Dondang sayang is a traditional poetic art form mainly associated with the Malay and Peranakan (Straits Chinese) communities in Singapore and Malaysia. The term is derived from the Malay words dondang or dendang, meaning “to sing”, and sayang, which encompasses ...
Orkestra Melayu Singapura (OMS), Singapore’s first Malay orchestra, was set up by the People’s Association (PA) in September 1991. Formed to preserve and promote Malay music in Singapore, OMS is the only orchestra in Singapore to combine modern and traditional ...
The Gunong Sayang Association, or Persatuan Gunong Sayang in Malay, is a Peranakan (Straits Chinese) social club that aims to promote Peranakan performing arts. It has played an instrumental role in preserving the Peranakan version of dondang sayang, the singing ...
The ARTS FISSION Company is a local non-profit dance company founded by choreographer Angela Liong and visual artist S. Chandrasekaran in 1994. As the first multidisciplinary contemporary dance group in Singapore, the company creates original works and new dance ...
Tan Siah Kwee (b. 6 October 1948, Chaoan District, Guangdong Province, China–) is an accomplished Chinese calligrapher and an active promoter of the traditional art of Chinese calligraphy. His calligraphy works and tireless efforts in creating awareness and interest ...
Chua Ek Kay (b. 1947, Guangdong, China–d. 8 February 2008, Singapore) was an artist who is known for bridging Eastern and Western art. He was the first Chinese-ink painter to win the United Overseas Bank Painting of the Year Award in 1991. Chua trained under Singaporean ...
Tung Yue Nang (邓汝能 ; b. 1959, Singapore–) is a Singaporean artist who subscribes to the Chinese philosophy of Tao Te Ching (Dao de jing; 道德经) (“Classic of the Way of Power”) in his art practice. While initially focused on traditional Chinese paintings, Tung subsequently ...
Snake charmers are street performers who “hypnotise” and coax their snakes to “dance” and sway to the music they play on their flutes. Snake charming is a traditional Indian folk art. In Singapore, this art is mainly performed by Indians although some Malays and ...
One of Singapore’s most successful local puppet troupes, The Finger Players (TFP) is a non-profit company founded in February 1996 by Tan Beng Tian and Ong Kian Sin as a unit of Kuo Pao Kun’s The Theatre Practice (formerly known as Practice Theatre Ensemble). Other ...
Lee Hock Moh (b. 1947, Singapore–) is a Singaporean artist whose detailed and vibrant orchid paintings have won him accolades both locally and internationally. Trained in traditional Chinese ink and Western oil painting, Lee is considered a second-generation artist ...
Lim Tze Peng (林子平) (b. 28 September 1921, Singapore–) is an artist, and a winner of the Cultural Medallion in 2003. Self-taught, Lim started painting in the 1950s when he was a teacher in Xin Min School. Having a strong foundation in Chinese philosophy, art and ...
TheatreWorks is Singapore’s flagship English language theatre company formed in 1985 by theatre practitioners Lim Siauw Chong, Lim Kay Tong and Justin Hill. The company aims to develop and nurture local artists, promote and support Singaporean writing and literature, ...
Robert Yeo Cheng Chuan (b. 1940, Singapore–) is a poet, playwright, novelist, essayist and librettist. He has written a novel, newspaper columns on the arts, as well as literary and theatre essays advocating the establishment of a distinctly Singaporean tradition ...
Betel chewing was known in the colonial days as betel-nut chewing. The art of paan or betel chewing dates back to the pre-Vedic Saivite Harappan empire, and the activity is also known as makan sireh in Malaysia and Singapore. It requires three different plants ...