SACRED AND SECULAR : CHINESE STREET OPERA IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

This project is a study of the Chinese street opera event in Singapore. Particularly, it seeks to elucidate the dialectical relationship between the sacred and the secular elements of the event. The Chinese street opera event is a celebration that is imbued with both religious and communal significance; it is a site where the sacred and secular orders are engaged in a dynamic interplay. As these orders are posited in a dialectical matrix, a state of negotiation and contestation predominantly informs this interplay. In accordance with the prevailing modes of thought of the Chinese culture, the tension between the two is eventually resolved not via the eradication of any one of the orders, but through the achievemeni of an improved state of harmonised unity, known as He he. This paper proposes to see the street opera event as one that is composed of numerous performative frameworks. These frameworks define the strategies by which a spiritual transaction or interaction between the sacred and secular orders transpires. It is through the analysis of these frameworks, the performers within the frameworks, and the phenomena performed that the sacred-secular relation is explicated. Chapter One focuses on the sacred-secular relation within the opera performance and its related rituals. Chapter Two studies the paratheatrical activities that surround the opera performance. The last chapter links the previous analysis to the field of performance by attempting to establish the relationship between the sacred-secular dialectics and the performance environment of the street opera event.