June 1 is Children’s Day in China (and Dad’s Birthday, too!! Happy Birthday Dad!). As it’s on a weekend this year, we celebrated today (Friday) by taking the afternoon off from classes and going to the local one-room theatre. The screen was pulled up and a stage was revealed. Each class in the school then took part in a singing competition. Each class has to pick a song in addition to singing the national anthem. Yup, I listened to the national anthem thirteen times in a row (luckily, its short haha). I actually got to the theatre late as I was expecting to teach a class, only to find it cancelled (this happens way more than it should). When I walked into the theatre the students cheered. It really melted my heart a little.
The actual presentation of the performances were pretty amusing. A lot of what the Chinese do is very regimented and their “choirs” were no exception. There was no smiling and no moving about. All students stood with their hands firmly by their sides and their teachers were singing with them in the exact same fashion. Just to make things a little....what’s the word….hypocritical (?) the music was SO so cheesy with electric beats BLARING from the speakers. Personally, I don’t know how the classes were scored on their singing because I was in the front row (with other “guests of honor”) and I couldn’t hear much singing over the music. The stiffness of their bodies but the uppity computer drum pads and bells playing was a really entertaining combination. I nearly laughed aloud when the first song started. I will have to upload a video later this weekend.
Regardless of the amusing style in which they performed, the singing choked me up a few times. It really hit me as I was sitting there that I only have one full teaching week left here in China. Many of the students would catch my eye as they were singing and give me a little forbidden side smile. I’m really going to miss these kids. I don’t know if it’s the attention they give me and the cheers I get when I walk in a room – who wouldn’t like that? – the fact that (most of them) eat up every word you say (a teacher’s dream) or just the fact that they are so darn cute, but I have really grown to love these kids. Teaching teenage boys is going to be a pretty stark contrast to this, I think.
After the singing competition, the kids were surprised with a production. A performance group from the city entertained us all with a clown, a comedian, several dance and singing numbers, an AWESOME magician (he even had two doves!) and, my favourite part, a traditional face changings performance. I have a video but until I get it uploaded somewhere, you can get the idea here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yNHEN_9DfU. I thought the dance numbers were pretty hilarious. All I kept thinking was “mom would think this is SO inappropriate for these students!” For one, the clown stuffed rags down a kid’s pants, which in itself was pretty awkward, but then he pulled them out to reveal a pink lacy pair of women’s underwear. Later, a female dance group came out with pretty much their bottoms out for the world to see and did a number that looked like they were Beyonce’s dance crew. The dance and outfits were WAY more risqué than any school in Canada would allow. No wonder girls that pretty much have just learned to walk pose for pictures like they do it for a living. The other day I saw a girl who couldn’t have been more than three have her dad take her picture with an iPad. She raced over to check it out, looked disgusted, then ran back to the tree to re-pose with her hand on her hip and her bum sticking out. Oh China!