As we all know, National Day Parade (NDP) 2011 comprised of a skit, in which we see Gurmit Singh and Chua En Lai crossdressing to act as females in the skit. This has attracted a lot of comments from Singaporeans.
I feel that, male Singaporean actors acting as females in NDP, is extremely unacceptable. This is an event that is being viewed not just by Singaporeans, but by people all over the world. When they see and find out that the so called "female" actors on stage are actually male, what will they think of Singapore? Will they think of Singapore as a "gay country"?
NDP is a time to show off the might of the country, to show everyone what we can achieve and have achieve. The skit is also meant to characterize the typical Singaporean, thus adding fun to the NDP. However, I am sure a large part of Singaporeans would not like to be characterized by 2 "homosexual" actors on NDP! I feel that this decision to cast Gurmit Singh and Chua En Lai as female actors on the NDP stage significantly damaged the National Day Mood that day.
Of course, many people may think that this demonstrates Singapore's liberal attitude towards homosexuality. However, I ask you; is there any country whose statue, representation or avatar demonstrates homosexuality? I think not. Even countries that openly support homosexuality would not display it very outwardly towards other countries. Nothing wrong with homosexuality, but in this case, when this show is screened to all Singaporeans, it seems like an advertisement to become homosexual even.
I feel that NDP 2011 could have been better. NDP this time displayed poor taste on the organizers part. I hope they ask for the public's opinions on what would be a good NDP before they organize it.
I guess that Singapore's media seem to actually has this culture of cross-dressing, I think a good example would be Aunty Lucy. I think that perhaps the organisers thought that Singaporeans actually enjoy this kind of "entertainment" (can't find a better word :c)
ReplyDeleteMhm yeah, I think that National Day is for Singaporeans, so I think that the organisers might have just wanted to cater to our wants and to have us all enjoy ourselves during National Day.
I am not really sure if countries all over the world actually take notice of our National Day Parades because I know for a fact that I do not bother about National Days in other countries so I was thinking that National Day is really for Singaporeans, and therefore I wouldn't really worry that much about having other countries deeming us as a gay country.
Though I think that we might have made the issue too serious, and we failed to see the humour behind it. The cross-dressing wasn't really to demonstrate our attitude towards homosexuality, but I think more to add humour. I mean, didn't you guys find it funny xD
Yeah, but I do agree that it is quite distasteful to have cross-dressing during National Day and the organisers really could have came up with better avenues to entertain us, but not that bad a problem I would say (:
(On a side note, I really think Singaporeans are quite hard to please lol xD To be honest, I didn't really enjoy that "humour" but I guess we are all too particular. I mean, we comment on how NDP is boring, but when organisers try to add humour, we say that NDP is supposed to be serious and formal, and therefore not time for jokes. So what do we exactly want o.o )
Hi Wen Hong,
ReplyDeletePersonally I disagree with much of your statements. Cross-dressing has been a significant part of Singapore's media since the 1 980s. Look at Jack Neo, remember? He once acted as "Liang-Po-Po", a character which pretty much attracted attention of most Singaporeans. And what's better? He became famous for cross-dressing, so much so that many charity shows and movies involved him. I therefore agree Glenn's statement that Singaporeans actually do enjoy cross-dressing as part of "entertainment".
I feel that there is a reason why they chose Gurmit and En Lai to cross-dress. Both of them are, after all, some of the best comedians in Singapore. This supports my point of view that the cross-dressing involved in NDP is plainly for humour purposes. I remember seeing Gurmit Singh cross-dress in a Chinese program on Channel 8, frankly speaking, I enjoyed it. If my memory serves me well, En Lai has also cross-dressed in the NOOSE on Channel 5, which was also extremely entertaining!
As Glenn has mentioned, a popular cross-dresser in Singapore is Aunty Lucy. Since her appearance of in "Paris and Milan", video footages of her unique neck twisting action has been posted on youtube. It has once been mentioned in the Straits Times that many Singaporean students were mimicking this very trademarked action of hers! Consider this: Youtube is an international site which anyone can express. If other countries really saw us as freely accepting homosexuality, then wouldn't there already be many controversies?
However, despite my previous arguments, I agree that the cross-dressing has been taken slightly overboard for NDP. If Aunty Lucy was there, I bet there would be much less complains than now. Yet, that had to use two, ironically almost "foreign" cross-dressers to put on such an act. Furthermore, I feel that there was quite a lot of emphasis on the cross-dressing.
Singaporeans are difficult creatures. They want something different, yet they complain. They don't get something, yet they still complain. That is why I feel that we should not take such views too seriously, but take notice of them as it is good to know Singapore's opinions on such cases as a whole.
Kai Xiang
Hi Wen Hong,
ReplyDeletePersonally, I have nothing against cross dressers in the NDP. In this comment, I would like to rebut some of your points.
Firstly, you said that putting cross dressers in the NDP was like "advertising" homosexuality. I would like to clarify that homosexuals are not all transvestites. Homosexuals can dress normally. Next, I seriously doubt anyone takes the NDP as advertisement. When you saw people in char siew bao suits dancing in the NDP, I dont think you felt an urge to buy char siew baos. Homosexuality is not really a conscious choice, either, so whether there are transsexuals in the NDP or not, a certain number of people will still be homosexual.
Secondly, I think that the main purpose of putting the transvestites in the NDP was to make the play more interesting. The transvestites are all popular actors in Singapore, and many Singaporeans enjoy their act. Personally, I felt that the transvestites added some humor in an otherwise dull play. And frankly, I do not think anyone judges an entire country based on two actors.
I think that the NDP is also a time for the country to "let down their hair" and relax a bit. I think that the NDP should not be such a rigid and serious affair, and Singaporeans should be a bit more accepting.
Cheers,
Kenneth