Cantonese Opera

Sept 16, 2007
John has been in Bangkok for this weekend, so although I miss him, it gives me an excuse to do some things he probably wouldn’t want to do. Tonight was one of those times. My friend, Sarah, and I like to experience the Chinese culture when at all possible. We’ve been wanting to go to the Cantonese Opera, that is apparently very popular here. We finally got around to doing it tonight.

I had Karen at John’s office help me figure out when the show was and how to get there. It turns out the theater is at the bus stop I get off at when I go to the bank for the company, which is about once a week. The ladies at the office got a huge laugh when they heard that I wanted to see the Cantonese Opera. They said “Be sure to bring your pillow & ear plugs.” They double checked to make sure I understood what I was going to see, by singing a few notes in a really high pitched annoying voice. I said, yes we realized that was how it sounded. They said we’d be the only westerners there and it would be all old people. I said I understood that too. They said it is really boring even for them & they can understand the language. I said I still wanted to go.

Sarah & I had both been to the Peking Opera in Beijing, so we knew what to expect. The Peking Opera does have cameras that tell you what is going on in English, so you have some idea. Peking Opera is also filled with Westerners.

When we arrived there was a huge sign up saying FULL HOUSE. We decided to give it a try anyway. There were a few seats left & we got center seats about half-way back. They were actually very good seats. We got lots of stares & giggles as we entered the theater. We were indeed the only Westerners there. The show started & people were still talking very loudly & milling around in the aisles. It was a good sized theater and I think the seat next to me was the only empty one.

As best we could figure there were several unrelated acts that make up the night’s show. The first one was 4 kids. They must have been around 8 to 10 years old. They were excellent & did some amazing acrobatics during their act. Off to a good start. The second act was very acrobatic also & not much high pitched female singing, so we enjoyed that one too. As the acts went on, they got less physical & more romantic/tragic & high pitched. We lasted 2 hours (it was a 3 hour show) before our heads couldn’t take any more of the music & singing. Don’t get me wrong, we did enjoy it & were glad we went, but also knew when enough was enough.

The costumes & makeup were amazing. They did a lot with the sleeves of the clothing. The sleeves were really long & they were always swinging them around, then they’d somehow push them up & get them all folded neatly so they could do the very intricate detailed finger movements. This is the culture of Tai Chi, so each little movement of the finger or tilt of the head is very important. Then the sleeves would come down again & get swung all around. It was very strange.

It was really funny to observe the people’s behavior during the show. People never stopped talking & they didn’t whisper, just spoke in regular voices. People were on cell phones & eating & drinking in the theater. People got up at any time during the performance to go to the rest room or outside for something. People were milling around the entire time. I think for them, this is more of a social event than cultural. Many people seemed to know each other & there were many large groups, especially of women. It was not all old people, there were many younger people, but I’d say nobody under 25.

Now I’ve had that cultural experience, so won’t need to do it again. I was not even tempted to get one of the many CD’s being sold out front!

John's birthday cake - a cultural experience

John’s birthday was Sept 11 & the ladies at work asked me the week before to please come in the afternoon for tea. I offered to bring something, but they said No, they were planning something special, a surprise for John & for me.

Karen left at 4:30 to go pick up the cake, everyone at the office was very excited about it. When it arrived we gathered in the conference room & the box was presented to John. He opened it up & there was a huge peach shaped cake, but it was really a big bun. The big bun was surrounded by small buns all decorated to look peaches. Peaches are symbols of longevity so birthday cakes are frequently in the shape of a peach. We each too a little bun to eat. It is a steamed bun that doesn’t really have a lot of flavor. Inside the bun there was lotus flower paste, which has a delicate sweet flavor to it. And in the very middle there was something slightly salty. I thought it was peanut butter, but I was told that it was just a little bit of duck egg yolk. Sounds terrible, but it was actually pretty good.

If you recall my blog from last year at this time, these little buns are very much like the moon cakes that are all over the place this time of year. We are getting ready for the mid-autumn festival which celebrates the autumn full-moon. The moon cakes are really expensive (like $25 for 4 of them) & they consist of a pastry outside shell, lotus flower paste & a not all the way cooked duck egg yolk. Most westerners find them disgusting, the egg yolk part anyway.

On with the birthday cake. John got ready to cut the cake with a knife & the ladies said, “No, no, you must use 2 forks to cut the big peach!” So John tore the top of the peach open with the forks & inside there were like 15 more little peach buns. The ladies just giggled & cheered at the surprise. It was like the thing was an alien & it was multiplying. It was very strange! I guess this is one of the most popular birthday cakes in China & is very traditional. They said the old people really like these kinds of cakes. I think it had to be very expensive. It was a lot of fun.

OK, yes, it does look like a human “buns” and the ladies said that kids always get themselves into trouble with these bun cakes, because the squeeze the insides out & make it look like poop! I was thinking it, but refrained from doing it, so I was glad to hear that the Chinese are just as sick minded as we are!

John had a very nice birthday. He got calls from all over the world. And we had a new cultural experience as well.

Airbus - Monday morning Sept. 3

I read in the paper yesterday that the new Airbus 380 aircraft would be in Hong Kong today & do a flyby over the harbor between 8:00 and 8:30am. I made a point of being in front of our window at that time, actually I was talking to my friend Elise on the computer. Just before 8:00am I noticed several helicopters just hovering at different points along the harbor. At 8:05am I heard a low roar & saw the A380 come around the side of the harbor. It was just above eye level and was pretty huge. It looked like it was sort of floating. It did 2 flybys. I was not smart enough to have the camera set up to snap a shot. It probably would not have made that good a photo, but it sure was fun to see. Good way to start out the week!

