The Haw Par Villa could possibly be one of the earliest theme parks in Singapore. I haven't been there for a very long time. The last occasion I was there, I was with my brother-in-law, and we had a whale of a time there, making all sorts of ridiculous poses.
Today, I saw this picture of one of the exhibits at the Haw Par Villa. It showed a scene from Journey to the West, where Sha Wujing, the third disciple of the Tripitaka monk, had been overcome by the female spider demon. All these demons were always plotting to capture the monk because they believed that his flesh would give immortality to those that consumed him.
I was staring at the image and suddenly, it dawned on me that in my possession were a number of black-and-white pictures that my father had taken in the 1950s or 1960s. And one of them depicted this very same scene of Sha Wujing and the spider demon.
But there was one difference. One marked difference. The spider demon in the colour image, although scantily clad, was actually wearing almost nothing originally. I wonder when was it that the owners of the Haw Par Villa dressed up their exhibits. Anyway, here are the two pictures.
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| This image was downloaded from the Wikimedia Commons and attributed to Seng Kang. |
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