A fellow exchange student put together a sort of talent show for local, mainland, international and exchange students to take part in. I played a pair of duets with my clarinet friend from the orchestra. But it was actually quite a cool show with lots of variety in the acts.
There were a couple groups reciting Chinese poems or drama. Most of these groups were made up of primarily international students. It was funny to here the reactions of the Chinese kids when the non-asians started speaking Chinese well! There were also groups that sang Chinese songs--one group sang some popular chinese songs that lots of people in the room were singing along with. There were also some hip hope dance groups, a belly dancer, an indian dancer, double dutch (which I'm sure many of the chinese kids have never seen before...they should come to any Evanston middle school to get a glimpse at the real deal!), and a girl playing a yangqin, a chinese hammered dulcimer.
All the groups were really impressive and the event was quite well attended. I wonder if it will continue on in the future, since the person in charge will be leaving. It is a great way for all the students to come together and enjoy performances from students around the world.
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Nintendo, 10,000 Buddhas, Exchange fair
So its been a little while since I posted last. I finally have schoolwork and have been busy exploring places, and playing games on sporcle.com (so addicting!).
I finished up my cultural extravaganza this week with a concert at the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. Their pieces included a world premier of a work for Nintendo Gameboy, Electronics, and Orchestra, Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1, Lutoslawski's Dance Pieces for Clarinet and Orchestra, and Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta. Overall the concert was pretty good. The orchestra was small but powerful, but it was still different than the big sounds of the CSO I am used to. The Nintendo piece was tamer than I expected. There was some interesting moments of dialogue between the orcehstra and the electronics, but ultimately I kind of wanted something more...especially given the experience I have had playing world premiers in Wind Ensemble. The composer (a Hong Konger who is now a post-doc at princeton), came out in an orange prison suit and talked a little about the piece and then took his place in the back of the orchestra with all his "toys" (literally!). The rest of the concert was good, especially the Bartok. The soloist of the Chopin (Sergio Teimpo) was pretty virtuosic, and I even got his autograph! He's still young, but maybe it will be worth millions someday.
I also went on a walk in the Causeway Bay area. You can see some of the pictures in the last album I posted. I guess some of the coolest things on this walk were the temples. In Hong Kong, there seem to be random temples in the middle of the city. In the midst of all the high rises and modernity, you turn the corner and there is this tiny little temple. Because they are so small, it is kind of hard to breath because of all the incense. One of the temples had coils of incense hanging from the ceiling that burn for 2 weeks!
This past Saturday, I went up to Sha Tin in the New Territories to see the temple with 10,000 buddhas. Out of all the places I have been to so far, this one was the only one I struggled to find. Throughout Hong Kong, virtually every street corner and MTR exit are clearly labeled with the directions to attractions near bye. For this temple, I would have had no idea how to find it had I not been to Sha Tin before on an ikea run and saw a sign. Still, we got a little lost and ended up walking through a cemetery-ish complex that we thought was the temple before we got found the path to the actual temple. Walking through the cemetary, lots of people were giving us weird glances and when we got to the top of the cemetary and saw all these gold buddha figurines on another hill, we figured we were in the wrong place.
The actual temple was pretty cool. The steep and winding path leading up to it was lined on both sides with life size, gold buddhas, each one being different. That was cool, until we got to the temple itself. It was a large room where the walls were filled floor to ceiling with little buddhas, again every one of them being slightly different. I read that there are actually more like 13,000 buddhas in this room alone, plus all the life size ones....a whole lot of buddhas! There were even more buddhas around the temple, plus a cool red pagoda.
Also this week, HKUST hosted an exchange fair where exchange in students and former exchange out students for each school had a booth in the academic concourse. It was especially fun to talk to students who were at Cornell last semester and hearing about their experiences and reminiscing. They all agreed that Cornell was much harder than HKUST. So that makes me feel better about not doing so much work here (and about all the work I deal with at Cornell). I also met some of the students who will be going to Cornell next year.
So now I've officially been here a month. I can't believe it is March already. Before I know it, I will be on the plane back to Chicago! There is still so much I want to explore. I'm going on a trip to Taiwan this upcoming weekend. Hopefully some more traveling in SE asia will happen soon, but I really want to spend a lot of time getting to know Hong Kong.
View the pictures from this adventure on facebook!
I finished up my cultural extravaganza this week with a concert at the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. Their pieces included a world premier of a work for Nintendo Gameboy, Electronics, and Orchestra, Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1, Lutoslawski's Dance Pieces for Clarinet and Orchestra, and Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta. Overall the concert was pretty good. The orchestra was small but powerful, but it was still different than the big sounds of the CSO I am used to. The Nintendo piece was tamer than I expected. There was some interesting moments of dialogue between the orcehstra and the electronics, but ultimately I kind of wanted something more...especially given the experience I have had playing world premiers in Wind Ensemble. The composer (a Hong Konger who is now a post-doc at princeton), came out in an orange prison suit and talked a little about the piece and then took his place in the back of the orchestra with all his "toys" (literally!). The rest of the concert was good, especially the Bartok. The soloist of the Chopin (Sergio Teimpo) was pretty virtuosic, and I even got his autograph! He's still young, but maybe it will be worth millions someday.
