Chinese New Year 2008 @ Brighton & Hove

Posted by Shiny

I've mentioned the Chinese New Year before but it was actually just the beginning of it.  What I came across later tended to be much more eye-catching.  This is a marvelous day in my life.  It was supposed to be a simple Chinese New Year performance, but then we’ve made it into a great success.

Before I start talking about what happened in Brighton, I would like to recall the memories about our trip to the London School of Economics.  On Sunday, 3rd, Feb, we went to LSE for a Chinese New Year performance.  There were three cars taking us to LSE from Brighton.  It took us approximately two hours to get there due to the traffic congestion in London even though it was Sunday. (If we can by any means improve the traffic condition in a city, it would definitely make a big difference to people’s life. Travelling is inevitable in our daily life.  Sometimes we travel for fun while sometimes we travel for work.  No matter what the reasons are, transportation is extremely important.  That’s one of the reasons why I would like to study transportation engineering of Civil Engineering).  The traffic was a bit annoying as I had car-sickness.

After arriving at LSE, we paid a visit inside the Confucius Institute of LSE then we went for our performance in the campus of LSE.  Many volunteers from LSE, Imperial and UCL were working with us. As we were in a new circumstance, we unprofessional actors didn’t do as well as we did in the rehearsal. But we have tried our best.  And after dinner, at about 7p.m. we went to the Old Theatre to prepare for the performance.

Inside the hall, I met one of the most excellent students from my senior high school, Max Guo, who is currently studying in LSE.  We were in the same year when we were in the Affiliated High School of SCNU.  And I also met another high school fellow in LSE, but we just didn’t notice when we saw each other on the rear stage.  Guo was a good example of a successful student and he told me that living is for learning.  He didn’t know anything about the controlling of a stage and so on, but studying abroad has offered him millions of chances for studying new things.  Many international students also find that living abroad really makes us grow faster than we were.

We did the lion dance on the tiny stage of LSE.  Unfortunately, because the clothes were so smooth we couldn’t do some technical motions.  Certainly we have watched the breathtaking performance in LSE and we realized that students in the top universities such as IC, LSE were really intelligent as they not only wrote the scenario by themselves, but also added some current affairs inside to make jokes and stories.  The light of creation and innovation coming out of their brains astonished us.  This really encouraged us to study in London.  Many shows fused traditional and Western cultures together to produce a Neo-Chinese performance. This has enlightened us to make some progresses for the show in future.

In regard to the Chinese New Year 2008 in Brighton.  There were too many things to talk about!  We arrived at the Chinese Centre at about 9 a.m. after which we moved to the Brighton Dome.  Then we started preparing for the performance.  What I cared about most was the lion dance.  There were only three lions in the dance last year at the Hove Town Hall, but this year there were five and we all performed on the stage.  Surely it looked more magnificent, but we would also say that “Too many cooks MAY spoil the broth.”  To avoid that, we had to cooperate terribly well so that it looked fine.

Things all went well until my couplet came out too early, but after all it was not a big deal.  Oscar and I did try our best to perform the latest and most difficult act we’ve ever had, which was one sitting on the shoulder of the other to perform an amazing move of lion.  Luckily we successfully achieved the goals of “showing off”.  It could be a breakthrough for us since it was extremely difficult for us to do that.  So we could say that “nothing is impossible.”  But some other dances weren't as good, as I may say.  We couldn’t imagine how messily we danced.  Perhaps if we want to have a good show, we’d better be well-organized.

The biggest harvest in our life wasn’t the “sitting on shoulder show”, but the outdoor show afterwards. We played the dragon show and lion show outside the Brighton Dome and attracted hundreds of people including the elderly and babies.  Finally we led the crowd to the Jubilee Square, which is in front of the library.  We had plenty of space there so we could run around.  After re-performing some dances and martial arts for a while, over 200 people surrounded us.

A large proportion of the audience were kids.  They ran around the square delightedly, smiling and screaming.  We came up with a good idea which was to teach the kids how to play lion and dragon dance.  We allowed some kids to play the dragon and lion.  At the same time we ensured that they were safe and we offered some help when they needed it. 

Although some children were afraid of the lions and they didn’t dare to play it, many kids were enjoying themselves holding the sticks or hiding inside the lions.  Their lost themselves playing with an angelic smile. Some kids sat on the back of our lions whilst some just stayed underneath the lion head with us.  I helped them to hold the heavy heads while they looked out through the mouth of the lion. And the parents were busy taking photos and videos.  It couldn’t be funnier.

I didn’t feel tired at all when playing with the kids.  I didn’t realize that I love kids so much.  I think it would be great if I can have a wife who would like to have dozens of kids in future. 

At 6pm when the sky was dark, our parade began, and we played the lion dance all the way from Jubilee Square to the Pavilion Garden followed by hundreds of kids with lovely lanterns.  Then I felt I was so exhausted, but I was trying my best to be a lion as I love those kids so much.  At the end of the performance, every teammate was fatigued but I was still passionate.  After taking a group photo, I was interviewed by a BBC journalist.  I said it was one of the best Chinese New Years I’ve ever had since I played with so many kids and taught them how to play lion and dragon dance.  I would be glad if we enable more kids who are interested in Chinese culture to learn our culture and get involved.

Never did I realise that it would be such a great experience until we started playing with the lovely kids with angelic faces.  I thought we would be doing similar things to last year, although Brighton Dome is much more marvelous than Hove Town Hall. 

As you know, I am someone who usually seeks fresh experience with tremendous curiosity. I may not be able to attend such a fascinating event any more as I will go to London this October.  What could I say apart from cherishing this breathtaking Chinese New Year?