by Rin Yeo
With Star Wars gracing the big screens this weekend, all Star Wars fans should be armed with a ticket to catch the movie soon enough. In the mean time though, let’s take a look at some of the Southeast Asia’s tribute to this popular franchise – and some of them are pretty creative.
Starting with Singapore Changi Airport’s tribute, which features a life-sized X-wing fighter in Terminal 3’s Departure hall, and the TIE fighter in Terminal 2’s Departure Hall, you may even spot R2-D2 running around the airport if you are lucky too. Visitors can also don on costumes and take a seat in the X-wing fighter for photo opportunities too, and X-wing fighter pilots and Imperial Stormtroopers will make their appearances every Saturday at 4pm too. If that’s not enough, you can even take home Star Wars plushies as well, coming in 8 different designs.
Next on the fanfare would have to be SMRT, donning their trains with Star Wars posters as the anticipation builds for the release of the movie. Slated to be running on the tracks from mid December, it coincides with the time that the movie is showing on screen perfectly.
Moving on to fan tributes, Singapore-based artist, Joseph Chiang, recently created a range of illustrations which reimagines the characters as Chinese folklore characters. Some inspiration of Chinese folklores include the classical novels such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Water Margin and even Journey to the West.
Slightly close to home, in Malaysia, three Malaysians have joined together to give the traditional art of wayang kulit new life by giving it pop culture themes, including Star Wars. These Peperangan Bintang (literally ‘Star Wars’) puppets were created for an art exhibit a few years ago, and they have since been used in wayang kulit performances using traditional Malay instruments.
If traditional art isn’t enough, there are also spoof online videos that poke at the Star Wars franchise too. Beginning with the Hokkien Star Wars which surfaced as early as 2006 (now subtitled in English), there’s a new video that was recently uploaded, featuring spoofs on the lightsaber’s fight scenes and sound effects. We leave you with the links to both of these hilarious vids, as we anticipate our turn to watch the Star Wars movie soon!
(images credited to their respective owners)
