Cantonese Opera

On Monday, 27 April 2009 I went to the Cantonese Opera at Kwai Chung with Delia, Janet, Anastasia and Peggy. It was the first time I have been to a Cantonese opera.

Janet’s mum, whose name I cannot remember at the moment, is a famous Hong Kong Cantonese opera star. I have met her previously a couple of times at her home where she seems just a very normal person with a lovely bubbly personality. I was interested to see what she would be like as a famous star and thought that my friends had been joking with me a little bit and that she was just some opera singer in the local theatre company. How incorrect was my thinking…..

Arriving at Kwai Chung just before the performance started, the group of girls immediately diverted me towards the nearest local Chinese restaurant for dinner. When I enquired as to why we weren’t going straight into the theatre for the start of the Opera, they replied ‘ because we don’t want to get there early, we only want to get there before Janet’s mum goes on, and besides, nothing is more important than eating!’.

After dinner we proceeded to the theatre. I had been to that theatre before one year ago during the Hong Kong Arts Festival where I saw a famous arts Troupe from France doing a musical play that in English translates to “Land’s End”. You can read about that experience in my past Web post on this website. At the time, that play consisted of a number of people in long overcoats and hats with their faces painted blue thrashing around in some huge plastic rubbish bin bags, all to the sound of music, all in the name of art. Like the intent of the plastic bags, I remember thinking it was just garbage.

Anyway, I was back at the same theatre again and we proceeded into the dressing rooms to see Janet’s mum. Janet’s mum is a wonderful person, always happy and cheerful and so welcoming. She was exactly the same that night and welcomed us into her dressing room. She looked extremely beautiful and regal in her costume that I was to learn later was just her costume for before her performance, she changed and wore another one for her performance. We proceeded to have a number of photos taken by a professional photographer and then made our way to our seats that had been arranged for us by the Opera troupe. At that point I realized that this was serious opera as the place was full with about 4000 people in attendance.

I must admit that, as a westerner, my appreciation of Cantonese opera might be somewhat confused so it takes me a little while to appreciate the beauty of what is going on. At the start, what I observed were two people standing at microphones towards the front of the stage and singing from what appeared to be church hymnbooks. One of the people sings in a deeper voice than the other and this is the person taking the ‘male’ role. The other person then sings their part in a very pronounced ‘ female’ role. Until you get used to it, you could be forgiven that the female role is trying to sound like a cat with its tail freshly cut off. The vocals are quite high, screeching and pronounced. Still, it’s all part of the plan.

Similarly, often a woman can sing the male role. It makes no difference in Cantonese opera.

Behind the two singers is the orchestra. There is a full complement of musicians and I would suggest that they are all very professional as they play things like erhu, ‘paypar’ (although probably spelt incorrectly, Chinese people will know what this means if they pronounce it), and other folk instruments. Of particular note was a young percussionist who played a number of parts and instruments all with professional dexterity and aplomb.

I was also to learn that each ‘ act’ or pair of singers actually only seen one song even though that song may seem to go for 30 or 40 minutes. Each song may have 10 parts so it all makes sense to Chinese people but to this poor Westerner it was a little bit confusing.

When it was Janet’s mums time to come out on stage, she arrived to tumultuous applause, far in excess of the applause that any of the other Cantonese opera stars had received. I could tell that she was quite famous and much loved by the Chinese opera goers. This thinking was also reinforced at the end of her performance when members of the audience went to the front of the stage and presented her with gifts, far more than all of the other singers combined had received. I was one of those audience members at the front of the stage at the end of her performance as it was my job to hand her a big bouquet of flowers. We both had a good laugh at the time because it was impossible to hold the flowers due to all the other gifts she was holding in her arms. Her male singing companion had to carry the flowers for her.

With reference to her performance, I can’t really say anything. She seemed to sing the role well, similar to the other female parts sung previously although there was something slightly different in her singing and maybe this is what adds the value.

For me though, the whole thing is about the experience as well as the music. My Chinese friends were very worried before we went, during the performance, as well as afterwards because they worried that I might get bored and not enjoy the show. What I tried to explain to them that I am not sure that they understood was that I loved the experience of going to Cantonese opera, loved the experience of seeing Janet’s otherwise ‘normal’ mum as a superstar, loved sitting and listening to the Cantonese operatic music, and loved being out with my friends. Even though I didn’t understand much of what was going on at the actual opera, that all didn’t matter because I had an absolutely wonderful time.

After the opera was finished, we went and saw Janet’s mum in the dressing rooms gain and all had a good laugh about the Westerner (me) in the audience. It seems I was a focus of attention for the other opera goers as well as for some of the other singers on the stage.

Would I go again? You bet I would, for all the same reasons outlined n the paragraph above.

As the Janet’s mum and her superstar status, I also forgot to mention that she is a very normal and humble person. Were all going to her house on Saturday night as she wants to cook dinner for us all. How good is that? Simply fantastic in my view.

Until next time, don’t forget to wipe.

Pretzel Logic

Last week I went to a well known travel agency here in Hong Kong to arrange for a new China Visa as mine had just expired. The staff of the travel agency are very helpful and I use their services often when arranging overseas travel as well as renewal of my China Visa.

When I went to give them my Australian passport and my Hong Kong ID card so that they could arrange the Visa, I asked them to apply for a 12 month multiple entry visa. This will allow me to go into China as many times as I wanted for the next year. Quite useful as I have been into mainland China more than 30 times in the past three years. This type of Visa is similar to the 3 month; 6 month or 12 month ones that I have had in the past and so I didn’t think there would be any problem.

