Romance With Chinese Characteristics

I went to see the Shanghai Ballet at the Zellerbach perform the Butterfly Lovers this weekend, which is the classic Chinese love story originally from the Tang Dynasty.  The girl, Zhu, pretends to be a boy so she can go to school where she falls in love with a boy, Liang.  She is arranged to be married to someone else, though, and then they both die of sadness.  Heaven takes pity on them and turns them into butterflies.  

I've also been watching another Chinese drama, the Legend of Lu Zhen, which is mostly an epic love story.  http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Female_Prime_Minister

I'm seeing a lot of common themes in Chinese romances.  One is that the romance often starts when they don't fully know each other's identity.  Usually the poorer one doesn't know the other is rich since it means they really love each other for who they are, not because they are gold or power-digging.  Another is that the romance often takes place over a longer time frame where they are friends first.  Finally, the girl is often smart and capable, and that is actually important to making her attractive to the boy, and vice versa.  

To me, the first two themes are about trust.  Someone who likes you for your personality is less likely to move on to the next pretty face or next richest person.  Someone you know very well for a long time is more likely to be someone you can trust.  I thought that the last theme was a more modern theme to relate to modern Chinese women, but then again, it's also in Butterfly Lovers which is from the 8th century or so.  

Now I realize I've been influenced by Chinese romance themes my whole life.  "Love at first sight" and "happily ever after" princess stories never seemed that romantic to me.  Even though it was exciting that Belle in Disney's Beauty and the Beast liked to read, the Beast didn't really care about that.  And anyway, her favorite book was some other princess story.  

Dance In Berkeley

The Mahea Uchiyama Center for International Dance is in Berkeley, which is really exciting. Mahea Uchiyama is a well-known hawaiian and tahitian dance instructor. I probably won't join this fall or winter, but maybe next spring. The performance classes go to Hawaii and Tahiti sometimes for performances, which would be really fun. I think I will be too busy with classes and hopefully research work to do much performing, though.

Single Pipa

So I finally found out that the Buddha dance that I did in high school was a rearranged version of this Pipa song 阳春白雪, which means "sunlight on white snow." This whole time, I thought it was multiple instruments, but it was all just one. High labor productivity, only have to pay one musician.

Getting Back Into the Groove

I've started dancing again with the old Polynesian dance group from college. Now they rent space from Green St Studios and share the costs depending on how many people show up. I'm performing this Friday for the MIT Vegetarian Luau. It's good to get exercise again and also reconnect with people.

Dai Dance

I started dancing again to exercise. I think I'll try to learn this. This girl is ripped, though.

This is another good dance, but the sound is bad.

Boston Dance Scene

I'm trying to figure out where to go dancing in Boston. Haven't found much, but I'd like to check out Great Scott and maybe Roxy. Probably also should go to Middlesex and stuff again.

Also, this site has concert listings of electronic music.

bethere.net

How to Dance to Techno Music

I'm not sure if I've posted this already before, but whatever. It's funny.

Boston Electronic Music

Some links

I wanna put my dancing shoes and get my groove on. Whooo

http://www.unlockedgroove.com/

http://www.zer0gsounds.com/

http://www.robotlovesongs.com/

Liquid Pop

The other day, we were watching "So You Think You Can Dance," and we saw this guy, Robert Muraine. He was very good, but he quit because he could not follow choreography. Pretty sad, but his dancing reminded me of David Elsewhere.



David Elsewhere is a blast from the past, and he was the one of the first who start dancing like this.

Buddha Dance

Wow, I learned the dance almost exactly. I didn't know it was so popular.



These dancers are blind

Chinese Folk Dance

Dai Minority Folk Dance

Chinese School

I am thinking of going to Chinese school again at the Cambridge Center for Chinese Culture. They have weekend classes at Waltham, which is not too far. I can do Yoga and the Fan dance, too. Hooray.

飞天

This is a dance from the 2008 Chinese New Year's Gala put on by CCTV in China. It's called Flying Sky