2 EVENTS April-August 2017 The Spotlight
2 EVENTS April-August 2017 The Spotlight
“ Flea market” phrase used too loosely
The Retro Factory’ s founder said that there are only three genuine flea markets in Singapore.
BY JAMIE LEO
Antique period pieces and hundredyear-old medals were among other exclusive pieces sold at Katong Square during the monthly Vintage Flea Market from May 12 to 14.
The event, organised by The Retro Factory, saw a total of approximately 20 booths participating and over 1,000 visitors. It is hailed“ Singapore’ s only true blue vintage flea market” on their Facebook page, and houses resident booths that sell vintage pieces.
The Retro Factory’ s founder, Gary Tan, shared that one of the reasons behind him setting up the flea market was because he felt Singapore badly needed a flea market to aid the culture and heritage. He said that the Japanese came during World War II and“ looted all our forefathers’ gold, crystal and silver”, and for that reason Singapore’ s precious treasures were“ stolen from us”. He added that the Generation X today are buying the treasures back from eBay to“ rebuild our heritage”.
Booths at the flea market had an array of items ranging from vinyl records to vin-
A Big Learning Classroom
Primary school students showcased their hard work as part of the Tampines Learning Festival.
BY WANI IRDINA
The third edition of the annual Tampines Learning Festival on May 21 introduced many new booths, revolving around the theme‘ Environment and Culture’.
Tampines’ annual event, Tampines Learning Festival, took place on May 21 incorporating the theme‘ Environment and Culture’. The theme was decided after participating centres came up with various themes and cast their votes. This year, organisers brought in six primary schools to be part of the booths for this year’ s festival, making up a total of 42 booths as compared to the 36 booths last year.
Chongzheng Primary School, one of the six primary schools, came up with keychain making as well as storytelling sessions. Their booth is run by the Our Kampung Kindness( OKK) team of the school’ s inno club that aims to spread empathy and kindness through their empathy storybook. Ms Tan Mei San, a teacher from Chongzheng Primary School, said that the story was written and illustrated by a team of 15 students since last September and is currently being published.
The story revolves around a character named Shoe Koala who loves making shoes for his friends but made the wrong shoe-size or type of shoes for them. Through these experiences, Shoe Koala’ s mother guided him tage jewellery, remaining consistent with the flea market’ s vintage theme.
“ The term flea market is used too loosely. Everybody that sets up a table and chair and sells something, they call it a flea market but that’ s actually wrong,” he said. He mentioned the China Square Central and the Sungei Road Thieves Market as other genuine flea markets and added that everything else“ is not a flea market”.
Sarah Chin who sells vintage clothing said,“ What I’ m curating is quite niche, so it’ s best to stick with the same genre and style of flea market.” She shared that throughout the past four flea markets she has participated in under The Retro Factory, there have been increasing sale profits and a visibly expanding pool of customers.“ It is growing, even to the point that people order online from me instead of coming to the flea market,” she said.
Su Paing, 17, a student who was attending the vintage flea market for the second time, said she felt that there are not many authentic flea markets in Singapore. She added that it was interesting that items at flea markets once had sentimental meaning to someone else.
Participants worked together to paint the planks at the Passion- Arts booth. Photo: Wani Irdina. through to put himself in his friends’ shoes by practising empathy.
“ It was a good opportunity to share empathy to the pre-schoolers,” said Ms Tan, talking about their booth.
Another primary school that took part in this event was St Hilda’ s Primary School. Their booth held a mini exhibition where the student leaders showcased the art projects of their graduated students who used recycled materials to depict the damage of pollution.
Even with new booths set up, many of those from the previous years’ Tampines Learning Festival returned. One of which is the painting station run by PassionArts. This year, participants painted planks with drawings of people in different ethnic costumes, following the theme‘ culture’.
When asked to share her thoughts on the event, Mdm Roslinah Bte Jem, a participant and teacher from Meridian Primary School, said that she found the event“ enriching” and used this opportunity to“ gain ideas” to teach her lower primary students.
The Tampines Learning Festival started in 2015 to create opportunity for family bonding as well as to provide a platform for children“ as part of the extension of their learning experience from the classroom to an outdoor area”, and had been a“ signature event for Tampines GRC”, said Mr Benny Yeo, organising chairman for Tampines Learning Festival.
Jason Ratna, 52, a collector who has been accumulating vintage items for 35 years, however, said that people are no longer concerned in the nostalgic factor and only“ chase after money”, referring to the monetary value of vintage pieces.“ The whole vintage thing, you just tell them vintage, they’ re not interested,” he said.
Jason Ratna has been collecting antique pieces including war medals for 35 years. Photo: Jamie Leo.
Revitalisation of 500-yearold dying language
First ever Kristang language festival concludes first in five phases of 30-year plan.
BY JOANNE MUK
With less than 100 Kristang speakers left in Singapore, the Kristang revitalisation team hopes to strengthen the endangered language by 2045.
Kristang, a Portuguese-Eurasian language, is a mixture of mostly Portuguese vocabulary and Malay grammar, alongside influence from other languages like Dutch, Hakka and more. A Portuguese settlement married Malacca locals which gradually built the language, and the culture packaged with it.
Mr Wong, director of Festa di Papia Kristang( Kristang language festival) and his team devised a 5-phase plan, spanning across 30 years, which includes Kristang language classes and the language festival as the objective for the first phase to raise awareness, with Mr Wong even claiming the first phase to be“ very successful” as 300 people had attended the language classes and 1,160 registered for the festival.
The Kristang language festival, which took place over May 20 and 21, had programmes ranging from panel discussions to Kristang culinary and dance exposure and even a Kristang board game made just for the festival.
The Eurasian food workshop was one of the most popular programmes, with the room nearly packed to the brim from participants watching as the host prepares Eurasian cuisine, which they then get to taste soon after. The host, Mary Gomes, is a proud owner of two published cookbooks and her very own eatery.
Mr Tan hopes that his vintage flea market will help to educate and encourage the public to find out more about the heritage of Singapore. He added,“ The dream is to have a seven day a week market, with a carnival festival atmosphere where not just Singaporeans can enjoy but also it will be a strong tourist pool.”
Another honourable mention of the festival would be the panel discussion on the future of Kristang, featuring Sara Santa Maria, a Kristang teacher, Elisabela Larrea a researcher of Macanese Creole theatre and director Kevin Martens Wong. Ms Maria and Ms Larrea shared that the best way to reach out to children, for a language to sustain through generations, would be through cultural ethics such as table manners and eating or participating in recreational activities together. Mr Wong also added that children only pick up a language if it is not“ pushed on” them.
Alike the festivals’ committee, the festival attendees also wanted to see Kristang healthy again. Esther Leong, 29, said that as long as the language has“ some( official) status given” in Singapore, it would be of satisfactory. However, she does not believe that Kristang will play a part in the Singaporean identity as it would need to be“ recognised officially” by having it in the textbooks of students.
In continuation with the 5-phase preservation plan, the other four phases consist of furthering their Kristang classes which will cater more to children, creating curricula to train future Kristang teachers and eventually, building courses targeting primary and secondary school students, which are not to be part of the Singapore school system due to unwanted political complications that may arise.
“ We need people to keep coming forward to, to be interested in working with the language and to help the community.” Mr Wong said, believing that that is the only way that Kristang can be sustained.
Kevin Martens Wong conducting a basic Kristang language class during the festival. Photo: Joanne Muk.