Hans Christian Andersen Story Festival @ NAFA 16 Sept - 23 Oct

Special Events celebrating 200th anniversary of Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen (birthdate: 2nd April 1805 . birthplace: Odense, Denmark) - the renown and fascinating storyteller who gave the world those magical, timeless and enthralling fairy tales like "The Ugly Duckling", "The Brave Tin Soldier" "The Flying Trunk" "The Emperor's New Clothes" "The Nightingale" "Little Mermaid" and many more memorable tales.

Danish Ambassador to Singapore: H.E. Mr. Klavs Holm officially opens HCA Festival @ NAFA

		From left: Kadja Kristiansen (Commercial Specialist, Royal Danish Embassy), Nellie Har (President Bones-N-Flesh Arts), H.E. Mr. Klavs Holm, Mr. Liew Chin Choy (SrDirector, Corporate Development Division, NAFA), SW Ng (Corporate Communications NAFA), Goh Lay Pheng (Head of Junior Art Department, NAFA), Dr Yu Weijie (Dean, School of Performing Arts, NAFA)

		NAFA Theatre students entertain guests with storytelling of Hans Christian Andersen tales.

2005 Festival Report

Story Lanterns Festival ? Yes !
Creative ! Collaborative !
Imaginative ! Innovative !

Storyteller and President of Bones-n-Flesh Arts discovers some interesting facts
concerning young Singaporeans and Hans Christian Andersen……

Year 2005 is cherished and remembered for the successful partnership of the Bones-n-Flesh Arts Society with the Royal Danish Embassy and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts ( NAFA Theatre Studies and Junior Arts departments ) in presenting this delightful Story Festival. This unique Hans Christian Andersen Story Festival was initiated by Bones-n-Flesh Arts in response to an invitation from Denmark to create local events to join in the worldwide celebration of the 200th Anniversary of Hans Christian Andersen.

The announcement that there was to be a worldwide celebration of Hans Christian Andersen immediately triggered my interest ( and by saying this, I guess my readers will easily guess my vintage - since one discovery I made during this Festival, is that a significant number of Singapore young parents and children aren’t acquainted with Hans Christian Andersen - which I thought was unexpected). I made this discovery at one of our first few Hans Christian Andersen Storytellings in April. Realizing this, I began to change my first question which was “Have you heard of Hans Christian Andersen? ” to try this instead:

“Do you know the story of The Ugly Duckling ?”

The response I got from the latter question was to my surprise absolutely positive. A sea of hands shot up. Therefore I went on to say: “I’m glad most of you know the story of The Ugly Duckling. But do you know Hans Christian Andersen was a prolific writer and he had written well over 150 stories? I was surprised actually when I researched and discovered there that are many Andersen tales which I’ve not read myself. So I think you’ll not want to listen to The Ugly Duckling again but you’d prefer to hear some other stories, am I right?”

NO! I was wrong. In fact I was totally wrong and unprepared for the varied responses that emerged. The majority in the audience had to my surprise voted to listen to The Ugly Duckling. But why, I asked ? Some of them said they simply loved the tale and are never tired of hearing it again. But it was this other reply that caught my attention. I was amazed to hear some children saying that they had been introduced to The Ugly Duckling by some Chinese book but some of them have yet to hear the English version ! This hit me between the eyes – it was indeed an eye-opener ! So this is the local Singapore I’ve yet to discover ! Imagine children here are being introduced to Hans Christian Andersen in the Chinese medium not in English

– I didn’t know this ! But isn’t this fact such a good testimony to the sheer power of a great story – to transcend language, culture, politics, religion, age and time ? Certainly great tales from famous tellers are indeed immortal ! What a marvelous universal tribute to Hans Christian Andersen who had written and told his stories originally in his native Danish tongue – a sober fact we who are English-educated, must need be reminded of.

