Chingay 2016 Reflections

I used to think that the purpose of Chingay 2016 was, just like all the past few years Chingay parades, for enthusiastic people to display their talents over and over year over year while Singaporeans watch them parading around most of Singapore. However, after attending the Chingay parade 2016 Main Rehearsal on 30th January, my thinking has since changed. Now, I think that every year’s Chingay parade has its own significance and purpose.

This year marks the first year of Singapore’s next 50 and thus the theme for Chingay parade 2016 is “Lights of Legacy, Brighter Singapore”. The purpose of this year’s Chingay parade is to celebrate our founding fathers’ contributions towards the country and to reflect on the core values they have strongly believed in their whole lives which are:

1. A can-do spirit

2. A caring community

3. High moral values

4. Racial harmony and social cohesion

5. Resilience as a nation

The first Chingay parade was held in 1973 and it was a very simple one since it was the first time. However, after that, Chingay became very popular and it got better and grander year by year.

This year’s Chingay parade involved people of all walks of life with different races, religions and languages. With over 8000 performers, backstage volunteers excluded, this year’s parade was a significant and special one to me, mainly because this was my first, and probably only time that I went to watch the parade. It has left a very deep impression on me. I could remember performers wearing all sorts of costumes, each having their own story behind it.

The first float to enter was the "Brighter Singapore" float and the second one to enter was the “Voyage SG100” float.  These two floats signify our country’s leaders’ hopes for Singapore to sail towards greater heights, towards SG100.

 

Additionally, there was the ‘LED lights’ costumes performers, which about a few hundreds of youths under the People’s Association Youth Movement (PAYM) walked as a whole group together, bringing along a very grand atmosphere as hundreds of them walked by. Although one may seem insignificant among the whole group of people who look almost the same because of their costumes, I am sure the performers will feel very proud and excited because they have been rehearsing for very long and they will finally be able to reap what they sow and display what they have rehearsed thus far. 

This shows that Singaporeans have both a can-do spirit and have resilience as a nation because the performers do not give up even when they need to rehearse for long hours, and they make the best out of what they are supposed to do.

At some parts of the Chingay parade, I also see people of different races who speak different languages communicating and having fun together whilst performing. This shows that Singaporeans demonstrate racial harmony and social cohesion as we work together even with people who are not of the same race, language or religion as us.

Therefore, I think the organizers have done a really great job and have fulfilled this year’s Chingay parade’s purpose of letting Singaporeans reflect on the 5 core values our founding fathers have strongly believed in because all of the examples I have stated above show that we Singaporeans have lived by those core values that our founding fathers have strongly believed in, and have done them proud by upholding these values. I am really thankful towards the backstage crew and performers, and also everyone else who made this year’s Chingay parade a successful one.