印象・刘三姐

Zhang Yimou has directed several outdoor folk musical/theatrical performances in China, and 印象・刘三姐 (“Impressions Liu Sanjie”) is one of them*.

I had the opportunity to watch 印象・刘三姐, set against the backdrop of Yangshuo’s impressive karst formations in Guilin. Most stunning was the opening scene, where karst outcrops were suddenly lit up.

The stage is a floating platform on the Li River (漓江) – in the darkness below lies the stage which extends out onto the river beyond:

for a sense of the scale of the performance’s backdrop – the bright spots of light in the foreground are actually flashes from cameras, while the lit structure is a pavillion used in one of the scenes. the setting was absolutely gorgeous:

Here’s what the performance area looks like in the day- the green things are the audience’s seats, while the stage is everything in front of it:

There are apparently about 600 cast members, all of whom are local fishermen. The opportunity to utilise such large amounts of manpower for a performance leads to stunning results – such a feat is only possible in China. This was just the first of several occasions where the sheer magnitude of China’s ‘people power’ was displayed.

A scene which featured the cast members carrying torches and running across the large stage. Beyond the left and right of this picture are also performance areas. I was quite impressed by how they were able to turn the flame on and off – i still haven’t figured out the trick behind the smoke-producing, switch-controlled torch.

This production is particularly known for its use of light i think, and it didn’t disappoint. The two streaks at the bottom-left are actually lengths of cloth:

Another example of the usage of cloth – all these people below were actually on a floating device that allowed them to glide over the water and the floating platform (that could be raised and lowered). Overheard in a conversation was that Singapore’s YOG opening ceremony might have borrowed some ideas from this performance, due to its usage of water – something which i quite liked actually!:

And here’s my favourite shot of that performance:

isnt it just spectacular?  All those tiny people – the white dots – are on their floating contraptions, getting ready to roll out the bolts of cloth.

Later in the performance, when the stage was completely dark, the performers walked out one by one in lit-up minority costumes and it just went on and on and on – i was totally stunned while trying to count exactly how many of them were involved in this section!

And then they did a whole series of things like this:

I really want to know how they did it! There was this particular segment where it was totally dark, then the costumes were lit up then turned off, one by one, at random areas on the stage. it was crazy, seeing this spot here illuminate then go off, then the next spot elsewhere on the stage, then over there, and over here, and so on.

I wonder if Singapore could pull off such a thing!

 

*: the others i know of are 印象・西湖 and  印象・丽江

little thoughts and recollections

I'm on the way to work and actually have seats on the train! This is nothing short of a miracle, perhaps I should head to work at this time instead.

On the bus yesterday morning, this old lady was blasting old hokkien songs from her music device. Someone must have helped her set it up, cos after a while she started flipping through the tracks, rejecting a few beside settling on a noisy one with Chinese trumpets - and I'd thought it was just some tape recorder with speakers.

I was transiting in Hong Kong's airport the other day, and was rather impessed by the sheer number of luxury brand shops there were. I know Singapore boasts that we offer a great shopping experience in changi airport, but I'm not sure we can beat having at least 25 brand name shops. While I'm not in the least interested in those shops, many other people are, and that's what determines the quality of shopping in an airport rite? HK airport had a good sized Zara too, and their bookstore was very well stocked and a few times bigger than anything I've ever seen in Changi.

I have some pretty pictures of Guilin and hope to be able to put them up soon. Think the weekend will be spent doing that, catching up on my 3 week backlog of shows and sleeping loads. Perhaps also clearing all those unread emails containing news updates too - the nature of my work means I have to keep in touch with the going-ons, but the problem with that is news is being generated nonstop by so many parties. At least authors take time to write a book, so their fans can rest in between.

