REFLECTIONS IN A CHINESE EYE : The Director's Chair

Often, I think I know China well. However, just as often, it occurs to me that I don't really know what I thought I knew. The visions and experiences collected and stored in my mind while I am awake are gone after I have slept. Reasoning and understanding seem to last only for a few hours before becoming illusory: the images and meanings disappear one by one, stolen from me by apparitions and secreted away, never to be returned in their original form. The understandings that I have assiduously acquired are nothing more than banal when bound together to try and shape the oldest continuous civilization on earth. Experience, learning, and proudly possessed knowledge, gained from many sources and from interaction with its people, are taken from everyone who thinks they know China and passed on to others who share them smugly, use them with confidence, reverently broadcast them as Gospel for a few praiseworthy moments. "I know China." Then, time and circumstance mangle them until they are beyond comprehension. These ,too, will be passed on and shared as truth, only to be proved wrong again. The enigma is this: China never changes, but China always changes. Its people beset by burden, affected with melancholy, inured to bewilderment, and suckled on uninterrupted millennia of incalculable hopelessness and sorrow. "There is chaos under heaven and things could not be better", said Mao Zedong. This is the real truth: "China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese" - Charles De Gaulle. China: don't ask, it is what it is... ,,,,,,,,W.D. Box

1 post categorized "The Director's Chair"

04/25/2010

The East is Red

Added to the director's chair - THE EAST IS RED!

The dance epic was created on the initiative of Premier Zhou Enlai. Employing the art forms of song, dance and poetry, it depicted the arduous struggle of the Chinese people to achieve victory from past hardships. The team of directors and choreographers was led by Chen Yading and Zhou Weizhi. Both of them were artists and administrators in art and literature circles. There were 29 choreographers led by Zha Lie involved in this work and rehearsals for the dance epic lasted for months. The premiere of the work and the following performances were all held at the Great Hall of the People.
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Apr 25, 2010 6:25:19 AM | Culture, Film, Music, The Director's Chair

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REFLECTIONS IN A CHINESE EYE

1 post categorized "The Director's Chair"

04/25/2010

The East is Red

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