Chingay Experience

The Chingay Experience

Breathtaking. It is the one word that sums up the Chingay experience. Since it was my first time experiencing the Chingay performance, I was very much looking forward to it. Indeed, it did not disappoint me. Instead, I was very taken aback. Every performers were wearing very fancy costumes, and I even saw ethnic costumes that I had never seen before. In contrast with all the fascinating things, it was raining quite heavily that day. Being the first class to arrive at the venue, we had to sat under the rain for much longer period of time as compared to the others. It even took the second class fifteen minutes to arrive after us. The poncho that were given to us were not big enough to cover our entire body and some of us were wet here and there. "Although the weather was wet, our spirits were not dampened," as said by one of the female emcees. The rain did not make me any less excited, instead, it warmed my heart seeing how every audience was persevering through the rain to watch the performance.

The Purpose

Although Chingay started off in 1973 as a all Chinese event to compensate for the ban of firecrackers due to injuries and deaths caused, but it became multicultural in 1976, including all the Malays and Indians in the performances. By 1987, Chingay had featured its first foreign group, Japanese. Chingay now includes many different racial groups such as the Chinese, Malay, Indian, and other international groups. Chingay is a performance which showcases the examples of how Singapore's is a vibrant and multiracial society. Multiracial as in racial acceptance, and not racial tolerance.  Even in Singapore itself, many have the thinking that being in a multiracial society, one would have to tolerate others' cultures and believes. However, it is definitely not true. Being in a multiracial society means that one needs to accept and understand other cultures and religions that are different. If not, conflicts and riots might take place again.

Did it fulfill its purpose?

The first performers that came out, were ladies dressed in white and blue, dragging along a platform which was a crescent base with 5 stars at the tip. It reminded me of the Singapore flag, where the crescent represents rising young nation, and the 5 stars represents democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality. I thought to myself, how do these qualities help to contribute to a multiracial society? After thinking through, I came to a conclusion. With these qualities in mind when we act, we are able to build a cohesive society that includes every race and religion and where everyone is equal, and have a say, regardless of race, language or religion.

Ladies dresses in white and blue with crescent and 5 stars platform

There were also many showcases of the different races and religions, such as the Chinese, Malay, Indian, Japanese and Eurasian. The Singapore army also came out and the popular song from "Ah Boys To Men" were also played through the speakers when they were entering. Following that, were groups from the various religions, and participants from the community centres. After observing very carefully, I realised that even though it was a Indian showcase, Chinese were performing in it as well. It was the same for many other performances. The middle-aged performers from the various community centres were also of mixed races. This signifies the unity of the people as the different races in the same item would have to work together and accept each other's differences, if not, the performance would not be a success. Thus, acceptance and understanding are very important in building harmonious relationships among different races and religions.

Participants from community centres

Our Roles

"Come rain or shine,let us stay together. Chase the rainbow, and make Singapore a better home for us." 
As students and the younger generations, we can apply what we learnt in our daily lives and accept and understand what the other races and religions are all about to make the society more harmonious. This is also to ensure that the future generations would also be able to do the same and maintain this multiracial society of Singapore.