新加坡福建族群的记忆和再现 ：以陈子谦电影的电影音乐为例 = Memories and representation of the Singaporean Hokkien community : an analysis of the film music from Royston Tan’s films

• Main Author: 陳姵伃 Tan, Peggy Peiyu
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: Chinese
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::History::Asia::Singapore::Social aspects
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/54925
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In the process of Singapore's nation building, the once dominating Hokkien culture was gradually alienated by government policies and eventually marginalized by the Singaporean society. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, Singapore was one of the biggest Hokkien films producing area. Ever since the Hokkien culture was heavily hit by both social and political factors, the golden era of Hokkien films in Singapore also ended with it. Until the 1990s, movies that adopted the Hokkien language as the lingua franca start to reemerge in Singapore's film industry. Among these films were "15" by Royston Tan, which employed the Hokkien language and Hokkien songs to tell the story of five street boys who were forgotten by the mainstream Singaporean society. Another two films, "881" and "12 lotus" boldly adopted the Hokkien culture as the core of the story plot. These musical films added a tint of modern elements to the old-school Hokkien songs, while maintaining the traditional cultural elements. When the old and new elements are woven together, it allows the Hokkien culture to reintegrate into modern society and also, raises the audiences' awareness of this endangered culture. When music is used in conjunction with the images, the audiences' nostalgic feelings toward the Hokkien culture will be aroused. As such, we can analyse the music in films by applying Claudia Gorbman's theory of analysing film music. She divided the film music into three different levels. First, music is the functioning of pure musical codes that it is independent of any other activity. Second, music refers to cultural musical codes, which has its connection to a specific culture. Third, music is a film element known as cinematic musical codes. The interaction between film music and film images can convey messages that go beyond the cinematic narrative. When these recomposed popular songs appear in the movies, they will invoke the underlying cultural memories in the audiences. Hence, the movies demonstrated retaliation against the cultural hegemony in Singapore by reflecting and echoing cultural memories of the Singaporean Hokkien Community in the mainstream Singaporean society, that is unable to embrace and accept the Hokkien culture. This thesis will focus on the general attitudes toward the Hokkien culture in Singapore; understand the relationship and influences between the Hokkien culture and director, Royston Tan; and explore the use of film music in "15", "881" and "12 lotus" to examine how he employed these "cultural commodities" to retaliate against cultural hegemony and also, to cultivate a sense of belonging which will enable the audiences to resonate with the film.