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severely sleep deprived

am back from my trip; haven’t slept more than 6 hours in the past 10 days , and have no idea how some people can do with only 4 hours. that’s really really insane but true!

the chinese aspect of my ‘immersion’ went better than expected; turned out that it was other issues that posed challenges!

sunset in Tangshan, Hebei

back to to work tomorrow; all i want to do is sleep, sleep sleep.

sink or swim

despite having travelled a lot in the past 2 years, i still haven’t gotten the hang of packing for trips quickly. i take forever, i plan what clothes to bring, i scramble around the house gathering all the stuff i need to take along with me. that i will be heading to places with different weather in the upcoming days means that i need to pack differently for the colder areas than the less cold ones; packing for cold weather is so much more of a pain.

so as usual, on the eve before my “Chinese immersion”, i’m slightly stressed from the packing and from the knowledge that there’re so many things i need to read for the trip – but havent done so yet. my brain hurts too and my eyes can’t stay open any longer; stayed longer than usual hours at the office today too.

i tell myself that things will get better once i’ve gained a little more experience, and i hope that will indeed be the case. i’m taking way too long to do simple things – the speed at which my colleague scrolled through the folders on our shared drive left me utterly impressed today!

there’re too many things i still don’t know, and i’m still a fair distance off before i get my writing style correct for those little “reports and suggestions”. so much for having taken pride in my writing skills! haha.

oh well. as one of my colleagues said, 船到桥头自然直。

頑張ります。

dictionary fail

So someone high up suggested we read this particular news article that's in Chinese.

I decided that enough was enough, and that I should get myself an electronic English-Chinese dictionary that allows for handwritten input - counting the strokes to find out the reading or meaning of a word is horribly tedious.

So off I went. Best denki used to sell them, or so I and my colleagues mistakenly thought.

Best denki at taka suggested I try inside taka itself at the Seiko counter, so down i went. Unfortunately the only one with written input was expensive and not very good.

Off to the last stop - Popular (thats after trying some suggestions at funan). And oh my. Price-wise it was about the same as the Seiko - $398! Even my nintendo DS that I can play games on didn't even cost anything near that much.

And these dictionaries pitch themselves as edu-tools; what parent has the money to buy stuff like these? It was surprising too that these dictionaries are so elusive - there're tonnes of these stuff for Japanese.

But well. Looks like it back to counting strokes and flopping through the dictionary for me :(

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litany of complaints

as if i havent already been moaning enough, here’s more.

citibank misled me when i signed up for my credit cards, promising me that i will be able to increase my credit limit with just a phonecall. turns out that you have to be with them for at least 6 months before that can be done, and there’s no way whatsoever to overcome the system. so much for signing up for a credit card to get extra credit. fat lot of use they are.

Oh – citibank also issued me 4 cards in total, but failed to distinguish which PIN they sent in the mail is for which card. so now i have to call them up again to check on this issue. lovely.

when i got my new phone, the staff at the singtel authorised dealer told me that they will help change my phoneline from my dad’s name to my name, that i will get free autoroam and a whole host of other benefits. turns out that they didn’t even do any of that for me, and that they’re not able to do so – transferring of accounts is only possible at Hello shops. So now there’s the added hassle of having to turn up at a Hello shop with my dad just so that we can do that transfer. And they didnt even have it on the system that my dad gets staff rate for mobile plans. Useless, useless people. i also got put on hold for more than 10min today while calling the charged Singtel hotline – the only way you can ask them queries. Unscrupulous bastards!

2.5 weeks into my job, and i’m still experiencing IT problems. the latest in a long list of issues is that i cant access the internet from my office laptop outside of work – which will be so utterly useful when i’m working overseas. there’re several IT helplines for various systems and i’ve only just figured out which to call for what issue; no such luck yet with the passwords and various log-in names i have. system overload! and all the time i’ve spent calling up for help on all these stupid IT problems – which really should be unnecessary – has to have added up to one full day of work LOST.

and it just occurred to me – less than 3 weeks in and already i think i have no life. MEH!

odours

My nasal cavities have suffered too many assaults today from BO.

Seriously, some pple in the office, on the streets and in shopping centres need to invest in deodourant. someone actually stank up the area around my cubicle today, but I couldn't identify the culprit.

Help.

BO is way worse than those annoying men who still manage to block my way even though they're taller and in their flat shoes have advantage over my high-heel clad feet. Meh.

