One of my favourite things to do as a child was to spend evenings with my grandmother at the Cantonese Opera. The hypnotising colours, customs and sounds at the shows held me spellbound and I would always end up having a score of questions to ask towards the end of the show. In this eye-opening episode, my childhood curiosity was finally quelled as I got to speak to seasoned opera performers to learn more comprehensively about their unusual practices. For starters, I learned that it has been an age-long practice in the Cantonese opera to leave the front-row seats unoccupied simply because the rightful audience of the show are deities and spirits, and not so much humans. Due to these spiritual links, there are a set of rules and rituals that must be followed in order to protect the performers from any untoward incidents. For instance, it is an obligatory act to offer prayers to Wah Kong Sifu – the highly respected guardian of the Cantonese opera. It is believed that only with his blessings can the show go on as swimmingly as planned. Other practices such as refraining from killing any living creature on site or fiddling with sacred […]