SINGAPORE – Pickled olive skewers, oyster cakes, red rice cakes and red mushroom tea – these rare treats are just a few of the more than 30 culinary delights that visitors can try at the inaugural Hinghwa Food and Cultural Festival.
The Hinghwa community first arrived in Singapore in the late 19th century from Putian. The city in Fujian province is also known as Hinghwa and Puxian.
The six-day festival, which will be held at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza in Orchard Road from March 12 to 17 from 11am to 10pm daily, celebrates Hinghwa heritage, culture and cuisine.
The event will also feature Hinghwa crafts by heritage brands and performances by artistes specially flown in from China.
It is organised by the Singapore Puxian (Hinghwa) Network, a clan association set up to bring together Hinghwa descendants in Singapore. It was inaugurated in 2021 and has about 700 members.
Entry to the festival is free for the public, but each visitor has to buy at least $20 in coupons to use at the food booths.
Mr Fong Chi Chung, 56, president of the clan association and founder of popular restaurant chain Putien, said he welcomes all races and communities, including tourists, to the festival.
“Organising a food and cultural festival in a big-scale manner will hopefully help foster deeper understanding and appreciation of Hinghwa culture among the public, and we look forward to welcoming everyone from Singapore and the region to join us,” he said.
According to the Census of Population 2020, there are about 27,000 Hinghwa people in Singapore.
However, Mr Andrew Tjioe, chairman of the festival planning committee and vice-president of the clan association, said there are many more Hinghwa people in Singapore – possibly up to 100,000 – who have registered or categorised themselves as belonging to the Hokkien dialect group on their birth certificates.
Besides an array of Hinghwa food, the festival will showcase and sell a variety of Hinghwa crafts including classic furniture, handicrafts and jewellery, as well as produce such as dried longans, teas, loquat paste and preserved kelp.
There will also be shows by overseas acts, including the Putian Southern Temple Shaolin Monks, the Puxian Opera Theatre and Chinese painter Huang Feng Rong, who combines live painting with performance.
Local singers Nathan Hartono and Joanna Dong, who are both of Hinghwa descent, will perform on the opening day of the festival. The Singapore Putian Traditional Music, a group formed in 2019 to promote Putian’s traditional folk music, will also perform.
“Through this festival, we aim to promote and preserve the Hinghwa culture while cultivating a deeper understanding of Hinghwa’s history among the younger generation,” said Mr Tjioe, who is also president and chief executive of food-and-beverage powerhouse TungLok.
“We chose Orchard Road hoping that the central location will help attract people of different dialect groups and ethnicities to join us at the festival.”
To purchase food coupons for the Hinghwa Food and Cultural Festival, call the Singapore Puxian (Hinghwa) Network on 8727-2510 or e-mail puxian.sg@gmail.com
