July 26 - A Thousand Autumns

Ni Hao,

Last night was the big Talent Show Party. The students have been planning this party for weeks. I think their original idea was to have many of their favorite snacks and run a karaoke night. We ended up merging two ideas, which helped in locating a room to use and planning the food.

All of the students dressed up, and they looked just lovely. Nancy and I were noticing how delicate their feet looked in their high-heeled sandals, especially when compared to our clodhopper feet. The men shaved, too, which is difficult because none of us have had any water for over three days.

The party was a spectacular showcase of their many talents... and their sense of fun! They began with a song called Bijie, My Beautiful Hometown," which is a very moving melody. Joe (Wang Jiazhou) and Lydia were the co-hosts, and they flowed smoothly from Chinese to English as they announced each act. James (He Shi Wei) and Alice (Chen Jing), along with James' ten year old daughter, performed a wonderful traditional Chinese drum and cymbal piece.

Yesterday, I asked Alice to take over our class production of "The Three Little Pigs." Alice is truly one of the most gifted young women I have ever met. She sings, she dances, she plays numerous instruments, she is quite accomplished with language study, and she has a wonderful rapport with everyone she with whom she works. By morning class session yesterday, she had coordinated the cast (which is the whole class) to find sticks, straw, and bricks. The students "borrowed" a few bricks from one of the construction sites.

Anthony (Zhou Liang) was perfect as Mama Pig, and all the women made certain that he had the female clothes to fit the part. Bessie (Tian Yulan) played The Big Bad Wolf, huffing and puffing to beat the band. She is a very petite woman and probably weighs about 90 pounds. Earlier in the week, at rehearsal, she wanted to give the part to someone else because she thought she was too small to portray a wolf. We simply practiced making her voice larger and larger, and by public performance time, she was a most convincing Big Bad Wolf. The chorus helped out by snorting, giving the three pigs a more realistic air. They made placards to put around their necks, identifying the character with a drawing and a name. At the end of the play, once the wolf is cooked in the pot of boiling water, I joined the students as they danced around the wolf, singing, "Ding Dong the wolf is dead..." I was so very proud of their creativity, their energy, and the extra time they devoted to rehearsals. It was a delightful play, and they were pleased with how they brought the story to life.

Other highlights of the Talent Show included Nancy's class performing "The Little Red Hen". We also played a couple of games - a hula hoop game which involved everyone with hands linked as we moved the hula hoop around the circle, and a guessing game which involved audience pantomime participation and silly string as "punishment" for the wrong answer.

At the end of the Talent Show, which lasted three full hours, the disco ball began swirling and the dancing began. It was extremely warm in the room where we had the party, so the dancing only lasted about 90 minutes. People stepped outside the room for some breeze from the small balcony, but it was hard to cool down, even that late at night. The party was a smashing success, and I am grateful that I know so many people here in China that I can call "friend."

I will leave you with another Chinese expression: "ge yu qian qiu". This translates as "each has a thousand autumns," which means each person has enduring qualities or merits. This saying was especially true this evening as we watched the many talents emerge from our students. May you discover and celebrate your enduring qualities as well as those in others...