There was an issue however and I was told that I could not apply for a 12 month China Visa because my Hong Kong work visa expires on 11 June 2009, a little over one month from now and that a 12 month Visa would be after the expiry date for my work visa. I was told that an application for a 12 month China Visa would be rejected.

I suggested that it shouldn’t make any difference whether I applied for a 3 month, 6 month or 12 month China Visa as it was going to be attached to my Australian passport and had nothing to do with my Hong Kong ID card situation or my work situation here in Hong Kong. I gave the staff and examples that, if I was in Australia and wanted a 12 month multiple entry China Visa for my Australian passport, then it wouldn’t matter whether I have a Hong Kong ID card or not.

I think this simple logic was just too much for the poor staff in the travel agency and they looked at me as if I was an insect in a jar wondering what I was talking about. They then proceeded to tell me that they could apply for a 6 month or a 3 month China Visa and that that application was likely to be successful.

I pointed out to them that a 6 month or a 3 month China Visa would also take the expiry date of that Visa out past 11 June 2009 and asked them how it was possible to get a 6 month or a 3 month Visa that exceeded 11 June, but it was impossible to get a 12 month Visa that also exceeded 11 June date.

Once again I was scrutinized like an insect in a jar as they studied me with a look on their faces that suggested ‘ who is this idiot?’ And then proceeded to give me the unbeatable answer. They said ‘ because this is Hong Kong’. I understood immediately, because I have been through many situations like this in Hong Kong that make absolutely no sense whatsoever to common sense and a reason. However, that does not matter because, this is Hong Kong and that’s the way things are.

I picked up my new China Visa today. It’s a 6 month one that expires on 16 October 2009, 4 months after the time I’m supposed to be able to use it. When I picked it up I simply thanked the staff for their help and assistance in getting the new China Visa for me. One of them said to me ‘ no, thank you for your help’. As I type this I’m still wondering what she meant, perhaps it’s in reference to last week’s biology lesson where I played the subject in insect study.

Until next time, this is Tales of Asia signing off.

April Update

Greetings truth seekers,

Once again it has been a long time since I have written here and my only reason is because I like to use dictation software rather than typing. Up until last October I was using a Windows-based laptop and Dragon NaturallySpeaking VoiceType software so it was easy for me to leave posts here. When my laptop broke down in October I purchased an Apple Macintosh and only recently bought MacSpeech Dictate to use on it, so here I am again.

Life here in Hong Kong has been reasonably interesting over past months. The world economic crisis has certainly had an effect in many of the places that I have visited. It also has had a negative effect on some of the projects that I was about to start around the Christmas period. All of them were either postponed or cancelled at that time, and some of them are only beginning to restart now. So, it’s been a bit of a frustrating time.

Looking at how our business is performing, it is going fantastically in Australia but slow in Asia although I am hoping that will change soon.

Musically, I am still enjoying playing and putting the occasional song on my You Tube site for people to have a laugh at.

Creatively, I submitted to pieces of writing for assessment for publication in a short story book here in Hong Kong. This is the first time I have ever submitted my work to the public arena. Nobody could have been more surprised than me when I found that one of my stories had come equal sixth, and the other story ninth in the top 10. The book is due to be published here in Hong Kong in June.

In a volunteer sense, I have been enjoying mentoring some guys here although, that can have mixed rewards. Most of the guys that I try to help appreciated for just that, help. I enjoy giving my help if it is asked for and I want nothing in return but to see that person develop into a better person. If I can be part of that process than that’s fantastic. One guy however had a change of heart and after asking for my help on a daily basis for the past six months, he suddenly had a change of heart and decided that he wanted no more of my help. Instead of detaching from me with care and respect, as I would normally think might be the appropriate way, this gentleman decided to attack my character and me. Now, I might be a reasonably accommodating type of person, but I don’t take kindly when people attack my good nature. This guy’s last lesson therefore was on how to treat people with care and respect, not to take them for granted, nor to expect that they would be really available at any time of the day when the other person called. The lesson I also learnt from myself was to be a little bit more selective when agreeing to help people who ask me for assistance.

Travel wise, I haven’t been too many places since Christmas except to Shenzhen in southern China and also to Macau a number of times. The travel bug is hitting me again and I am currently attempting to plan a quick trip to Taiwan, Korea, Shanghai, Beijing, Xian and back to Hong Kong all in a short period of time. Stay tuned for more on that.

Culturally, I still continue to practice my extremely bad Cantonese but I still try.

Health wise, I had an interesting experience lately. I started becoming dizzy and falling over, losing my hearing, and experiencing a sensation of being seasick even when sitting still. I went to the doctor’s and found out I had something called Meniere’s Syndrome that is an inner ear infection that has symptoms as I described above. I was prescribed appropriate medication to clear up the inner ear infection and all is well now. It was an interesting experience albeit inconvenient at the time.

I am not sure what the universe has in store for me in the future. I can feel the pull and push forces at work, sometimes telling me that my experience in Asia is over and it’s time to move back to Australia. At other times, I feel that the universe is telling me that I need to stay in Hong Kong but simply to move from the apartment I currently live in. I will wait and see what develops.

Anyway, that’s it for now, a reasonably quick post just to stay in contact. I hope your life is going well and that the universe is presenting you with something good each day.

Until next time, don’t forget to wipe…….

Cheers.