Monday, December 5, 2011

Dynamic Yunnan

11/19/11
Dear Everyone,
            As promised, Andrew and I took Rich and her friends to Salvador’s for some “typical” American food. We ordered French toast to represent breakfast, a hamburger to represent lunch, spaghetti with meat sauce to represent dinner, and a quesadilla…well it’s not really American anyway so… just because.
            They seemed to like the food, or at least they were good at pretending. They pronounced it “special.” I think the cheese really threw them though. They don’t really do dairy here.  The best part was watching them trying to use a fork and knife. They were fumbling as badly as I was with chopsticks when I first arrived. Teaching them to twirl the spaghetti was a hilarious mess; payback for all the times our chopstick skills have been made fun of! Thankfully, this time they let us pay.
            Last night our group went to see a dance show called “Dynamic Yunnan.” “Dynamic Yunnan is a grand, original ethnic dance musical. It fuses beauty of Yunnan ethnic minorities dance and songs with the power of modern stage exhibition. Through the artistic director's reorganization and recreation of the essence of traditional songs and dance with the most classic style of folk dance, the richness of the culture of Yunnan minorities is born again on stage with startling effects.” Yunnan is obsessed with its Chinese minorities. Seventy percent of the dancers were from minority groups. Some of the dances, especially the “Moon Dance” and the “Peacock Dance,” were especially beautiful. However, Chinese minority singing is not my thing. It is much too shrill (I know I’m one to talk.) It also really bothered me that in the most highly awarded Chinese dance show, only half of the chorus girls really had their lip sinking act together. Not to mention the fact that they were even lip sinking at all. Still, the drums and Tibetan dances were pretty cool, and the show was an experience I’m very glad to have had.
Love,
Katherine

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