Bangsawan was evolved from Persian theatre (wayang Parsi) and by the time it arrived at the Malay Peninsula, it had become an eclectic mix of cultures and performances. In order to cater to the diverse taste of the heterogeneous crowd in Singapore, it was necessary to amalgamate the diverse elements of performances originating from other ethnical cultures. Bangsawan performances had to draw upon the other popular theatrical forms and incorporate crowd-pleasing musical styles from the Malay, Indian, Arabic and Western cultures to appeal to the urban and suburban population. According to Tan, conventions of bangsawan and stock characters of the plays were adapted to enable the integration of foreign classical narratives such as the Western Shakespearean plays and Chinese romance stories into the established bangsawan repertoire. During the extra-turns (theatre intervals), traditional and trendy songs were accompanied with dances to plug the performance gaps in order to retain the attention of the audiences. The dance performances were often formulated from prevalent Malay cultural dances as well as the most current dance trends. Thus, bangsawan could be seen as a melting pot of cultures where the highly versatile theatre could assimilate well-liked performances from other regions into its exploitation of the many traditional conventions of the Malay ritualistic performance. Bangsawan, which was created by the vernacular population for local consumption, was truly a highly innovative and commercial theatre. From the evolution of bangsawan, one could identify and map the progress of Singapore society. The multi-cultural bangsawan was clear evidence of an urbanizing and pluralizing society due to the influx of migrants into the cosmopolitan colonial port. Singapore then had needed a mass entertainment that could cater to the population made up of different ethnicities and social strata. Bangsawan, which was sensitive to the dynamic preferences of audiences, fitted the bill. Besides being highly adaptive to the transient tastes of the population, bangsawan was also able to leave behind a legacy in musical and cultural interaction.
Since bangsawan was a versatile performance that included traits across the various cultures and ethnicities, the ethnic backgrounds of the recruited performers were naturally of a variety. This was a clear departure from the traditional Malay theatre as performers of Chinese descent; Arab nationality and European origin were often hired to increase the novelty profile and fame of the bangsawan troupes. This also helped to increase the interaction amongst the different races in order to create a multi-cultural bangsawan as the performers learnt from one another while living together in a troupe. Therefore, the accomplishment of bangsawan as a popular culture in Singapore was primarily due to the multi-cultural and ethnicities aspects of the performance and performers that resonated with the needs of the heterogeneous society. From the success of bangsawan, it could be inferred that the Singapore society was also open and responsive to the outside world as they readily accepted the assimilation of the different cultural forms of arts into bangsawan.
Tan S. B., Bangsawan: A Social and Stylistic History of Popular Malay Opera (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 1-35.
No comments:
Post a Comment