I also went on a walk in the Causeway Bay area. You can see some of the pictures in the last album I posted. I guess some of the coolest things on this walk were the temples. In Hong Kong, there seem to be random temples in the middle of the city. In the midst of all the high rises and modernity, you turn the corner and there is this tiny little temple. Because they are so small, it is kind of hard to breath because of all the incense. One of the temples had coils of incense hanging from the ceiling that burn for 2 weeks!
This past Saturday, I went up to Sha Tin in the New Territories to see the temple with 10,000 buddhas. Out of all the places I have been to so far, this one was the only one I struggled to find. Throughout Hong Kong, virtually every street corner and MTR exit are clearly labeled with the directions to attractions near bye. For this temple, I would have had no idea how to find it had I not been to Sha Tin before on an ikea run and saw a sign. Still, we got a little lost and ended up walking through a cemetery-ish complex that we thought was the temple before we got found the path to the actual temple. Walking through the cemetary, lots of people were giving us weird glances and when we got to the top of the cemetary and saw all these gold buddha figurines on another hill, we figured we were in the wrong place.
The actual temple was pretty cool. The steep and winding path leading up to it was lined on both sides with life size, gold buddhas, each one being different. That was cool, until we got to the temple itself. It was a large room where the walls were filled floor to ceiling with little buddhas, again every one of them being slightly different. I read that there are actually more like 13,000 buddhas in this room alone, plus all the life size ones....a whole lot of buddhas! There were even more buddhas around the temple, plus a cool red pagoda.
Also this week, HKUST hosted an exchange fair where exchange in students and former exchange out students for each school had a booth in the academic concourse. It was especially fun to talk to students who were at Cornell last semester and hearing about their experiences and reminiscing. They all agreed that Cornell was much harder than HKUST. So that makes me feel better about not doing so much work here (and about all the work I deal with at Cornell). I also met some of the students who will be going to Cornell next year.
So now I've officially been here a month. I can't believe it is March already. Before I know it, I will be on the plane back to Chicago! There is still so much I want to explore. I'm going on a trip to Taiwan this upcoming weekend. Hopefully some more traveling in SE asia will happen soon, but I really want to spend a lot of time getting to know Hong Kong.
View the pictures from this adventure on facebook!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
week of culture
This past week, I engaged in many cultural activities...I feel so refined saying that! Last Sunday, my roommate and I went to see a performance by the Hong Kong Ballet. It was an "All Bach" performance, consisting of 4 pieces danced to, obviously, the music of Bach. Some of the pieces had live orchestra too, which added to the experience. The 1st half of the performance was refined and more "classical" ballet style. The 1st piece, called Concerto Barocco (danced to one of Bach's concerto for 2 violins) interestingly combined traditional ballet movements with modern shapes and ideas. There was a group of dancers plus 3 lead dancers (2 women and a man). The dance went very well with the music; I was impressed how the dance followed the counterpoint of the music by staggering the motions. The next piece was a little more modern (Clear), and showcased 7 men and 1 woman dancing to some other Bach Concertos. One thing that really out in my head was that with the when there was a little turn or flourish in the music, the dancers would also do a small movement such as wobble their heads side to side or clap their hands. Here's a clip of the dance on youtube, so you can get an idea.
The second half of the performance, while still ballet, was a lot more abstract. In the description of the first dance (Steptext), the program mentioned that it makes your expectations of the dance part of the dance itself, with the house lights coming on and off throughout the performance, short bursts of music and periods of no movement at all. The dance definitely met its description! A few minutes before intermission was over, the curtain came up and a bright light was seen on only part stage. The house lights remained on and eventually a male dancer walked out from the darkness and began to dance without music. Occasionally there was a loud interuption from on of Bach's violin partitas, but only for a few seconds. Later, 2 other men and a woman dressed in red came and did little solos without music. They danced together sometimes, the music would go on and off, and the houselights and stage lights would flash on and off as well. It was a little off putting at first, but at the end of the dance I actually really liked it.
The last dance (Mein Bach) was definitely the strangest. There were a lot of dancers on stage at a time and the dance was broken up into 11 different parts. The music consisted of some Bach music, and then some weird, dissonant electronic music. At one point, a long tube of about 5 or 6 florescent lights came down to the middle of the stage and the dancers flocked around it. The whole dance seemed almost extraterrestrial.
