They came for songs and Tua Pek Kong

Pulau Ubin is rural setting for getai spectacle in celebration of Chinese deity's birthday
The New Paper 16 May 09;

IT WAS the first time that undergraduate Ong Jun Xiang had seen Pulau Ubin so lit up.

The sleepy north-eastern island hosted a three-hour getai show on Wednesday night at its town square in honour of Chinese deity Tua Pek Kong, marking the end of the five-day festivities.

Although the deity's birthday has been celebrated for decades on Ubin, it's only the second year that getai has replaced the customary Teochew opera.

Mr Ong, 22, who spent his childhood in Ubin, found the rural setting of the getai 'refreshing'.

For the past five nights, he and other visitors to Pulau Ubin have been enjoying free bumboat rides. Crossing over to Pulau Ubin from Changi Point Ferry Terminal usually costs $2.50.

Devotees were also feted with gifts. Given out over the five days were 2,700 hongbaos containing a dollar each; pigs, chickens and ducks that had been used as offerings; and the moon-shaped 'Tua Pek Kong biscuits'.

Hosting the show - and making the bumboat rides free - cost more than $5,000, said one of the organisers, Mr Vincent Chew, 40, a long-time Ubin resident who runs the Chew Teck Seng provision shop.

About 2,000 people turned up on Wednesday night, he estimated.

Sentimental

'People come for the getai, yes, and the biscuits,' he said. 'You can't find these biscuits anywhere else. We Ubin people can be sentimental about these things.'

Indeed, nostalgia was what compelled many, including Mr Ong and his parents, to gather at Ubin.

The island was where his parents met, worked and fell in love. He, too, grew up there, chasing chickens and geese around as a child.

Said his mother, Madam Choo Pack Lian, 51, a housewife: 'I come here every year with my husband to pray, and to support Pulau Ubin.'

She and her husband lived in Ubin for more than 30 years before moving to the mainland.

When asked what she thought about the getai, Madam Choo beamed.

'The getai's made Tua Pek Kong's celebration more popular,' she said. 'There are more mainlanders here now.'

The getai may have helped to lure mainlanders, but Ubin has worked its magic too.

For many, the dusty Ubin road, the neon lights and Chinese lanterns have led them not just to the village square, but also to memories of those idyllic kampung days. They reminisce, joke over their beers, and for a few hours, they are boys and girls again.

Madam Chan Mei Ling, 50, who went with her husband and friends, said: 'It's like a '60s kampung. You can't find this kind of atmosphere in Singapore anymore.'

The getai performers, too, enjoyed the kampung atmosphere.

'You feel like you can really relax here,' said Ms Tay Yin Yin, 23, an artiste with Jack Neo's management company.

'It's like going to another country.'

She says that she will return next year if invited.

Even non-Chinese were spotted in the crowd.

Mr Nikchand Munnilal, 60, a salesman, was enjoying the getai show with his friends.

When asked if he could understand the songs, he laughed, saying: 'Music is an international language.

'And I like Ubin. It's peaceful, it's beautiful: The only place in Singapore where we can escape from city life.'

Han Yongming, newsroom intern

More links

• Pulau Ubin how to get there, what to see and do, on wildsingapore
• Island Festivals the latest Ubin festivities on ubin.sgkopi
• Gods and ghosts on the annotated budak blog