WeCare—Singapore, City of Dreams
When the upbeat music of the remixed song Cartoon Heroes by Aqua came in, the audience saw a contingent of 350 representatives from the SSA Future Division marched in in one of the brightest costumes of Chingay Parade 2017. The annual Chingay celebrations were held over two nights, on February 10 and 11, at the F1 Pit Building, with the theme “SoundWaves Chingay, WeCare Singapore: A Water, Fire, Snow, Xinyao and Musical Parade to celebrate Chingay 45!” (狮韵妆艺, 同心关怀新加坡:水火雪, 新谣与音乐的文化飨宴，欢庆妆艺四十五!). Both Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and President Tony Tan Keng Yam graced the event on the Friday and Saturday respectively.
This is the 33rd time SSA is participating in Chingay Parade, the largest street parade in Singapore. Representing SSA is one of the successor groups, the Future Division. Under the fourth segment of the parade, “WeCare—Singapore, City of Dreams”, SSA strives to bring across the message of coexistence in peace and harmony, highlighting the important role youth play in continuing our hopes and dreams for Singapore’s future.
A Futuristic Performance
You can’t miss the sight of the gallant participants who came in dressed in metallic colour, lighted costumes, smiling with the pride and joy of youth, each holding a light stick in their hands. On the costumes were also the three colours of the Soka flag—blue, yellow and red, which symbolise peace, glory and victory.
The float that came with the contingent was a ship with a globe on it, a courtesy of People’s Association. Halfway through the procession, when all the dancers pointed their light sticks at the globe, it opened up to the surprise of the audience revealing a blue robot.
“Surrounding the theme of ‘WeCare—Singapore’, we hope that the dance could convey the Buddhist spirit of altruism, that when one lights a fire for others, one brightens one’s own way too. The youth pointing their light sticks to the globe, symbolises that they are the one who will open the path to the future,” shared one of the choreographers, Tang Hui Xian.
WeCare — The Unseen Heroes
Many people worked together to support Chingay 2017 behind the scenes — the Administrative Group, Men Division Soka Stallion Group, Future Division Aunties, Soka Medical Group (first-aid and care for participants), Passion Group and Bluebelle Group (Women Division and Young Women Division make-up group) and the Angsana Group (SSA volunteer photographers).It goes to show that the Chingay Parade was more than the efforts of the Future Division, the entire Soka family had been warmly watching over the young successors, encouraging and supporting them behind the scenes. Behind the success of Chingay Parade 2017 were also the prayers of all SSA members who saw that the victory of these precious treasures of the future is the victory of SSA.
And what everyone saw over the two nights was the embodiment of One SSA performing at the parade, united by the mentor and disciple spirit and the common dream of achieving kosen-rufu, building a brilliant future for Singapore, for humanity.
