The National Gallery Singapore is having its first-ever fundraiser gala on Oct. 7, 2016, and they named it the "Empire Ball".

That didn't go down too well as they were soon accused of glorifying colonialism.

Because the irony is that the Empire Ball was being organised to coincide with the opening of the Gallery's new international exhibition, Artist and Empire, which showcases art from the British Empire.

It would all have been innocuous enough and not such a faux pas if it wasn't for the fact that the British Empire era was most notable for its numerous atrocities carried out in the name of development and the assumption of cultural superiority by the imperialists, plus a host of other systems and alien ways of governance that were force-fed onto entire populations, which ultimately resulted in the destabilisation of developing countries.

The ticketed “art and entertainment” event is even given a sense of atas, as it will be complete with cocktails, dinner, and a specially curated experience at the former Municipal Building/ City Hall and Supreme Court -- presumably a nod to how the British used to live as their underlings enabled them to engage in their Victorian lifestyle of leisure.

The connotations alone, therefore, are damning.

So, you can just imagine how horrified one artist who is participating in the exhibition was.

She had obviously thought long and hard about the effects of colonisation and decolonisation that she tried to show through her work.

When she caught wind of what was going down, she threatened to pull out.

The event was subsequently quietly renamed "Gala 2016".

But the best part about the British Empire was that when the Japanese occupiers arrived in Singapore, they fled.

I kid.

Which is exactly what Jinx Yeo, a local comedian, did.

As a result of sheer serendipity, he had uploaded the following video about a week ago before National Gallery Singapore committed their major faux pas.

Here he is explaining why we need the British Empire:

Enjoy.

Related article:

National Gallery Singapore named fundraising event ‘Empire Ball’, saw nothing wrong with it

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