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官方艺术家
Ee Hoon Khoo
演员, 艺术总监
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The Story of my Grandparents: Grandma “郑葡萄"

My grandparents ran a "Teochew Street Opera Troupe", my grandfather 蘇三桐 is a 皮影戲

performer, he came from China with his youngest wife...he has quite a few. My grandparents decided to make Singapore their home, and when my grandfather died he left grandma here in Singapore, she continued to run his Teochew Street Opera Troupe till a very old age.

My grandma has a really cool name called “郑葡萄”, 葡萄 means "grapes", I guess her parents (my great grandparents) had wanted her to bear lots of children, as much as a bunch of grapes. They have quite a few children.

My Grandma, groomed all her children into Opera Singers or Musicians. My parents and all my aunties and uncles were in the Opera troupe, some were Opera singers and some groomed to become Musicians, so for years their generation has been in the "show business". For my generation I'm one of the only one that has chosen a path in "show business". My cousins have all became, lawyers, designers and business people.

My mom played the male role in the Opera troupe, she has very strong vocal and my dad played er hu, guzheng etc, he also painted and drew and was really talented. I think I have inherited some of their talents because I can hold a tune pretty well, I can paint and draw pretty well too. Both my parents are dead. They have never really been a couple for long, they fought all their life... sigh. 

I used to visit my grandma when I was young and I could remember the place she lived in, it's really nothing like the government flat. There was a dark alley, that led to the house and we had to use public sharing toilet, the squatting type... I remember those very well. It is right next to the Media Developement Authority in Singapore at High Street and at the foot of Fort Canning but the place has been defaced and it is now a little garden, a prelude to Fort Canning. We use to go up to Fort Canning to sneek peeks on our cousin who met the girlfriends there when they were dating... years ago.

Grandma was a great cook. I remember finishing up the bones of the fried fishes she cooked. My favorite dish was sugar coated tofu. She will deep fried the tofu till they were crispy and than coat a layer of sugar and darksoy over them. They were really yummy.

I inherited grandma's Abascus and it is on display in my room. That's the only thing I have gotten that is hers. It is very important because that's her calculator, the one she used to count her collection and brought up her children.

I love my Grandma. I love my MOM too.... now I love my Sister who is my only family.

这篇文章讲的是我的外公和外婆,他们南来,到亚洲谋生,而后在这里,落地生根。他们是跑戏班的。外公的名字是蘇三桐 原本是位皮影戲表演者,外婆的名字是“郑葡萄”,这样的名字应该是希望她能多生孩子吧。外公去世后外婆撑起了这个家,把孩子们都带大了。孩子门也在戏班里成长,有的成为唱戏的,有的成为华乐师。

我母亲就是唱旦角的,演的多是书生角色。父亲是玩二胡和古筝的。而且父亲也善于绘画,是个有才艺的人却不是个好丈夫,也不是个好爸爸,我记忆里,没有很深和他在一起的日子

15 年多 前 0 赞s  5 评论s  0 shares
Photo 246443
原来姐的全家人都是搞艺术的,艺术家族:D
15 年多 ago
Photo 34291
fascinating! But it make sense now... That's why you are artistic... Looks like you are very close with your family. What a good girl~ And yeah, what a cool name!
15 年多 ago
Img1473666196092
:)
15 年多 ago
Photo 55108
;o)
15 年多 ago
Mariejost 26 dsc00460
It's funny how people chose different paths. In your case, you continued the artistic heritage of your family and now are the only artist. In my case, there has never been an artist in the family, until me. My maternal grandmother was a nurse, in Chicago, in the 1920s. I think being a nurse was the least of her life in those days, when she was young and single. Mostly, she was a flapper who went to speakeasies at night and danced the night away. My grandmother was my only family member who really seemed to understand me and appreciate who and what I was. It was good to have that one family member who thought I was doing alright. Do you have any pictures of your grandparents from the treasure trove of pictures you got from your mom?
15 年多 ago

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Live Theatre, Production and Technical Theatre Direction and Design. Photography and Art Directions. 舞台魅力:舞台布景,灯光,音响,特效,服装,造型设计等等。能制造不同的视觉效果,把故事的景象呈现给观众,带领他们

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语言
english, cantonese, mandarin, hokkien
位置(城市,国家)以英文标示
Singapore
性别
female
加入的时间
December 6, 2008