least one Malay song to entertain the deity.

Here is one Malay song titled Sha-Na-Na sang by Miss Chang Sin Yee.

 Anyway, the deity and or other deities will watch the opera or puppet show or Ge-Tai secured as offerings and thanksgivings by the local temple committee who are themselves nominated among the sponsors and donors annually or for a specific term.  Of course, the people and residents like me who like to see Roadshows will join the crowd just to watch the performances for free.  In the present days, there are plastic stools for sitting and canvas tents sheltering from the rain.  In the olden days where I grew up as a child, there were rows of wooden planks laid on stilts and tighten with bolts and nuts above grasses and muddy open spaces and arranged like rows of seats in a theater hall with no shelters except for the makeshift stage.

Those days, we could only watch and it remained in memory.  Today, we can shoot photograph and record video.  That is why you are now enjoying these video clips that I recorded with Sony handy camera.  Here at the Chinese temple roadshow, we cheer and clap for the singers as they sing and entertain us with the latest pop songs and dances. The visitors to the temples will usually close their hands together and kneeling or bowing down, and offer prayers with burning incenses (joss-sticks which can be plain and tiny or big with dragon and figurines and printed joss-papers in gold and silver colors accompanied by lighted candles and lamps to the deity or deities at the temples. Some who have been blessed with good-fortunes will make cash donations. They may even bring along food-stuffs such as boiled chicken, eggs, home cooked meals and dishes, fruits and cookies to offer to the deity or deities. After the prayer sessions, these food-stuffs can be taken back home and consume as it is belief to bring good luck and blessing. You can expect the joss-sticks or incenses with dragon figurines will be popular throughout this Chinese New Year as this is the Lunar year of the Water Dragon.

 

In contrast, at the Church, the worshipers play the musical instruments, sing praises and worship songs to God, dancing, clapping and raising hands in prayer postures, bowing or kneeling down and giving thanks unto the Lord and Jesus Christ. There are Malay and Murut versions of Songs of Praise and Worship.  The church congregations give tithes and offerings in cash and checks.  The modern and large churches even accept offerings through debit to credit card accounts or online transfers using the latest banking facilities.  These monies are used by the Church to support its administration, missions and to help the poor and needy. The Church have the Holy Communions where the disciples broke breads and eat and drink the cups of wine in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ for His Love and Sacrifice for us.

Now you may like to ask, who is worshiping and who is singing? Who is thanking God and who is being entertained? Who benefited from the collection of monies and how it is being used? Anyway, mankind came empty handed into this mortal world and cannot take it with us when we leave this world. Let us be good Stewards and Custodians of what God has placed in our care and hands.

Here, enjoy the opera, roadshow, the pop songs and worship songs and may God Bless you and family and be with you always. Gong Xi Gong Xi.

Penang Roadshow - Hungry Ghost Festival

Almost everywhere in Georgetown, Penang and the suburbs including Bukit Mertajam on the mainland where there are Chinese Taoist Temples, these are the places you can drop by to catch a  Penang Roadshow concert where pretty and sexy lady singers wriggling and dancing while singing their favorite and popularly requested songs for the audience.  They have quite a wide range of repertoire where one moment they sing you a Mandarin song followed by an English song and then a Hokkien song and even a Malay song.  I remember once there was this Roadshow concert at nearby temple celebration, I heard the singer sang a Lady Gaga's famous song "Poker Face" and then went on to render a popular romantic Hindi song "Tum pah Se Ayers" and even dressed up as much like the famous singing idols.

Well this time the Roadshow is at nearby the Central Business District of Georgetown Penang and by the roadside along Church Street Ghat or "Gat Lebuh Gereja" which coincidentally is nearby Chartis Place building which is the Penang branch office of Chartis Malaysia Insurance Berhad, a leading General Insurance company.  Not far from that Penang Roadshow concert is QEII the hottest and happenings place named after the Queen Elizabeth II similar to the infamous ship at Penang.

The Roadshow is held annually  for the Hungry Ghosts "presumably the lost souls" inhabited there to appease them since heritage and the days of the British India where there were many traders and migrants from the Easts, especially from China provinces such as Canton or Guanzhou, Xiamen (where most of our ancestors of Penang Hokkiens people originated), Shanghai, Hainan Island and many other places and from the West, especially from Ceylon or present day Sri Langka, India, East Pakistan(Bangladesh), and West Pakistan (Pakistan of today) and the Arabs from the Middle Easts and the Persians and Turkish.  Of course, the Whites from the far far away Europe such as British, Portuguese, Dutch and Romans. So many of our forefathers and "great-great grandmothers" must have labored very hard to make Penang the Pearl of Orient and an important marketplace and port that it once belong to part of the Strait Settlements together with Malacca and Singapore(before Singapore became a Republic and independence from Malaysia on August 9, 1965) during the British Empire.  You will probably want to check out the history of Penang from the museum archives for this place which is also founded by Captain Francis Light.  I love to study the subject history at school during my primary and lower school days as I am fascinated by the heroic sacrifices and wars and the conquests by Warriors and Kings, and, bravery and romantic Queens from France (Joan of Arc and Marie Antoinette). I belief the history books me and my schoolmates read long long ago have been updated with more current local famous names as it is part of nationalists pride and an attempt to give credits to the so-called Malaysians.  I am not arguing about who deserved to have their names on the streets and bridges but rather it is important to keep our heritage (Penang is now listed under UNESCO World Heritage Sites together with Malacca) and to help us residents to receive our snail mails and to give directions to those foreign and local tourists and locals as to how to get from one place to another in Penang for visiting famous tourist spots or savoring famous Penang Foods.

I believe the existing streets' original names should be retained while the new roads and avenues can be used to name after the famous and very important Malaysians instead of petty politicking by politicians.  There are so many of our roads and avenues which are now named after fruits, animals, flowers, trees and what not including alphanumeric such as PJ for Pauh Jaya and not the Selangor PJ for Petaling Jaya or even SS2(Secret Service?) or Starhill in KL (Kuala Lumpur the federal capital for Malaysia) which we who grown up through the past 50 years and generations knew the place as Bukit Bintang ( Bukit is Malay word for Hill while Bintang for Star).  So you want to be famous and have your name, image icon engraved on Bintang Walk with  five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks at Bukit Bintang, KL which is like the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame?

When we ordinary folks have a stone to mark your demise, it is just a grave stone in the cemetery with your name and your family linage inscribed on it. Your were just a set of beginning numbers (Date of Birth) and a dash - followed by another ending numbers (Date of Departure). Your name has no distinguished Order of the BE (OBE) or the Malaysian Titles of Honor conferred by the Royal Highness on it  and is not named with those that had theirs on streets nor Walk of Fame.  What legacy have you left for your family if you have not left any for the state or country or the world?

So let me get to the Bpoint here, the Hungry Ghost Festivals are for those souls with nameless stones, streets or walks, who labored and fought a good fight before they laid underground in green pastures or their ashes strewn into the seas.  So be entertained and may their souls rest in peace(R.I.P). Those living souls are generous and shared the worldly entertainments in the form of Chinese Operas, Puppets shows or Live Concerts like Penang Roadshows to make peace with them and also offered prayers.

God Bless You.