Showing posts with label Malaysia. Show all posts
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

June 15, 2016
Photo © Nick Ng-All Rights Reserved
I've been admiring Nick Ng's photography since I viewed his work on Chinese Opera, which I featured earlier on this blog, so I was glad to have found more of it on The Huffington Post.

The collection of his photographs are titled The Forgotten Faces of China, and are of elderly Chinese who live in the rural regions of the country, and have been left behind by their kin. Millions of Chinese have migrated from the countryside, with a majority of the country's population now living in urban areas.

Millions of older Chinese are facing poverty and loneliness as their children flee villages for cities. The years of societal turmoil (radical communism followed by rampant capitalism) have frayed the ties that once bound the nation’s families together.

As a result of China's "One Child" policy, more than 160 million Chinese families have only one child. Similarly, these family members are 60 years or older. Although many Chinese children still care for their parents, it is clear that the old traditions about loyal Chinese sons and daughters may no longer be as solid as they once have been.

Currently appointed as and sponsored by Sony Malaysia as their Alpha Professional photographer, Nick Ng is a freelance photographer based in Kuala Lumpur. who started photographing in 2007. He has won many photographic awards in Malaysia and abroad since then as well having been featured in various publications and exhibitions.
Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

June 08, 2016
Photo © Nick Ng-All Rights Reserved
Readers of this blog know I immerse myself in personal projects that "speak" to me for many reasons; some of which are unknown whilst others are obvious. Documenting endangered cultures and traditional life ways, with particular emphasis on religious traditions and events, cults and esoteric practices, is what attracts me the most for my photography.

I've very recently started the process of exploring the tradition of Chinese Opera. Earlier this year, returning home after completing my work photographing the Vietnamese religious tradition of Đạo Mẫu, and its ceremonial manifestations of Hầu Đồng, for my forthcoming book "Hầu Đồng: The Spirit Mediums of Vietnam”, I spent time admiring large photographs of Chinese Opera performers displayed at Hong Kong Airport.

Perhaps it was the visual/aesthetic connection between the Hầu Đồng mediums and the Chinese Opera performers that was at play, but it was then that I decided to add this project to my to-do list.

During my recent trip to Kuala Lumpur to attend Travel Photographer Asia 2016, I met Lim Li-Ling, a Malaysian part-time photographer, who had documented the Xiao Qi Lin Hokkien Troupe of Singapore  for a number of years, resulting in a book titled Wayang (A Javanese term for theatrical performances). Discussing it and receiving a copy of her book cemented my decision to go deeper into this traditional art form.

In contrast to Hầu Đồng which is relatively unknown by photographers outside of Vietnam, Chinese Opera has been popular with a large number of documentary photographers. I found a expansive amount of photographic essays documenting Chinese Opera; the first of which is by the very talented and prolific Nick Ng, a Kuala Lumpur resident and a Sony Malaysia's Alpha Professional Photographer.

Chinese Opera is one of the oldest dramatic art forms in the world. Many of the features that characterize modern Chinese Opera developed in northern China, particularly Shanxi and Gansu Provinces. The main forms are the Shanxi Opera, the Beijing Opera, the Shanghai Opera and the Cantonese Opera.

However, as Lim Li-Ling asserts in her Wayang book, Chinese Opera in the region of South East Asia is currently a dying art from whose performances are limited to key religious festivals.

Read more »
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
Powered by Blogger.