Performing Chinese street opera and constructing national culture in Singapore

This dissertation focuses on Chinese street opera performance and its relevance to the nation-building process in contemporary Singapore. It explores the varied meanings of Chinese street opera, produced and defined through interactions between the two long-standing traditions of professional and amateur operatic practices, and the official cultural mechanisms that regulate the production and reception of Chinese street opera in Singapore today.;The professional and amateur operatic traditions constitute two important trends in the history of Chinese opera in Singapore. They contrast with each other in sociological and ideological aspects, and have different organizational and performance practices. During the 1960s, there was a general decrease in the number of professional opera troupes in Singapore, accompanied by a concomitant rise in popularity of amateur groups. Furthermore, amateur opera groups, which usually perform in indoor contexts, began to stage Chinese street opera events in the 1970s, as part of a national discourse on preserving and promoting local cultural heritage. While the performance of Chinese street opera is historically associated with professional troupes, its identification with amateur groups is a recent phenomenon. More importantly, Chinese street opera performances by amateur groups are state-sponsored and framed within discourse on the construction of culture. In Singapore today, amateur opera groups are praised for their high performance standards and have come to represent the Chinese street opera tradition. Their performance practices are iconic of the state's approach toward constructing a national culture through the arts. In contrast, professional opera troupes are rendered invisible in the national discourse on arts and culture, as they routinely perform mainly in the context of Chinese customary and religious functions.;Why is Chinese street opera celebrated in Singapore today? And why have amateur opera groups come to represent this performance tradition? In this study, I consider this social value of Chinese street opera within the discourse on cultural production in contemporary Singapore. By examining the changing social context within which the concepts of professionalism and amateurism in Chinese opera performance are positioned, I explore the role of art in the process of creating and consolidating a national culture in Singapore after its independence in 1965.