This past thursday, I went to the Hong Kong History Museum and saw the exhibit, The Hong Kong Story. The tickets to this museum (and most others) are extremely cheap..only 10 HKD and there is a 50% off student ticket. So I payed less than $1 for this museum. This exhibit followed hong kong history for 1000s of years. It was interesting to learn about the development of Hong Kong, especially the different people who came here throughout time, Hong Kongs position in the Opium Wars, the British Rule, Japanese Occupation and ultimately the handover back to China in 1997. This museum will definitely help me appreciate Hong Kong a little more.
My week of culture was capped of by a performance of Chinese Opera (Beijing style, I think Cantonese Opera is different) at the HK Cultural Center (or shall I say, Centre?) This performance was a compilation of scenes from different operas and had subtitles. This was my first live performance of any opera, let alone a Chinese one! The singing is not western at all. The singing is very high pitched, almost nasal, for both men and women. The audience audience always applauds after the actor finishes singing one word for a very long time (in one breath presumably), while changing the tone of the note. It was pretty impressive usually. The actors were accompanied by an orchestra of traditional chinese instruments, which had a really unique sound.
Chinese opera seems much more intricate and dependent on the singers themselves to tell the story, since there is very little props and scenerey. Every movement means something, as do the colors and parts of the very elaborate costumes. All the stories performed were very historical or had some moral, and I really liked most of them. Here is a picture I got from the bows. Unfortunately, the event was almost sold out, so my seat was in the absolute last row of the huge concert hall, so I wasn't able to really see the details of the costumes, masks and facial paint. I illegally used my camera to try and zoom in on the stage when the security guard wasn't sitting right behind me! Ultimately, there is so much more I need to know about Chinese opera to really appreciate it!
So that concludes my week of culture! It really isn't over yet, since this week I am going to a concert of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. There are so many concerts and performances going on because Feb-March is the Hong Kong Arts Festival. Maybe I'll go to some other performances before festival is over!
The second half of the performance, while still ballet, was a lot more abstract. In the description of the first dance (Steptext), the program mentioned that it makes your expectations of the dance part of the dance itself, with the house lights coming on and off throughout the performance, short bursts of music and periods of no movement at all. The dance definitely met its description! A few minutes before intermission was over, the curtain came up and a bright light was seen on only part stage. The house lights remained on and eventually a male dancer walked out from the darkness and began to dance without music. Occasionally there was a loud interuption from on of Bach's violin partitas, but only for a few seconds. Later, 2 other men and a woman dressed in red came and did little solos without music. They danced together sometimes, the music would go on and off, and the houselights and stage lights would flash on and off as well. It was a little off putting at first, but at the end of the dance I actually really liked it.
The last dance (Mein Bach) was definitely the strangest. There were a lot of dancers on stage at a time and the dance was broken up into 11 different parts. The music consisted of some Bach music, and then some weird, dissonant electronic music. At one point, a long tube of about 5 or 6 florescent lights came down to the middle of the stage and the dancers flocked around it. The whole dance seemed almost extraterrestrial.
This past thursday, I went to the Hong Kong History Museum and saw the exhibit, The Hong Kong Story. The tickets to this museum (and most others) are extremely cheap..only 10 HKD and there is a 50% off student ticket. So I payed less than $1 for this museum. This exhibit followed hong kong history for 1000s of years. It was interesting to learn about the development of Hong Kong, especially the different people who came here throughout time, Hong Kongs position in the Opium Wars, the British Rule, Japanese Occupation and ultimately the handover back to China in 1997. This museum will definitely help me appreciate Hong Kong a little more.
My week of culture was capped of by a performance of Chinese Opera (Beijing style, I think Cantonese Opera is different) at the HK Cultural Center (or shall I say, Centre?) This performance was a compilation of scenes from different operas and had subtitles. This was my first live performance of any opera, let alone a Chinese one! The singing is not western at all. The singing is very high pitched, almost nasal, for both men and women. The audience audience always applauds after the actor finishes singing one word for a very long time (in one breath presumably), while changing the tone of the note. It was pretty impressive usually. The actors were accompanied by an orchestra of traditional chinese instruments, which had a really unique sound.
Chinese opera seems much more intricate and dependent on the singers themselves to tell the story, since there is very little props and scenerey. Every movement means something, as do the colors and parts of the very elaborate costumes. All the stories performed were very historical or had some moral, and I really liked most of them. Here is a picture I got from the bows. Unfortunately, the event was almost sold out, so my seat was in the absolute last row of the huge concert hall, so I wasn't able to really see the details of the costumes, masks and facial paint. I illegally used my camera to try and zoom in on the stage when the security guard wasn't sitting right behind me! Ultimately, there is so much more I need to know about Chinese opera to really appreciate it!
So that concludes my week of culture! It really isn't over yet, since this week I am going to a concert of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. There are so many concerts and performances going on because Feb-March is the Hong Kong Arts Festival. Maybe I'll go to some other performances before festival is over!
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