Students watch getai for school excursion

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Students watch getai for school excursion
Getai organiser hosts seven groups this month to help foreign students learn about local culture
By Crystal Chan

August 31, 2009

UNIQUE: NJC students at a getai in Senoko. PICTURE: LIANHE WANBAO

THE getai scene this year has thrown up a new trend - school excursions to watch these three-hour mini-concerts that are held to appease spirits during the Hungry Ghost Festival.

These students are certainly not watching getai to pass the time, but to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes, the choreography, the history and how the shows have evolved over time.

Mr Aaron Tan, 33, who has been organising getai for eight years, told The New Paper on Sunday he has hosted seven groups of students this month - a trend he has never seen before.

The students had obtained his contact details through getai profiles on video-sharing website YouTube and social networking site Facebook.

Last Friday night, Mr Tan hosted 35 students and four teachers from National Junior College (NJC) at a getai in Senoko.

The trip, organised by the teachers, aimed to familiarise the college's boarders with local culture, and to help foreign students bond with their local schoolmates.

NJC's head of boarding, Mr Yeo Sho Hor, who was in charge of the excursion, was not available for comment when The New Paper on Sunday called.

But in an earlier interview with Lianhe Zaobao, Mr Yeo said NJC chose to take its foreign students to getai as it's an unique aspect of local culture.

He added that many young people think that getai is only for the elderly, and it was hoped that the students would be more aware of them through the trip.

First time

Phan Phi Hong Hanh, 18, a third-year Vietnamese student in NJC's integrated programme, found the performance interesting as it was her first time at a getai.

She told The New Paper on Sunday: 'I found the costumes attractive and I saw how the performers incorporate Chinese dialects and jokes into the shows.

'I didn't understand the meaning of the dialects. But my Singaporean friends explained to me that the song was about a woman waiting for her lover's return.'

Mr Peter Loh, 57, who has been in the business for 43 years, also hosted two groups of students from Serangoon Junior College and Victoria Junior College last Sunday.

He said: 'My son, who is studying in Serangoon JC, was doing a project about getai, so he asked me to organise an outing.'

Although relatively young, Mr Tan has been interested in getai since his teenage years.

He said: 'I enjoy organising getai as I want to preserve the culture. It's something you find only in Singapore.'

Besides NJC, Mr Tan has also hosted students from Anderson Junior College and Catholic Junior College.

Students from the latter two schools had approached Mr Tan on their own.

Mr Tan said: 'It probably helped that recently, there have been movies about the getai scene, such as 881 in 2007 and The Maid in 2005.

'Young people like watching movies so those shows could have stirred up their interest in getai.'

 

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EVOLUTION OF GETAI
Gangsters used to throw bottles
From neon lights and miniskirts to pyrotechnics and pole-dancing
By Elysa Chan

August 31, 2009

FUNNY: Many watch getai for the jokes. PICTURES: COURTESY OF AARON TAN & DAVID TAN

YEARS after the stage shows (getai) during the Hungry Ghost Month got cleaned up, the buzzword now is raunchy.

In the '70s, the shows were disorderly with gangsters sometimes turning up to collect protection fees, recalled getai emcee Wang Lei, 48.

'They would shout at performers or throw bottles at us if the organisers did not pay up,' he said.

That's gone, but the scene is now hot from the sexy performers hitting the stage.

For example, take teen sensation Lee Peifen who holds her own against any veteran performer, or the sizzling hot Lim Zi Yee, who raised temperatures at her debut pole-dancing performance at Lorong Ah Soo last week in a red and black number.

Outfits are louder and more revealing, noted performer Liu Lingling, a 32-year veteran.

She said: 'In the past, someone who wore shorts would be considered sexy. Now, that's nothing!'

Changes

The performer, who took to the stage when she was only 8, said: 'Getai has become grand.

'The lighting and stage design changes the whole atmosphere.'

She even feels compelled to deck herself in getai finery from head to toe whenever she appears on stage.

She said: 'Earlier, I'd wear a miniskirt and do my hair, and that would be enough. Now, I have more than 100 getai costumes.'

But veteran performer Hong Xiaoling, 62, once hailed the King of Hokkien Pop, predicts that the fad of glitzy performances will fade out.

He said: 'It won't last. Raunchy acts are fresh now, but they will lose their appeal eventually. People will always watch getai for the singing and the jokes.'

Agreeing, getai emcee Wang Lei, 48, said: 'People started watching getai instead of wayang because of the jokes. We would tell dirty jokes, or joke about what's in the news. That way, the audience would identify with us.'

These heartland concerts have certainly come a long way from the days when they were performed by just a man in a simple suit, standing on the back of a lorry, with a light bulb overhead.

In the '50s and '60s, veteran performer Hong Xiaoling, did not have the sequined costumes now associated with getai.

Neither did he have LED lights or pyrotechnics. Instead, the tools of his trade then were his winsome smile, his trademark cap, and his most prized possession - his sharp wit.

Xiaoling acted, sang, hosted and even composed Hokkien songs during his 42-year career, and is still referred to as the 'big brother of getai' by other performers.

No wonder he misses the days of comic duo Wang Sha and Ye Feng, famed for their witty exchanges.

He said: 'We used to have skits, but no one wants to act anymore. It's extinct.'

In the '70s, neon lights were introduced, said Xiaoling.

Instead of having plain backdrops, flowers and birds were painted by hand on cloth, he added.

Christmas lights

Performer Liu Lingling said that in the '80s, Christmas lights were added.

In the '70s, said Wang Lei, cross-dressers were all the rage. In the '80s, it was magic acts and 15-minute dramas in which actors would re-enact famous scenes from Chinese literature, such as Journey To The West or The Water Margin.

Performances could also go on all night with one performer doing as many as 15 shows in a night.

Wang Lei said: 'Now, with getai ending by 10.30pm, the most I can do is six performances.'

Even so, getai is soaring with expensive productions.

Some customised lighting costs organiser Aaron Tan more than $8,000, he said.

Organisers spend between $4,000 and $12,000 on a show, depending on how elaborate the production is, added Mr Tan, 33.

Liu Lingling said she would think nothing of paying $4,000 for 10 stage outfits.

It's not just the women who have to doll up, said performer Zhong Yao Nan, more commonly known as Ah Nan.

While he used to wear just one suit that 'could be worn to a wedding dinner', now he has to prepare five or six 'glittering' outfits to change into each night.

Lingling attributes the rise of getai's popularity to movies, such as Royston Tan's 881, and media coverage in recent years.

She said: 'Until 881, people did not realise that getai has been changing. They used to think that getai is very 'biang' (meaning kitsch in Hokkien) and offbeat. Now, everyone realises that getai is special. Now, it's part of our culture.'

It is a culture that getai performers are trying hard to preserve.

Wang Lei said: 'In Singapore, we do not have any uniquely Singapore culture. Most of our culture was imported from China. We only have getai.'

Mr Tan said that this is why he is constantly trying to 'give getai a new life'.

Mr Tan, who has been organising shows for eight years, is keen on capturing the young audience. His company is on Facebook and people can dedicate songs or request certain acts.

Since 2003, he has been bringing in LED lights and stage designs 'inspired by Taiwan variety shows'.

Mr Tan, who was also Royston Tan's stage designer and consultant on 881 and 12 Lotus, said: 'The younger generation's idea of getai is the one that I have created.

'My aim is to always surprise my audience so that they will come from all over Singapore to see my shows.'

Indeed, performers and organisers have noted that the non-Chinese are starting to turn up for the shows.

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