Week 3 CID (Chingay Parade 2014)

I was excited for Chingay from the start. I have seen Chingay parade over the years but all were on the television. This year I am honoured to be able to be given a chance to view the whole Chingay performance live. And the experience was totally different from what I have expected.  Dancers were lined up along the performing street dressed in beautiful dresses. It was certainly astonishing. The music totally fits the dance and the atmosphere was "high". I felt like I was involved in part of the Chingay parade together with my peers.  

As this year's theme is "Colours of fabric, one people", the performers there were all dressed in bright and colourful clothing, most of which were holding on to coloured-fabric flags as they welcomed us into the audience area. The MCs tried to engage us to join in by cheering before the performance started as the night was still young. Soon, the performance started. The sky was dark enough for all the light displays then. I like the atmosphere there as I could feel the excitement and the crowd cheering. Performers of different races came to perform together as one in this special 

Chingay performance, even little kids! This is really a time where different races and generations of people can bond together. The next highlight of the performance would be the nicely decorated floral carts for the parade. There are designed by the respective themes. I really like some of them a lot as they are the iconic of Singapore and are done very similarly to the real thing. Moreover, after decorating it with lights, it just looks really nice in the dark. Overall, I feel that the performance was not bad apart from the clarity of the MCs voice and the behavior of some of the audiences that were really frustrating to bear with. Lastly, I feel that we should thank the performers for the great performance as they have put in a lot of time and effort to practice and rehearse for this parade for it to be successful and if I had a chance to do so, I definitely would!

During the live parade, the floats appealed the most to me as every single one of them have a different design, some with people dancing on it while some with people acting out a scene on it. In between the floats, dancers will showcase their slick moves. Near to the end of the show, hit music was being played and most of us stood up and sang along. The parade ended with a spectacular fireworks display. After the parade, I got curious and decided to look up the origin of Chingay and I realised that this parade was used to be only performed by Chinese but now, it has become a unique multiracial performance. 

I felt that somehow the Chingay connected everyone together. Everyone was cheering and dancing together using the pom pom we were given. Even though we do not know each other, students from other classes and even schools were all doing the same thing together. It was really One People. The highlight of the parade for me was the singing. I admit I do not really fancy Mandopop but their voices merged so beautifully that I was literally gazing in awe. This is once again emphasising the theme of the parade. This was my first time watching the Chingay and I was pretty surprised by the floats because there were floats unrelated to Chinese New Year. But because of this, the Chinese New Year atmosphere is almost non-existent. However, the celebrations were overall fun and enjoyable (to the point of us losing our voices)!

This was the first time I have been to CHINGAY , everytime I watch CHINGAY was on my tv , this was the first time I get to experience CHINGAY live . This experience was a very meaningful one for me , through the performance , I get to understand about the cultures of all the religions in singapore . I understand the importantance of singapore being a mutil religion country . without all the religions in singapore , Singapore would not be as vibrant as it was now . This I felt that this was a meaningful experience for me .

The fireworks were great and engaging!