STATE OF THE ARTS (Sept 19 to 25) Singapore and China’s arts scene were involved in an extremely tight group hug last week. Kicking off the reopening of Kallang Theatre was the announcement that its resident musical show Singapura, Lion City will be performed by the Yunnan Provincial Performing Arts Group of China, which raised a lot of eyebrows. Meanwhile, Kumari Nahappan was named Artist Of The Year at the recent Shanghai Art Fair, her chilli sculptures a popular draw; while Michael Lee, Jeremy Hiah and Andree Weschler are participating at the 4th Guangzhou Triennial. Elsewhere, the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts held an international symposium on regional art, the Singapore International Film Festival has, once more, come under fire over major hiccups, and the artworks on the 12 remaining Circle Line stations were revealed. The biggest news however will be the National Art Gallery of Singapore’s international search for a new director after current director Kwok Kian Chow was given a “senior advisor” post. Like in the case of Singapura, Lion City, there have been prickly questions on whether the next director should be homegrown or otherwise.