- September 24 to 25, 2011, Saturday to early Sunday.
- The real adventure, I think, started right after my lunch date with Margarette (sans Clarisse.) I quickly went home to change my clothes and air myself. I wore another red shirt, and brought my Tibetan shirt with me as well. For my evening agenda, Monica was going to treat us in Mr. Ube for an early dinner, since she had Mr. Ube gift cards. Afterwards, Dorenett had free tickets to the Chinese cultural performance in PICC, in celebration of the 62nd foundation day of China.
- I rested at home for a good 15 minutes, while I prepared my things for the night. Err, so much for rest. I rushed to Dorenett's house, a few moments beforE Monica's car arrived. Monica's driver zoomed to Ongpin, so the four of us could have an early dinner before going to PICC. We hoped to get good seats.
- At Mr. Ube, I found it amusing that Monica didn't pay a single cent for all of us, and used "sheets of paper" as payment. Yes, I have seen give cards before, and I know how they work, but using something else than actual money or credit cards/cheques to pay for something isn't something that I usually encounter.
- I realized that we all ordered noodle-soup dishes, and Dorenett realized that she and Monica's younger sister, Marianne, wore the same color. Since Monica still had much to spare, I ordered a lot of drinks to moisten my throat; my throat was dry from all that shouting during the workshop yesterday morning.
- I quickly finished my soup and drinks, before going to the restroom and changing into my golden Tibetan costume for the cultural performance. Monica had just finished calling their driver to pick us up too.
- We arrived at PICC after battling a semi-heavy traffic, and walked brisky towards the theater. Since we were holding yellow tickets, we were flushed to the side of the audience area. We hoped that not too many would watch, so we could move to the center seats. Later on, I was able to spot spot-on center seats, located just below the camera man who was tasked to record the whole performance.
- The cultural performance started around 8pm with the national anthems of both the Philippines and China, and speeches from the VIPs, such as the Chinese ambassador himself. Soon, the emcee came out from the backstage, and introduced the Yi-tribe dancers.
- Based on the title of the dance alone, the Yi tribe dancers danced something in relation to the moon, although the execution of the dance was very fiery. The splashes of yellow, reds, and oranges lit up the stage, aside from the lively hops and jumps the made the people look like dancing flames.
- The second performer introduced was Cao Fu Jia, a really pretty singer, although I fancied her clothes more. Purely red, simple, elegant, and flowy. She sang two ballads. She also tried to sing a Fukien song after those two, since she said that she wanted to "give something" to the Chinese here in the Philippines, most of which come from the Fujian province (my grandparents in both sides came from Fujian too.)
- The third number was another dance number from the Yi tribe, entitled "Treading on Clouds." I've seen this dance many times before via youtube, and it didn't appeal to me, until I saw it live. The women played around with graceful, but with some jerky movements all throughout the dance. The music was mysterious, dark, with occasional syllabic chanting by women. I loved the number.
- The fourth performer was Lorsang Tenzo, a Tibetan male singer, who sang a Tibetan drinking song, and another song entitled "Shangri-La." Aside from the usual Tibetan style of singing, what appealed to me more was the costume he wore, especially since he wore the same thing I was wearing, only with a different color.
- The next performer was a magician named Wu Song Xun. Well, to be honest, I'm not really a fan of magic tricks, although the guy's showmanship was impressive. There was also a portion where he asked an audience member to go on stage for a certain trick. The whole theater laughed after this Chinese dude stood up, and raised his hand, and shouted at the top of his voiceeee "WOOOO!!!!" (MEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!) I think the magician had no choice but to let a guy as enthusiastic like him be his assistant. Hahahaha.
- The next number was a fan dance from the Han tribe (the biggest ethnic group of China.) The dance depicted the flowing river through laced fans and the ever so graceful movements, and the playful eye contact, especially of the main dancer.
- A singer named Wang Qun came after the fan dance, and sang two pop-ish ballads. I wasn't too fond of her, although I thought she was wearing a really unique fringed (??) dress.
- The next number was an interesting dramatic dance by the Hani Tribe of China. The Hani tribe can be found in the Sino-Vietnamese border, and is also one of the tribes recognized by Vietnam aside from the Chinese. The dance they performed was a comedic depiction of men searching for their prospective wives, and carrying a woman who a male Hani thinks is fit for him. In the end, the two main characters, who seemed to love each other dearly, showed a funny conclusion to the scenario: since the guy seemed to be "weak" to carry his lady, the lady carried her lover instead!! Hahahaha.
- Another interesting performance was the next one by Yang Ji Qiang. He played the erhu, the two-stringed Chinese violin. He played two pieces, altought the second one, entitled "Horse Race" was more familiar to me. I knew how the song sounded like, but it was way more impressive when watching someone play it live. The piece's difficulty can immediately be seen through the fingering techniques needed to be developed in order to perfect the piece. As a treat to the Filipino-Chinese, he also played "Anak" with his erhu.
- The next portion was a dance number from the Vu/Wu tribe. This tribe can be found near the Sino-Burmese border. Their earth-and-fire-toned dance was participated by two men, and plenty of women who seemed to have danced with their hair. Aside from the dizziness from the constant spinning of their heads around and around, I was baffled at how the women were able to express the mood of the dance clearly through their movement; their long hair/wigs were over their faces, and for the most part, the women hunched their backs to give space to their hair/wigs, and let the hair strands fall gracefully with the help of gravity. It was a dance worth pondering upon.
- The next number were two song by singer Yong Feng. His style of singing was not "modern," and he might have appealed to the older people in the audience. He sang well, I think.
- The last dance number for the night was another dance by the Hani tribe, which depicted a white bird dancing together with the green grass. Because I was very amazed with the pirouettes, and the perfect stances of the white bird, it took long before I realized that the white bird was a male dancer.
- The last number of the night was a song presented by all the performers of the night. They sang "Me and My Motherland/ Ancestral Country." Thinking we could sneak n the backstage to hopefully get a photo of Tibetan Tenzo Lorsang, we positioned ourselves towards the stairs just as everyone was leaving, and the performers were having their final photo ops with the media.
- We followed the sound of Lorsang Tenzo at the backstage, since he was singing while fixing his things. We wanted to knock on the dressing room door, which happened to be slightly opened, but we didn't disturb him after we saw that he was changing his wardrobe. More performers came to the backstage, and we kept on having photos with the "wrong" people. I think Monica turned out to be the lucky one, since she had a photo with the "white bird" who she admired so much.
- What made the four of us leave the backstage was when Cao Fu Jia, who gave us a subtle "what are these people doing here" glare. Dorenett, being the perfect PR person that evening, was about to ask Fu Jia if she could have a picture with us. Because of that glare, Dorenett didn't ask her anymore. Too bad, Dorenett was admiring her beauty and talent during the performance. Haha. Oh, and Dorenett said that she glared at us a second time, although the rest of us didn't see the second glare.
- After the awkward "moment" with Fu Jia, we all decided to leave, with me not having a photo with Lorsang Tenzo. Anyway, he already changed into his street clothes, which defeated the purpose of my having a picture with him. It was nice to hear Lorsang Tenzo sing anyway. :D:D:D:D
- The four of us rushed to use the restroom, I changed into my street clothes too, and we had "final pictorial" by the lobby of PICC, before riding the car once again to our ultimate night-ender. :) :) :) :)
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