Chinese New Year's Part 1

Have you ever been to see the Nutcracker?

An integral part of many American's holiday celebration - it was performed every Christmas by the Midland Ballet Company back home. My first experience with the Nutcracker was when I was about 20, when I went to see my cousin dance as the Sugar Plum Fairy (I think - she danced almost every part in her many years of ballet-ing, but I'm pretty sure the first time I saw her in the Nutcracker that was her role).

And even though I was 20, practically an adult, or maybe because I was practically an adult, I can't really say that I understood the story line. I get that there is a big party and then Clara's uncle shows up and gives her a gift - a nutcracker (what little girl wants a nutcracker for Christmas??) but then it's all kind of jumble to me. There's micemen and soldiers and a magician and a boy that I'm not sure if he was the nutcracker come alive...and then the really tall lady with the children under her dress and the candy canes striped people and, of course, the sugar plum fairy..and then Clara wakes up and in was all a dream?? Not really sure, but regardless, I can appreciate the Nutcracker for its magnificent dancing, classic music and stunning scenery and costumes.

So what does this have to do with M&B living in Hong Kong and why am I talking about this 2 or 3 months AFTER Christmas?

A few weeks ago, we went to see The Firecracker - Hong Kong's version of the Nutcracker. It was playing in February during the lead up to the Chinese New Year's celebrations. CNY is THE holiday season in Hong Kong and China. We got off 3 days of work in HK but most of China gets the whole week off. It's a time when everyone travels to be with their family, cooking and eating traditional foods, setting off fireworks and handing out lycee packets (more on this later).

Not knowing what to expect, we certainly got what we were expecting...but let me start at the beginning.

M had bought the tickets back in December for a Saturday night performance. We got all dressed up - him suit, me dress and pearls! On our way to the ferry, we stopped in at the plaza to say hello at a birthday party for a friend - they were quite impressed with our outfits and informed us that we would definitely be the overdressed. I thought - ME overdressed?? not really an adjective that gets used for me very often! We didn't think much of it, partook in a cupcake each and headed off to the Central-bound ferry. We arrived in plenty of time, switched to another boat to take us across Victoria Harbour - this one was coal powered and open decked and I'm glad the ride was literally only 5 minutes because I couldn't have taken much more of that (although it is the essence of HK). Had a quick bit to eat at a cafe on the Kowloon side and then walked through a throng of watch, jewelry and suitcase hawkers to the Hong Kong Cultural Center.

We found our theatre and I was slightly concerned that apart from the 3 attendants standing at the door, there weren't any other ballet fans rushing in the door at the last minute. I knew we must be late. We hurried inside, expecting the inside to be similar to Drury Lane Theatre or the Prince Edward in London (I had originally been expecting something of the magnitude of the Royal Albert Hall, but after the comments at the plaza had lowered my expectations). It was more like the side gallery at the National Theatre (the one where we saw The Observer about voting in an African country back in Nov with S&R). The seats started at the top and went down about 25 rows with about 20 seats across with the "stage" at the bottom. Right away I knew something was strange-there was no curtain. There did not appear to be room on the stage for set changes. I wondered how they were going to perform a version of the Nutcracker that was anything similar to what I had seen before. As we made our way down to our seats, I counted a few dozen other people in the theatre, most in jeans and a t-shirt. For the next 20 minutes we continued counting people coming in and watching the clock. Matt identified one other person in a sports jacket.

Finally, the show began - opening with a dark scene, an old man, listening to a 1930's radio, cleaning his imaginary home... Not much dancing, not much scenery and no brights costumes yet....The old man climbed a ladder and pulled out some apparently treasured items: an orange tree, a green coat, and a box that he danced around with for a while. Using our excellent deduction skills (and some help from the translated program) we could tell that what was in the box - the Firecracker - was going to be the crux of the story. (Have I mentioned that I LOVE fireworks? I do. I love to watch them from a distance. and I won't lie when I say that part of my reason for wanting to see this ballet was the idea that they would actually have fireworks in the dancing!!)

Soon enough a young girl shows up, dancing and floating around - the old man lights up when she arrives and soon a dozen of her friends make their entrance, greeting uncle with a present, and receiving lycee packets (again, more later) in return. I'm thinking, okay- he's the uncle, she's Clara, it's the holiday season, there having a party - I recognize this. So we watched as traditional CNY scenes were played out - some of the boys danced around with a dragon head and body, and then uncle brought out The Box. All of the young people were intrigued - what was in it? what could it be? The music builds...and finally, the old man opens the box and pulls out a long red string with bows attached and starts waving it around chaotically, scaring the young people. But I was not fooled. It was not fireworks. I was thinking, alright surely this is like the part in the Nutcracker when uncle gives the nutcracker gift and it's just a toy and not very impressive...but LATER in the story the nutcracker comes to life and so surely, LATER in this story the Firecrackers will come to life and we will get to see some real fireworks.

Back to the story. After the big fright, the young people all make their exits..and this is where the story diverged. Somehow the uncle got sick and was all of a sudden in a hospital with 6 scantily clad nurses dancing around and on his wheelie bed. Then soldiers appeared with miniature Hong Kong buildings. I recognized one as the parliament building and one as the building across from the HSBC building. Then a young man dressed exactly like uncle appeared and danced with the niece - they seemed to have a bit of a love interest, which I thought was weird - and then that was the end of Act 1.

I won't describe much of Act 2 except to say that we were deep into a set of what we recognized to be inside jokes even though we could not fully appreciate them. A few of the highlights - a woman in a wheelie bath with 20 young men dressed like the Fonz; the break-up of Princess Fergie and Prince Andrew's marriage (HK was a British colony at one point?); some scenes from what appeared to be a classical HK movie, complete with a director calling "Action"; more and more lycee packets; a reappearance of the fake firecrackers, and finally at the end a magician pulling out a never-ending stream of red strips of paper.

So there you have it, The Nutcracker and The Firecracker. While the Firecracker was an interesting cultural experience, I think I prefer the Nutcracker. If they only would have thrown in some real fireworks....

Next blog - we'll tell you about our own personal firsthand accounts of handing out lycee packets and our Chinese New Year's trip to Thailand where I spent a great few days relaxing on the beach while Matt got PADI certified.