Chinatown Chinese New Year Light-Up 2019

Checking out the much debated piggies, and more, at Chinatown Chinese New Year Light-Up 2019.

I’ll admit I haven’t been looking forward to this year’s Chinatown Chinese New Year Light-Up. The Year of the Pig has always suffered various degrees of abusive humour. With regard to this year’s display at niu che shui, the main scorn, or should I say complaint, is also that the main scorn, or should I say complaint, is that the main showpiece looks too piggy-like.

Yeah, too piggy-like. As in too realistic. Too swine-like. Bovine. Instead of a cute representation.

And so while I was eager to know how the main display looks and feels like when seen in person, it took quite a bit of effort on my part to actually make the trip. Good news is, tower of pigs is actually quite decent when illuminated; the fats and eye bags are somewhat obscured. It’s certainly not gorgeous but if the design objective is to, err, project abundance or excess, I guess … the derided pigs do paint the picture.

Hmm … !

Elsewhere, the streets of Chinatown are their usual CNY festive self. Some of the festive stalls, such as the Chinese sausage ones, are even found at the same spots as last year. Regarding the crowds, the festive bazaar was packed when I visited, although the main light-up stretch along Eu Tong Sen Street was still manageable. Naturally, this is only going to change as we draw nearer to the year of the Oink Oinks.

Oink!