Johor has much to
be proud of as three of the state’s cultural products are recognised by the
Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Ministry as National Cultural Heritage icons.
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| Muar's award-winning Kun Seng Keng Lion & Dragon Dance Association, a National Cultural Heritage 2007 |
While these three
icons may be rooted in Chinese culture, they have evolved into Malaysian symbols
of unity where participants are not limited to a single ethnic group but have
members from our multi-racial community and are enjoyed by the entire nation.
In
2007, Muar’s award-winning Kun Seng Keng Lion & Dragon Dance Association
was recognised as a Malaysian National Cultural Heritage while JB’s 24 Festive
Drums earned this honour in 2009. In
2012, the Johor Chingay parade, an annual tradition of the Johor Gu Miao
or Old Temple, was declared a National Cultural Heritage.
Lion Dancing is a
tradition for auspicious celebrations like official openings and to kick-off
the lunar new year. It’s a martial arts discipline
that mixes wushu with performing arts
and the Kun Seng Keng Lion & Dragon Dance Association has taken the art of
lion dancing to a whole new level.
Since this
association was formed in 1988 by Tan Chong Hing, the art of lion dancing has
been skillfully developed in its traditional form and high-pole lion dancing,
and achieved international recognition as a leading lion dancing group.
As the defending
champion, the Kun Seng Keng Association beat 10 other teams to clinch its 11th
trophy at the recent Genting World Lion Dance Championship. This trophy proudly joins 75 national and 63
international titles the association has achieved since its inception.
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| The annual Johor Chingay, a National Cultural Heritage 2012 |
The pulsating Johor Chingay parade has also earned its place
of pride as an annual tradition kept in practice since the 1800s without any interruption except once during the Japanese invasion in 1942. It was once a religious parade where temple deities were traditionally taken on an annual tour to bless the town with peace and harmony, good weather for the cultivation of gambier and to celebrate good harvests.
It has since transformed into a street carnival with a spectacular
show of colourful costumes, floats, acrobatic stunts, big-headed dolls, swirling dragons and lion dancers, prancing to the sound of crashing cymbals and thundering drums. It is now a major tourist
attraction with foreign media coverage and studied by university researchers
from China, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
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| Media launch of the 4th International Invitation of 24 Festive Drums event at the JB Tiong Hua Association |
This September,
Johor Baru is gearing up to welcome drummers from the world over to participate
in the 4th International Invitation of 24 Festive Drums event. Since 2010, the JB Drums Festival was hosted
every two years for local troops to pitch their skills at a progressively high
level of competition while international troops show off their drumming talents
with pride.
When Tan Chai Puan and the late Tan Hooi Song founded the
Festive Drums in 1988, they did not know that this dramatic art of drumming
would grow into an international art-form. While they were then working
together on the National Dance Festival in JB, they decided that drums would
create the right mood as its resounding beats reflect the rhythm of life.
Tan Hooi Seong, a former music teacher at Foon Yew High School,
was honoured with the award for Warisan
Orang Hidup or A Living Heritage, for successfully creating an art of
drumming that incorporated uniquely Malaysian traits. In August 2008, he passed away peacefully after
losing the battle to cancer.
While
the drums are a cultural element from China, this Johor-born art of drumming has
spread nationwide and abroad. Over the
years, fans of the 24 Festive Drums saw how this art-form evolved to a higher
level of sophistication with stylish drumming, choreography, costumes and
themes where artistic formations and even facial expressions helped to gain
points in competitions.
Since
2008, drumming was included in the primary 6 school syllabus and drum troops
were established in primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities in
East and West Malaysia and even among the physically handicapped.
Corporations and private enterprises also started their own drum troops as part
of their teambuilding efforts.
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| 24 Festive Drums, a National Cultural Heritage 2009 |
When the 24 Festive Drums was honoured as a National Cultural Heritage
in 2009, this recognition drove drummers to develop this art of drumming more
professionally to keep it viable into the future. Coach Training Programmes were established to
guide drummers with a standard syllabus, monitored by a professional technical committee
and supported by the Ministry of Education.
It was interesting that this art of drumming was exported to China
when the Foon Yew High School
troop proudly performed the 24 Festive Drums at Teochew City, on their first
visit there in 2008. Malaysian students in China then helped to pioneer
the first drum troop in Hokkien province, which now has some 300 drummers!
That same year, Malaysian students in Oklahoma State University
started the first 24 Festive Drums troop in the United States. Their proudest achievement was in 2010 when the
drum troop was invited to perform at the NBA games’ half-time, in Oklahoma City.
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| Catch the video of the Drums event on the screen of Holidayvilla Hotel JB, this season |
With
wide international exposure, there are now more than 300 drum troops worldwide
including professional troops in Singapore, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Switzerland,
United Kingdom and the United States.
Since
the inaugural 2010 Drums Festival, competitive drumming has been taken to
higher levels of performance and showmanship, with an emphasis on performing
arts, enhanced by professional lighting, sound and stage presentations.
To
pick the best troops to participate in the coming competition, four regional
competitions were held in the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Central regions. Such strict selection promises fans a stunning
show, with the cream of drum troops competing to proof their mettle and
superior edge over the others, this September.
As more
global drumming fans are being garnered, drumming enthusiasts here eagerly
anticipate that day when the 24 Festive Drums may be established in JB as an
iconic festival.
A version of this was published in the September 2016 issue of The Iskandarian
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