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a fortnight

so i’ve passed the two week mark with The Office.

things have picked up a little; we’re given a modest outfit allowance for travelling to countries in the colder seasons and my upcoming trip falls under this category. so a portion of wednesday and thursday was spent shopping for autumny things (i only have winter stuff), comfy shoes and an extra suit.

the best thing was, for the first time i had a taste of how it feels to be a tai-tai: to shop without (much) regard for cost, to just swipe a card knowing that at the end of the day, you’re not actually paying for these items yet get to use them. it was simply awesome.

on an unrelated note, a chat with a colleague about something today revealed that he can’t remember the last time he was home for dinner. to be honest, i found it rather disturbing that staying late enough in the office to warrant eating dinner out seems to be the norm for some of the younger workers here – i certainly consider that a (gross) aberration and would hugely dislike having to work late in the office. i think even if i were very busy i’d just suck it up and bring work home? it’s not even like we get paid enough to afford to eat lunch AND dinner out. already lunch with colleagues can sometimes to up to a fair bit!

Tuesday’s discovery

turns out that all the talk about credit card companies requiring you to show 2 month’s payslip before issuing you a card is bullcrap.

i went to citibank today as i needed to apply for a credit card and realised that there’re lots of alternative measures in place to allow a customer to obtain a credit card in only 2 working days.

that’s crazy. i can even ask for an extension of credit limit to up to $20,000 for a particular month if necessary, compared to the usual limit of 2 month’s my monthly salary.

in my colleague’s words, credit card companies are indeed desperate for business.

monday’s revelations

i discovered today that one must allow oneself more time to get to work on mondays, as many other people are running late.

the train was extra crowded today – the train itself was late too, and took longer than usual to make the same journey.

i also realised that trains are more crowded at 6.30pm than at 6.50pm.

yuck.

*    *    *    *

picking up from a previous train of thought that i work 1.5 more hours a day than the average European (or specifically the average Briton), that means that I work about 1 extra day per week than they do.

this adds up to 52 extra days per year, and if you consider that their amount of paid leave is more than what we get in Singapore, is roughly 2 extra months a year.

oh man. where are our trade unions?????

keppel island

i’d heard so much about this island, as some friends have been there several times and really like the place.

somehow they also had many photos to take of the area too – i don’t remember what were the photos they took, but going there yesterday, i have no idea what there is to take pictures of, beyond the condos under construction and the pier:

keppel island is tiny, and the only draw i can think of keppel island as having is its relative lack of people. we had a pavilion all to ourselves (two other were occupied though), which was nice. the eateries on the island seemed to rather well patronised with only several empty tables, although it must be quite nice to chill outdoors near the water.

of course it would be even nicer to chill on the water, but alas, that day might never come and make do we must.

today’s trivia

Red fabric dye in the United States In the 19th century was derived from whale excrement.

how lovely.

threes

残念ながら、日本語、だんだん忘れてしまう。

「すごくかわいい」と言いたかった時、どうしてか「超かわいい」と思い付いた。

何それ・・・　大阪に住んでいたのに。

「めっちゃ」だよ、めっちゃ。

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i like that there are many cats in my neighbourhood.

while walking to the station today, i saw 2 house cats sunning themselves on the ledge outside a second-storey flat, with another cat – with a similar collar – on the ground floor.

i saw them again on the way home in the evening, but these 3 kitties are really arrogant and just ignored my advances. hmph.

nearer my house i spotted this:

3 cats and a bonsai! the grey one strutting towards me was really pretty and nice to scratch:

she was later joined by a fourth, but it was time to head home:

 

*    *    *    *

Glee is back for Season 2 and I’m happy to announce that it has gotten a bit better compared to the latter half (or perhaps the last third) of Season 1, which was absolutely crap. So crap, in fact, that I stopped watching the series two episodes before the season ended.

I like that Brittany (kinda) got an episode; Rachel looks nice with her new bangs, although i don’t know how she managed to do an awful rendition of “Hit Me Baby (One More Time)” – but she sure did.

It’s a pity that the new cast members – Sunshine and that dude – didn’t appear in the second episode. I was also really surprised to discover that the actor playing Michael Chang is actually 28 years old – he has to be the ultimate poster boy for the “Asians don’t age” stereotype.

let’s just hope season 2 doesn’t go down the same road as Season 1 – one of my favourite episodes of Glee actually has to be the pilot!