Chingay 2008

A dad said to his daughter, "Today, it's Chingay Parade, it is the Chinese New Year parade. It's held every year. We didn't see it last week, so today they are bringing Chingay Parade here!" I have never seen Chingay Parade. To think that I have been in Singapore for quite some time, I haven't seen or done a lot of things in Singapore. Shame!

From Wiki:

The Chingay Parade (Chinese: 妆艺大游行; pinyin: Zhuāngyì Dàyóuxíng) is an annual street parade held in Singapore as part of Chinese New Year festivities. The term Chingay itself originated in Southeast Asia, particularly in Penang, Malaysia, which is a phonetic equivalent of the Chinese words "妆艺", which means "a decorated miniature stage" or float. Today, the parade has evolved into a massive multi-cultural and international event telecast live on television every year.

People started lining up on the streets half an hour before the start of the event, not just streets, but also open air car park building across the street. Parents brought their kids, their parents, their brothers and sisters, photographers walked around with huge long serious-looking cameras that's everywhere these days, and me with my unawareness of the parade everybody seemed to love. I don't have expectations, I guess this is the exciting part.

So it started with a couple of dances, then a few technical glitch (the songs stopped in the middle of the dances), and a minister and his wife who shook my hand came out to say a few words. Then it's the parade. The Merlion head. The Japanese ladies. The futuristic looking but incomprehensible float. The ship. My alma mater float. I remember each house of residence in my old school always had amazing float and dances each year. It's pretty short, and it's great. The boy with the comic book didn't seem to care much. He's too absorbed in his book.