Emy and I chanced upon a dance school performance in Zijing Park yesterday. Groups of little girls (and a few serious kungfu boys) dressed in all manner of costumes and colours scurried about, got shouted at by their dance instructors, scolded by their mothers (who primped and bettered make-up, tweeked costumes and acted general maternal fuss-buckets), jumped up on stage, twirled around (pink butterflies), flapped their long sleeves (Tibetans) and brandished large red stars (red guards), all with enormous dedication, enthusiasm, flashing of blinding white teeth, boldly made-up eyes and tightly pinned and coifed hair. Seldom have I seen so many ponytails in one go.
It was the last group of red star carrying girls that caught my attention though. Their faces were heavily painted, they wore braids and grey Mao caps each with a red star in front, had militant little shorts-pants on and bold red leggings. Their faces were frozen in dedication, perfect miniature Red Guards (紅衛兵 Hóng Wèi Bīng) about to perform a dance from the model opera Red Detachment of Women (红色娘子军 Hóngsè Niángzǐjūn). Emy who is 10 years old didn't give it a thought and most likely not the little girls themselves who all seemed to be the same age and probably had no understanding of late 1960s China and its politics. But I wondered what the people in the audience felt when seeing these girls dress as they were and dance as they did.
But how wrong I was. According to Wikipedia this Chinese ballet premiered as early as 1964, two years before the start of the Cultural Revolution. It was adapted from an earlier film that was in turn adapted from a novel which was based on a true story that happened on the island of Hainan in the 1930s. During the Cultural Revolution however it was selected as one of the "eight model operas" (八个样板戏 bā gè yàng bǎn xì) permitted. It was this opera that Richard Nixon saw when he visited China in 1972, seven years before the normalization of the Sino-US relationship. It remains a very popular ballet today and is still performed, both in China and around the world.
Wikipedia:
Despite its political overtone and historical background when it was created, it remains a favorite of music and ballet lovers nearly 30 years after the Cultural Revolution in China. Many numbers were based on the folk songs of Hainan Island, a place that, with its coconut trees rustling in tropical wind, evokes much romantic ethos. Though there are unmistakable elements of Chinese music, the music of this ballet was performed with basically a Western symphony orchestra.
A photograph will be posted sometime in the future...
Showing posts with label children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label children. Show all posts
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
Quiche to die for
Recipe/photos ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn
Burton decided he wanted to learn how to cook today so together we made a quiche. I concocted the recipe and stood guard, but Burton did everything himself. It turned out to be:
THE BEST QUICHE EVER CREATED
PIE SHELL
2 1/2 dl flour
100 gram cold butter in small cubes
2 tblsp cold water
FILLING
3 eggs
2 1/2 dl cream
Feta cheese with herbs (hexagonal glass jar with cheese in oil and herbs)
Package of bacon (cut into small pieces)
1 medium sized red onion (finely chopped)
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper
Handful of grated strongish-tasting cheese (we used Chengdu Ikea's Wästgöta Kloster Svart)...one sliced tomato and a few olives for garnish
PREPARATION
Start with pie shell. This is a standard recipe, the important thing is for the butter to be cold. (Butter, not margarine. If you don't want to get fat, then don't make this quiche. It only gets worse when you see what's in the filling.) Cut up butter into small cubes, mix with flour and then slowly add water. Quickly mix and form into a ball. Don't overwork. Put into refrigerator and let stabilize for 30 minutes.
Begin making filling by cutting a standard sized package of bacon into small pieces, fry in non-stick frying pan. Then add finely chopped red onions. Fry together on low heat until nice and soft and brown. Place aside.
Gently stir eggs and cream together in bowl. Pour out most of oil from jar of feta cheese but try and retain most of the herbs. If you use plain feta in water, drain water and add a generous amount of Herbes de Provence to mixture. Through in the pinch of salt and pepper.
By this time your pie dough has been in the fridge for 30 minutes. Take out ball and place in non-stick pan (or whatever pan you want, a round quiche pleases the eye). Either roll out dough to edges or - as Burton did - press out dough with fingers until it fills the floor of the pan and goes about 1 1/2 inch up the sides of the pan (the dough will shrink later). Prick the bottom a couple of times. Pre-bake shell for 10 minutes in 200° C until nicely brown.
Take out pie shell and fill bottom evenly with the bacon - onion mixture. Pour the egg-cream-feta mixture over this and cover evenly. Sprinkle grated cheese over top and decorate with tomato slices/wedges and olives. Place in middle of oven, bake for 30 minutes at 200°C.
Serve with large green or tomato salad with vinaigrette dressing.
Adults: You've got to drink a hearty glass of red wine with this because the amount of calories in this recipe will kick you in the gut like a mule.
Boys: If you learn to make something like this your future girlfriends will adore you.
Girls: Get your future boyfriends to make you a quiche like this.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Play day at Tumenzhen with Sichuan Quake Relief
All photos above ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn
On Oct 11th my family and I went with a group of foreign volunteers from Chengdu up to Tumenzhen Village (on the other side of the mountain from Hanwang) to play with kids at the local school. This was organized by Sichuan Quake Relief that has been doing a lot of very good work since the catastrophe that hit this area of the province earlier this year. Most of these children had lost their homes in the May 12th earthquake and are now living in makeshift tents and temporary shelters scavenged from what is left of their houses and property. The school only had one building left but the government had provided two new prefab buildings that were functioning nicely.
As soon as we got to the school word spread quickly and children and adults began to pour in from all directions. Games, finger painting and music lessons were organized and all the kids (Chinese and foreign) joined in immediately with great enthusiasm. Several hours went whizzing by and all too soon it was time to leave. As we all warmly said our good-byes it was a sad sight to see all the children start to walk back to the ruins of what at one time were their homes.
A lot of progress has been made since the earthquake but life is still very grim for the tens of thousands of people in this large area of Sichuan. Winter is coming up and it might be a very cold one. If you would like to volunteer, work with or donate funds, please contact: www.sichuan-quake-relief.org. Read there weblog posting for our outing.
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