SINGAPORE, Oct 31, 2007 (AFP) - Gwee Li Keng, 68, applies a thick white powder to her wizened skin before taking the stage for another three-hour Chinese street opera performance.

"I wanted to stop but I have to continue. Our troupe doesn't have enough performers," Gwee says backstage at her worn wooden dresser. "It's hard."

Singapore's Chinese street opera troupes are struggling to keep the curtains raised as they confront declining audience numbers and a lack of young performers in the Internet age.

"I'm getting old. I have a bad memory when I try to learn new scripts," said Gwee, who started performing in her family-run Hokkien street opera troupe, Sin Sai Hong, 60 years ago.

Onstage with her heavy white and pink make-up, she hardly looks her age.

Gwee plays the young male lead, or "xiao sheng," before a greying gathering of about 30 people seated in front of a wooden stage sheltered by a canvas sheet in the middle of a highrise housing estate.

Her troupe considered shutting down two years ago but carried on after their small number of loyal fans took out an advertisement in a Chinese-language newspaper to show their support.

Chinese street opera is a form of drama and musical theatre, at times mixed with martial art elements, that is performed in Chinese dialects.

Early troupes travelled across Southeast Asia performing on makeshift stages decorated with silk hangings and hand-painted backdrops.

Street opera came to Singapore at the turn of the 19th century with an influx of Chinese immigrants speaking Cantonese, Hainanese, Hokkien and Teochew dialects.

Veteran performers can only reminisce about the heyday between the 1930s and 1960s when Singapore was a colonial backwater but the shows drew large crowds.

"They didn't have much entertainment. Nowadays, the youth have so many entertainment options like computer, TV. Who wants to watch us? Only the older folks," said Gwee Li Hoon, 53, who performs in the same troupe as her older sister Gwee Li Keng.

Liew Kok Cheun, 77, who belonged to a Hokkien troupe which folded in the 1980s, recalled the "golden period" when street opera performances were a common sight in the streets and teahouses of Singapore's Chinatown.

"At that time, Singapore didn't have highrise buildings. From the start of the street to the alleys, it was full of street troupes. Anywhere in the Chinatown area you could see a troupe," recalled Liew, who still runs another Hokkien opera group.

Some fans used to arrive with their own wooden stools. Others would just stand. They gave money and floral bouquets to the lead performer.

"Rain or shine, they would come to watch," said Liew.

But by 2005 there were only 36 Chinese opera companies in Singapore, most of them street troupes, according to government figures in the city-state, whose population is majority ethnic Chinese.

"From the 1970s, it started to decline," said Chua Fong Kee, 68, who ran the Kim Eng Teochew Opera troupe for 27 years until they decided to cut their losses and made a final curtain call in February.

"Youth of today won't understand a word"

Since Singapore reformed its linguistic policy in the 1970s to favour Mandarin, young people are now less likely to understand the dialects used in street opera.

"Street opera is somewhat alienating when you don't understand the language," said Terence Chong, a sociologist at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

The older Gwee agreed. "The youth today, if you sing in Hokkien, they won't understand a word," she said.

The life of a street opera performer is also tough, said Chua. He was a child apprentice in an opera troupe and recalled waking at 6:00 am every day for training.

In today's affluent Singapore, most young people are well educated and seek stable, well-paying jobs, said Chua.

"In the 1950s and 60s, the lead actor of a troupe earned better than a clerk. But today, the pay of an actor can barely match that of an entry-level job," he said.

To address the lack of talent, most troupes recruit performers from Malaysia or even Thailand, said Liew.

"In the past, if you were old, the troupes wouldn't want you. But now, if you're old and can still walk, we will hire," he said.

Despite the challenges it faces, Chinese street opera "will not completely disappear" because of its role in temple functions, said Chua Soo Pong, director of the Chinese Opera Institute in Singapore.

Street opera is intimately linked to Chinese religious rites. The performances play a ceremonial role as offerings to deities during temple celebrations and even as a "show" for spirits released from the netherworld during the hungry ghost festival in the seventh lunar month.

While street opera has dwindled, interest continues in other forms of Chinese opera but the distinction between them has become sharper, said Chong.

Street opera is usually regarded as just a part of temple offerings while the opera performed in theatres is seen as an art form, he said.

The younger Gwee dreams of moving her troupe from the street to the theatre, to prove to people that Chinese street opera is worth watching.

She and her sister are tired and old, but they vow not to give up.

Gwee says she draws strength from the words of her uncle, now more than 80 years old, who reminded her that their troupe is built on three generations of tears and sweat.

"He persuaded us not to give it up easily," the younger Gwee said. "No matter what, we have to continue on with the troupe until the day we can't sing and act."