exegesis

- Introduction

getaikitsch is a project that creatively explores how Hungry Ghost Festival getai performances in Singapore have been remediated for online spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a key focus on the reframing of religious aspects embedded within the form.
Through a kaleidoscopic mix of audiovisual elements – in reference to the kitschy menagerie of getai itself – the project aims to shed light on how art, culture and religion in Singapore navigated state-imposed boundaries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

- Contextual Issues

As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe in early 2020, businesses and institutions scrambled to reposition their services for online platforms amidst lockdowns. For certain industries, however, recreating a sense of connection amidst the absence of physical spaces proved difficult. Straddling the intersection of art, entertainment and ritual performance, getai (歌台, literally “song stage”) – a form of vernacular entertainment in
Singapore that involves characteristically boisterous and flamboyant live stage performances
of music, song, and dance – was no exception. Aimed at older, working-class Chinese
Singaporeans, getai is typically conducted in a mixture of dialects*, Mandarin and English, and performed on makeshift stages in outdoor spaces. Despite being secular in origin, the art form has since been incorporated into the Hungry Ghost Festival (also known as the “Seventh Month”); religious symbolism is embedded throughout these events. At performances, altars with offerings are erected, and rows of plastic chairs are lined up for audiences – who know to leave the first row empty for spirits of the departed. Getai shows are also occasionally held alongside banquet dinners, which would involve auctions of ‘auspicious’ goods; money raised fuel the costs of the banquets and shows themselves.

*** Specifically, this project will be examining in-studio getai performances conducted during the height of Singapore’s COVID-19 restrictions between April to September 2020, prior to the government’s implementation of pilot programmes involving small-scale, live performances with restricted audience size in September 2020. ***

As with many other live entertainment events across Singapore in 2020, COVID-19
restrictions resulted in the cancellation of physical getai bookings, leaving organisers with no choice but to resort to livestreaming. This was not an unfamiliar concept: as early as 2014, getai performances were already being streamed on the RINGS.TV application, before
making their way onto Facebook and YouTube – allowing participants everywhere to be 3
“spatially compresent”*. That being said, the repositioning of getai in the age of COVID-19 is noteworthy, especially when one takes into consideration the socio-economic and cultural contexts in which getai is originally situated, and its target demographic. Pre-COVID livestreams featured stage shows with live audiences; in such instances, livestreaming was but a complementary addition. In contrast, COVID-era livestreams were conducted within the confines of indoor studios; with the entirety of its audience now behind a digital screen, livestreaming becomes central to not only the performance, but its associated religious rituals.

*** Prior to the late 20th century, variants of Chinese, such as Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese, were mainly used amongst the ethnic Chinese in Singapore. However, in order to forge a common Chinese cultural identity, the Singaporean government classified these languages as “dialects”, discouraging their use in favour of standard Mandarin. This has resulted in dialects being the lingua franca amongst older Singaporeans but seeing minimal usage by younger Singaporeans today. ***

Devoid of the usual sights (altars, effigies and prayer goods) and smells (burning incense and paper offerings), livestreamed getai no longer served as a mere transposition of entertainment, but also a means of controlling spiritual experiences. On-screen graphics remind viewers that they are watching a show sponsored by a temple or affiliated charity; scene occasionally cut to an altar set up in close proximity to the stage. Running text banners not only exhort the need for social distancing, but also highlight the significance of “blessing lamps” (a floating candle in lotus-shaped glassware). The purpose of this is made apparent when getai hosts address the at-home viewer directly during their banter segments, encouraging them not only to leave comments online, but to donate via PayLah or PayNow* in exchange for a lamp lit in their name. While immediacy is established through the live performances themselves, the positioning of religion as such results in hypermediacy; there is a direct rupture of ‘liveness’ at distinct moments, drawing attention to the way in which the performance has been heavily mediated. Considering that getai’s typical audience predominantly consists of older – and by extension, less likely to be technologically literate – individuals, this disconnect may be more pronounced than expected.

*** Carola E. Lorea et al., “Religion and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mediating Presence and Distance,” Religion 52, no. 2 (April 23, 2022): 177–98, https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721x.2022.2061701. ***

This begets thinking: can religion truly be remediated? The on-screen framing of religious objects definitely reminds the viewer that getai serves a dual purpose: as entertainment for both the living and dead. Attention is invariably drawn to one’s religious obligations, and we are reminded of the absent presence of lingering spirits. The use of certain dialects, cultural references and songs in getai evokes specific cultural memories, linked to place and time; getai in itself is a manifestation of the haunting past. As such, the remediation of getai could indeed strengthen religious belief. Nevertheless, we find ourselves in a seemingly farcical situation: sites of worship have always operated on the belief that devotees had to be physically present to conduct religious rites and seek blessings. Now, it seems as if these long-standing practices can be relaxed, allowing for faith and piety to be demonstrated through metaphysical means. In the absence of their usual setup, are spirits still able to enjoy earthly offerings? Can blessings from deities be sought by proxy? This invokes a relook at what religion is, and our own personal relationships with it. What is undeniable, though, is the fact that amidst isolation and loneliness, getai and its call to religion would have provided solace to some, mitigating an increasing sense of alienation from society.

*** These are secure funds transfer services that allow Singaporean bank account holders to send and receive money instantly with a recipient’s QR code, amongst other means. ***

Religious conundrums aside, it is undeniable that livestreaming opens a whole host of possibilities. Harnessing the participatory nature of social media platforms, getai has managed to attract new audiences – this could take the form of younger viewers who previously found it socially awkward to attend stage performances, or international viewers who had no means of accessing live getai – all while retaining viewership from older generations. By breaking down geographical barriers and transcending getai’s site-specific nature, livestreaming might just be the key to the succession of this ageing art form. Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin proposed the idea that new media does not merely displace, but transforms older media*; today, both physical and digital transmissions of getai play off each other in a complementary manner, their combination (and recombination) of elements allowing for different experiences.

