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My Sinchew/Asia News Network

PENANG: Why do we have to hold festival events? This is fundamentally a philosophy question.

“Festivals are able to lure tourists and we can make money from them,” capitalists would say.

From a certain perspective , the “make money” theory indeed is right, but to Wong Han Wei, head of the Penang arts and literary affair committee, holding festivals has deeper significance.

During an interview with Sin Chew Daily, Wong said holding festivals was more than just getting people to come for dinner or making the events lively and merry. It has to go back to the original objective of serving the public.

“For me, I think that is registering and conserving something which is important to a particular ethnic group as well as its culture. The repetitive organisation of such festivals is meant to renew the public’s appreciation of their culture while avoiding the possibility of losing any important aspect of the culture.

Impressive Kapitan Mosque

He said so far the most impressive thing for him was what he had seen during a visit to the Kapitan Mosque exhibition at a festival.

“We can rarely get a chance to go into a mosque, but then the visit offered me a deeper insight into the history of Islam in Georgetown as well as the development of the heritage area over the last few centuries. It was indeed a wonderful experience.”

He said Penang had its unique historical background and boasted a rich blend of various cultures. Without such festivals, we might have lost the opportunity to get acquainted with these cultures.

Festivals as a tool to increase public awareness

“Festival also serves as a platform to increase humanistic and awareness besides conservation and inheritance.”

He cited an example: Traditional festivals are rich in their expressiveness, superior artistic manifestations and unique performing skills such as ethnic songs, dances, cuisine, handicraft, artistic performances etc. All these have served to represent the ethnic cultures and the symbol for their ethnic identities. Hence, traditional festivals can always show the ethnic cultures and the vector inheritance.

“Simply put, such festivals offer an insight for the public to visualise the richness of our traditions, and enable us to move ahead towards a culturally more refined society.

“Therefore, it is absolutely necessary for us to hold these festive events,” He said affirmatively.

Wong has a big dream to catapult Georgetown as a city of festivals, with the hope that the local festivities will go international and gain global attention.

“I hope it will become an important arena for local and international artistes to create more explosive and refined cultural sparks.”

He said the traditions of various ethnic groups could all be demonstrated here in Georgetown.

Innovation for new festivities

“We innovate for international festival branding. Shaping our international festival branding, widening its influences and popularity are important ways to inherit and innovate traditional festivals.”

He admitted that there was still space for improvements. For instance, the Hong Kong Arts Festival has gone into preparation a year earlier, meaning you can look forward to something to be staged a year from now.

He felt that good festival marketing systems had been present in some of the more developed urban areas, supported by knowledgeable people with specific skills.

“For example, some professionals will write down their comments and review after the shows. Unfortunately few would bother to share their experiences even though we have some really good programmes.”

He said he was not sure why this had happened but he said it was undeniable that artistic reviews could help enhance public appreciation of local arts and culture while offering the artists a fertile ground to grow and prosper.

More reviewers needed

“We are an indisputable heritage city and we require more people who can write reviews and publish their opinions,” He said laughingly.

Wong said although the cultural scene in northern Malaysia looked thriving in terms of originality, it still lags behind the south in terms of vibrancy.

He cited an example that Foon Yew High School had invented the round-festive drum and high-stake lion dance and all these are local creations in the south.

“We should not count on the government only when holding cultural festivities. If members of the public are not motivated, I’m afraid we are unable to produce anything of international proportions no matter how much money we have dumped in.”

Every city has its own unique culture. If you want a city to inherit its traditions, you have to dig deep into the core of the city and amalgamate the local culture with its traditional values. By doing so, we are able to preserve the originality of traditional festivities while at the same time create a new cultural environment that will showcase the specialty and unique charms of the city.

Nevertheless, Wong does not deny that there existed the problem of shortage in resources. The state cultural committee does not have a large team like its counterparts in Taipei, Hong Kong or Australia and therefore there is a limit to what we can do here.

Under the jurisdiction of the committee are an office for world heritage, museums and galleries, and the committee employs fewer than 40 people.

“Despite the limited resources, we have done all we can to elevate the level of cultural sophistication of Georgetown.”

“We do it bit by bit, slowly but steadily. I believe we can see the result soon.”

-My Sinchew/Asia News Network

Posted by admin on May 18, 2011 under Penang Story.