storytelling Vernacular Chinese oral tradition, known in Mandarin as ‘jianggu’ (‘gonggu’ in Cantonese) or ‘shuoshu’. It was brought to Singapore by immigrants from China, and was a popular form of street entertainment until the 1960s.

Originally, itinerant storytellers performed on the streets to an impromptu audience often of coolies and day labourers. Before beginning, the storyteller would light a joss stick. As he told his story, the joss stick would burn. When it burned out, he would stop, and leave the audience in suspense. At this point, a can would be proffered and the audience invited to put in money in order to hear the rest of the tale.

The stories told were usually folktales or excerpts from Chinese classics. These performances eventually disappeared along with the Chinese day labourer. However, storytelling enjoyed widespread popularity in the 1970s and early 1980s on the Rediffusion radio station. One of its most famous Cantonese exponents was Lee Fook Hong, better known to listeners as Lee Dai Soh (Big Fool). A famous Hokkien storyteller was Ong Toh, and a famous Teochew counterpart, Ng Shia Keng.

In the 1990s, Beijing actor Ren Baoxian held storytelling sessions at The Substation Garden. The Storytelling Association, which was registered in 2006, was established to revive the tradition and bring it to a wider audience.

Photo credit: National Archives of Singapore