I DISAGREE with the reasoning for limiting the use of dialect in
the getai performances in Orchard Road ("Getai goes glam in Orchard
Road"; Sunday).
Tourists delight in experiencing authenticity, which is totally
undermined by this artificial language restriction.
I have savoured songs such as madrigals sung in the vernacular
tongue in similar traditional, open-air festivals in major cities
around the world without being put off in the slightest by the
language barrier.
I ask the authorities to withdraw the current ruling which is
killing the soul of the getai, rendering it as "just another
Mandarin song concert".
Chen Junyi
