Many marine species heavily rely on natural sounds to find their way around, communicate, find food and even reproduce. For instance, Bowhead whales sing for prolonged periods during the winter period to woo potential mates. Pistol shrimps create powerful air sound columns by snapping their huge claws to stun and capture their prey (Versluis, 2000). Narwhals depend on vocalisations to echolocate themselves or reunite with other group members who are…
Living in Singapore, many of us may be very familiar with the loud and distinct calls (or noises) of the Asian Koel, otherwise commonly labelled as the “uwu bird”. These continuous series of high-pitched “uwu” calls can be heard from as early as 5am in the morning, with some lasting until the night near residential estates (National Parks Board, 2021). While some Singaporeans are completely unaffected by the sound, with…
As mentioned in the previous entry, the stress, hearing loss and disruption to everyday activities associated with Guangchang Wu’s deafeningly loud music has caused quite a hullabaloo amongst nearby residents. With the lack of targeted measures in place to tackle the root cause of this issue, I would like to explore some possible solutions that could address the noise problem more effectively. With the insufficient supply of green and public…
Despite the establishment of noise regulations in China, Guangchang Wu (square dancing in Mandarin) still seems to be a prominent activity that many elderly dancers engage in, disrupting the everyday lives of residents with their deafeningly loud music (Zhang, 2021). But why is that the case? Perhaps it’s time for us to look into some of the underlying issues surrounding this local problem. In 1997, the Law of Prevention of…
Across public squares, parks, and plazas in China, groups of older women congregate in the early hours of the morning, late afternoon, or night to dance together to Chinese music (Davidson, 2021; Kirkpatrick, 2015). Every day, tens of millions of “dancing grannies” participate in Guangchang Wu (square dancing in Mandarin) as a way to experience community (Xiao and Hilton, 2019). With Guangchang Wu known to be a physical exercise that…
As many of us (safely) go about our yearly Chinese New Year visitations, collect our long-awaited ang baos (red envelopes) and indulge in our favourite new year goodies, we may have noticed the relative quietness of this year’s celebrations. With the current prevailing Safe Management Measures (SMMs) in Singapore, which restricts lion dance cai qing (‘plucking the green’ good luck ritual) performances to indoor live performance venues, places of worship,…
