Chingay (妆艺) is our Singapore national event and is also the largest street performance and float parade in Asia, from the main parade site to the heartlands. The word Chingay means “the art of costume and masquerade” in the Hokkien dialect of China.
Chingay has become a unique Singaporean Lunar New Year tradition, and usually held during the first weekend of the Lunar New Year. This yearly street parade is now a national festival, celebrated not only by Chinese, but also Malays, Indians and Eurasians.
In the past, Chingay would only involve local performers, however, in recent years it begin involving foreign performers. In this year, Chingay saw twice as many foreign performers as last year, from South Korea, China, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and even Italy, to join the annual parade.
For this year’s Chingay, there were two “first time” events, like the “4m Giant Artistic Puppets” and “Singapore Ge Tai - 新加坡歌台 (Stage Performances)” with celebrity artistes.
Others events include “Knit As One (网织同心)” which is made of 1,500 pieces of community-knitted tapestries, contributed by constituencies and more than 30 schools, organisations and corporations.