'ARTIFICIAL FANTASIA' MISSES A CHANCE

A friend recommended a video clip of Bright, one of the contestants on “Academy Fantasia 9”, singing “Tong Soo Jeung Ja Chana”, which means “Fight and you’ll win”. He portrays a gangster but then suddenly switches to a female character – I’m not sure if he’s a katoey or simply female – and his attitude towards this character isn’t clear either. 

The show’s three professional commentators all believed Bright was portraying a katoey. 

The video is funny – I was quite amused at his ability to switch voices and mannerisms – but I have to question the non-male character. I’ve never been a fan of reality shows so I don’t know what the coaches teach the kids. Bright’s performance, though, reflects negligence and tastelessness. 

It’s a great mistake when a performer fails to understand a song’s meaning. This song of encouragement could be sung by anyone, not necessarily a katoey. If it’s to be a katoey, though, the tune’s drama has to remain intact and serious, not trivialised by stereotype or exaggeration. None of my katoey friends would discuss a serious matter while acting comically.

I think the “Academy Fantasia” team is going for entertainment here, even at the cost of forgetting that katoey are real people. They laugh, but they can also be serious. To portray a katoey, an actor needs to understand the character’s motivation and sentiment in all its varieties. To utilise the tried-and-true comic mannerisms in a serious song denigrates both katoey and the art of acting.

And why didn’t the commentators point this out? Instead they simply praised the performance, leaving viewers to think Bright’s acting was fine and his portrayal accurate. No one suggested that the meaning of the song and the acting had gone terribly askew.

The acting coaches, the commentators, the competitors and the production team must know many katoey in show business. It’s sad that they can’t display a better understanding.