Back in Hong Kong

Only in Hong Kong

I’ve been back in HK for 2 weeks and have made some observations. I feel like these things would only happen here, or maybe just in Asia. It’s kind of a random set of notes on amusing, frustrating, and interesting stuff that I’ve observed.

The V sign when posing for a photo:
Anyone who has seen my photos has seen the use of the V with the fingers (victory or peace sign) when having you photo taken. Everyone here does it, from the old folks to infants. Several of you have asked, “Why do they do that?” So I asked the ladies at work & they explained it. You all know Jackie Chan & if you don’t he is a movie star from Hong Kong who has made it big in Hollywood. He is extremely popular here, a local hero. Back in the early 80’s, when Jackie was just getting popular in Hollywood, he would do the Victory sign whenever he has is photo taken. So everyone in HK started doing it & it has just remained something that everyone here does. Since I like Jackie, I’m going to keep doing it. So there Chip West!

Old Man with funny socks:
Today on the bus I noticed the old man. He was very Chinese looking with the long narrow gray beard, going to the middle of his chest. He had the traditional charm hanging from his belt (everyone here as charms that they attach to themselves or their cell phones or handbags & usually all of the above. They are often jade, but sometimes it is just Hello Kitty, it doesn’t seem to matter, what matters is that you have something dangling from where ever you can). So his charm was very large and traditional Chinese. It was a large jade circle with a hole in the middle (symbolizes money & good fortune). It also had what looked like his Chinese zodiac on it (the year you’re born is always associated with an animal & these animals are very popular charms). There was some colored string in special Chinese knots. I thought “What a traditional looking guy he is”. Then I looked at his feet & he was wearing a pair of Tweedy Bird socks. Being a sock person, I loved them, but the sure didn’t match the rest of his outfit. I almost laughed out loud!

New $10 Bill:
The $10 bill in HK is the smallest denomination of bills. I was given one the other day that had a clear window in it. I was curious & took a closer look and the bill is plastic! I guess that way they don’t tear & are harder to copy (this is China, someone will find a way, they copy everything). I guess you have to be careful not to get them wet or they stick together. I just thought it was very ingenious & maybe other countries are doing this too, but I had not see one before.

Designer Wheel Chair:
I thought it was so funny the other day in the MTR (subway) station there was a wheel chair where the cloth part of it (seat & arm rest) was the Burberry plaid & the metal part was made to look like teak wood grain. They do love their designer items.

Food Frustration:
I made an apple pie for Karen’s birthday last week (she works at John’s office) & she requested vanilla ice cream to go with it. That sounds easy enough! HA! I started looking for vanilla ice cream the day before & went to 3 different stores & no vanilla. There is adzuki bean, green bean, red bean, mango, green tea BUT NO VANILLA. OK, I thought maybe it’s just this area or something. Since I didn’t want the stuff to melt on the 35-minute journey to the office, I found a store near the office, only one MTR stop away. I went to the Park N Shop for the vanilla ice cream. The only thing I could find that had vanilla in it was a combo (like we have strawberry, vanilla & chocolate) that included ume (don’t ask me what that even is), vanilla and black sesame. I went with Hagen Daz macadamia nut instead!

This week I made Sophia (from the office also) a Bailey’s Irish Cream cheesecake (her request). It was just the simple, no bake kind; so don’t be too impressed with my cooking skills. Now that I know where to find graham cracker crust I figured I was golden. I thought it would be yummy to put some crumbled Heath bar or Skol bar (toffee) on top. I went to 4 different stores; all the Western ones I knew of & none of them had any kind of toffee bars at all. With all the Brits that live here I would have thought I could find a toffee bar. Oh well, the pie was fine without it.

Excellent Movie:
If you liked the movie “The Departed” (it won the Oscar for best movie last year), you should see if you can get the Hong Kong version that The Departed was based on. The name of it is “Infernal Affairs”. The Departed followed it pretty closely, but the ending in the HK version was better. If you’ve seen my photos, you will recognize the opening scene, which is at the 10,000 Buddha Temple. There is quite a collection of HK movies, so I think I’m going start checking them out. It’s fun to see familiar places on screen.

Steps & more steps:
It is Sunday & I went for a hike today. John left for India last night, so I didn’t have anything better to do. It felt slightly cooler, which means it was maybe only 99.9% humidity. I walked to the Peak on the Morning Trail. I’ve done this before & it is a 1700meter uphill hike. Worked up a good sweat. Since I was in no hurry to get home, I decided to take a different route home. I knew this trail would end up by a reservoir & then a main road so I could take the bus back. I thought this might be a path I might want to try again going uphill, so I decided just for the fun of it to count the steps. I will NOT be taking this path uphill – there were 796 steps! I sure was glad to being doing it downhill!!!

About Bangladesh:
This is just a funny story that John heard from an American customer who does business all over the world. He asked John & his colleague, James, if they’d ever been to Bangladesh. They said no, but James said he’d been to Calcutta & thought that was pretty rough. This guy said Calcutta is nothing compared to Bangladesh. He said they have an office building in Bangladesh & they received a letter from the country’s Minister of Aviation. The letter said that due to the problem the tall buildings are causing with the air traffic, it would be necessary for them to take the top 4 floors off of their building. He said they managed to find an alternative solution, but I guess several building owners were asked the same thing. He said the government there is pretty clueless.