Dan and I went to a Chinese Mid-Autumn celebration last Saturday, and as usual, they gave us quite a show. It was an on-campus event, but there were probably several hundred people there, mostly Chinese. It's surprising how many Chinese people live in State College. I still don't get why they come here (why not go to a place that is ...a city?). Anyway, they had some really good acts--a few dances that were really pretty, and there was a soprano who used to be a professional soloist in China. Holy cow, was she good! I could have listened to her sing for hours. This particular soloist was put in charge of the "Happy Valley Chinese Chorus" or something, and she directed her choir in singing "Edelweiss"--naturally, since Edelweiss is almost an anthem for Austria, and here we were celebrating the Chinese National Day. ...? The pianist was a character, as well--she changed keys (and time signatures, I think) several times throughout the performance, and neither Dan nor I could figure out why she decided to do so--I mean, the choir certainly wasn't following her lead... Made for an interesting musical number. I think the best part was when the director turned around and motioned to the almost all-Chinese audience to join in singing the English words. Dan and I were trying not to burst out with a loud guffaw, but at that very point, a little kid playing with a balloon managed to pop it right at Dan's feet, making Dan look like the mean foreigner who just stomped on the little kid's balloon. Heads turned, I pointed to Dan, and people completely forgot about the "Edelweissers" singing in 3 different keys all at once. I honestly can't figure out how people can sing in one key while the accompaniment plays another. Seriously--it's like a force pulling you back to where you need to be...maybe that's just me.
Anyway, it made me want to go back to China even more, seeing all the Chinese people who are so incredibly friendly and welcoming, as usual. We even ran into the lady who we bought our kitchen table from a year ago. She remembered us, and joyously presented us both with mooncakes. There were points in the program where the CD was scratched or something happened that terminated the act, but contrary to the mean looks and arguing that would result if that happened to a Western performer, the Chinese just started their act all over again. No hard feelings. The poor technician--after this happened several times (where scratched CDs were skipping, etc.--which wasn't his fault), one of the MCs decided to do an ad lib 'let's calm the crowd down' kind of dealy, and said "I'm sorry, we seem to have technician problems." Ouch. I know she didn't mean it that way, but the poor American technician who was probably hired out for the job and throughout the whole program had 5 Chinese men 'helping' him do his job--well, let's just hope he didn't hear that comment. :)