Later I found out that the children who knew The Ugly Duckling from the Chinese storybook, know also The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, The Little Match Girl, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Red Shoes and several other Hans Christian Andersen (HCA) tales from their Chinese storybooks – and both the adults and children obviously loved these HCA stories. This observation however appears in stark contrast to a curious discovery I also made these past months while talking to many English-educated parents of Singapore children. A good number of English-educated parents, particularly the more protective ones, have expressed some disapproval of HCA, believing as they do, that the tragic overtones, intense pain, poverty and death motifs in HCA tales are unsuitable for children. So clearly, we have two contrasting camps when it comes to appraising the literature of HCA.. Albeit, this whole experience throughout the year, has awoken me to the reality that there is a whole world throbbing out here, a culturally interested and literary circle out here which may not share the sentiments and values of the English-educated in Singapore. Yes, I’m aware that the issue here is more than a difference in tongue or language but to nail it down to language may be a good place to begin to unravel the complexity of the issue.

Round-up of the Bones-n-Flesh Arts HCA Celebration Events

Bones-n-Flesh Arts jumpstarted our HCA Story Festival in April with International Children’s Book Day celebration on April 2 when we held a Family Storytelling Workshop featuring Hans Christian Andersen. The event was held at the Potong Pasir Community Club and attended by about 30 adults and children. This was followed by next three months of Children’s Storytelling Circles meetings at various locations throughout the island from April to June.

In June, our Storyteller was featured at the 3-day Hans Christian Andersen Junior Art Camp at NAFA which ran from 1st – 3rd June during the school-holidays. This Camp was open to children from 5 to 12 years old. Between 80 to 90 children attended the June Camp. The children had a delightful time creating a vast array of visual art pieces inspired by stories of Hans Christian Andersen. At the end of the Camp, the children were excited to learn that their 3D and 2D artworks would be the highlight of a Public Exhibition at the NAFA Art Gallery 1 and 2 in September.

When school reopened in July after the June holidays, we started sending invitations to schools, kindergartens and childcare centres to join the HCA Story Lanterns-making Competition and at the same time we offered to teach classes “Lantern-making for Beginners”. Between August and September, Bones-n-Flesh Arts conducted 7 lantern-making classes and also handpicked 20 best pupils’ first-lanterns which will be displayed at our Story Lanterns Exhibition in Sept – Oct

Registrations from serious family lantern-makers for the Competition started rolling in towards end July. By end August, most of the contestants submitted their lanterns. The first round of judging shortlisted 15 finalists . The 15 finalists and their families were issued invitations to the Official Opening of the Story Festival held on the evening of 15 Sept where the best lanterns were exhibited alongside the 20 best pupils’ first-lanterns from the past months’ lantern-making classes.

1st Prize: Family of
Leong Kian Chik & Lai Hwee Eng
Leong Chao Yang
Leong Wei Fen

2nd Prize: Family of
Elvin & Sindy Koh
Lemuel Koh
Jael Koh
Maeve Koh

3rd Prize: Family of
Chuah Swee Tick & Liaw Mei Lean
Chuah Wei Ting
Chuah Chee Jian

Consolation Prizes:

Our annual event, the successful "Family Feast of Lanterns" is now in its 4th year. It has been attended by an estimated 6,000 audience since we introduced the event. The Family Feast of Lanterns was birthed in 2002 for the dual purpose of :

1) Encouraging inter-generational family bonding as we believe lantern-making can involve the whole family from grandparents to young children.

2) Nurturing cross-cultural and artistic appreciation in families starting with children from a young age.

The interesting thing about our event is our fresh approach and innovation year after year.
For example this year round, we are introducing again a new and creative experience because for the first time we have created
"Story Lanterns" and we are part of the worldwide
international celebration of Hans Christian Andersen (log on www.hca2005.com.sg)

Family Feast of Lanterns this year has given birth to a larger and more exciting family festival the "Hans Christian Andersen Story Festival @ NAFA" which will feature family-crafted lanterns and a Children’s Art Exhibition plus a 6-week Storytelling festival.

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Story Lanterns Workshop
7 September 2005, Wednesday, 2pm – 5pm

Venue : Junior Arts Classroom Level 3
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, 80 Bencoolen Street


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