Spectacular, Spectacular! No Words In The Vernacular!

Yesterday I went to the Von Braun Center in Hunstville to see the Divine Performing Arts troupe perform a show called the Chinese Spectacular. I was reminded of a line from the movie Moulin Rouge, which became the subject for this post: "Spectacular, spectacular! No words in the vernacular!" And it applies most fittingly. It was spectacular in every sense of the word! Costumes, music, dance, it was all beautiful and if there was a flaw, I didn't see it! I had one of the most perfect views possible--middle row of the orchestra, middle seat!!

One song in particular moved me (one of many things that did), it was called "I Sing For You", and was performed in Chinese by soprano Min Jiang. The lyrics were as follows:

"Dear friend, it's for you I sing with heart so true
Fifty years of deceit have built the Red Wall.
Though rogues have tarnished our once glorious culture,
The values of honesty, kindness, and patience endure.
Don't be taken in by the system's claims,
Use the goodness within to weigh right and wrong.
For when you have arrived at the truth,
Then comes the hope of renewal.

Dear friend, it's of truth that I sing to you,
Heaven evaluates us, each and every one.
History has always dealt the depraved the same,
The corrupt dynasty is made to perish;
And the kind and civil are restored.
Break free of the confusion that lie have wrought,
And avoid the Red crooks' fate.

Deep. I could go on for pages and pages about every song and dance in the show, but I won't. I'll just sum it up and say that with the women there were beautiful, graceful dances with fans and bowls on top of their heads, long sleeves, ribbons, and smiles as if there was no effort whatsoever in the dizzying spins and leaps and massive displays of finely-tuned muscle control. With the men there was much of the same, only more displays of bravado and drums and, oh dare I say it, bare chests!

There were beautiful pieces dealing with the heavenly Bodhisattvas, Chinese heroes like Yue Fei, and goodness of the human spirit in general. There was a beautiful song called "Predestined Relationship" which featured an instrument I'd never seen before, called an erhu! I recognized the sound from Chinese folk music, but had never seen such a thing. It's a traditional instrument similar to a violin, except it only has two strings and the sound resonates from a small, barrel-shaped box at the bottom.

The soloist Mei Xuan was fantastic; I found the song on Youtube with a lady named Xiao Chun performing on the erhu: "Yuan (Predestined Relationship)"

The range of only two strings and its distinct sound! What an instrument, yeah? I think it goes without saying that the latter part of the song is my favorite, haha, so lively!

Two pieces of the show in particular that moved me the most were "The Risen Lotus Flower" and "The Power of Awareness", both dealing with the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners in communist China. I could go on for a few more pages about the situation, but this website probably does so more succinctly than I could.

Aside from the show itself, getting to work backstage was a delight. Most of the volunteers there spoke mainly Chinese and broken English, but despite that I found that, while steaming out wrinkles from the performers' costumes (which were BEAUTIFUL and I was elated just to touch them) that
a) there really is no language *barrier*, just a little molehill of a hurdle, and
b) laughter speaks volumes in all languages.

This was also my first time being around so many people who also practiced the Dafa. It was weird that, when someone's watch alarm went off and they went "oh, time to send righteous thoughts!", the whole lobby or hallway or wherever we were stopped and performed the meditation. An interesting thing to note as well is that all of the performers with Divine Performing Arts practice Falun Dafa! It was explained to me (and makes sense) that, since they travel so much for an entire year and perform nearly every day, the Dafa fills them with the energy and spirit needed to perform so beautifully every time.

Leaving at 5:30 in the morning in Mr. Lin's van and not getting back until 3:30 this morning was totally worth it. The free food was a plus too, it was the best Chinese food I've ever had in my life! After the show was over and the performers got food to eat I swear Mrs. Lin and the rest were pushing food on us like crack:
"Here's a couple of slices of pizza--"
"*laughing* Mrs. Lin, I'm not hungry!"
"Here, some chicken."
Hahaha!

I dunno if my roommate heard me come in at 3:30 this morning, but if she did I'm glad she didn't jump out with a knife and try to stab my ass thinking I was a burglar. It's the little things. ;P