- Planning And Production

As a reference to getai’s brand of nostalgia-infused kitsch, I decided to curate a website that drew stylistic inspiration from Y2K and vapourwave aesthetics. Here, the use of neon colours and incongruent visual montages mirror getai’s clashing visuals, music and programme flow. The decision to incorporate Singlish – an English-derived, Singaporean creole language – throughout the website was, firstly, intended to evoke a level of informality and authenticity; secondly, I wanted to promote an understanding of the subject matter in situ, especially since language and cultural diversity is at the centre of getai itself. Accessibility to non-Singaporean audiences was, nevertheless, important; to mitigate problems, I ensured that the meaning of most Singlish text could be inferred by context provided in standard English. Links to an introduction on Singlish, as well as a glossary of Singlish terms, were also included. David Huddart, in discussing cultural translation, highlights how “globalization and global English coincide with a consumerism bent on making cultural ‘products’ accessible to old imperial centres”*; in using a hybridised approach, I hope to retain specific cultural nuances pertaining to getai and overcome the restrictive understanding of it when explained strictly in relation to Western parallels.

*** Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, Remediation: Understanding New Media (MIT Press, 1999). ***

Both curated and original work can be found across the website; they are accompanied by the use of exhibition-like labels, which aim to reframe perspectives and highlight the singular importance of these individual pieces of media. Despite originally deciding to create five unique pieces of media, each exploring a particular theory (for instance: using video to explore hauntology, and montage to explore immediacy), circumstances (such as not being able to obtain the necessary Buddhist prayer goods for use in filming, as well as the low quality of interview footage obtained) prompted me to re- evaluate my approach. I consequently sectioned the website into three parts:

*** David Huddart, Involuntary Associations : Postcolonial Studies and World Englishes (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2014), 32–51, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18kr776.5. ***

1. Introduction

Considering the complex nuances of getai and its remediation, I felt it necessary to
devote a section of the website to its introduction. This was achieved through two subsidiary parts: a video montage titled “introduction_getaikitsch”, and a compilation of pre-existing YouTube videos accompanied by descriptions. The video montage was initially conceptualised as a series of interviews with my aunt (with whom I grew up and had my first experiences of getai), interspersed by found footage; however, due to my physically being unable to conduct these interviews and her reticence, the little that was filmed (courtesy of my cousin) was deemed mostly unviable. This resulted in my using entirely found footage (excepting a single clip). Regardless, with the subject matter closely linked to my identity as a child of dialect-speaking, working class Singaporean parents, I wanted to establish a sense of intimacy through the video: a mixture of captions, approximating a stream of consciousness and positioned in a way that denotes internal monologue, was thus added. Supplementing the video montage is a compilation of seven getai videos that viewers can play, repeat or scrub through, focusing on particular aspects of getai as highlighted through the videos’ respective captions.

2. Gallery

Arguably, the most interesting assumption that e-getai makes is the fact that religious
rituals can be remediated online. Viewers could, indubitably, derive spiritual experiences from witnessing audiovisual representations of religion; however, is it frivolous to think that previously site-specific rituals can be conveniently altered, yet achieve its original objectives? As a personal response to this query, two distinct pieces of media are presented on this page. Firstly, an audio montage titled “I can't believe that you no longer have to work for religion”, features a reflexive narration atop a processed soundscape consisting of a Buddhist ritual, an iconic Hokkien song, banter from e-getai footage, and a segment of pre-recorded synthesizer improvisation. A transcription of the audio is provided in the form of screenshots from a phone application, displayed along the top of the page. The second piece of work, an animated GIF titled “Joss You Can't Burn”, features text enclosed within a red box, superimposed on a scan of joss paper. Red and gold (here substituted with yellow) being colours traditionally used on joss paper, this work is meant as an e-offering, made in jest of the idea that religious rituals can be remediated online to similar effect. The black text invites the viewer to reflect on how we establish boundaries in life, and in death. Hypermediacy is evident in both pieces of work, bringing to the forefront a veneer of illusion; we are made to confront ourselves and ask if we desire a remediated experience of religion as an act of self- soothing, and to what extent we are concerned about transmitting our messages to the ether.

3. Express Your Gratitude

In order to build a sense of community, credibility and authority, e-getai needs to be
a participatory experience. In this last section, the nod to hauntology is evident: the use of dated visual icons, alongside the presence of an embedded real-time chat web application – reminiscent of those commonly found on personal blogs during blogging’s peak popularity in the late 2000s –evoke a nostalgia for the modernity of that era. The real-time chat application alludes to live YouTube comments left on e-getai videos – except that here, its placed next to a QR code which directs the viewer to donate to the “SG BUDDHIST FREE CLINIC”, a Singaporean faith-based clinic that offers healthcare to disadvantaged individuals for free. While getai usually involves the soliciting of donations (and are oftentimes sponsored by Buddhist-affiliated institutions, as previously mentioned), the use of a QR code –which skyrocketed in popularity during the pandemic – for this purpose is novel, reminding one of the present. With the lack of any other creative work on this page, there is a clear call to action.

- Conclusion

Beyond an exploration of the remediation of religion in new media, this project turned out to be a reflexive response to the way religion is practiced in Singapore. I have merely scratched the surface of a layered, multi-faceted topic; moving forward, I hope to continue exploring the relationship between religious belief and the construction of digital rituals.

- Bibliography

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Bolter, Jay David, and Richard Grusin. Remediation: Understanding New Media. MIT Press, 1999.
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