06-11-2013, 03:53 PM
Hello. It's me again. Cranefly, noted sinologist. That's my rep, it seems, though I try to dispel the notion at every turn. My movie proposal showed my deep understanding of the China/Mongol situation circa blah-blah (I've already forgotten when my story takes place). A couple of the Chinese girl interviewing me after the awards seemed a bit in awe, and one called attention to the name of my protagonist, Gong Shun Hui -- the fact that it is an old name, not much in use these days. How did I know to use it? I never managed to answer that at the time. But in truth, I looked up Chinese emperors just before the Mongols took over. Wikipedia is great. It listed the names of noteworthy concubines during their reigns. I cobbled together the name from those, figuring the cobbling would introduce errors. Apparently it holds up.
Yesterday, before we set off on the bus in the morning, Malinda our very intelligent and fluent guide came to the back of the bus for a private discourse with me. We were headed for a remote part of the wall, but there are 100 steps (I think she said 100; in fact, it's more like 1000). Would I be all right with that? If not, she would direct the bus driver to go to the common wall site. I told her I would be okay, I'd just take the steps 3 at a time and then there wouldn't be so many. Once more my humor failed. So we went to the more remote site. It was a 2 hour trip in holiday traffic.
As I sort of suspected, I led a good portion of the way and was among the first 3 to explore the top parts of the wall. In one guard tower there were steps going up to a second level. They were very high steps, and the grade was maybe 80 degrees. It was spooky, so I skipped it -- except that a few minutes I said, "Fuck this shit," because I'd come this far. So I crawled up those steps and took some photos from the highest point. Getting down was spookier, because there were no handholds, and if you bumped yourself forward while stepping downward (which was a natural occurrence), you'd fall and break something. That would be so embarrassing. But all went well.
I took several photos of ants on the wall at the top; unfortunately, I haven't figured out the closeup lens on LC's camera, and they're blurred. Sorry to disappoint.
We ate lunch locally. When asked the style of the food, Malinda told us it's not a style, it's more like fast food. Still, it was 15 courses.
Then to the Ming Tombs, the straightway walk past the large animal sculptures. We didn't have time after that for the museum part (which apparently isn't all that interesting anyway), we headed back. It took 3 hours in heavy traffic to reach where "Chun Yi: The Legend of Kung Fu" was playing. Beforehand, we entered a park with a large pond with water lilies. Very tranquil and beautiful. Then we ate a banquet in a restaurant adjacent to the park. 15 courses or so. Finally to the show.
Before the show started, Spence (a brilliant man of my age who was at the core of setting the competition up; in fact, he wrote the judging criteria, emphasizing creativity and originality over all else) looked about and commented to me, "Wow, this is interesting. The audience is almost entirely Caucasion. I looked about and then responded, "I really can't tell the difference any more." He looked at me like I was crazy. Once more my humor was too surreal. Still, he wanted me to give my opinion of the show afterwards, only we never had time. So you get my opinion.
It had lots of performance elements. You know, acrobatics, gymnastics, the type of stuff that got Wushu in trouble vying for an Olympic spot. The weapons were ultralite flimsies. There was a lot of iron body "tricks." You know, spears to the throat, iron bars broken on forehead, lying on swords, breaking concrete blocks on the chest. I remember in Shaolin that Wing Lam told me that I could do those tricks after a bit of training. Or any of us could. 90 percent physics, 10 percent training/conditioning.
There were large segments involving a scantily clad woman trying to lure monks from their meditations, including long and surprisingly erotic dance numbers. I mean, the woman straddling the monk's shoulders and contorting about him as he maneuvers about.
It was all very interesting in its attempts to appeal to Westerners. I need to reflect on it some more.
Gotta go. Today it's Peking Opera followed by a trip to the SOHO art district or whatever it's called. The latter had me excited until Malinda informed us that while it was great a few years, it has since been commercialized and caters too much to tourists and with exorbitant prices. I still think I should check it out.
later, cranefly
Yesterday, before we set off on the bus in the morning, Malinda our very intelligent and fluent guide came to the back of the bus for a private discourse with me. We were headed for a remote part of the wall, but there are 100 steps (I think she said 100; in fact, it's more like 1000). Would I be all right with that? If not, she would direct the bus driver to go to the common wall site. I told her I would be okay, I'd just take the steps 3 at a time and then there wouldn't be so many. Once more my humor failed. So we went to the more remote site. It was a 2 hour trip in holiday traffic.
As I sort of suspected, I led a good portion of the way and was among the first 3 to explore the top parts of the wall. In one guard tower there were steps going up to a second level. They were very high steps, and the grade was maybe 80 degrees. It was spooky, so I skipped it -- except that a few minutes I said, "Fuck this shit," because I'd come this far. So I crawled up those steps and took some photos from the highest point. Getting down was spookier, because there were no handholds, and if you bumped yourself forward while stepping downward (which was a natural occurrence), you'd fall and break something. That would be so embarrassing. But all went well.
I took several photos of ants on the wall at the top; unfortunately, I haven't figured out the closeup lens on LC's camera, and they're blurred. Sorry to disappoint.
We ate lunch locally. When asked the style of the food, Malinda told us it's not a style, it's more like fast food. Still, it was 15 courses.
Then to the Ming Tombs, the straightway walk past the large animal sculptures. We didn't have time after that for the museum part (which apparently isn't all that interesting anyway), we headed back. It took 3 hours in heavy traffic to reach where "Chun Yi: The Legend of Kung Fu" was playing. Beforehand, we entered a park with a large pond with water lilies. Very tranquil and beautiful. Then we ate a banquet in a restaurant adjacent to the park. 15 courses or so. Finally to the show.
Before the show started, Spence (a brilliant man of my age who was at the core of setting the competition up; in fact, he wrote the judging criteria, emphasizing creativity and originality over all else) looked about and commented to me, "Wow, this is interesting. The audience is almost entirely Caucasion. I looked about and then responded, "I really can't tell the difference any more." He looked at me like I was crazy. Once more my humor was too surreal. Still, he wanted me to give my opinion of the show afterwards, only we never had time. So you get my opinion.
It had lots of performance elements. You know, acrobatics, gymnastics, the type of stuff that got Wushu in trouble vying for an Olympic spot. The weapons were ultralite flimsies. There was a lot of iron body "tricks." You know, spears to the throat, iron bars broken on forehead, lying on swords, breaking concrete blocks on the chest. I remember in Shaolin that Wing Lam told me that I could do those tricks after a bit of training. Or any of us could. 90 percent physics, 10 percent training/conditioning.
There were large segments involving a scantily clad woman trying to lure monks from their meditations, including long and surprisingly erotic dance numbers. I mean, the woman straddling the monk's shoulders and contorting about him as he maneuvers about.
It was all very interesting in its attempts to appeal to Westerners. I need to reflect on it some more.
Gotta go. Today it's Peking Opera followed by a trip to the SOHO art district or whatever it's called. The latter had me excited until Malinda informed us that while it was great a few years, it has since been commercialized and caters too much to tourists and with exorbitant prices. I still think I should check it out.
later, cranefly