So while my whole country tuned in to the Super Bowl (American football championship game) on Sunday night, I shuttled number one son to the gorgeous Auditorium Theatre to attend a Chinese New Year song and dance extravaganza.
The program started with an introduction of dignitaries, including the PRC’s consul general in Chicago, a couple of Chicago politicians, and a representative from a senator’s office. These non-Chinese VIPs attempted a few words of Mandarin, which drew applause from the audience.
As luck would have it, a fabulous youth dance troupe from Hubei province performed throughout the evening. Number one son’s father is from Hubei. As for the singers, they performed a mix of nationalist songs (about soldiers, Tibet, and loving the motherland) and Beijing and Shanghai opera.
The show ran almost four hours without an intermission, but that didn’t deter the audience. When someone needed a bathroom break, he simply stood up and headed for the loo. Seated at the end of a row, I found myself standing up every ten minutes, but the people behind me didn’t seem to care. Nor did they shush me when I interpreted the songs or introductions to number one son. (The show started out bilingual, but quickly morphed into a monolingual one.)
One highlight occurred early on when a female singer pulled an audience member on stage to sing a Beijing opera duet. The audience member was a doctor in Chicago and had obviously spent time singing Beijing opera because he was quite wonderful.
And when the performance ended, the audience stood up and left in droves for the exits. The performers hadn’t finished bowing by the time most of the 3000+ attendees had left.
I certainly got more out of this event than the Super Bowl. And I think number one son did, too.
Maybe they wanted John Denver to sing the song and not Bob Dylan. Ha,ha..But a little cultural do, once in a while – even if a little unnecessarily nationalist(propagandalistic?)- is better than the same bowl of sports.
Oh, yes, it was definitely worth the time spent at the theatre. When I went to a Chinese New Year party last month, my friends started karaoke and I was the one who requested Chinese revolutionary songs! Those and Deng Lijun are the only ones I know.
I don’t know any Chinese revolutionary songs, but I sure like Teresa Deng. She was perhaps one of the better known, if not the best known, of Chinese artists. She sung like an angel and so effortlessly too, like gliding in the air. One professor even described her voice as “seven parts sweetness, three parts tears” She is still remembered here and her songs are still available in karaoke outlets which are popular over here in Malaysia. Hope you had a nice time singing her songs!
I love how that professor described her. It was fun singing her songs. And for a foreigner whose Chinese isn’t the greatest, the lyrics could be a lot more difficult!
Do you think that a similar show about the U.S. would be allowed on stage here in China, replete with members of the U.S. Armed Forces in their dress uniforms, singing about how wonderful America is?
Bob Dylan wasn’t even allowed to sing “Blowin’ In The Wind” when he performed in Beijing.
You’re too funny! Not only wouldn’t it be allowed in China, it would get zero interest in most of the US. Yet during this Festival of Spring, singer/rapper M.I.A. sang at the Super Bowl and gave the viewers the middle finger. People are up in arms about that. I guess it’s okay to sing it but you just can’t mime it.
That’s sad about Bob Dylan.