Chingay Reflections

This years' theme for Chingay is "Lights of Legacy, Brighter Singapore". I feel that the theme fits the performance. Many bright and vivid colors were used in the costumes of the performances, lights and props. I am very grateful I got the chance to catch 2016 Chingay rehearsal life. Every year i will be at home watching Chingay on the television.

I feel that Chingay is a performance that brings people of different races together to work harmoniously towards one goal: a good performance. During the show, i did not only see Chinese performers. I saw many different race of performers. What amazes me is that there are performaces from other countries. I thought this event was only for Singaporeans but I was wrong. During the assembly programme before Chingay, I learned that there are performers from our neighboring countries also performing. This shows that Singapore is a country with Racial Harmony and have good relationship with other countries.

Here is a brief history of the Chingay parade
The very first Chingay parade was held in 1973. The Chingay parade was introduced by Mr Lee Kuan Yew. He introduced the Chingay parade to compensate the ban of use of firecrackers. Chingay in its original form is very much what has been described as a Hokkien Chinese tradition, once held usually in conjunction with religious festivals with a usual parade of deities, and it is in this form that it is still very much celebrated across the causeway in Johor Bahru on the 21st day of the Chinese New Year.The Chingay parade was so well received, it continued annually until today, it has became the largest street performance and float parade in Asia with more than 50 contingent from over 10 countries.

This year Chingay parade was a really colorful parade as the theme suggest. I am really impressed with the performance especially how all the performers worked together and have such great synergy to create such a beautiful parade. I would like to show my gratitude to the person who planned the whole Chingay parade. The parade was perfectly planned and I cannot emphasize how amazing the performances are. My favourite performance was the one where dancers hung in the sky dancing. I find it really scary because the dancers are only attached by their harness. If anything bad happens the dancers would not survive such a long fall. Also I admire the fact that the dancers are so disciplined. They have to be either on the sky platform or in the air. They have no access to food or water, so they need to persevere until the end of the performance to be able to eat and drink.

This performance would not be possible if it was not for all the backstage crew such as the crowd management team etc. I would also like to say that all the people involved has took a lot of time off for this performance. My brother is a volunteer for Chingay and almost every weekend he needs to go for rehearsals, so I know how much time the people has put in for this event. 


The organizers have definitely achieved the purpose. They have brought together people of different race, country and all walks off life to come together to achieve this marvelous performance. Friendships are created and bonds are strengthen between the performers and backstage crew. If I were given the chance to participate in next years Chingay parade I will definitely participate in it. The school also provided a opportunity for us to bond with our classmates and have fun together. All in all, I really enjoyed this years' Chingay performance.