Watching The Songs We
Sang (2015) would not have held that much importance for me had it not been a special screening organised by both Hwa Chong Junior
College and CHIJ St. Nicholas’ Girls alumnai associations. Surrounded by
both fans, participants and their children, it was amazing to feel the audience
hold their breath and exhale as one at various points of the film.
I am not very familiar with the genre in this film but I
noted that director Eva Tang was audacious enough to not just cover the Xinyao
movement from the music industry’s point of view but also from its very humble
beginnings in the Chinese medium schools.
The latter is what makes the film
stand out, otherwise it would have been just another documentary, albeit still
a good one, on a music movement. Eva Tang is of course, well-known for her work
with Royston Tan and Victric Thng in Old
Romances (2010) and Old Places
(2012) which are social-historical documentaries on Singapore. It is such
experience that we see Tang bring to the fore in her debut feature.
The closure of Singapore’s vernacular schools as it made to
switch to all English-medium schools was a necessary, yet bitter move in the
1970s as Singapore sought to prepare itself for survival in the world economy.
However, Nantah University had been built only two decades before as a pinnacle
to Chinese education in Singapore. Thus it is usually such regret that comes to
be associated with the switch.
However, Tang shows us a completely different
reaction in Nantah Chinese poetry club’s last days. Within this club, we see
poetry and music flourishing dramatically as the university faced its imminent
closure; The students creating poetry to express their emotions on the state of
affairs and then taking cues from Taiwan’s folksong movement to set their poems
to music which became wildly popular. Such creative outpouring of the students,
a lesson in how to respond nobly to a traumatic event.
Of course, optimism alone would not have been able to
sustain the movement. Tang then traces its increasing popularity to the
willingness of a radio disc-jockey who was willing to take a chance on these
students, which eventually catapulted them to fame as well as spawning similar
movements in various schools across Singapore, leading to television
appearances and of course, Singapore’s mandarin music industry as it is today.
The
scope of this research took 3 years to complete as hunting down members of the
various bands and producers who have long since taken different paths was not
easy. Similarly, Tang’s efforts to film their efforts in their original
locations or to substitute with old pictures must be lauded for making this
film a fantastic historical record of Singapore. This makes her attempt to
organise a reunion concert for the various bands and their supporters, in Bras
Brasah (a site where bands originally played), which was filmed for this documentary,
all the more outrageous.
I cannot recommend this film well enough for its production
values which are impeccable. In a city where archival materials are difficult
and expensive to procure while historical places are torn down every other day,
Tang has done us a huge favour in documenting the Xinyao movement for
posterity. Even if you are not a fan of Xinyao or can’t speak Chinese, like me,
the irreverent hope that its pioneers carried and their triumph over adversity
holds a universal appeal that everyone can appreciate. Keep an eye out for it
when it comes out later this year!
Review by Jenson Chen
Review by Jenson Chen
