A documentary on our National Living Heritage

My interest was piqued when I read the opening line of the text message received from Johor cultural activist, Tan Chai Puan.

Tan Chai Puan [Center] with the production team from
the Department of National Heritage,
the drummers and me, at the Museum

He said: “The Department of National Heritage in Kuala Lumpur is sending a team to document C P Tan as a National Living Heritage…”

I was happy for him because I know that in October 2018, Tan was declared a Living Cultural Heritage of Malaysia by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, the same year which marked the 30^th anniversary of the founding of the 24 Festive Drums in Johor Baru in 1988.

This was timely because Tan received his award exactly 10 years after co-founder of the 24 Festive Drums, the late Tan Hooi Song, was honoured by the same award in 2008, just ahead of his demise.

Tan’s text message continued with further details of when and where the recording of the documentary would be done.

Tan showing Aerriscia and Khatijah the
display on the National Living Heritage

He said, “…of course the hot spot is at the Museum of the 24 Festive Drums.”

I am familiar with the founding of the 24 Festive Drums, an art of drumming that was proudly born in JB and was also privileged to witness the official opening of the Museum on 1 January 2020.

Having worked with me on several heritage projects, Tan probably knew that I would be interested in the-making-of the documentary on him as a National Living Heritage by the Department of National Heritage.

In a recent conversation with Tan about the contents I was working on for Book Three of My Johor Stories, I shared with Tan that there will be a section dedicated to brands that are Proudly Johorean.

I can remember Tan’s enthusiastic response when I mentioned that the 24 Festive Drums’ art of drumming is a Johor-born brand that will fit beautifully into this section as its influence has not only spread nationally but had already gone global.

My Johor Stories: True Tales, Real People,
Rice Heritage, my book is also in the Museum

So, I knew that by listening in while Tan was being interviewed by the team from the Department of National Heritage, it should supply the relevant information for me to flesh out my Proudly Johorean piece on the 24 Festive Drums.

On the appointed afternoon, I arrived at the Museum entrance just as the production team from the Department of National Heritage was unloading the recording equipment from their van.

Besides the videographer and photographers, the team was accompanied by Siti Khatijah Othman, Curator with Department of National Heritage who was the Director of this documentary, and Aerriscia Epple, Assistant Curator and the Assistant Director of the documentary.

Tan took the team on a tour of the Museum and provided them with a brief commentary on some of the artefacts on display.

Walking around the Museum gave the team an idea of the building layout and when they had chosen an ideal spot as a backdrop for Tan to be videotaped, they got down to setting up the lights and cameras. 

The videographer setting up the cameras for the recording

Meanwhile, Khatijah and Aerriscia told me that making a documentary on Tan Chai Puan, as a National Living Heritage, was an initiative by the Department of National Heritage to promote the recipients of the Living Cultural Heritage of Malaysia award.

So far there were 23 award recipients in total while only 18 recipients are still alive.

When the lights and cameras were being arranged, Tan was rigged up with a microphone to begin the sound-checks and trial recordings.

                                              

In the next hour or so, there was complete silence inside the Museum except for Tan’s voice as he replied to questions posed by Aerriscia, while the cameras rolled, and I paid close attention and took copious notes.

Tan, speaking on the subject close to his heart

I could not help smiling when Aerriscia kicked off the interview by asking Tan to share some background about himself.

I was smiling because this scenario was reminiscent of my interview with Tan in 2017 when I recorded similar details to write a Portrait about the man, his passions and pursuits – not only about the 24 Festive Drums – and published it as an exclusive story in my book, My Johor Stories: True Tales, Real People, Rich Heritage.

From where I was seated, I could turn to look at the nearby display in the Museum that included two copies of my book, My Johor Stories: True Tales, Real People, Rich Heritage, with one book opened to the pages that featured, Tan Chai Puan, Cultural Activist.

When this book was launched in mid-July 2017, it went to the Number One spot of the MPH Non-Fiction Bestsellers list and stayed on this list for consecutive weeks and months. At year-end, my book was counted among the titles in The Best of MPH 2017.

Tan sharing info about the 24 Festive Drums

Later that year, I was pleased to witness as Tan proudly received the Arts & Culture (Individual) Award for his contributions to art and culture in Johor at the 4^th Iskandar Malaysia Social Heroes Awards (IMSHA) 2017.

The following year, when the 24 Festive Drums celebrated the 30^th anniversary of the founding of the 24 Festive Drums in JB in 1988, Tan was also declared a Living Cultural Heritage of Malaysia by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture.

When the videographer was satisfied with the recording of Tan’s interview, he wanted to record as segment with Tan playing the drum.

Two skilled drummers who were waiting in the wings then joined Tan in performing a simple drumming routine for the purpose of this recording.

In the recording of the next segment, the two drummers performed a smartly choreographed routine that totally mesmerised the team from the Department of National Heritage.

Filming the drumming action

Tan was all smiles and said that if they were so impressed with the performance of just two drummers, they would be simply blown away by the artistic performance of not two or four, but 24 drums!

Meanwhile the photographers were looking at the photos of drum troops in action during performances at the previous Drums Festival, totally impressed by the choreography captured by the camera skills of talented photographers.

Tan explained that these shots were from a collection selected from a Photography Competition that was held concurrently with the Drums Festival.

Tan [Left] was filmed drumming along with his drummers

Encouraged by their enthusiastic response, Tan then generously extended a personal invitation to the team to attend the next International Drums Festival to experience first-hand, the dramatic drum performances of the 24 Festive Drums.

The videographer then made a final tour the Museum to film various artefacts to use as further footage in the documentary.

Even as they wrapped up the day’s work, there was much work ahead for the production team to edit the raw footage before the documentary will be finally done.

We eagerly anticipate the pleasure of viewing the final version of this documentary on Tan, a Living Cultural Heritage of Malaysia and co-founder of the 24 Festive Drums, an art of drumming that was proudly born in Johor.