I remember a quote from the plane ride to Tokyo: After saying something Justin-esque, someone told Justin that since he is traveled 5 times as much as the average university student, he should act like he's a little more cultured.
Being "cultured" is relative of course. As we've spent so much time in Beijing, most of what we have been trying to do is soak in the "culture." For me, at least, I can never learn enough about the stange dress codes I've witnessed, wise but odd Chinese sayings, and weird tidbits about Chinese pop music. All of this is contributing to my general understanding of what life is like for, say, Sky or Luke, two of our new friends from Renmin University.
So, needless to say, I have always considered myself a lover of the arts and all things "cultural." However, I have never found this to be more untrue than at the Peiking Opera. Opera is hard for most young people to swallow, but after seeing this performance in China I would sit through 1000 renditions of Madame Butterfly before seeing Peiking again.
The theatre was quite small and there were only two other groups present beside ourselves. The "orchestra: consisted of 4 old men and an old woman, all dressed in streets clothes, sitting in front of a handfull of strange interests like a box, some cymbals, and a cello-like stand up instrument played with a bow but consiting of only one string. We knew we were in for a bad performance when they began to warm up and I heard the most terrifying, screeching sound that I've ever had too be exposed to for more than two minutes. Then, it got exponentially worse when we realized that this was not the warm up--this was the show.
To be fair, I'm not entirely sure that what we saw was actually a bonafied Peiking opera. It was more like vinettes of three famous operatic stories: one of two men battling each other in a pitch black room, one of a princess spreading flowers, and one between the evil monkey king and a band of Buddha's followers (th monkey wins, go figure).
The scenes involve an elaborately costumed person coming on stage and making sounds like a cat wailing. I'm sure they were doing exactly what they were supposed to, but we're talking no tone, no melody, no rhythm. And the music, all the while, is so loud and so caucophanous. The worst part about the music was that there was no climax and ending. Usually a song gets more exciting during the middle then dies down and you know it will end soon. These songs continued on at full volume and intensity for the entire scene.
The dancing was not really dancing, more like tai chi moves consisting of waving arms and feet and staring intently. Of course, it didn't really match the music. There were some interesting flip and acrobatic moves. The characters interacted in a "melo"dramatic way, I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing.
So, the opera was not a hit in my book. Teresa accurately described it as something like a high school play. But was it really bad, or am I just so uncultured that I can't begin to understand its merits? I'm not sure of the answer, but surely I'm not a complete arts bufoon because on another day I went buckwild in one of Beijingsd
